Festive e-shopping 'SA's biggest yet'

This festive season was likely “the biggest yet for online retail in SA”, according to one of SA's biggest retailers.

Lyndsay Webster-Rozon, GM of e-tailing at Pick 'n Pay, says the extent of online shopping over December was unprecedented, with consumers exhibiting a marked desire to do more online this festive season. “Online sales growth is accelerating year-on-year as the offering improves and customers turn to using the service as a convenient way to save time.”

The online retail sector saw growth of 30% to 40% on the whole last year, with the holiday season highlighting the trend of a consumer shift in favour of online purchases and the popularity of consumer electronics.

The South African cyberspace currently offers more than 1 000 retail portals and an ever-increasing online population. Coupled with the upsurge in social media activity, industry professionals say these factors have been, and will continue to be, the driving force behind e-commerce in SA.

This festive season, an increased number of e-shoppers took to the Web and put their trust in the process of virtual procurement to purchase gifts and holiday tackle, with the latest gadgets and devices being “top of the pops” list.

Gary Novitzkas, CEO of local online retailer Kalahari.com, says the company was taken aback by the strength of the uptick in online retail after a slow start to the year. “[The year started with] customers still feeling the effects of a tough economic environment, but an improvement was expected over the festive season. We were surprised [by] measurements like new customers, orders per customer, and average selling prices all exceeding our forecasts by in some cases by up to 80%.”

Jaco Jonker, CEO of SA's largest online marketplace, BidorBuy, is optimistic about the future of online retail and says the 30% increase in online sales in 2011 met market expectations. “I expect similar growth figures for 2012. I believe that growth would be able to increase even more if people could have access to cheap, always on, Internet.”

The “e-commerce wave” has arrived in SA, according to Takealot, “noticeable with all the advertising from most players in the industry.” The e-tailer says it expects 2012 will see continued growth as shoppers become more comfortable shopping online.

World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck says that, while online retail has not yet reached vast proportions in SA, it is growing at a very high rate. “That growth rate has been 30% or more for three years now, and was expected to grow at 40% in 2011. This is even before a sustained growth in uptake that we expect from 2013 onward.”

Next year, says Goldstuck, is expected to be a significant year for the online retail industry. “That is the year when the growth of the number of experienced Internet users in SA begins to accelerate. We call that model the Digital Participation Curve, and the curve will rise steeply from 2013 for the rest of the decade, indicating sustained growth.”

He says the Online Retail in SA 2011 report shows that online retail currently makes up only 0.3% of overall retail in SA, but this proportion is expected to grow more than tenfold in the coming decade.

Webster-Rozon says Pick 'n Pay had a strong response to its iPad 2 offer from online customers, while the familiar festive season trend of online DVD, CD and games sales was unswerving.

According to online retail giant Amazon.com, devices from the Kindle family emerged head and shoulders above the rest in terms of sales this holiday season, with the Kindle Fire at number one. “Customers purchased millions of Kindle Fires and millions of Kindle e-readers,” says the international e-tailer.

The new Kindle family held all three top spots on Amazon.com's bestseller charts, with the Kindle Fire followed closely by the Kindle Touch and, thirdly, the Kindle. Introduced 13 weeks ago, the Kindle Fire clinched the top spot in terms of the best-selling, most gifted, and most wished for product across millions of available items.

Amazon.com says gifting of Kindle books was up 175% between 25 November and Christmas Day, compared to the same period in 2010. The company's “Best of 2011” list reveals that toys and video games respectively were runners-up in terms of total units sold.

Jonker says this festive season's top-selling gadget was the tablet, with Apple iPads and Samsung Galaxy Tabs being the chosen brands. “More and more people are seeing the advantages of using tablet devices over traditional notebooks.”

Interesting to note, says Jonker, was the increase in customers shopping on their cellphones in 2011. He says it is expected that mobile will become a much more widely used means of purchasing online. “We saw single items [selling for] as much as R20 000 being purchased on the mobile platform.”

Novitzkas says tablets like the iPad, e-readers like the Gobii, gaming consoles, and cameras proved to be the top selling gadgets. He says the season saw a dramatic increase in traffic. “We expect the final numbers to be in the 20% to 25% range for the full year.”

Takealot says gaming software outshone other categories in terms of unit sales. “The launches of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the new Call of Duty, and Battlefield 3 were not only top sellers on launch, but clearly they were also given as gifts. Diablo 3 was the surprise for the festive period as this key first quarter 2012 launch title was a key driver in bringing first-time shoppers to Takealot.com.”

In a development that is indicative of growing broadband penetration, says Takealot, online gaming titles also showed improved sales. “The festive offer on Xbox Live membership saw high sales [this Christmas season].

“Our electronics category did well in all price points and shoppers were turning to the Web to hunt down bargains for their festive gift choices. For the dads who have everything, the gift of choice was the new DStv Walka. Tablet sales on the Kindle, Asus EEE Pad and the Apple iPad continue unabated.”

Takealot says a surprise in the gadget arena this holiday season was the demand for children's gadget, the LeapPad from LeapFrog. “The demand far exceeded supply, with most retailers being sold out before 16 December.” This product is touted as the “iPad for kids”, which Takealot says bodes well for the early adoption by youngsters of new gadget-type products in coming years.

Another trend that continued, according to Takealot, was that of purchasing gift vouchers.