Retailers get savvy with sharp rise in e-commerce
THE way consumers are buying fashion has changed and mobile commerce is playing a big part in the shift, Sascha Breuss, MD of online retailer Zando, said yesterday.
“In the first quarter of the year, Google saw a 217% increase in fashion apparel searches on mobile devices, compared to … a 6% increase on desktop computers,” he said.
E-commerce is on the rise in SA, and savvy retailers are increasingly targeting a multichannel experience as cellphone penetration rises.
Zando was launched in SA last year by German group Rocket Internet. According to a case study by Google on Zando’s m-commerce strategy, the company’s mobile transactions rose more than nine times over 10 months.
Zando’s mobile marketing manager, Bronwen Forster, said SA was in a unique position in terms of mobile marketing.
“As an emerging market, where access to internet is cheaper via the mobile device than on a desktop, the potential and chance for mobile innovation is substantial. More South Africans have access to a mobile than they do to clean drinking water,” she said.
Census 2011 findings showed that 89% of South African households had a cellphone, with an average of 3.4 persons per household.
Smartphones continue to be important drivers of mobile commerce in the local market, e-commerce stalwart kalahari.com said.
Mobile traffic as a proportion of total traffic on the company’s site increased from the fourth quarter of 2012 to the first quarter of this year by 110%. It rose further from first quarter to the second quarter by another 129%.
“Smartphones are still key players in fuelling e-commerce growth.
“A huge proportion of SA’s connected use the devices to access the internet and for online shopping,” kalahari.com CEO Caren GenthnerKappesz said.
Earlier this year, the MasterCard Online Shopping Survey revealed that respondents who were shopping online via their cellphones bought low-value items like cellphone apps (45%), music downloads (26%),and tickets for cinemas and theatre performances (13%).
The survey also showed that mobile banking apps were popular in SA, with 29.2% of those with internet access on their cellphones already using them.
According to World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck, it is expected that the advent of transactional apps and the rapid rise of smartphone usage in SA will have a significant effect on online shopping in the coming years.
“Mobile commerce is still in its infancy, but as it is made easier, and as users become more familiar with the concept, it will rise at the same rate as web-based online retail,” Mr Goldstuck said.