Online shoppers value convenience over price when shopping online.
That's according to a survey conducted by local e-commerce start-up uAfrica.com, which gathered information from over 65 000 respondents.
When asked to rank what their attractions for shopping online were, 59.32% of the respondents ranked convenience, followed by 27.36%, who ranked price and 12.49% who cited safety.
According to the study, safety around online payment, specifically credit cards, was a major concern for online shoppers but, in spite of this, credit cards still remained the most widely used method of payment within the online landscape.
Ranking their biggest concerns when shopping online, 45.93% of the respondents expressed fears on whether their credit card/payment details are safe, 20.94% said not knowing the quality of the item purchased and 7.29% pointed to not having a wide enough choice of products to select from.
The report states that although many online stores believe they need to offer same day or next day shipping to their customers, this expectation did not exist with their customers who were happy to receive their goods within a week.
"Two findings that particularly surprised us were that consumers were willing to wait longer for their purchases, and that convenience proved more important than price," says Andy Higgins, MD of uAfrica.com.
"Given the dynamic nature of operating a business in an online environment, and how quickly trends influence Web-based activity, we are eager to see how or if these figures have changed. A key focus for our business is to be able to offer this insight to our users, so making sure we are staying abreast of what these potential paradigm shifts may be for small retail-based businesses, is key to our customers' success."
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