Online shopping sure is on the rise, and the stats will prove exactly that.

After all, who doesn’t want what they are looking for to be delivered to their desk with little to no effort?

Over the past 12 months, it is estimated that 58% of adults active online in South Africa shopped online, spending around R37 billion.

This is according to a new report by PayPal and Ipsos, who also estimate that South Africa’s online spend is forecast to grow to more than R53 billion next year.

Here are the details from Business Tech, which show that we’re not just shopping online locally either:

The global insights research, which investigated the online domestic and cross-border shopping habits of more than 28,000 consumers in 32 countries, including South Africa, found that in 2016, 43% of local adults shopped cross-border.

But why? Well, the main drivers encouraging this behaviour were listed as:

• Free shipping (60% of respondents);
• Availability of local currency for payment (58%);
• A secure way to pay (56%)

They also estimated that the 1.4 million South Africans who shopped internationally spent around R8.8 billion. Based on shoppers’ own predictions, cross-border shopping is only set to increase, especially with the likes of PostBox Courier playing the game.

Of course, for now, the most popular destinations, in order, are the USA followed by China and the UK:

The research showed that South African cross-border shoppers who buy from the US do so because of the access to products that they cannot find locally, while overseas buying opens up the discovery of ‘new and interesting products’ (59%).

The respondents also cited reputation of online stores in the US (59%) as a reason for buying there.

The top reason to buy from China is cheaper prices, and for the UK the access to items not available in their own country.

But what’s more interesting is why locally-based shoppers have abandoned cross-border purchases: for many, it was high shipping costs (55%), uncertainty about duties/taxes/customs fees (33%) and long delivery times (32%).

And that’s precisely why 2oceansvibe uses PostBox Courier.

Once you have made your order, PostBox Courier deals with all of the rest – so even if an overseas website does deliver to SA, they make all your hassles go away.

Also, if it’s the “duties/taxes/customs fees” you’re worried about, PostBox Courier offers a “super fast quote” option:

Here are the rest of the stats from Business Tech:

When it comes to buying products online, the most popular online categories for South African consumers were downloadable digital entertainment and education items (purchased by 53% of online shoppers in the past 12 months), event tickets (47%), and clothing, apparel, or footwear (45%).

The increase in online spending is also forecast to continue, with over half of online adults interviewed (53%) saying they will increase their online spending in the next 12 months, citing convenience of shopping online, planning to save more money, and change in disposable income as reasons for the expected increase.

Feel better about ordering from overseas now? Well, you totally should be and we can assure you that with PostBox Courier you are in professional hands.

This is their process:

• Sign Up
  Register free of charge with Postbox Courier via their website. They will assign you with a Personal Postbox at each of our worldwide depots. Look out for the confirmation email which provides a link for activating your account.
• Sign In
  Once you have activated your account, you will be able to login to view your unique Postbox addresses, by clicking the “View your Personal Postbox addresses” banner. Your addresses are permanent, so you can save them and start sending items to your Postbox!
• Notify them of incoming items
  Each time you send something to Postbox Courier, please notify them via the Parcel Pre-Alert (in your Parcel Manager).
• Manage your orders
  You can ship single items or multiple pieces combined into a single shipment. If you do wish to consolidate orders from different suppliers (in the same origin country), you will be able to do so in your Parcel Manager. Just notify them of each shipment that is en-route to your Postbox, and then use the ‘Group’ button to let them know which items you wish to combine.
• Pay for shipping
  Once they receive the items that correspond with your booking they’ll let you know via email and invite you to login to your Parcel Manager and make payment, upon which they will courier your items to your door within South Africa immediately.

It’s about time you made sure you’re playing the game properly – we know we are, and have even provided you with a few products HERE which we found that you can’t get in (or delivered to) the country.

How excited are you about online shopping now? Welcome.

[source:businesstech]