South African e-commerce sites are popular destinations for Nigerian online shoppers, a trend which points towards great business opportunities.
This is established in a survey conducted by Ipsos on behalf of PayPal and FNB. The survey captured e-commerce trends in South Africa and said the market was about to explode.
The survey found that 30% of Nigerian cross-border shoppers have purchased goods from South Africa in the past 12 months.
The research also showed that Nigeria has a higher propensity from its internet users to shop online than South Africa. The survey found that 70% of South African internet users are shopping online or expecting to shop online in future. South Africa has the second largest number of potential online shoppers, compared to Nigeria (89%) and Kenya (60%).
The research observed that “With South Africans and shoppers from elsewhere turning to online shopping, it is clear e-commerce will continue to grow in the country.”
The research found that 22% of South Africa’s internet users have made purchases online and 48% expect to do so in the future.
About 50% of online shoppers who own a smartphone or a feature phone have used it to shop online, while an additional 21% expect to do so in the future.
In regard to browser preferences, 45% of mobile shoppers prefer to shop by using an app while 26% of mobile shoppers prefer to shop from a mobile browser.
The research found that the most popular shopping categories for South Africans online are digital goods (purchased by 52% of online shoppers in the past 12 months), event tickets (purchased by 50%), travel or transportation (45%), and fashion, consumer electronics and physical entertainment (all purchased by 38%). Looking at future behaviour, 58%-70% of online shoppers indicate that they expect to spend the same or more on those categories online next year.
- This piece was first published in ujuh.co.za whose publishers can be reached at [email protected]
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