Online retail is poised to be a big money-spinner for retailers who have woken up to its promise, says Arthur Goldstuck, MD of World Wide Worx.
He was speaking ahead of the Online Retail in SA 2007 report to be published later in the quarter.
Latest World Wide Worx figures show local online retail revenue increased 30% in 2006, to around R688 million.
According to Goldstuck, the figures surpassed expectations. "Original forecasts made a year ago predicted a 20% to 25% rise. It's safe to say by 2008, online retailing will be serious business."
Goldstuck attributes this growth to the "experience curve", which shows that as existing Internet users become more experienced, they become more confident about advanced uses of the Internet.
"At this stage of the evolution of the Internet in SA, online shopping is still regarded as advanced usage; by 2010 it will be mainstream," he says.
E-shopping peak
Gillian Meier, bidorbuy business manager, says the company experienced average sales growth of 33.96% in November and December, resulting in a R1.49 million monthly increase in sales.
"We received just over five million impressions during December, with more than 321 000 unique visitors. The peak shopping season on bidorbuy resulted in an increase of 55% in traffic, 21% increase in new registered users, and almost 70% more product listings," she says.
Neil Watson, Digital Planet MD, says the company's year-end season starts ramping up from October.
"October was a record month and November beat October. December is a half-month for us, but we still had a record December. Our year-on-year sales growth was just over 100%."
Ryan Bacher, Netflorist MD, says: "We were 34% up on last year's numbers, with 8 500 orders delivered."
Neil Smith, Take 2 marketing manager, says sales were up 100% from last year, with double the traffic on the Web site.
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