South Africa's first e-Christmas
21 December 2007
South African online retailers are expected to generate around R200-million this holiday season, with research conducted separately by technology research firm World Wide Worx and shopping search site Jump Shopping predicting that December 2007 will be the country's first "e-Christmas", with people shopping online for gifts on a large scale.
"We expect the holiday season to contribute to at least 20% of the total R929-million expected to be spent online in 2007, with the proportion possible rising to as much as 25%" World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck said in a statement earlier this month.
"While it is clear that books, DVDs, CDs and electronics like iPods and satellite navigation devices are hot online this month, it depends on the quality of online retail sites which stores and items benefit the most."
World Wide Worx's study of internet shopping, Online Retail in South Africa 2007, also confirms that consumers are beginning to gain
confidence in online gift shopping.
According to the firm, that's where the search engines play a role: major search sites like Google and Ananzi will be the starting point for many shoppers, who will then often find themselves on specialised shopping search sites like Jump Shopping.
"We can already see which products are generating the most heat through the searches on our site," Jump Shopping MD Albert Bredenhann said.
The top 10 product searches on Jump Shopping are for GPS units, Nintendo Wii and Sony Playstation 3 game consoles, Apple iPods, LCD monitors, Microsoft Xbox game consoles, HTC and Nokia cellphones, Apple iPhones, LCD televisions, games for various consoles and lastly, digital cameras.
"It looks like it will be a gadget Christmas online," says Bredenhann. "The great thing is that there is something for the whole family."
The 2006 South African holiday season sales figure of R137-million represented 20% of total online retail in 2006, up
from 16% of the total in 2005.
"This indicated a growing ability to fulfill late orders intended for the gift market," Goldstuck said. "We expect more stores to get it right this year."
According to World Wide Worx, the findings also confirm the significance of holiday season spending for online retailers - in line with the experience of physical retailers - and for the first time represents a dramatic increase over normal spending patterns.
"Since the holiday season covers just over five weeks, which represents about 10% of the calendar year, a figure of 20% of annual sales being achieved during this period suggests a potential doubling of sales over this period for many online retailers," World Wide Worx stated.
SAinfo reporter
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