Digital payments giant PayPal released results of a global survey this week, conducted by Ipsos, shedding light on consumer shopping habits in South Africa.
The most noteworthy figures show South African shoppers are getting more comfortable with spending money using mobile devices. Mobile spend is expected to grow 70% this year and account for R19 billion, nearly half, of online shopping in 2017.
"There is no doubt the rapid penetration of smartphones in South Africa will continue to be the driving force of online shopping in the upcoming years," says PayPal's regional director for Africa and Israel, Efi Dahan.
Overall online shopping in SA is expected to grow by 29% and reach R37 billion by the end of 2016. South African shoppers spent an estimated R28.8 billion online in 2015, and this is expected to rise to nearly R46 billion in 2017.
According to the research, 57% of South African Internet users (age +18) have shopped online in the past 12 months. While SA's online shopping is dominated by local purchases, with 59% of online consumers only shopping domestically, 37% say they shop online both domestically and cross-border, and a further 5% only shop cross-border.
"Though international shopping is still less popular locally, with the growing variety of products, larger range of prices, improved shipping options and increasing confidence in e-commerce, we believe SA's consumers will continue to purchase online, regardless of physical borders," says Dahan.
Popular online cross-border shopping destinations for South Africans are the US, UK and China.
Some 82% of cross-border online shoppers who have made purchases from Web sites in China are motivated by cheaper prices, while the top reason for purchases from the US and UK is access to goods not available in SA.
The most popular category of goods for SA's online shoppers are downloadable entertainment and education items, including e-books, applications, digital music, films and videos, online video games, software and other media content. This is followed by fashion items (37%) and consumer electronics (30%).
Cost is both a motivation and a deterrent for online shoppers, says Dahan. Half of all respondents said they do not shop cross-border because delivery shipping costs are too high. Additional barriers include concerns about not receiving the item purchased (49%) and fraud worries (47%).
Online shoppers surveyed in SA and globally said they were more likely to shop online if delivery of goods was free.
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