Myquestions

There has been a noticeable boom in the number of online shopping sites coming up in South Africa. This can be attributed to the rise in internet users due to the easier accessibility of internet. Most of the internet users in South Africa are employed and access the internet from their workplace, this combined with the added convenience of being able to do shopping whilst at work has been a major factor in the growth of the online shopping industry.

The most successful online shops are the ones that have targeted a specific niche market like IT, health or pharmaceuticals. This significant boom in the usage of the internet has also seen many major retail players also jumping onto the band wagon for example Pick and Pay has recently launched an online shopping portal.

Payment gateways for example, MyGate have made it easier for online shops to conclude online secure transactions swiftly. Basically what a payment gateway does is that it enables customers to have a single contact handling all their online payments. The advantage of using payment gateways are obvious, security and convenience. As a result the coming up of companies such as MyGate in the e-commerce industry has resulted in more online shops coming up. These companies function as payment gateways to secure the sites online transactions.

There are three types of online shopping establishments that exist in South Africa; these are (1) Online shopping sites (2) Online auction sites and (3) Online shopping directories.

1. Online Shopping sites.

A large number of all online shopping sites that are coming up in the South African market are of this nature, they vary in the commodities they sell and this is largely dependant on the niche market that they target. In regards to size, this is the smallest type of online business you can find, and the most abundant.

2. On-line auction sites.

This type of online shop allows the user to interact with his or her community, and to also control the price of the goods in the market place. For example, Bidorbuy.co.za is by far the largest auction site online, it is probably the best place you would want to go if you had bulk imperishable products and you need to get rid of them at a competitive price. This websites success is owed to its exciting bidding system which allows users to compete via bidding, like an auction.

3. Online shopping directories (comparison sites).

Also from this boom in online industries there has been the result of certain new industries that are making money from this, an example is a site that has resulted from the boom in online shopping, this site is Pricecheck.co.za, and basically price check is a directory that allows you to be able to check up on the prices of products and enable the consumer to be able to get a certain product at a cheaper price by comparing prices of different online shops. With over 285 000 users, price check is by far a leader in the shopping comparison sector. In its directory, as of writing this article there where about 360 listed online shopping sites on it.

3.1 Price check as an online shopping authority.

Price check has already established itself online as an online shopping authority as the way it is set up, with various options to compare prices of certain products is very beneficial to the consumer, also registering and getting listed on a site like this also gives your online shop some authority and presence. It also gives your site an added advantage of some traffic that would indeed flow from price check to your online store. This link form price check would also increase your sites search engine ranks also boosting visibility online.

Online shopping is growing very rapidly, and with it new opportunities of commerce, the future can only tell what will happen next.