Black Friday and Cyber MondayAmerican sale days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday have been gaining popularity in other countries as well, especially in the online sector. It is speculated that some or most South African online retailers may join in the trend from 2017. This will also create opportunities for e-retailers to join forces with manufacturers in bringing the consumers what they want at a heavily discounted price for a few hours.
Increased marketing efforts Blogging is already one of the major tools for generating revenue in e-commerce, along with social media marketing and content marketing in general. The marketing may expand to offline promotional efforts as well. It’s not that e-commerce sites are not marketing their business right now; it’s just that whatever they are doing already will gain more momentum from 2017.
Faster delivery The South African Postal Department isn’t the most reliable medium when it comes to making deliveries. This inadequacy to deliver on time has hurt the business in general previously but thanks to the rising number of courier services being used by local e-retailers, timely delivery is slowly becoming the norm in the country.
Options The consumers are going to be the winners here as the competition is about to heat up in the online business section of South Africa. 2017 will see a fresh batch of e-commerce sites enter the market, while more and more brick-and-mortar stores will also create their own online presence to compete in the field. As it happens, this will give consumers more choice to compare products and their prices before making a final purchase.
A change in customer behaviour pattern As numerous options keep opening up to the consumers in the country and almost everything starts to become available online, the customer behaviour pattern is expected to change in 2017 and beyond. Fashion and electronic goods have so far been the major revenue earners in the online segment, but even regular items are starting to catch the attention of buyers online. This is a trend that will gain more momentum as soon as the e-retailers are able to
inspire more trust in their customers.
Popularity of mobile applications will soar Computers have so far been the preferred platform of choice for online consumers in South Africa, but that may change in 2017. Mobile shopping apps will likely gain more ground this year due to the ever-increasing popularity of smartphones and the convenience of using apps for shopping on the go.
South Africa is one of the most prominent names in Africa, when it comes to e-commerce. Analysts predict that in the coming decade, the nation may even become the leading contributor on the continent with an expected sales growth of about 40%.
