{"id":547275,"date":"2005-11-16T08:40:56","date_gmt":"2005-11-16T08:40:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/547275-bandwidth-could-raise-online-retail-to-new-heights.html"},"modified":"2005-11-16T08:40:56","modified_gmt":"2005-11-16T08:40:56","slug":"bandwidth-could-raise-online-retail-to-new-heights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/547275-bandwidth-could-raise-online-retail-to-new-heights.html","title":{"rendered":"Bandwidth could raise online retail to new heights"},"content":{"rendered":"

While one-tenth of the world\u2019s population buys goods online, the South African market is lagging behind as a result of slow internet speeds and the high cost of connections. <\/font><\/p>\n

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Arthur Goldstuck, who publishes an annual research report on the South African online retail environment, says there are approximately 300000 active online shoppers in the country.<\/font> <\/p>\n

This accounts for less than 10% of SA\u2019s internet users. <\/font><\/p>\n

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Online retail accounts for about 0,14% of general retail in SA, compared with 1,6% in other parts of the world. <\/font><\/p>\n

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There is a 20%-25% increase in online shopping in SA every year, Goldstuck says, but \u201cas this is off a very low base, it doesn\u2019t mean we are seeing a dramatic increase in numbers\u201d.<\/font> <\/p>\n

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Access to higher and cheaper bandwidth is essential for the growth of the South African online retail market, he says. <\/font><\/p>\n

Unless the telecommunications authorities deregulate the market more effectively, online retail in SA will stagnate, Goldstuck says. <\/font><\/p>\n

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Gary Hadfield, CEO of online book retailer Kalahari.net, says the lack of access to broadband inhibits the local online retail environment. <\/font><\/p>\n

However, it is anticipated that about 1-million internet users will have access to high-speed access by 2009, \u201cwhich is good for online shopping\u201d. <\/font><\/p>\n

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Research house ACNielsen says that a recent survey of 38 markets, including SA, shows that 627- million people have shopped online, with 325-million buying goods in the past month. <\/font><\/p>\n

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ACNielsen says Europe and North America have the highest incidence of online shoppers. Germany, Austria and the UK top the list, with 95% of internet users buying goods online. <\/font><\/p>\n

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David Boyd, vice-president of internet industry research at ACNielsen, says that the shopping figures show an upward trend in global e-commerce. <\/font><\/p>\n

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The most popular items bought on the internet are books, which account for 34% of purchases. <\/font><\/p>\n

This is followed by videos, DVDs and games, which make up 22% of purchases, and airline tickets at 21%. Clothing and accessories account for 20% of purchases.<\/font> <\/p>\n

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Airline tickets are the most popular item bought online in SA, and they \u201cdwarf other online retail categories\u201d, Goldstuck says. <\/font><\/p>\n

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Groceries and books are the next most popular online products in this country. <\/font><\/p>\n

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Online motor industry websites are also popular, and they generate leads for real car sales, Goldstuck says. <\/font><\/p>\n

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Websites associated with grocery retailers tend to be the most profitable, such as Woolworths and Pick \u2019n Pay\u2019s sites. <\/font><\/p>\n

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Colin van Schalkwyk, senior executive of Woolworths\u2019 selling division, says there has been a steady increase over the past few years in the number of online grocery shopping users, with about 100000 registered users. <\/font><\/p>\n

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Van Schalkwyk says Woolworths considers its online business to be a selling channel and an opportunity to maximise sales and does not consider telecommunications constraints the most important criteria when assessing the viability of its online business.<\/font> <\/p>\n

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ACNielsen reports that credit cards are the most popular method of payment online. <\/font><\/p>\n

Cash-on-delivery is also a popular payment method in some Asian markets, ranking second to credit cards in India and Japan. <\/font><\/p>\n

In less developed markets, the safety of online payment is a major concern.<\/font> <\/p>\n

Inet-Bridge ||<\/em> Discuss this article<\/a> <\/font><\/p>\n

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ONLINE shopping is a growing retail trend internationally, with accelerated growth in emerging markets, recent research indicates. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-547275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547275"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547275\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}