Xmas.com a money pot

10 December 2013 - 02:12 By NASHIRA DAVIDS
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Arthur Goldstuck
Arthur Goldstuck
Image: Business Times

It will be a very merry Christmas for South African online shopping platforms.

Arthur Goldstuck, CEO of World Wide Worx, estimates that about R1-billion will be spent online from the middle of November to December 24.

Henk Pretorius, CEO of Columinate, a specialist online marketing research company, credited convenience as the biggest drawcard for online purchasers.

According to World Wide Works' research, 13.6million South Africans have access to the internet and approximately 1.5 million shop online.

"Each year for the last few years we've seen a 30% increase in online sales. That applies to the holiday market as well. The holiday market makes up about 20% in sales online," said Goldstuck.

Pretorius said the appearance of a large number of online shops had also driven this trend.

"Among local e-shoppers the preference is for local stores, with the major motivations being shorter delivery times and the avoidance of paying in foreign currency," said Pretorius.

Kirby Gordon, marketing manager at kalahari.com, said it was expecting a bumper festive season. "We recently conducted a survey amongst online shoppers to see what they are intending to spend this year on gifts and what was interesting is that people claimed they were expecting to spend an average of just over R700 per immediate family member," said Gordon.

"We've definitely seen an increase in average order value as categories such as appliances, electronics, gadgets, homeware and outdoor goods begin to grow.

"People are starting to buy all sorts of things online such as chlorine for pools, suitcases, tools, lawnmowers and Weber braais."

Nikki Cockcroft, head of Woolworths' online department, said the number of online shoppers has doubled year on year.

"Traffic from smartphones...and tablets has increased.

"At the moment, the majority of Woolworths online purchases are for food and household goods," said Cockcroft.

Local online fashion store Zando said that its best-selling category was footwear.

"eCommerce in SA is developing extremely fast and we expect volumes to double within the next three years as internet penetration is increasing consistently and people are more understanding of the convenience of online shopping," said managing director Sascha Breuss.

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