E-commerce has been steadily gaining traction as SA's connected population grows and discovers the Web.
According to World Wide Worx's digital participation curve theory, 2013 is set to be the year SA starts seeing a boom in online retail.
Kalahari.com - one of SA's biggest and best-known online merchants - takes a look each year at the use of mobile for online shopping in particular. This year, the standout point in the survey was the increasing use of tablets in SA - although smartphones are still the most widely-used mobile technology for online shopping.
Here are 10 key findings from the company's 2013 mobile shopping survey:
1. Tablet ownership in SA is up by 10%.
2. Almost 70% of SA's connected people use tablets to shop online.
3. Of the number of people who do not own tablets, 66% intend on purchasing one.
4. 50% of the surveyed South Africans own an iPad, while 33.4% own a Samsung tablet.
5. Last year, Apple had more than a 40 percentage point lead on Samsung, but this year that gap has narrowed to 25%.
6. Tablet ownership is still dominated by men, with the gender accounting for 60% of tablet ownership.
7. 73% of tablet users and 81% of smartphone users revealed they have used their tablets to purchase apps.
8. 86% of Kalahari customers own smartphones, seven percentage points up from last year.
9. 87% of South Africans surveyed feel it is as safe - if not safer - to shop online via a phone than on a PC.
10. 91% feel it is as safe - if not safer - to use a mobile phone for shopping than it is to actually swipe a credit card in a mall.
The survey of 1 048 customers was done online throughout the month of July, targeting connected shoppers. The majority of respondents (37%) were between the ages of 31 and 40, while 21- to 30 year-olds made up 30.1% of the base, and 41- to 50-year-olds constituted 18.2%; 5.5% were over 60 and 15- to 20-year-olds made up only 2%.
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