South Africans as recreational shoppers

Covering 42 countries, the study polled the responses of 23 500 regular Internet users to understand their attitudes to shopping. Keep in mind that South African Internet users represent the higher LSM portion of local consumers, rather than the whole population.

According to ACNielsen, the findings are important to both local retailers and manufacturers, who can certainly benefit from the high incidence of recreational shoppers that South Africa enjoys. This can be done through making the most of every in-store moment that the consumer spends, encouraging them to purchase rather than simply 'window-shop' for fun.

In addition to this, industry players need to make every effort to further enhance the shopping experience, providing products and services that will cause consumers to regard grocery shopping in particular as a more enjoyable experience than simply a necessary chore.

Local consumers frequently shop 'for fun'

Within this consumer set, South Africans scored higher than average in terms of frequent recreational shopping, with 21% claiming to do so at least once a week. Asia Pacific as a region was highest in this regard, with a quarter of the population shopping for entertainment once a week or more often. Specifically, Hong Kong and Thailand top the worldwide list for frequent shoppers: 18% of Hong Kong's consumers shop for fun twice a week or more.

Surprisingly, according to ACNielsen, North America showed fairly low results, with a third of consumers claiming that their shopping experiences are solely necessity trips. Ranked by individual country, the Czech Republic came a clear first in necessity ranking, with exactly 50% of respondents claiming not to shop for entertainment value at all.

Retail therapy... for clothes shopping

Local consumers find clothes shopping fairly therapeutic in comparison to global findings. The most part of South Africans (51%), however, agree with worldwide perceptions that clothes shopping is a necessary chore. A relatively small 9% of SA shoppers claim that it is their favorite thing to do, this figure not being as high as that in Latin America or Asia Pacific. The top-scoring countries claiming that shopping is their favourite occupation are China and India respectively.

Asia Pacific consumers enjoy grocery shopping

Not surprisingly, the study reports that respondents were less keen on grocery than clothes shopping, with 75% of South Africans rating it a necessary chore. A small 10% find it therapeutic, with 8% claiming it to be their occupation of choice. Once again, Asia Pacific scored highest in this last regard, with China and Japan rating highly here.