ARTHUR GOLDSTUCK: Now's the time to turn online shopping into a 'no-brainer'

25 November 2018 - 00:15 By Arthur Goldstuck

This weekend, from Friday to Monday, will probably go down as the single biggest weekend in the history of online retail in SA. From fridges to gaming consoles to wigs to tyres, the range of products offered at massive discounts is matched only by the inventive methods used to attract shoppers.
This means we are likely to see the biggest arrival yet of new immigrants from the world of physical shopping to the realm of online retail.
Only 4% of South Africans shop online regularly, according to the new "Online Retail in SA 2019" report released this month by World Wide Worx, in partnership with Platinum Seed and Visa.
The research drew partly on the TGI Survey, conducted by Ask Afrika among 16,000 South Africans every year. It shows that the proportion of those shopping online drops off sharply after age 45.
This means that there is a watershed in attitudes to online shopping between those who were already established in their working lives when the internet went mainstream in the mid-1990s, and those who entered the workforce once the internet was in place.
However, regardless of age, anyone who has a job and disposable income also has internet access, whether on a smartphone or computer. This means that the over-45s have the means to shop online, especially if they have a credit card.
What they don't have is the mindset that makes online shopping a natural process. But the fact that they have the means to do so, as well as more disposable income than younger age groups, makes them a highly desirable target market. The challenge is, how do retailers change their mindset?
There are two fundamental requirements. The first is a focus on customer service. The "Online Retail in SA" report shows that this is the single most critical factor in the success of online retail activities, with an almost unanimous 98% of retailers seeing it as important. This means customer service is the sine qua non - that without which the rest is not possible - of online retail.
The second requirement is almost easier, but not always obvious. Shoppers who have the means and the propensity to buy online still need to be pushed over the edge. Their propensity for online shopping has to be converted into actual online shopping behaviour. And customer service is not going to achieve that if one is not willing to experience the service in the first place.
The requirement is for what World Wide Worx calls an "indisputable value proposition", or what plain English would refer to as a "no-brainer". This could come in the form of products that are available only online, or ridiculously low prices that make the online purchase a no-brainer.
In this context, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the days in between represent the most powerful no-brainer for online shopping that this country has seen yet.
However, once these deals turn propensity into behaviour, the question is whether the shoppers will continue buying online. If new online shoppers do not experience flawless customer service, it is likely they won't come back - until next Black Friday.
• Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram on @art2gee..

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