2020 will go down in history as an unprecedented 12 months of WTFs. Despite this, we cannot ignore the amazing resilience and accomplishments we, as both local and global citizens, have achieved in 2020, and how these key learnings will shape the way we do things in 2021.
In 2020, we learned to focus on communities – both within our homes and families as well as in the areas we live. We found new ways of working. We explored new places digitally without needing to travel anywhere. We rapidly made internet more accessible and have shifted more of our day-to-day behaviours into an online environment.
As people were forced to stay at home, and to some degree, are still being encouraged to stay home and safe, a significant number of daily activities moved online. “At face value, this could be seen as the ultimate juncture for the e-tail industry but with this massive increase in online trading activity also comes a certain amount of responsibility,” says Laurian Venter, director for SA’s original daily deals online shopping platform, OneDayOnly. The company, that wipes the site clean and reloads between 250 and 300 deals for the next day – every single day; had to be mindful of their range of products meeting an immediate need for their customers, as well as focusing on local suppliers and manufacturers to try assist with the negative impact lockdown had on these businesses.
With the online behavioural shift that bore witness to a global online shopping boom, OneDayOnly needed to ramp up their efforts within the organisation too. The company managed to employ more people – both within their Johannesburg and Cape Town warehouses which we were forced to expand, as well as from a head office perspective. “This prospect was a really humbling one for us as we were hopefully able to make a small difference in a world that is plagued by devastating unemployment levels,” says Laurian.
OneDayOnly was fortunate enough to experience a 83% YoY profit growth with customer orders increasing by 61%. Basket sizes have doubled and according to Shopify, new stores created on their platform have surged by 62% during the worldwide lockdown with overall online shopping increasing by 48%.
Moving into 2021 however, the ‘idea of the new norm’ is now a way of life and requires dedicated focus. “Innovation and agility will be the 2021 ‘buzzwords,” says Venter. “And supporting local suppliers and manufacturers will form a necessary part of this approach so that the limited funds that are being spent, stay within South Africa’s borders.”
An opportunity also exists for e-tailers to leverage the consumers need for convenience. “The industry needs to better understand the consumers perception of their brand to create ways of exploring non-traditional and underutilised ways to speak to these consumers in an online environment,” says Venter.
Apps have offered a great way to be able to do this. In South Africa alone mobile app downloads increased from 30% in Q1 to 35% by Q4, which is a growth of 2.8 million people. “We saw a significant spike in our app downloads with 180 000 mobile installations in just 2 months, however constant innovation and development, both from a platform and marketing perspective is required for us to be at the top of our game,” concludes Venter.
Provided by OneDayOnly
