The emergence of the World Wide Web (WWW) in 1989, has changed the way people accomplish things.   Consumers are able to make purchases without having to leave the home or office.  The growth of “e-tailing” makes it possible for consumers to shop at the click of a button.  Whilst this phenomenon has grown rapidly in Western countries, it hasn’t had the same effect in many developing economies.  The aim of this study was to determine whether South Africans shopped online and what online shopping patterns they exhibited.  An online survey using QuestionPro was conducted amongst people working in the La Lucia Ridge Office Park in Durban.  Three hundred and thirty eight responses were received.  It was established that the profile of online shoppers were Indian men aged 35-44.  The main reason they shopped online was for the convenience that it offered.  However, shopping was infrequent and many respondents only shopped once in six months.  The items that were purchased most often was entertainment followed by clothing.  The majority of the respondents spent between R500 and R1000 per annum.  For those respondents who didn’t shop online, three quarters of them were willing to consider purchasing online, if “e-tailers” would dispel their fears of shopping online and increased their trust in vendors websites.  This study recommends that in order to increase online purchases, websites need to increase their security and they need to improve the design of the websites to be more user friendly.  Some respondents also felt that loyalty programs would increase their online purchases.