Women still prefer malls but online shopping grows

12 Dec 2012

Following an online survey amongst 6096 respondents from 30 November to 5 December 2012, online research specialists Columinate, found that 70% of online shoppers intend to spend the same or more money online during this festive season compared to last year but mall shopping is still popular.

Image courtesy of marin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

While many online shoppers (44%) still intend to do all their shopping offline, a third of online shoppers stated that they would buy certain things online, but still make some purchases at physical stores. In terms of how much they will spend online, 60% indicated that they are likely to spend between R400 and R3000 in a single online shopping instance.

An interesting difference emerged between the sexes, with significantly more females stating that they will do all their shopping in physical stores and men being much more likely to do all their shopping online.

Men are also more likely to spend more money online, compared to those women who also intend to do their shopping online, so women should go online and update their wish list so that Santa can deliver exactly what they ask for.

Convenience still main reason for online

A similar survey was conducted at the same time last year by the agency, when convenience was rated as the main reason for shopping online. This continues to be the main reason for such a decision in 2012, although some shoppers are also trying to avoid shopping malls (25%).

The survey again looked at online shoppers' preference for local versus international online stores, and it seems that local is still lekker, with 58% preferring to shop at local online retailers. The main reasons for this included shorter delivery times (62%) and the preference to shop with South African Rands as opposed to foreign currency (62%).

The security of online transactions is still the main motivation for not trusting online shopping sites, with 43% of online shoppers citing this reason as a barrier, followed by a poor reputation (41%). With that said, local online retailers are perceived to be more trustworthy and less risky compared to international retailers by more than half of online shoppers.

Trusted online stores

The survey also investigated the level of trust that online shoppers place in the online stores they have visited. The list below shows the top trusted sites according to the survey. The percentages reflect the percentage of online shoppers who indicated that they trust the site very much.