Most-Bought Online Products in South Africa: Are You Stocking them?
To succeed as an online retailer, your store needs to sell products that are in demand. If your product is niched and you have a particular consumer in mind, then good for you. But if you’re looking to open a general online store of any kind, then it’s important to know what the most bought online items are in South Africa.
According to Bizcommunity, the three most popular online shopping categories for South African consumers were clothing/apparel (53%), entertainment/education (digital/downloadable) (51%), and event tickets (51%). So it is no wonder Superbalist and Computicket do so well.
Here we list the most-bought online products in South Africa to sell in 2020 and get you started with new business ideas, or to add to your existing store:
Apparel.
Clothing, apparel and footwear are some of the most popular items bought online in South Africa and across the globe. And if your store offers free shipping or other promotions you are bound to see a surge in online sales. Despite the clothing market being a competitive niche, there is huge room for growth in this sector.
Pet accessories.
The pet care industry has grown in leap and bounds in South Africa, with many people searching online for unique ways to spoil their furbabies with the purrfect products. From cat-nip filled mice to dog beds, there are literally thousands of products in this space to play with. According to a recent Shopify article, the search keyword “dog bed” gets 234,000 monthly searches, and “cat bed” also has a sizable amount of search demand, with 60,500 monthly searches.
Jewellery.
Searches for jewellery are at an all-time high on Google Trends. While there are many more stores offering jewellery online, there is still a large gap in the market for affordable and minimalist jewellery ranges.
Men’s grooming products.
Men’s grooming is a multi-billion dollar industry and the craze is catching on fast here in South Africa. From beard straighteners to beard oils, there’s a whole host of products in this category for today’s street savvy gent.
Shapewear.
Form sculpting undergarments have always been a hit, but thanks to the intense pressure placed on women to look nothing less than perfect, shapewear is hitting its highest sales ever across the globe. Even the Kardashian clan have jumped on this trend, launching their own shapewear range recently. What was once a necessary evil for a glam occasion, is now a sexy item to be worn every day. This is definitely one of the hot trending products to sell.
Smart Watches.
What started as a futuristic rage for the elite has spread worldwide, with a smartwatch on everyone’s shopping list these days. According to Statista over 141 million units will be sold in the coming year. The latest trends in smartwatches are Bluetooth devices that include a built-in camera, step counters and exercise apps, sound recorders, sleep monitors, calendars and much more. If you’re looking for a top-selling product, a smartwatch is it!
Marketing Tips
Finding awesome products to sell is only one part of the equation. While these products and others are bound to drive a surge in sales, your marketing campaigns have to be equally as good.
To turn these items into top-selling products on your store, consider using a mix of sales tactics. These could be anything from Google ads to targeting keywords with high purchase intent, and SEO enriched content, to instructional videos using education that solves common questions.
Visual content for the likes of Facebook ads, Instagram, and Pinterest works well for today’s target audiences, so make sure you are covering all bases. Working with local influencers directly on Instagram could be another lucrative channel for sales. Competing with hot-seasonal items can be expensive, so make sure you time your product launches well.
