South Africans take advantage of ‘Cyber Monday’ deals

South Africans took advantage of the "Cyber Monday" discounts offered by a range of retailers, with online store Takealot expecting to beat its performance last year.

"Cyber Monday" refers to the US online shopping bonanza that follows "Black Friday", the day after Thanksgiving, when retailers offer massive discounts.

Both shopping trends are now taking off in SA.
E-commerce in SA has grown as more people have become connected to the internet.
Takealot.com said it experienced a 227% increase in traffic last year and had, since then, "worked incredibly hard" to plan for up to five times the usual traffic.
"Our sale only finished at midnight [on Monday], so we’re still busy analysing performance" said chief marketing officer Julie-Anne Walsh.

 

"We are predicting that this year our Blue Dot Sale will be our most successful sale in the history of the company and have bolstered our website, warehouse, delivery and call centre resources to cope with the expected increase in demand," she said.
i-Pay co-founder and CEO Thomas Pays said social media had played a big role in marketing the "Black Friday" and "Cyber Monday" sales. Electronics and kitchen appliances were the most popular purchases, he said.

"[Cyber Monday’s] only going to be growing year on year. As the internet grows, it will become accessible to everyone," he said. i-Pay provides electronic payment technologies for retailers.
NetFlorist’s head of marketing Thalissa Pillay said it saw more traffic growth on "Black Friday" because a lot more people know about it compared to "Cyber Monday".
"We had 61% more site visits to ‘Black Friday’ specials compared to those on ‘Cyber Monday’, but 141% more traffic on ‘Cyber Monday’ than on a regular Monday after payday," she said.