Pre-purchase online research comes out tops in the DMMA e-commerce study

On the flipside, about half of the respondents also said they would go into stores to do their research before making their purchase online. Men were slightly more likely to do this than women. From an age point of view, there is a trend of25-40 year olds being more likely to conduct research online if they planned to buy in-store. Respondents aged 51 years and older were more inclined to conduct in-store research if they planned to purchase in-store than younger respondents. Interestingly enough, for each age group, income group and gender it was found that online research was more popular than actual in-store research when the purchase was to be made in-store.

Almost 60% of respondents said they had made an online purchase in the last 12 months. Males were marginally more likely to have purchased something online but the largest driver is monthly household income. Almost 80% of respondents earning over R50 000 a month have purchased online in the past 12 months. Only 15% of younger respondents (18-20 year olds) had made an online purchase. This is most likely due to credit card restrictions that are keeping this demographic out of the e-commerce market.

Almost 80% of respondents who have purchased online have spent up to R5 000 in the last 12 months. Males were twice as likely to have spent between R5 001 and R19 999 than females. Older respondents (45-54 year olds) were the mostly likely to have spent over R20 000 online in the last 12 months. Obviously household income plays a large part with higher earners tending to spend more online.

Please see the data table below for survey results. For more information contact the DMMA on az.oc.ammd@ofni.

Table 1 below shows the data and questions asked.