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Online buying habits show pre-purchase research is key
Following research conducted in October 2011, the DMMA and Effective Measure have announced the results of the joint exercise conducted over 400 websites across 1001 respondents. From the five questions, it has established that 76.6% use online research before purchasing, indicating the importance of good commercial websites.
About half of the respondents 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 were. From an age point of view, there is a trend of 25 - 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 more 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.
For more information, email az.oc.ammd@ofni.
Results
| Have you purchased anything online in the past 12 months (e.g. books, music, apps, ringtones, airtime, groceries, gifts etc.)? | Total | Male | Female |
| Yes | 59.66% | 62.22% | 55.86% |
| No | 40.34% | 37.78% | 44.14% |
| When you plan on buying an item in-store, do you research it online and then purchase it at a store? | Total | Male | Female |
| Yes | 76.60% | 80.49% | 70.99% |
| No | 23.40% | 19.51% | 29.01% |
| When you plan on purchasing an item online, do you ever research it offline first by going into a store to research the item and/or look at other options? | Total | Male | Female |
| Yes | 54.86% | 57.14% | 51.91% |
| No | 45.14% | 42.86% | 48.09% |
| When you purchase an item online do you research the item in other online areas (e.g. review sites, manufacturer sites, service sites e.g. Hello Peter) | Total | Male | Female |
| Yes | 73.71% | 77.47% | 67.18% |
| No | 26.29% | 22.53% | 32.82% |
| If you purchase items online, how much have you spent online in the past 12 months? | Total | Male | Female |
| Less than R1000 | 35.11% | 28.85% | 43.51% |
| R1001 to R5000 | 43.47% | 44.23% | 43.13% |
| R5001 to R19999 | 16.72% | 21.70% | 9.16% |
| R20000 plus | 4.71% | 5.22% | 4.20% |
