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Why Shopping Online is Becoming Popular

Shop from your computer

Shopping online is becoming  more popular in South Africa as an increasing amount of people choose to rather shop from the comfort of their homes. More retailers have also begun to realise that online shopping is fast becoming popular and as a result each and every day more products and facilities are becoming available in the online stores.

Yesterday, a month end Saturday and one of the traditionally most busy shopping days, I had the misfortune of having to drive out to the East Rand mall area in Boksburg to look for 2 small items not readily available in my own small residential area.

What a nightmare!

Firstly, having to go out to shop means enduring the traffic jams that have become part of our roads. Highway renovations seem to have stretched for forever and have caused total chaos on the roads. Sitting in heavy traffic on a 4 lane highway that has been reduced to 2 lanes is just no fun and fellow inconsiderate drivers can make the whole affair rather nail biting.

Petrol prices are starting to also take a major part in buying decisions, especially with petrol prices jumping  to over the R10-00 a litre mark. Driving to a distant shopping centre is becoming very expensive.

When you eventually get to the shopping centre you then have to find a place to park your car. This is a second nightmare and when you do find a parking you have to ensure that there is a guard to look after your precious car. South Africa is the only place where you hire private guards to watch your car when you go into shopping centres. These guards who have mostly never even driven a car before, are also experts in road safety and parking and so they teach you how to park your car at the same time.

Cool, so now we have arrived at the centre and have eventually parked our car it is time for the crowds. The shops are packed and the tills crowded with long queues. If you are unfortunate enough to be buying clothing then you also have to stand in even longer ques for the fitting rooms.

I look at the queue and see a couple of woman shyly trying to conceal, without it looking that they are about to steal, their lingerie items that they are waiting to try on. Having to wait half an hour in a busy queue holding out your latest choice of sexy G-String or Thong for all to see your choice in underwear is just not all that cool.

The best part of all of this is that invariably when you eventually manage to get to the shop where you are certain that the item you are looking for will be found you discover that they have just sold out and new stock will only be arriving at the end of the week.

Back to the car and repeat the whole process again next week!

The better alternative - Online!

Shopping from the comfort of your own home at the hour that most suits you is somehow so much more attractive than facing the shopping centre nightmare.

Sure online shopping does have some shortfalls. Not being able to touch and feel the item that you wish to buy does not create the same feeling as going to the shop and buying. Then again without the emotions attached as they are in a shop it is far easier to make a careful selection and buy only what you really need to buy without also buying a hundred other things that you don't really need but seemed like a good idea at the time.

Unfortunately most of us do want to buy something and have it available immediately. We don't want to have to wait for the company to deliver. This is the single biggest downfall of online shopping in S.A. The deliver services are not the same as those encountered in the USA and probably the best delivery service is the S.A Post office. This does however take up to a week and most customers are just too impatient to wait so long.

Possibly the area of speedy delivery is the biggest challenge facing the South African online market!

While some are hesitant to shop online due to the threat of fraud, these incidents are in fact very low.  Check out that the company concerned provides adequate contact details and is a South African based company.

If in doubt call the numbers provided and satisfy yourself that they are legitimate. Any decent online store owner will be only too happy to chat with you and alleviate your online fears. Please do note that the retailers themselves are far more likely to be scammed by fraudulent transactions than you are by a scam store.

South Africans are limited as to what we are able to buy from overseas and when dealing with an overseas company you could end up with problems with customs trying to have your goods released. This is especially true in the case of medications, diet pills and herbal supplements etc.

Most online retailers offer a variety of safe and effective payment methods to suit you. Simply choose the method that you are most comfortable with whether it is credit card payment, direct deposits or EFT.

I truly believe that online shopping is going to grow stronger and stronger in the very near future. With the growth of the online shopping experience will come an improvement in the supporting fields such as delivery and secure trusted websites that carry a seal of approval similar to those used by banking websites.

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