Online Retail Brands Report

SOUTH AFRICA
Author: Craig Kolb
Date: April 2013

Contact details:
Acentric Marketing Research CC
PO Box 10994
Centurion
0046
South Africa
Tel: 012 6838832
Web: www.acentric.co.za
Email: info@acentric.co.za

Copyright notice
All information contained in this publication is copyrighted in the name of Acentric Marketing
Research CC and Craig Kolb. All data provided is sourced from Acentrics proprietary data, unless
otherwise indicated. No part of this publication may be reproduced, altered, redistributed, resold in
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Disclaimer
Acentric Marketing Research CC makes no representation of warranty of any kind regarding the
quality, accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this report. Acentric Marketing
Research CC, its members, employees and partners accept no liability whatsoever for losses or
damages - whether direct or consequential - resulting from errors, inaccuracies or omissions.

Contents
Contact details ...................................................................................................................................................................................................1
Copyright notice ................................................................................................................................................................................................1
Disclaimer ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................1
List of figures .....................................................................................................................................................................................................3
List of tables ......................................................................................................................................................................................................3
Executive summary............................................................................................................................................................................................5
Methodology .....................................................................................................................................................................................................6
Universe definition and sampling .................................................................................................................................................................6
Selection of brands for inclusion in the study ..............................................................................................................................................6
Rounding ......................................................................................................................................................................................................6
Demographics and weighting ............................................................................................................................................................................7
Adoption of online shopping .............................................................................................................................................................................8
Product category penetration .........................................................................................................................................................................10
Penetration potential by product category .....................................................................................................................................................11
Category purchase-occasion frequency ...........................................................................................................................................................12
Estimated market Size .....................................................................................................................................................................................13
Why a demand-side survey? ......................................................................................................................................................................13
Product category revenue share......................................................................................................................................................................14
Brand awareness, trial, penetration and purchase occasion frequency ..........................................................................................................15
Approximate retail-brand market share ..........................................................................................................................................................22
Illustrating the relationships between brand performance measures .............................................................................................................24
Drivers of store preference..............................................................................................................................................................................25
Need segments ................................................................................................................................................................................................28
Sources of retailer awareness..........................................................................................................................................................................34
Extent of the correlation between social media and brand awareness ...........................................................................................................35
Access, payment mechanisms and online purchase drivers ............................................................................................................................35
Online-purchase drivers .............................................................................................................................................................................36
Christmas gift purchases..................................................................................................................................................................................38
Brand positioning charts relative ..................................................................................................................................................................40
Brand positioning charts - absolute .................................................................................................................................................................59
Strengths and weaknesses of each brand ........................................................................................................................................................78
Attribute differentiation ..................................................................................................................................................................................84
Substitute brands ............................................................................................................................................................................................85
Brand equity: ABM Score .................................................................................................................................................................................90
The sources of each brands equity contribution charts ...............................................................................................................................91
Appendix: Retailer product grid .....................................................................................................................................................................139
Works Cited ...................................................................................................................................................................................................140
Definitions .....................................................................................................................................................................................................141

List of figures
Figure 1: Demographics ............................................................................................................................................................. 7
Figure 2: Consumers adopting online shopping per year - as a cumulative percentage of the online shopper base in 2012 .. 8
Figure 3: Online shopper penetration in the SA population - by household income per month (July 2011 to June 2012) ....... 9
Figure 4: Product category penetration last 12 months ....................................................................................................... 11
Figure 5: Prompted brand awareness ..................................................................................................................................... 15
Figure 6: Purchase-occasion market share .............................................................................................................................. 22
Figure 7: Market share (monetary) ......................................................................................................................................... 23
Figure 8: Relationships between brand performance measures ............................................................................................. 24
Figure 9: Drivers by household-income bracket ...................................................................................................................... 26
Figure 10: Detailed list of the drivers of store choice .............................................................................................................. 27
Figure 11: Differences in needs between the two segments .................................................................................................. 28
Figure 12: Gender differences by need segment .................................................................................................................... 30
Figure 13: Home ownership patterns differ by need segment ................................................................................................ 30
Figure 14: Age differences by need segment .......................................................................................................................... 31
Figure 15: Differences in interests by need segment .............................................................................................................. 31
Figure 16: Household income differences by need segment .................................................................................................. 32
Figure 17: Ethnic group differences between need segments ................................................................................................ 32
Figure 18: Source of awareness differences between need segments ................................................................................... 33
Figure 19: Differences in device used between need segments ............................................................................................. 33
Figure 20: Source of retailer awareness .................................................................................................................................. 34
Figure 21: Assuming you wanted to buy a product, would you buy a product online if the same item was available at the
same price in a 'physical' shop nearby? .................................................................................................................................. 37
Figure 22: Have you ever bought something online from a foreign country? ......................................................................... 37
Figure 23: In relation to Christmas 2012/December holiday season 2012 - did you buy gifts online? ................................... 38
Figure 24: Gifts bought online specifically for the Christmas season ...................................................................................... 38

