The South African collection of local and international discounted deals on a wide range of products is just in time for local online shoppers to make the most of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and other festive season special shopping events. On launch day, the site negotiated a series of eight special deals that were available for just one hour.
The deals site is being launched off the back of htxt.africa, the company's successful tech news site, which began publishing daily news, features and reviews six months ago.
"The internet has changed the way people all over the world research, compare and purchase everything, from essential pieces of technology to everyday items needed to run their households," says Hypertext founder, Brett Haggard. "During the festive season in 2012, many large retailers experienced year-on-year growth of between 30-90%, with even bigger numbers expected for 2013 as more people are online. Google, for example, is predicting at least 25% growth in online sales for the whole year."
According to the MasterCard Online Shopping Survey, 54% of South Africans who have access to the Internet use it for shopping and 91% of those who do so, were satisfied with their experience. Three quarters of those shoppers said that they found the ease and convenience of online shopping appealing.
"Looking at the great response we've had to our weekly 'Thrifty Thursday' posts published to htxt.africa, we believe that the South African online community will welcome a site where they can find great specials and discounts on a variety of products and services, in one place."
The site will feature a minimum of ten hot deals each day, with the number of deals featured on the site set to grow as demand increases. Regular visitors to the site will also be encouraged to share deals that they find elsewhere, growing the reach of the community.
"It is important to note that deals.htxt is a connection to great deals, referring shoppers to the retailers offering them. It is over to those shopping outlets to fulfil orders according to the terms and conditions published on their sites.
"For the near term, many of the deals we feature on the site may well be from international players, although we are on the lookout for local suppliers who want to offer special deals too. We will ensure however, that all of these deals on the site have been verified as available to South African shoppers at the time of listing them on the site," he concludes.
