Online shopping in South Africa

[EVOBIKES ONLINE STORE]

True, but problem is I fall in the non 29'er market, which means outside the target market for shops around here. Only thing I buy local would be clothing and protection items

 

True of 26 but we order a LARGE QTY of 26er components in for customers nowadays. Particularly tyres!!

[gongmech]

Buy from other hubbers. That's online shopping at its cheapest.

[TALUS]

I buy online a lot. CRC, Evans, Wiggle for stuff you cant get here or on 60% specials. Local shops are good and I have been lucky and have had good service allround. Online from Hubbers works well but I pick the seller very carefully.

[Pieterg]

Ek koop plaaslik CRC maar duur ,Online shops moet net hulle emails uitsort, n online shop in Pretoria is maar baie swak met hulle terug voer verder het ek nie n probleem.Free postage sal Super wees vir pakkies oor R100

[Christopher Brunsdon]

Smash the industry open wide and be the first bicycle specific SA online store to offer free shipping on all orders.

You will win. Majority on thehub have ordered stuff at some time or other online, all about better availability and price online.

So what's your website?

 

Not viable as nothing is free. Why should my R20K online purchase subsidies the guy buying a R40 tube.

[Skylark]

 

Not viable as nothing is free. Why should my R20K online purchase subsidies the guy buying a R40 tube.

 

Maybe free shipping limit needs to be lower say R100 not the normal R250-R300 on most sites locally.

But the value of your spend is not the rationale behind it, free shipping is more about building your customer base and encourages spending/frequent returns and people typically would buy more than just a tube even though that may be only what they originally came to buy, it's about getting the feet in the store.

 

Bulk courier delivery(large volumes each month) is quite a bit less than you'd think, somewhere around R30/kg maybe even less. I don't know the science behind free shipping on all orders but it's slowly creeping into Sa, just not yet on the bicycle side.

 

[DieVlieg]

We need local online stores with competitive prices. the government is just going to keep ramping up the taxes and import fees to increase local spending. Which is fair enough. better for the GDP and so on.

 

Not quite that simple. The stores also need to import their goods at the high import duties and need to set up a distribution hub and cover other logistical costs. Logistics is the key. Free shipping is a dream as somehow it needs to be factored in. Simplifying it is the key. If you could order as much as you wanted at the same basic shipping cost then it makes it easy to antisipate. I have thought of it. Online specific distribution which could combine the logistic needs of small online shops in one network could become a win win for all involved.

[Maxrider]

Maybe free shipping limit needs to be lower say R100 not the normal R250-R300 on most sites locally.

But the value of your spend is not the rationale behind it, free shipping is more about building your customer base and encourages spending/frequent returns and people typically would buy more than just a tube even though that may be only what they originally came to buy, it's about getting the feet in the store.

 

Bulk courier delivery(large volumes each month) is quite a bit less than you'd think, somewhere around R30/kg maybe even less. I don't know the science behind free shipping on all orders but it's slowly creeping into Sa, just not yet on the bicycle side.

 

You're totally off the mark. Most online SA shops aren't big enough to qualify for shipping rates as low as R30 via courier. A standard courier deal for most online sites which would allow you to cover nationwide, would be almost R100 per item with some quotes being even higher than that.

[Skylark]

 

You're totally off the mark. Most online SA shops aren't big enough to qualify for shipping rates as low as R30 via courier. A standard courier deal for most online sites which would allow you to cover nationwide, would be almost R100 per item with some quotes being even higher than that.

 

Is it? You are a bit off there, maybe you have been quoted priority next day rates. You are also underestimating the amount of sales the bigger online local bike shops do. I got a pricing very close to R30/kg, minimum charge was around around R50 per shipment and the volume requirements were not overly excessive, that is not for guaranteed next day delivery though. Although to keep the trucks fill in many instances the deliveries to major centres would be next day.

[Daniel J Méssem]

 

 

Not sure I would agree... Put local to the test first. We use CRC as a benchmark before we stock any product and 9 out of 10 times we are cheaper.

 

CRC's advantage is displaying prices ex VAT...

 

I did that this week, 1 local order and 1 international order.

 

Unfortunately the local order arrived with incorrect items - still waiting to hear back from the local site in this case...

[RodTi]

I went through a phase of ordering plenty through CRC -- then went through a phase of trying to support the local shops etc. as much as possible... Only went for CRC when I needed something unusual, that was not going to be sourced locally...

 

Without mentioning names -- the one experience that left a bitter taste in the mouth (unless I'm being overly sensitive??) was ordering a fork through one of the smaller, independent 'shops'... Took forever and a day to arrive, including a few emails back and forth querying what was taking so long, only for it to arrive... in CRC packaging... Don't 'quite' see any value being added by the local shop in such a situation -- I could've done the same, and had it sooner.

 

Granted - that was a once-off, but sort of told me that unless you're big enough to source plenty of stock (at decent prices) through local distributors/suppliers, you're hardly going to be able to beat CRC...

[Craig Stubbs]

Until a South African business establishes a network with ALL the importers and agents (or the brands themselves), well be left to source from the likes of CRC. I really am a "local is lekker" kind of guy, but supporting local is tough. Interestingly, the local prices are often on par with what you can buy from the likes of CRC, but the range is the difference. Just this last week, i wanted to get a wide (740mm up) AM type of bar for my Yeti, and after a visit to 2 LBS's (yielding nothing), and a very unconvincing bout of online shopping, i gave up, popped onto CRC, and had a massive range of amazing brands to choose from at the click of a button.

[Slowone]

I usually buy where i get the best price and service.......

LBS as well as online .... Ok so i went to EVO bikes to get my goods.... cant really buy shoes online.... Services was great ..... they even recomneded a better shoe and offered it at the same price as the one i went for (was on special and the other one not)

 

 

[EVOBIKES ONLINE STORE]

I did that this week, 1 local order and 1 international order.

 

Unfortunately the local order arrived with incorrect items - still waiting to hear back from the local site in this case...

 

If I am correct you e-mailed local shop at 11:33 AM and the correct item was already shipped to you that same afternoon...

 

So how is your overseas counterpart doing???

[Christopher Brunsdon]

 

Is it? You are a bit off there, maybe you have been quoted priority next day rates. You are also underestimating the amount of sales the bigger online local bike shops do. I got a pricing very close to R30/kg, minimum charge was around around R50 per shipment and the volume requirements were not overly excessive, that is not for guaranteed next day delivery though. Although to keep the trucks fill in many instances the deliveries to major centres would be next day.

But next day delivery is sometimes a stores only advantage over is competitors.

 

I'm joining a leading local ecommerce company next month and have been looking at what gives them the competitive edge.

[Skylark]

But next day delivery is sometimes a stores only advantage over is competitors.

 

I'm joining a leading local ecommerce company next month and have been looking at what gives them the competitive edge.

 

Depends on the market and how mature it is, some online stores in the Us are offering same day delivery in some cities to be competitive. Crc for instance offers free slower shipping(only above a certain buy value for Sa buyers) but charges for fast shipping, which is pretty much standard worldwide even amazon does that. The optimum base is free shipping for all orders, I don't think anyone reasonably expects that to be next day guaranteed delivery unless they paid a premium for the faster option.