Insights into the growth of South African eCommerce with payment methods, target audiences, marketing, social media, economy and logistics all profiled

Economy

South Africa is home to 55.91 million people with a total GDP of 294.84 billion USD and is ranked as the 30th richest country, according to the World Bank GDP per capita rankings. South Africa's GDP per capita is currently 4,826 USD and expected to reach 5,352 USD by 2021.

Digital User Insights

There are currently 18.43 million eCommerce users in South Africa, with an additional 6.36 million users expected to be shopping online by 2021. Four years from now, these 24.79 million eCommerce users will spend an average of 189.47 USD online.

7% of South African shoppers spend less than 30 minutes online, compared to 12% who spend up to an hour, 22% who spend 1 to 2 hours, 18% who spend 2 to 3 hours, and 42% who spend 3+ hours online. 

Product Categories

Total South African eCommerce revenue across all product categories is 2.69 billion USD, and is expected to grow to 4.7 billion USD by 2021. Electronics & Media is currently the leading product category in South Africa, accounting for 964.2 million USD market share, followed by Furniture & Appliances, which generates 553.7 million USD in sales.

By 2021, Electronics & Media will still be the most purchased online category, with an estimated value of 1.38 billion USD, and second favorite, Furniture & Appliances, will have an expected worth of 1.07 billion USD.

Logistics

In 2016, South Africa was ranked 20th in the World Bank Logistics ranking.

Preferred Online Payments

54% of South African online shoppers like to pay cash on delivery, and 52% also like to pay with debit card.

Where does South Africa buy from?

China supplies South Africa with 15.5 billion USD in imports – ranging from gold to cars. South Africa's other key import partners are Germany (7.03 billion USD), the US (5.47 billion USD), Nigeria (4.58 billion USD) and India (4.18 billion USD).

Internet and Device Usage

Internet penetration in South Africa is currently 51.9%, and should reach 59.5% by 2021. Smartphone penetration is a lot less (28.6%), but is projected to grow to 37.2% in the next four years.

60% of online shoppers in South Africa buy via desktop, and 55% and 38% often shop via mobile and tablet respectively.

Marketing

In 2015, digital advertising spend in South Africa was estimated to be 284.82 million USD. That same year, 1.22 billion USD was spent on South African television and video advertising.

Social Media

12 million people in South Africa are active monthly social network users, thanks to Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp and Messenger, which are the leading social networks.

ARTICLE:

Article published on www.eshopworld.com

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The VR MARKET FORECAST

The virtual reality market is expected to grow from USD 7.9 billion in 2018 to USD 44.7 billion by 2024, at a CAGR of 33.47% during the forecast period. The penetration of HMDs in the gaming and entertainment sector, huge investments in VR market, advancement of technology and growing digitization, and availability of affordable VR devices are the major factors fueling the growth of the overall market.

Gesture-tracking devices to grow at highest CAGR during forecast period.

Gesture-tracking devices are used as input devices for VR systems. These tracking devices track the user’s movements and enable the user to interact with the virtual environment. Gesture-tracking devices include data gloves, treadmills, and controllers to facilitate gesture and action tracking in VR applications. The use of gesture-tracking devices in gaming and entertainment and healthcare applications will play a crucial role to boost their growth in the VR market.

Retail and ecommerce applications to have significant share in virtual reality market

In the retail sector, virtual reality technology is used in virtual fashion stores for designing virtual avatars for the selection of clothes or accessories, fashion shows, and so on. Virtual environments are used in many applications of marketing as they are helpful in demonstrating and displaying product- and business-related information and creating awareness among potential buyers. Virtual reality can show a 360° view of a product or device (online or at the point of business), by which a potential customer gets a better insight. In online shopping, items such as apparels, jewelry, spectacle frames, and others can be viewed closely by zooming in and out. On a few websites, a user can even virtually try the outfit. Increased use of VR technology will help drive the retail and ecommerce VR market.

North America to account for significant share in virtual reality market during forecast period

North America, being a developed and technologically advanced region, is likely to be one of the key contributors to the overall virtual reality market growth during the forecast period. North America, being technologically advanced and developed, is a leading market for cutting-edge technologies that are used in display devices. The use of VR in various applications, especially in consumer electronics, is helping the growth of the VR market. Applications such as aerospace & defense, healthcare, consumer, and commercial are utilizing VR technologies for further advancements. The US has many global players featuring VR products and solutions. This helps North America stand out as one of the major regions in the global VR market.

