South Africa Consumption

1- South Africa Consumption (kensumption)

a- First I ll present you some key figures

• December 2012 : $ 3 825,09 Gross Domestic Product per capita against 23 016,85 in France

 It represents 31% of the world’s average

• Consumer confidence : -1% at the third quarter of 2012 VS 84% in France

=>This index measure the level of optimism that consumers have about the performance of the economy. Results came from personal at home interviews of a sample of 2 500 households.

• 50% of the South African people live with less than $ 2 by day.

• 16.6% internet subscribers in 2012 / 20.9 % of users 2011 ( vs 76.8% in France)

• SA : 162 persons out of 1 000 used motor vehicles vs 598 /1 000 France in 2009

b- Who buys what? Consumers profile

We can divide the African market consumption into two parts :

- A market for white people and the emerging black class with an high purchasing power, we ll speak longer about the last one :

They belong to the new average class. We call them as inexperienced consumers as they don’t dispose of a starting capital, savings or possible heritage. But by cumulating several professional activities, they can get out from the poverty. They have limited knowledge about the management of money because they were not used to have money.

They have to borrow money to consume

They have enough money to buy commodities of secondary necessity.

• Sometimes you can hear the expression Black Diamond to qualify people who belongs to the new emerging class. Features: black, well-educated, active, better-off (aisé)

Go shopping – buys luxury cars- wear bright color clothes (vêtement aux couleurs voyantes) – big houses – go to private schools – want use the English accent as quickly as possible – own last technologies

/!\ Nevertheless, The existence of this class provokes debates : no official figures about its real proportion

Problems caused because of households indebtedness ‘indetidness” (surendetement: credit that a person can’t pay back) => The government solves this problem by implementing the “National Credit Act in 2007”: banks had now to check the solvability of his customers in a deeper manner.

- A market for the higher majority of black people with a low purchasing power :

They have been victimed of the apartheid

They don’t have any qualification so they are in charge of non qualified activities and service employment.

-Lived in township ( such as shantytown= Bidonville : during apartheid back people were segregated in that kind of accommodation, since the end of apartheid in 1994 things change : some people moved to white neighbors…. And the government try to improve conditions of living by

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