List of tables
Table 1: Category penetration in 2012 .................................................................................................................................... 10
Table 2: Average product purchase-occasion frequency per 12-month period ...................................................................... 12
Table 3: South African Online Retail Market size - 2012 ......................................................................................................... 13
Table 4: Product category revenue share ................................................................................................................................ 14
Table 5: Brand trial .................................................................................................................................................................. 16
Table 6: Brand penetration (the percentage buying once or more often in 2012) ................................................................. 18
Table 7: Purchase occasion frequency - 2012 ......................................................................................................................... 20
Table 8: Overview of the drivers of store choice ..................................................................................................................... 25
Table 9: How need segments differ in terms of spend ............................................................................................................ 29
Table 10: Correlation coefficients social media & brand awareness ....................................................................................... 35
Table 11: Device used to shop online most recently ............................................................................................................... 35
Table 12: Payment method used to purchase online most recently ....................................................................................... 36
Table 13: Why do you buy online instead of using a physical store? ...................................................................................... 36
Table 14: Brand proximity matrix ............................................................................................................................................ 85

NOTE: The following sample pages only include a

small selection of the pages available in the full
report, and in no particular order. The report contains
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Methodology
Universe definition and sampling
The online retail brand survey was conducted in January 2013 amongst those South Africans who
had made at least one online purchase in the product categories listed in the tables below. The
survey was conducted using an ISO 20252 certified panel managed by CINT AB Sweden and Acentric
Marketing Research.
The Respondents were incentivised to increase response rates.
A random sample of respondents was drawn from the panel and invited to participate. As is best
practice, post-weighting was applied to improve representation in terms of demographics. In this
case the demographics of those who had made at least one purchase online in the past 12 months
were used as a benchmark. The AMPS household survey was used to provide information on the
demographic profile of this group.
Screening questions were used in order to restrict the survey to online shoppers who had made at
least one purchase online in the preceding 12 months. Given empirical evidence suggesting that a
single general question regarding purchases in a market leads to less accurate results than asking
about individual elements (such as brands or the product segments), a multi-question approach was
used. Respondents were instead shown the full range of product categories to enhance recall and
were asked which categories they had ever purchased, and then were asked to indicate which if
any - categories had been purchased in the previous 12 months. Those who had not purchased
anything in the listed categories were excluded.
In total 207 interviews were completed, providing a margin of error of 7% (95% confidence level) for
proportions.

Selection of brands for inclusion in the study

There are hundreds of online retailers in South Africa. Brands were included in the main survey on
the basis of: 1.) A small preliminary survey which was used to identify the retailers consumers were
spontaneously aware of and 2.) online research.
Brands above a threshold frequency were included (both local and international). Brands below the
threshold were sometimes included if there were indications they may have growth potential.
Additionally, some smaller brands were included at random to ensure some representation of these
brands. However the overriding aim was to ensure the inclusion of the large brands, who compose
the bulk of the market revenue.
In total 59 online retailers were included as a result. Please note Take 2 changed its name to
Takealot - however both names were included in the survey to avoid loss of information.
Please note: 1.) HMV is no longer operational. 2.) Certain sections of this report only include brands
that passed a threshold in the brand association exercise. As a result only 29 of the 59 brands
measured were included in the following sections: Brand positioning charts relative, Brand
positioning charts - absolute, Strengths and weaknesses of each brand, Attribute differentiation,
Substitute brands.

