E-commerce - Cape Peninsula University of Technology

Chapter 2: Literature review Page 22
By contrast, as table 2.4 shows, the total e-retail market in the United States
was worth $54.9 billion in 2003, out of a total retail market worth $3.421­
trillion. E-retail thus accounted for 1.6% of total sale. In 2002, e-retail had
reached $43.4 billion, accounting for 1.3% of total sales.
IYEiar>iii Total Retail Online Retail % ofTotal
IL> .......
2000 3,071,692 28,349 0.9%
2001. 3,153,315 34,595 1.1%
2002. 3,245,407 43,466 1.3%
2003 3,421,857 54,902 1.6%
Source: GOldstuck, 2004
Table 2.3: Estimated quarterly U.S. retail sales ($billions)
Contrasting these proportions, it is clear that e-retailing remains at a very
early stage of its market penetration, even as its implementation matures in
South Africa. While e-retailing in the US makes up a similarly low proportion
of total retail sales, it is growing fairly strongly, and will probably have passed
the 2% mark in 2005. While this remains low in percentage terms, it is a vast
market in dollar terms. The US market will be looking at more than $70 billion
in e-retail sales towards the end of 2005, while South Africa will be hoping to
touch the half a billion rand mark only the following year (Goldstuck report,
2004)
The Goldstuck report (2004) further illustrates that despite the slow-down in
growth of e-retail businesses in South Africa, the number of retail websites
has exploded from 215 at the end of 2001 to at least 719 at the end of 2003.
However, the market is dominated by the top eight e-retailers (M-Web
ShopZone, Pick 'n' Pay Home Shopping, Kalahari.net, Woolworths, Netflorist,
Digital Mall, CyberCellar and Streetcar.com) who between them account for
about 80% of all e-retail sales in South Africa (Goldstuck report, 2004). The
Goldstuck report also found that online sales by retailers - which exclude
property, cars and travel operators increased by 35% in 2003, but was