If pre-Christmas searches are anything to go by, this festive season many visitors to South Africa’s online marketplace bidorbuy would like Santa to bring them – a drone. By Staff Writer
“The term drone is now among the ten most frequent searches on the site, shoulder-to-shoulder with watches, smartphones, laptops, tablets, consoles, games, toys and hobbies”, says bidorbuy CEO Jaco Jonker.
The most sought after watch seems to be Rolex, although that search probably belongs in the domain of wishful thinking, as the pricing on bidorbuy starts from R5000 for a small second-hand ladies’ watch to half a million rands for a new men’s watch.
The bidorbuy CEO says that iPhone wins hands down among smartphones, with the majority of searches going specifically for the iPhone 6s. Visitors to bidorbuy are about four times less likely to search for a Samsung smartphone; however, when it comes to actually buying, the two best known smartphone brands are on par.
In gaming, Xbox One and Playstation 4 enjoy equal popularity. Currently, Fallout 4 leads the video game searches, closely followed by Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Halo 5 and Fifa 16.
In the toys and hobbies section, the most popular searches are for Lego, Marklin railway models and the already mentioned drones.
“The drones made their way into the top searches almost a year ago, and are still safely holding their position on the list of most searched terms on bidorbuy”, says Jaco Jonker and adds: “Wearable tech devices such as smartwatches, especially Apple Watch, GoPro miniature attachable cameras, as well as health and fitness monitors are also enjoying undiminished popularity.”
However, selfie sticks, which were extremely popular last season, seem to have fallen out of public’s favour. These days, they cannot be found even among the top hundred.
A substantial number of visitors are searching for big-ticket items such as television sets, fridges, air conditioners and, increasingly, 3D printers.
Traditionally; online shoppers start their holiday shopping earlier than “regular” shoppers, usually at the beginning of November.
“To help them navigate through about two million products listed on bidorbuy, we have put together a Christmas gifting guide”, says Jaco Jonker. “At the end of November, bidorbuy will be hosting massive sales spanning over two weeks, conceptualised around Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
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