Effective Measures has released a report on e-commerce in South Africa. They surveyed over 10,000 internet users with desktop access in South Africa in order to ascertain their online shopping habits.

Some of the key insights they uncovered include:

• 73.76% of online shoppers will use the internet to make payments, transfer money and pay utility bills, with 49% doing so at least once a week.
• 38.51% of shoppers use their mobile phone for online banking and 23.17% use their mobile phone for online purchases.
• Books, airline tickets, hotel reservations, event/concerts/sports tickets, music, and computer software are the most purchased items online.
• The main reasons users do not purchase more online are a distrust of online payments systems and a desire to see and feel products before purchasing.

The report showed that the majority of online purchases in South Africa were from South African ecommerce sites with Kalahari, Amazon, Groupon, Bidorbuy, and Woolworths being the top 5 sites shoppers have actually purchased products from.

- See more at: http://paymentsafrika.com/region/report-e-commerce-in-south-africa/#sthash.BnIbARLr.dpuf