PriceCheck was recently named as one of the Top 30 eCommerce sites in South Africa by an independent study. The study, conducted by Effective Measure, has PriceCheck listed as the 5th most popular eCommerce site in the country. The rankings of the research are determined by brands’ total reach in April 2014.

According to Effective Measure the ”recent research into behaviour of online shoppers in South Africa showed that tickets for shows/events, travel and books are the most frequently bought items in the top 30 eCommerce websites in South Africa.”

 * This is based on an unduplicated Audience so does NOT relate back to Unique Browsers which does not equate to ‘people’ due to browser/device proliferation & cookie churn. Efficient Measures has included ‘Classified’ & ‘Travel’ sites to the list as previously there were complaints that they were not included.

This highlights a number of interesting things, particularly when you look at what people are searching for and then purchasing online. As the mobile landscape in Africa gathers more momentum, we thought it a good time as any to have a look at what people searched for on PriceCheck in Q1 of 2014.

As you can see our spread of popular categories is a lot more evenly distributed, indicating that PriceCheck is a destination for anyone and everyone. So although the most popular products and services in the South African eCommerce sector, according to Effective Measure, are tickets to shows, books and travel, our research also shows that users are buying more and more electronics, computers and other gadgets online. However, other categories, like flights, catalogues, home appliances, and sporting goods are becoming increasingly popular.

One thing that we can confidently take out of all these stats and figures is that eCommerce in South Africa is growing, and fast. That, combined with the fact that smartphone purchases have finally overtaken feature phone purchases in South Africa, just proves how important having a good online presence is, especially if you are a retailer.