Online cue to miss the queues
AS THE holiday shopping frenzy gets underway many tech-savvy consumers have opted to shop online giving long queues, twee Christmas jingles and crowded shopping malls a miss.
Technical expert and managing director of World Wide Worx Arthur Goldstuck said it was expected that online retail would yield R20 billion turnover this year – and 20 percent of this was generated during the festive season alone.
Goldstuck said there had been a steady increase in the number of South Africans transacting online while mobile transactions was also slowly taking off.
“Consumers are expected to spend about R9bn alone in this festive period – between mid-November and the end of December.”
According to Goldstuck, online purchases were being made across various product categories but consumers tended to go for “hot products” which included electronics and toys
The chief executive officer for one of the most popular online retailers, Loot.co.za, Gary Hadfield, said the company had experienced a significant increase in sales since the bargain hunting on Black Friday.
“We sourced a significant number of hot deals for Black Friday and this delivered close to triple the revenues versus last year”, Hadfield said.
In November the online store saw a 90 percent year-on-year increase in mobile phone traffic and a commensurate increase in revenues of over 136 percent for customers transacting on mobile .
“Our mobile app has made shopping via mobile a lot easier for our customers, ” Hadfield added.
Loot.co.za has now clinched itself a spot in the top three most trafficked online e-commerce pure play in South Africa.
Another online retailer, Takealot.com, was also upbeat about posting positive sales this festive season.
Spokeswoman for Takealot. com Lucie Bartlett said this year the online retail store saw an unprecedented demand and interest from customers for Black Friday deals which were extended over four days and the demand for goods had continued over the festive period.
“Shoppers had the opportunity to steal their Christmas deals early and at times, we experienced 300 percent of the usual sales we would expect on a Friday during the festive season,” Bartlett said.
The marketing manager for Superbalist, Klyne Maharaj, said the retail store was expecting an increase in sales.
“What did come as something of a surprise was the success of Cyber Monday, November 28.
We turned almost the same revenue as we did on Black Friday 2015, an encouraging sign of not only Superbalist.com’s growth, but that of e-commerce in SA as well.”
Several retailers invested in marketing strategies that were now yielding positive results.
Toys R Us has multiple online shopping platforms and has noted increased consumer traffic on its sites in the build up to Christmas.
“Recognising the growth of online shopping and the demand from tech-savvy consumers we have diversified our offering to markets through new services,” said Nicole Annells, marketing manager, Toys R Us South Africa.
She said a significant percentage of the company’s revenue over the festive season was generated from online sales.