All I want for Christmas is an Internet connection
A new survey conducted by Kalahari.com shows that the number of connected South Africans planning to do their festive season shopping online has increased by 5% from last year, to 92%.
The survey points to the growing number of shoppers planning to use to their iPads to shop online (17.9%); but the majority of people still plan to use laptops (59.2%), followed by desktop PCs at (49%).
According to Kalahari.com, 40.8% of shoppers have already started their festive season shopping, with 33.6% only planning to fill festive stockings during the first and second week of December.
Tablets are predicted to be the biggest seller this festive season (35.7%); followed by media items such as books, CDs, DVDs and games.
The Apple iPad is still the most wanted tablet (55%); followed by the Samsung Galaxy Tablet (28%).
Samsung and Apple are jostling for a spot on the Smartphone gift wishlist, with 35.8% of shoppers wanting an iPhone 5, followed by 30.7% who want a Galaxy S3; whilst 19.6% want a BlackBerry 9900.
Jamie Oliver; Game of Thrones; Fifty Shades of Grey and JK Rowling are battling it out as festive season literary favourites.
“Our local increase in festive season shopping is in line with that of counterparts in the US. According to Google’s Retail Survey released last month, US shoppers will be spending $900 on holiday shopping this year compared to $854 in 2011; with 80% of respondents indicating that they found going online as the most useful way to get information for holiday shopping ,” said Liz Hillock, head of marketing at kalahari.com.
Electronics are still the most coveted gift by shoppers, with the craze spearheaded by tablets (34.6%); followed by eReaders (13.8%) and the DStv HD PVR Decoder (13.1%).
Kalahari.com says that its best selling device remains the gobii 7”colour eReader, which plays music and video, and retails at an affordable R799, with a free R160 eBook voucher.
A quarter of shoppers that will be buying toys for kids, are opting for the timeless classic Lego, for their children. Close to 10% of shoppers said they would buy the educational LeapPad 2 and only 6.2% of shoppers saying that they would buy Barbie Dolls.
Batman, meanwhile, beats the other action-filled titles as the most coveted holiday season DVD with The Dark Knight Rises (36.4%); followed by the cool Ice Age 4 (25.8%). The clash of superheroes in The Avengers takes third position (22.7%) as a holiday favourite, followed by Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man in fourth place (15.9%).
Call Of Duty: Black Ops has emerged as the gaming favourite (24.7%), followed by Assassin’s Creed 3 at (24.2%). FIFA 13, with close to 20% of respondents, was third.
“Kalahari.com is also giving Santa a break this year and offering free delivery on all orders this festive season, until the 31 December 2012,” said Hillock.
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