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Israelis keen on online shopping
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SHE is 14 years old, computer-literate, fashion-aware, cashed-wup — and ready to spend it worldwide. Noa is one of Israel’s growing army of online shoppers who have pushed the country’s postal system to near the breaking point.
Today, the teen from Tel Aviv makes a modest choice of a few sets of colorful ear-rings from Hong Kong priced at US$1.40 each. Pick, click, buy. Shipping is free.
“Everyone’s doing it,” chips in her 15-year-old friend Oren, who mainly shops on eBay.
No matter that it takes a month for the goods to arrive: “It’s still worth it to me and I have time.”
“In the past two years we have seen an increasing number of Israelis who use shopping sites abroad,” says Omer Kabir of the business newspaper Calcalist.
Online purchases tend to proliferate in certain categories, says Kabir, noting that Israel’s market is “very specific.”
He cites wedding dresses as a particularly dear item to buy from specialized local shops these days, since they generally cost more than 10,000 shekels (US$2,560).
At Chinese online retailer Alibaba, Israel, despite its population of only 8 million, was the leading purchaser worldwide in one recent month in two shopping categories — women’s outfits and the Singles Day bracket.
A growing number of young people now also buy their clothing online as the e-commerce habit deepens. But other sectors, such as the food industry, are still resilient to the rise of click-and-buy shopping.
Meanwhile, the postal service is feeling the strain as it deals with this new flood of parcels from around the world.
According to the Israeli business magazine Globes, online trade generates around 20 million packages a year — a four-fold increase over just the past two years. Average spending levels are impressively high too: PayPal estimates the value of online traffic at 6 billion shekels a year.
The online trend is unlikely to fade any time soon. Tel Aviv is the most expensive city in the Middle East. In 2014, it ranked the18th most expensive in the Mediterranean, according to the consulting firm Mercer.
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