Brand equity: ABM Score

The AcentricTM Brand Model (ABM) Score is a measure of what brand theorist Keller calls consumer
based brand equity. It is psychological in nature. In essence, the score combines each brands
awareness levels, positioning in the market and the value of the specific positioning to consumers. It
indicates the potential of the brand to penetrate the market and to gain market share against
competitors carrying similar product lines. It is highly correlated with online-retail brand penetration
such that 83% of the variation in penetration can be explained by the ABM Score.
The score can also be broken down to show to what extent each positioning attribute is currently
contributing to the ABM Score. This is shown in the section with the title

Brand positioning charts - absolute

The charts below indicate differences between brands in terms of the percentage of respondents
who associate each brand with the attribute shown. For instance, almost 60% of shoppers
associated Amazon with a wide range of products in the chart below.
These charts are ideal for determining communication targets, as they indicate what percentage of
the population associates your brand with a specific attribute currently. Targets can then be set
based on where you wish to focus (for instance you may decide to focus on the attribute trendy).
You can then conduct follow-up surveys once your campaign completes (or you could track during
the campaign) to ensure your targets are met.
Improvements in response to an advertising campaign, can be modelled statistically in order to
predict changes based on the amount of advertising (typically expressed in terms of GRP).
One limitation of simply reporting the percentage of consumers who make a particular association
with your brand (i.e. absolute) is that they are not useful for assessing performance, since the
percentage is affected by both how many are aware of the brand, and how top of mind the attribute
is. In order to assess brand performance - see Brand positioning charts - relative.

Wide range of products

Cum
Mweb mall 60%
The Online PC Store
Laptop.co.za
Playstation

50%

Amazon
Bid or Buy
Kalahari
eBay

40%

30%

Buy247

Woolworths online

20%

Herbalife

Gumtree

10%
Take 2

Olx.com

0%

Loot

Zando

Arcadia

Pick n Pay online

Interflora

Makro
Dion
Netflorist
Barnes & Noble
Verimark

Homechoice
Takealot
Checkers online
CNA online

Brand positioning charts relative

The following charts are relative, as they indicate the percentage of shoppers associating each
brand with an attribute, relative to an expected percentage. The results are standardised in such a
way that differences due to brand and attribute awareness have been eliminated. This allows brands
to be compared on the same footing, in terms of the performance perceived by consumers.
Interpretation: For instance, even though Amazon scores highest in terms of the absolute number of
consumers associating it with a wide range of products - once Amazons extremely high awareness
is factored in, Amazon does not perform as well as Loot and Buy247.

Wide range of products

Cum
Bid or Buy
Kalahari

Amazon 100%

80%
60%

Mweb mall
The Online PC Store
Laptop.co.za

40%

eBay

Playstation

20%
0%

Woolworths online

Buy247

-20%
-40%

Gumtree

Herbalife

-60%
-80%

Olx.com

Take 2

-100%
Zando

Loot

Pick n Pay online

Arcadia

Makro

Interflora

Homechoice

Takealot
Checkers online
CNA online

Dion

Netflorist
Barnes & Noble
Verimark

The sources of each brands equity contribution charts

The following charts provide insight into the sources of each brands equity. In particular, what
percentage of the total brand equity (as measured by the ABM Score) is contributed by each
attribute. For instance in Amazons case, the attribute that contributes most to its brand equity is a
wide range of products (15% of Amazons ABM Index Score is from this attribute - in South Africa),
followed by the perception that Amazon offers value for money.
Note: The percentages sum to 100% on each chart (although this may not be apparent due to
rounding to the nearest whole percentage).

Amazon
18%
15%

16%
14%
12%

9%

8%
7%
5%
3%

6%

5%

4%
3%

3%

3%

4%
3%

3%

2%

5% 5%

7%

10%

8%
6%
4%
2%
0%

Substitute brands
The following matrix (spread over a number of pages) indicates the proximity of each brand to every
other brand measured during the survey - in terms of positioning on the 19 attributes. Values range
from 0 to 1. Values of 1 would imply the brands are exactly the same in terms of positioning and
therefore are perfect substitutes (direct competitors). Values of 0 mean there is no pattern between
the brands in terms of positioning - and are therefore not likely to be direct competitors. Negative
values mean the brands tend to do the opposite and are even less likely competitors (e.g. if brand A
is trendy brand B generally tends to be the opposite not trendy). The closer to -1, the more
opposite they tend to be.
In general, the brighter the red, the more substitutable. For instance Gumtree and Bid or Buy have
very similar positionings; while Woolworths and Bid or Buy are almost exact opposites.
Table 1: Brand proximity matrix
Proximity Matrix

