No 'dramatic' changes predicted for retail sector

"The shopper is on the hamster wheel, there are not a lot of things that are changing as rapidly as we may think.

"Considering everything that is happening on the global stage, the changes are small adjustments to the turbulence in the market, they are not dramatic," said Craig Henry, retailer service director South Africa & Sub Sahara: The Nielsen Company.

Henry was speaking at a breakfast briefing in Johannesburg on retail/market trends.

According to Nielsen's research, internet shopping was here to stay.

"There is no doubt internet shopping will grow, but it will do so very slowly.

"The future for online shopping is dependent on the type of service offered, the value of that service and whether or not that service is considered something that shoppers want to invest in," Henry commented.

A recent study from MasterCard, revealed that online shopping had increased in SA and continued to show potential for growth.

The company's Worldwide Online Shopping Survey said that the number of South Africans shopping online had steadily increased over the past two years, with 58% of respondents in the survey of active internet users saying that they used the internet for shopping.

This was an increase from the 53% that said that they shopped online in 2010, and the 44% that gave the same answer in 2009.

Arthur Goldstuck, MD of World Wide Worx said that the findings backed up their research into the way online shopping evolves.

"We have shown that once people are experienced internet users and go online regularly, their propensity to shop online increases dramatically.

"The key is to convert that propensity into shopping behaviour, and this survey pinpoints where and why that conversion is happening," he said.

According to Dirk Dijkstra, head of communications at Ensight, an international multi-channel marketing company, myriad factors such as rising fuel costs and the introduction of Wi-Fi on board domestic flights, creating captive audiences, all pointed to e-commerce becoming more of a viable option for consumers, if the right communication channels were utilised.

"Getting the e-retail model right locally, from a communications perspective, is key to the growth of the e-commerce sector.

"Online shopping has become universal and anything that you can buy at a store can now be bought via e-retailers, from computers and clothes to groceries and cars.

"The list is endless, as is the potential for growth of SA's e-commerce sector," Dijkstra said.

On Tuesday, Nielsen also said that both modern trade and globalisation would continue to grow.

"As retailers expand their footprint, we will see more and more global brands available in our market," they predicted.