Online shopping in South Africa has increased significantly year over year with nearly half of all shoppers surveyed indicated that they’ve purchased online and 80% of them have either maintained or increased their online shopping habit over the last twelve months. Get a glance at the latest insights into the state of online shopping in South Africa in 2017:

Demographics of Online Shoppers in South Africa:

• 57% of them are male. 25% are above 60 years old and 43% live in Gauteng.
• Online Shoppers in South Africa are well educated with over 65% of them have completed education beyond matriculation.
• 35% earn above R30,000 and most work full time.

How Do Online Shoppers in South Africa Purchase Online?

• 16% shop once a month and 6% shop at least once a week.
• Time and process convenience are the top motivations for online shopping in South Africa with rates of 23% and 19%, respectively.
• 45% prefer to pay with a credit card and 21% prefer to do so with a debit card.
• 65% prefer to shop from a desktop computer or laptop, compared to only 27% who prefer using a mobile device.
• The majority (28%) shop online in the evening after work hours, from 6 to 9 pm, and 25% shop from 9 am to 12 pm.
• 88% of respondents were fairly or very satisfied with their last purchase item’s speed of delivery.
• 63% paid nothing for delivery of their last online purchase.
• 56% use social media either frequently or sometimes to help make purchase decisions.
• Social media is important for 56% of online shopper respondents who use it either frequently or sometimes to help make purchase decisions.

A Graph Shows the Use of Social Media for Making Online Shopping Desitions in South Africa, 2017

Methodology:

Data were based on 8,751 survey responses, including 2,205 mobiles (25%) and 6,546 desktops (75%) from South Africa. The survey ran between July and August 2017.