What South Africans are buying since the ecommerce restrictions were lifted

The most popular online shopping searches over the past two days were thermometers, gas heaters, hydrometer, clear face shields, and nitrile gloves.

This is feedback from PriceCheck founder and CEO Kevin Tucker, who said their stats are showing South Africans are embracing ecommerce during the lockdown.

On Thursday the Department of Trade, Industry, and Competition published new regulations which allows unlimited ecommerce in South Africa.

The new regulations state that all goods may be sold through ecommerce platforms, except for alcohol and tobacco products.

This has led to a spike in online sales because of pent-up demand for a wide range of products which were not available for sale for nearly two months.

“I’ve never seen a spike in traffic like this outside of Black Friday. It really is like every day is Black Friday now,” said Tucker.

“South Africans have taken to online shopping in a way the country has never seen before. Online traffic and user numbers show that ecommerce is experiencing a welcome boon.”

Most popular online shopping products

The top 5 searches on PriceCheck since Thursday afternoon are all related to PPE (personal protective equipment) and related equipment.

There was, however, one interesting outlier – hydrometers. “It seems South Africans are indeed dabbling with home brewing as hydrometers can be used for measuring alcohol content,” said Tucker.

Many people also searched for winter-related products like “gas heaters” and exercise equipment like “treadmills” and “spinning bikes”.

There is also a clear trend towards finding work-from-home products, including laptops, webcams and LTE modems.

The lists below provide an overview of the top searches on PriceCheck from Thursday 14 March to Saturday 16 March.

Top 10 searches

1. Non-contact infrared thermometer
2. Gas heaters
3. Hydrometer
4. Clear face shield
5. Gloves nitrile
6. Thermometer
7. Digital thermometer
8. Huawei
9. Medical masks
10. Treadmill

Top 10 product searches

1. Goldair 3 Panel Gas Heater
2. Samsung 32N5300 32″ HD Smart LED TV
3. Bysoru Baby/adult Digital Thermometer
4. Goldair – Gas Heater
5. Laser Thermometer
6. Safeway Double Tie Down Electric Underblanket
7. Non-contact Forehead Body Infrared Thermometer
8. Suunto 3 Fitness Wrist Hr Sports Watch – Black Metal
9. Solenco Comefresh Cf8500 Air Purifier
10. Nitrile Powder Free Examination Gloves

Other notable products in the top 50

1. HUAWEI P40 Lite 128GB Dual Sim
2. Defy DDW175 12 Place White Dishwasher
3. Sinotec STL 32W4 32″ HD LED TV
4. HP 255 G7 Amd A4 Series Notebook
5. Lenovo Thinkpad T450 Laptop
6. Samsung WA13F5S2UWW 13kg Top Loader Washing Machine
7. Defy DDW175 12 Place White Dishwasher
8. HTH Granular 8kg Mineral Soft
9. Kenwood Kitchen Machine
10. Sony Playstation VR Megapack
11. Microsoft Xbox One X 1TB Console
12. Samsung Galaxy A10 32GB Dual Sim in Blue
13. Tenda 300MBPS Wifi Router & Repeater F3

Now read: Takealot is now selling everything – Here are the products it expects to be the most popular