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SA e-commerce should build awareness

Johannesburg - E-commerce businesses should focus on building real awareness and excitement around their client’s brands in smart and creative ways, according to Eric Edelstein, CEO of Daddy’s Deals.

"The result shouldn’t be a purchase only, but rather the acquisition and long term retention of loyal customers. This will create a sustainable ecommerce sector, scaleable to the daily growth currently being experienced,” explained Edelstein.  

SA consumers seem to become increasingly adept at navigating the e-commerce realm with confidence. According to the South African eCommerce Report 2015, prepared by Effective Measure and IAB South Africa, a 94% increase in regular online purchases was experienced between December 2013 and December 2014.

The availability of mobile data has further spiked online shopping statistics, and the report predicts that cheap mobile devices will result in even more e-commerce activity, as more people will now have the opportunity to shop online.

It was found that almost 8% of online shoppers made weekly purchases, females are the most prominent online shoppers (55% of visitors to shopping websites) and the 25 to 29 year old demographic are most active, with 30 to 34 year olds coming a close second. The report also showed that almost 65% of all online shoppers chose to shop from local South African e-commerce merchants, rather than purchasing from international sites.

"In the past, in addition to the fact that either there weren't many people using the Internet, or they hadn't been online long enough to feel comfortable with purchasing online, the variety of online shops was still limited. That has largely changed, with mobile internet access, massive selections of products available online, and state of the art security ensuring safe online purchasing," said Edelstein.
 
Airline tickets, books and hotel reservations were confirmed as the most purchased items online by the report. This indicates that the tourism and hospitality industries are leading the ecommerce trend, with 44.9% of purchases being for airline tickets, and 30.1 percent being for hotel reservations.

According to Manie Smith, hotel manager of the Daddy Long Legs Hotel, for example, the hotel received great exposure through listing a deal on the Daddy’s Deals e-commerce platform.

“The outcome was so incredible that the hotel had to remove the special offer from the site just two days after going live, in order to deliver on the demand created in a mere 48 hours,” said Smith.

The Zulu Nyala County Manor also sold over 2 900 vouchers online for a dinner, bed and breakfast stay. This gave the Manor the opportunity to upsell game drives and cultural shows to guests, further enhancing the brand exposure value received. Similar success has been achieved for restaurants such as Moyo, Blouberg, which rebuilt its brand and re-established repeat business through offering a deal on the e-commerce site.

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