According to Gary Hadfield, its CEO, a number of the key players in the online retail market are experiencing year-on-year growth of between 20% and 25% and, despite the tough economic climate, online retailers are expecting healthy growth this festive season.
“The fact that we trade in a different channel doesn't make us any different from traditional retailers,” he says. “The offer is vital and therefore we have introduced daily and weekend deals and a new site search that will improve the customer's shopping experience by making it easier to find products. We also offer free delivery on orders over R375 and all the standard benefits such as various payment options, 24-hour delivery on selected products, door-to-door delivery and a free gift wrapping service (with kids gift wrapping for toys).
Products topping customer wish lists this festive season include Wii, Xbox, Playstation 3, cameras, camcorders, notebooks and netbooks, games, toys, new release DVDs and music and the latest book releases in fiction, biographies and lifestyle. Toys are becoming an increasingly popular online purchase and its vastly expanded toyshop allows customers to search for toys by age, gender and genre.
It has also introduced kalahari.mobi, which allows customers to search for a product and compare prices as well as being able to purchase an impulse item via their mobile phone. Consumers are increasingly using this medium to compare prices before buying products in-store. It also means that Christmas shopping when they are away on holiday need not be problem.
The site has just been awarded the best e-commerce site award in the 2009 South African E-commerce Awards, as well as best online bookstore, best game store, best health and beauty store, and best home and garden store. It now has a registered customer base of over 600 000.
