Gardening gurus or art aficionados? Fashion buffs or music lovers? The Bob Shop survey reveals shopping trends of South Africans based on their geographical location.

(22 October 2018) Unsurprisingly, electronics and computers are hands-down the best-selling types of products on South African online marketplace bobshop.co.za, followed by watches, fashion, kitchen appliances and smartphones. This is according to a recent survey conducted on Bob Shop which showed these top products being favoured by shoppers in all cities and towns in South Africa. 

“Products from every one of Bob Shop’s 30-odd main categories found their way into the carts dispatched all over South Africa,” says Bob Shop CEO Jaco Jonker and adds: “However, we did notice some subtle, but distinct differences which seem to indicate that shoppers from specific locations do have their favourites.”

For example, Joburgers and shoppers from rural areas are more likely to buy clothing and shoes than other South Africans, but people living in Bloemfontein buy proportionally more fashion accessories (sunglasses, bags and scarves) than anyone else.

Befittingly for a city with such name, Bloemfontein residents are more interested in gardening products than other shoppers. They are also the shyest, being the most prone to buy on Bob Shop items they are too embarrassed to buy in shops.

Port Elizabethans have more of a penchant for antiques, art and collectibles than their compatriots, but are also more sporty and outdoorsy, at least judging by the fact that they bought proportionally more sports items and camping gear than shoppers from other parts of South Africa.

Capetonians are fond of jewellery, while dwellers of Pretoria reach for books more often than other South Africans. Durbanites like movies, music CDs and LPs more than other shoppers. Security items are most likely to be purchased by shoppers living in rural areas.

It seems that women are the early birds while men are the late night owls as the survey results revealed that women are more likely to do their shopping first thing in the morning, while men are more inclined to favour evenings and late nights.

As for the most important considerations when making a purchasing decision, Bob Shop shoppers ranked price as tops, followed by product quality and then seller’s reputation followed closely by shipping and delivery.

This focus on price explains why almost 60% of shoppers who participated in the survey favour auctions over the buy now format.

 “We are far from the days when the Bob Shop platform hosted auctions only”, says Bob Shop CEO Jaco Jonker and adds. “Today, the majority of over 3.5 million of products available on Bob Shop are listed at a fixed price. Still, the auction format remains popular, especially among price-sensitive shoppers, because this is where they can realise significant savings”.

About 30% of survey participants prefer buying outright, at a fixed price using the buy now format, while almost 10% say that their favourite shopping format is “make an offer”, a Bob Shop feature that allows shoppers to negotiate pricing directly with the sellers.

More than half of survey participants do their research on Bob Shop before making a purchase.

“On Bob Shop, thousands of independent sellers offer their wares directly to the buyers. Our platform accommodates all types of sellers, from hobby sellers and self-employed entrepreneurs to small businesses and even large ecommerce retailers who use Bob Shop to reach a wide audience of online shoppers. It is, therefore, understandable that one and the same product can be listed on the site with different pricing,” explains Jonker.