South Africans are increasingly comfortable about shopping on the Internet, judging by online orders for Mother`s Day gifts this year, says online florist service NetFlorist.
NetFlorist reports that Mother`s Day is its biggest occasion of the year, and that loving offspring bought a record 4 500 bouquets and hampers this year.
"For the first time in our history, we took more than 1 000 orders in one day (Wednesday, 5 May)," says NetFlorist GM Ryan Bacher.
Bacher notes that 80% of the orders came via the Internet. "This cements our belief that South Africans are becoming more and more comfortable transacting via the Web if they trust the brand."
Underlining this theory is the fact that 60% of the orders came from repeat customers.
'It`s also interesting to note that 20% of our business was non-floral, showing that South Africans are getting more and more comfortable with having gifts delivered. Historically, people would always hand-deliver these sorts of gifts."
Bacher adds that e-mail marketing proved to be NetFlorist`s most successful advertising medium over the period, followed by radio advertising and then online banners and buttons.
NetFlorist enjoyed such a good consumer response that it sold out of stock, but this did not deter shoppers, says Bacher.
"Because of the demand, we had to sell out three days before Mother`s Day and therefore put up a `sold out sign` on our home page. The only way for us to do this is to create a product called `We are sold out` and give it a value of 1c. Minutes later, one of our more intellectually challenged customers managed to purchase our `sold out` sign," he says.
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