Key Market Players

Sony (Japan), Samsung Electronics (South Korea), Google (US), Microsoft (US), HTC (Taiwan), Oculus (US), Eon Reality (US), Vuzix (US), CyberGlove Systems (US), and Leap Motion (US) are among the few key companies in the virtual reality market.

Sony Corporation primarily focuses on premium pricing strategy for all its products in all business segments. In contrast, the pricing of VR PlayStation headset is set to hundreds of dollars lesser than its counterparts. The late entry of Sony with less pricing in the VR market depicts their growth aspects in the VR market. The company would bank on the economies of scale to grow in the VR market to compete with the established headset makers in the VR market. The company currently leads the VR market space with the highest number of shipments with respect to its PlayStation VR headset.

Sony Corporation was among the late entrants in the virtual reality market. The company after the launch of VR devices, VR PlayStation, adopted the strategy of low-pricing as compared with its competitors. The VR device of the company is positioned well so as to be affordable at a low price and is best suited to the consumer applications such as gaming and entertainment. The increased demand for VR HMDs in these sectors will play a crucial role in the growth of the company’s business. The aggressive low-pricing strategy, unlike its premium pricing strategy for other products, with advanced features has helped the company to be one of the major players in the virtual reality market.

Recent Developments

• In January 2018, Oculus made an announcement of its new standalone VR headset in collaboration with Xiaomi and Qualcomm. This headset is mainly targeted for the Chinese market and will have reduced pricing than Rift.
• In November 2017, Microsoft expanded the availability of HoloLens to 29 new European markets. With this expansion, HoloLens is likely to be available in 39 markets in the near future, thereby helping the company to further strengthen its footprint in Europe.
• In October 2017, Sony announced to launch its improved version of PlayStation VR headset. The new headset-CUH-ZVR2-comes with streamlined cables, overall a slimmer build, and integrated stereo headphones.

ARTICLE: From www.marketsandMarkets.com

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The market, drivers, key players, and opportunities in a rising segment of e-commerce.

Online grocery growing rapidly from its small base. Its market value has doubled from 2016 to 2018, suggesting that consumers are starting to get more comfortable ordering essentials and certain foods online — a major barrier to adoption. Meanwhile, one type of product that's popular in online grocery, consumer packaged goods (CPGs), has seen the majority of its growth come from online. Although consumers may not be entirely comfortable buying items like produce online yet, that will likely come as their familiarity and trust in online grocery grows.

Grocers are rushing to take advantage of this potential, resulting in a highly competitive market. Both established grocery players and newcomers to the space are expanding their curbside pickup and delivery offerings — the two basic components of online grocery — in an attempt to grab market share. They're each employing different strategies to find success: Amazon is leaning on its e-commerce and fulfillment capabilities to offer a variety of online grocery services, for example, while Walmart is using its strong brick-and-mortar footprint to its advantage. Still, others, like Kroger and Aldi, are working with third parties such as Instacart to provide their services.

While companies like Instacart exist that offer online grocery services for other grocers, we focus specifically on companies that sell their own products. Finally, we examine different strategies companies can use to optimize the profitability of their online grocery offerings.

• Online grocery currently comprises a small portion of grocery overall but is on a rapid rise. Adoption is still fairly low, with about 10% of US consumers saying that they regularly shop online for groceries, according to NPD.
• However, the value of the US online grocery market has grown from $12 billion in 2016 to $26 billion in 2018 and it has plenty of room to grow, given that the size of the overall grocery market was $632 billion in 2018 according to IBISWorld.
• Both established grocers like Walmart and Kroger and players new to the space like Amazon are rushing to improve their curbside pickup and delivery options and all of them are employing differing strategies suited to their size and strengths.

Regardless of grocers' individual strategies, they will all need to find a way to run their online grocery offerings in a profitable way and to address consumers' barriers to adoption.

FULL REPORT AVAILABLE ON THE FOLLOWING LINK:

The Online Grocery Report

For more information on how to enter this sector please contact us on info@cyberreadystore.co.za