• South Africa e-commerce to exceed 130B rand in 2025

• Sector quadrupled since 2020; now 10% of retail spend

• Amazon, Shein, Temu drive growth alongside local retailers

South Africa's e-commerce sector is set to surpass 130 billion rand ($7.48 billion) this year, a significant increase from less than 10 billion rand a decade ago. This projection comes from the "Online Retail in South Africa 2025" report by research firm World Wide Worx, in collaboration with Mastercard, Peach Payments, and Ask Afrika.

The forecasted 35% year-on-year growth would mark a new record for the sector, which has seen explosive expansion over the past five years. Since 2020, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, retailers have rapidly deployed online strategies, quadrupling the sector's sales. From fashion and groceries to beauty and home goods, e-commerce has become a critical growth engine for many companies beyond their physical stores.

"The transformation of this market over the past decade has been extraordinary. Online retail has moved from being an experiment on the margins to a structural force in the economy," said Arthur Goldstuck, CEO of World Wide Worx. "Nearly one in every ten rand spent at retail will now be online."

The report attributes the sector's health not only to the strong performance of local retail giants like Shoprite, Pick n Pay, Woolworths, Foschini, and Truworths but also to the entry of international players like Amazon, Shein, and Temu.

Amazon launched its South African site in May 2024 with an initial catalog of 150,000 products and has since expanded to include groceries, pet supplies, and health supplements. The report estimates that Shein and Temu generated 7.3 billion rand in sales in 2024, accounting for 3.6% of the clothing, textile, footwear, and leather market, and nearly 40% of online sales in that category.

The authors, who also highlight growing consumer confidence and payment reliability, say the next phase for South Africa's e-commerce sector will be building loyalty through "seamless checkout, predictable delivery and trust in every transaction." As e-commerce extends beyond major cities to smaller towns and middle-income households, driven by improved connectivity and access to secure payments, the report projects sales could reach 150 billion rand by the end of 2026, or 12% of the country's total retail market.

Espoir Olodo