Clicks, trust and the battle for the hearts of SA's online shoppers

Foreign giants threatened to dominate the market, but South African platforms prove that trust and local know-how matter more than scale. By Kara le Roux

- By Kara le Roux

As global e-commerce platforms chase scale, homegrown sites are showing that trust, precision and a bit of human graft still win clicks in South Africa’s online value war.

It starts with a reflex. Scroll, refresh, click, close tab. For millions of South Africans, this daily ritual unfolds not on Amazon or Shein, but on homegrown digital platforms such as Takealot, Bash and OneDayOnly.

Online shopping in South Africa is projected to reach R130-billion in value by the end of 2025, almost 10% of total retail and growing 10 times faster than traditional stores, according to a study conducted by World Wide Worx.

The big guns have gone digital. Shoprite’s Sixty60 has become cultural shorthand for on-demand delivery. Pick n Pay’s online sales grew more than 70% last year. Woolies Dash grew 41.6% this year. Nearly half of all the new sales that TFG gained in South Africa in its 2025 financial year came from its Bash platform.

As the contest for speed and discounts intensifies, trust is emerging as the real currency online.

Local trust, global competition

Global heavyweights have also parachuted in. Amazon’s South African site, launched in 2024, now stretches from electronics to groceries. Shein and Temu crashed the fashion party, racking up R7.3-billion in sales by the end of 2024 — nearly 40% of all online apparel sales, according to a study by the Localisation Support Fund.

Yet South Africans remain wary: 46% of respondents in the World Wide Worx study said they trusted local sites more than international ones, and only one in 10 preferred global names. More than half had not touched Shein or Temu, discouraged by delivery delays, customs charges and worries about product quality.