How People from Eastern Cape Buy Online

E-commerce is now becoming one of the fastest developing branches of the economy. While online shopping growth surged to 24.8% globally in 2017 when comparing to the previous year, 58% of South African internet users are shopping online.

And how does South Africa e-commerce activity stand when looking particularly at Eastern Cape consumers?

We’ve analyzed several millions of online transactions made by users in 2017 to find out precisely how much money is being spent as per types of users’ devices, hottest months for e-shopping, most popular days of the week and even favorite time of the day. Our report helps to understand how does Eastern Cape compare with South Africa as a whole.

Eastern Cape’s statistics

Eastern Cape internet users are likely to choose the traditional desktop PCs or laptops over mobile devices– 51% of all the analysed transactions were made using computer. 43% are purchases made via smartphone, while tablet shopping is—unsurprisingly—only 6%.

When it comes to the average spendings, desktop PCs or laptop users tend to spend the lowest amount of their money—just R383 of average cart value—whereas tablet shoppers are spending slightly above R425. Smartphones e-shopping is clearly the stake winner averaging R807. There is an interesting R97 difference between Android and iOS users’ expenses: R759 for the former and R856 for the latter.

When comparing months, the last quarter of the year is characterized by the highest shopping activity. On the contrary—according to our study—users are not keen on buying online during the first half of the year. The most obvious reason for the discrepancy is the fact that South African consumers take full advantage of the shopping festivals taking place during the final months of the year. Needles to mention that in November, when Black Friday and Cyber Monday are celebrated, the average order value rises up to R373.

Which day of the week is the most popular amongst the inhabitants of Eastern Cape? Both groups—computers and smartphones users—choose Friday.

For the sake of thoroughness, we’ve also divided 24 hours into equal parts to better understand which time of the day is the most popular for doing online shopping. At night (midnight to 6 AM) Eastern Cape users are finalizing only 5% of the total purchases. In the morning this percentage increases to 37%, reaching its peak during the day (noon to 6 PM)—almost 40% of daily online orders in Eastern Cape are made during these hours. In the evening (6PM to midnight), on the orther hand, this amount decreases to 19%

When shopping online South African users most often buy clothes, as well as home and garden amenities.

Eastern Cape vs South Africa

Eastern Cape, when comparing to the whole South Africa, is undoubtedly very important in maintaining country’s e-commerce condition. The average Eastern Cape user’s order value—R539—is much higher than the average for the whole country—R477. The one real difference is noticeable when comparing mobile users’ spendings, where the average cart of a mobile consumer from Eastern Cape is R154 higher than the average South Africa mobile consumer, and – digging even deeper – the average cart of iOS user from Eastern Cape is R242 higher.

Let’s look at the full rank as well. As mentioned, Eastern Cape is situated very high when it comes to the amount of money being spent on online shopping. The difference between the last positioned Mpumalanga is quite big—R126.

1. Western Cape—R546
2. Eastern Cape—R539
3. KwaZulu-Natal—R531
4. Gauteng—R469
5. North West—R464
6. Limpopo—R458
7. Free State—R440
8. Northern Cape—R433
9. Mpumalanga—R413

Ubuy, AliExpress and Loot are the most popular marketplaces in Eastern Cape, however, not many users know that shopping in those places can be made even better with cashback. All you have to do is activate it in Picodi before each purchase.

Methodology

The study refers to the online purchases being made by South Africa consumers using desktop and mobile devices in 2017.

Sources

• https://www.statista.com/statistics/288487/forecast-of-global-b2c-e-commerce-growt/
• https://techcentral.co.za/big-growth-in-online-shopping-in-sa/71943/
• https://www.itpro.co.uk/hardware/30467/tablet-sales-decline-for-the-13th-quarter-in-a-row

Fair Use Statement

Your readers are interested in the topic of regional e-commerce trends? Great! We are looking forward to see the results of our research shared for any non-commercial purpose. In order to share the above results please ensure a link back to this very page and refer Picodi.com, so that your readers can enjoy the study in its entirety and our contributors earn the proper credit for their work.