How People from Free State 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 Free State 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 favourite time of the day. Our report helps to understand how does Free State compare with South Africa as a whole.

Free State’s statistics

Free State internet users prefer a traditional method of shopping online—they choose desktop PCs or laptops over mobile devices—48% of all the analysed transactions were made using a computer. 46% are purchases made via smartphone, while tablet shopping is—unsurprisingly—only 5%.

When it comes to the average spendings, desktop PCs or laptop users tend to spend the lowest amount of their money—just R352 of average cart value—whereas tablet shoppers are spending slightly above R413. Smartphones e-shopping is clearly the stake winner averaging R554. There is an interesting R176 difference between Android and iOS users’ expenses: R642 for the former and R466 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 R304.

Which day of the week is the most popular amongst the inhabitants of Free State? Both groups—computers and smartphones users—choose Thursday.

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) Free State users are finalizing only 4% of the total purchases. In the morning this percentage increases to 31.5%, reaching its peak during the day (noon to 6 PM)—40% of daily online orders in Free State are made during these hours. In the evening (6PM to midnight), on the other hand, this amount decreases to 23%

When shopping online Free State users most often buy clothes, home and garden amenities and take advantage of electronics.

Free State vs South Africa

Free State, when comparing to the whole South Africa, is placed at one of the last positions in terms of spending money. The average Free State user’s order value—R440—is much lower 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 Free State is R100 lower than the average South Africa mobile consumer, and—digging even deeper—the average cart of iOS user from Free State is R148 lower.

Let’s look at the full rank as well. As mentioned, Free State took seventh place when it comes to the amount of money being spent on online shopping. The difference between the last positioned Mpumalanga is very small—R27.

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

Loot, AliExpress and Banggood are the most popular marketplaces in Free State, 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

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