The cheapest online shops in SA

I find that generally in SA, and I've been back here almost 6 years, online store prices are not that different to high street stores. I'm generalising, of course, but that's been my experience. It just tells me that the savings companies experience by not having physical shops and the expenses that go along with it, are not passed on to the consumer.
 
Kalahari.net is cheap, as you don't Pay for door-to-door delivery for purchases above 350
 
What is so interesting is that an online store does not need to pay sales people & or have the cost of the shop just storage!

We need an amazon online shop in SA - where products are sourced where ever cheapest - we live in a global market!
 
Online stores do have sales staff that need to be paid, if you look at most international stored with a contact number you can call there sales department to get more info on an item or place the order over the phone. BHphoto has a great tele sales deprtment :)
 
erasma said:
What is so interesting is that an online store does not need to pay sales people & or have the cost of the shop just storage!

We need an amazon online shop in SA - where products are sourced where ever cheapest - we live in a global market!
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I agree, it seems as if online shops should have less expenses (less staff and cheaper rent) and should be at least as cheap as brick and mortar stores, with free shipping included.
 
Did the fact that the price of Apple products all over the world is dictated by Apple not occur to anyone? There is a base price that it will never go below and then there are of course the profiteers who slap on their premium.

+1 for Kalahari though. Free delivery for orders over R350 rocks. I have had my issues with how they ship books, but we have an understanding now :)
 
I always suspected HiFi corp is a rip off company. Selling cheap junk expensively, so it looks cheap but the brand is junk. When they can not grey import the product they are more expensive.
 
The iPod has become something of a benchmarking tool after the Australian bank Commonwealth Securities launched an iPod index, using the iPod Nano music player as a currency value indicator. This is similar to the well-known Economist's Big Mac index.
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What does the opening paragraph of the article have to do with the rest of it?
(there's no comparison provided with iPod prices in other countries.

The choice of the iPod for price-comparison within South Africa is also flawed, since the writer seems to miss the point that one company (CORE) has the monopoly on Apple products in South Africa, and that this distributor also directly competes with it's resellers through it's own online store (ZAStore), and the various Apple Stores that it co-owns.

For a re-seller to compete with CORE's online Apple store, they would have to work with a profit-margin of about 5% that is not viable on smaller volumes.

Bigger retail stores most likely sell the iPod in volume, or as a loss-leader to get feet into the store.

A more interesting story would be to look at Apple's (through CORE) anti-competitive behavior in South Africa.

On the topic of price-comparison: most online stores can sell for cheaper (excluding delivery cost) since they require less sales staff, and do not have to keep stock. Smaller online stores can however miss out on retail-focused vendor/brand promotions.
 
wasnt this recommended retail clap banned in the motor industry? or is it reasoned that they are not telling anyone how much to sell for, only "recommending." is that not the reason the online shops are not bringing their prices down?
 
The comfort of shopping from your home may however be seen as compensation for this additional charge.
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The discomfort of having to wait a week or two or four and the possibility that you may pay out but never get your item, says quite clearly to me that unless you can get it significantly cheaper online than you can from your local shop, stick to bricks and mortar.
 
Gatecrasher said:
The discomfort of having to wait a week or two or four and the possibility that you may pay out but never get your item, says quite clearly to me that unless you can get it significantly cheaper online than you can from your local shop, stick to bricks and mortar.
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Fair comment. One would expect next day delivery with these shops, but if they do not provide that then their value proposition is significantly less.
 
I don't know why no one has mentioned about www.jump.co.za, to me that website is like a SA version of Amazon, the best thing about "Jump" is there's "Store Reviews" that you can read before you decide to "jump" to their store and place the order or not. I don't know other products, but buying PC games online is a lot cheaper if that game is not a new game, Musica and Look & Listen don't cut the price of their games unless that game is extreamely not popular, even for some games that's 1-2 years old, BT Games's online store have a much reasonable price for games that's not new.
 
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