Business

You’re lying in bed on a Sunday night, browsing an app you didn’t plan to browse, adding things you don’t need to your cart, and mentally calculating duties like a seasoned shopper before hitting “buy”.

Maybe it’s a R45 phone case from Temu, or a pair of R89 sunglasses on Shein, or something more grown-up like a powerbank from Takealot. The point is, we’re all shopping differently now. Not just more online, but more everywhere. This shift is starting to reshape the South African retail landscape. Online retail has exploded from under 1% a few years ago to almost 10% of total sales, moving South Africa firmly into the expanding phase of ecommerce maturity. Online sales are expected to reach R130bn in 2025, and the country has outpaced other emerging markets like Brazil, India, Kenya and Nigeria.