Amazon

Amazon

Arcadia
.477

Barnes &
Noble
.444

Bid or
Buy
.175

Buy247
.249

Checkers
online
-.412

.406

.045

-.257

-.210

-.399

.014

-.525

.448

-.038

Arcadia

.477

Barnes & Noble

.444

.406

Bid or Buy

.175

.045

-.399

Buy247

.249

-.257

.014

.448

Checkers online
CNA online

-.412

-.210

-.525

-.038

-.175

-.188

.420

.212

-.465

-.377

Cum

-.203

-.117

-.124

-.265

.116

.328

Dion

-.094

.124

.647

-.641

-.304

-.169

eBay

.774

.283

.170

.541

.299

-.291

Gumtree

.230

-.061

-.461

.865

.334

.129

Herbalife

-.304

-.253

.150

-.421

.079

-.029

.302

.230

.862

-.221

.088

-.635

Interflora

-.299

-.007

.217

-.625

-.262

-.069

Kalahari

-.408

-.035

-.568

.116

-.072

.150

Laptop-.co.za

-.120

.251

.484

-.116

.038

-.214

Loot

-.033

.006

-.252

.059

-.010

.468

Makro

-.276

.050

-.466

-.196

-.283

.377

Mweb mall

-.190

-.115

.303

-.588

-.275

-.098

Net-florist

-.462

-.182

-.066

-.653

-.362

.243

.071

-.360

-.437

.622

.340

.330

Pick n Pay online

-.547

-.092

-.533

-.330

-.435

.580

Playstat-ion

-.126

-.179

.385

-.620

-.185

-.034

Homechoice

Olx.com

-.175

.161

.011

.102

.006

-.483

-.630

-.052

Takealot

-.356

-.185

-.679

.085

-.163

.612

The Online PC Store

-.255

.187

.135

.126

.167

-.302

Verimark

-.213

.144

.271

-.263

-.298

-.316

Woolworths online

-.307

-.157

.411

-.911

-.427

-.061

Zando

-.265

-.610

.117

-.321

.094

-.377

Take 2

10

Product categories included in the full report:

Airline tickets
Apps or ringtones
Audio entertainment devices (e.g. iPod, Hi-Fi)
Books (paper)
Books (electronic - i.e. eBooks)
Camping/hiking products
Car purchase
Car rental
Cell phones/smartphones
Clothing/shoes/fashion accessories
CDs
Computer - PC/laptop
Computer peripheral
Cosmetics
DVDs
Electronic goods not listed elsewhere
Entertainment (e.g. tickets to shows, DVD rentals)
E-reader (e.g. Kindle)
Flowers/flower accessories
Furniture - indoors and garden furniture
Groceries
Homeware (excl. kitchen)
Hotels/vacation packages
Kitchenware
Software for a laptop/PC
Sporting goods
Tablet (e.g. iPad)

11

TV or projector
Other

Brands included in the full report - in total 59 brands were measured:

Align247
Amazon
Arcadia
Barnes & Noble
Bfore
Bid or Buy
Bigvalue Depot
Boots
BrainBug
Buy247
CaCELL.co.za
Cafepress
Checkers online
CNA online
Crown Imports
Cum
EASi
Etsy
Excellular
Galoot
Gumtree
Herbalife
HMV.co.uk
Homechoice

12

iGear
Interflora
Kalahari
Laptop.co.za
Lokisa
Loot
Lulu
Dion
eBay
eShopper
Olx.com
O2 Store
Makro
Mweb mall
Netflorist
Nivo interactive shopping
Perkal
Pick n Pay online
Playstation
Richmart
Rocket Shop
Sainsbury
Sammy Dress
SFI Market.
Shopdirect
Simplicity online
Sybaritic
Take 2

13

Takealot
The Online PC Store
Think Geek
Verimark
Woolworths online
Zando

Zazzy

*Brands in bold receive additional detailed analysis, and are included in the following sections listed in the table of
contents: Brand positioning charts - relative, Brand positioning charts - absolute, Strengths and weaknesses of each brand,
Attribute differentiation, Substitute brands. The brands not in bold are excluded from these sections - however they do
receive coverage in all the other sections.

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