Global positioning system (GPS) devices will prove the most popular online gifts this festive season, as the e-retail environment is set to boom.
This is according to the latest research by World Wide Worx and online shopping search site Jump Shopping.
Arthur Goldstuck, MD of World Wide Worx, says research conducted independently by the organisations indicates SA`s online shopping spend is expected to reach around R200 million by Christmas day this year.
"We expect the holiday season to contribute to at least 20% of the total R929 million expected to be spent online in 2007, with the proportion possibly rising to as much as 25%" says Goldstuck.
The 2006 South African holiday season sales figure of R137 million represented 20% of total online retail in 2006, up from 16% of the total in 2005.
"This indicated a growing ability to fulfil late orders intended for the gift market," says Goldstuck. "We expect more stores to get it right this year."
He says the findings also confirm the significance of holiday season spending for online retailers, in line with the experience of physical retailers, and for the first time represents a dramatic increase over normal spending patterns.
"Since the holiday season covers just over five weeks, which represents about 10% of the calendar year, a figure of 20% of annual sales being achieved during this period suggests a potential doubling of sales over this period for many online retailers."
What`s hot?
When it comes to what items will make up this spend, Goldstuck says there is a direct link to be found between online sales and the quality of online retail sites.
"That`s where the search engines play a role," says Goldstuck. "Major search sites, like Google and Ananzi, will be the starting point for many shoppers, who will then often find themselves on specialised shopping search sites like Jump Shopping."
Jump MD Albert Bredenhann says the most popular searches on the company`s site in the holiday build-up, have been for GPS satellite navigation systems.
TomTom product manager Francois Elzenga would not comment on the company`s strategy and growth targets for the festive season, saying it constituted confidential information.
Garmin had not responded to the same query at the time of publication.
Wii and PlayStation 3 games consoles, iPod MP3 players and digital cameras followed GPS devices on festive wish-lists.
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