2026 Edition · Out now

Research by World Wide Worx,
with Peach Payments and Mastercard.
See how the R130 billion online retail market is growing,
how shoppers are paying, and what it means for your business in 2026.

Benchmark your Business

See how your growth compares to the 20–35% band the sector is compounding on, and where your category sits against grocery, fashion and marketplaces.

The Report

World Wide Worx

Track the payment shift

See how mobile wallets, pay-by-bank and BNPL are taking checkout share, and why cart abandonment is now driven by checkout friction, not failed payments. With Capitec Pay alone carrying around 40% of value at some processors, the methods your customers reach for are shifting fast.

Plan with confidence

Use verified sector data, including scenarios for 2026 growth, to back your roadmap and budget conversations. It is built on Ask Afrika's Target Group Index survey of 23,910 interviews across South Africa, matched against Stats SA's retail trade tables.

So the numbers you plan with are the numbers that hold up in the room.

Modern multi-storey building with large windows, balconies and green spaces on the roofs and railings.

whereSouthAfrica Shops

KwaZulu-Natal Coast

City of Port Elizabeth

Johannesburg (Gauteng's financial capital city)

Gauteng Province

46.9%

Pretoria, Gauteng's Capital City

51.2%

Western Cape Winelands

South Africa's online shoppers now cluster among R50,000+ households (67.8%) and 25-to-34-year-olds (39.5%), as the market saturates its first affluent, urban cohort.

Where

South Africa, 2025 fieldwork: nationwide coverage

A river with thresholds surrounded by autumn forest with yellow and green leaves under a blue sky with clouds.

75.4%

Found inSEL 1 High-income shoppers

59.4%

Found inLSM 9-10 households

67.8%

Found inR50k+ households

56.7%

Found inConsumers with post-matric qualifications nationwide

39.5%

Found in25-to-34 shoppers

46.9%

Found inGauteng province shoppers

Where

South Africa, 2025 fieldwork: nationwide coverage, n=23,910

Highlights

Eight shifts, one market

Profit at last

Takealot posted its first profit in 15 years; Pick n Pay stayed profitable for a second year.

Real profit.

Takealot’s adjusted EBIT hit R171m after 15 years of losses.

Pick n Pay’s online division is profitable again, finally.

Shoprite still holds a 25.3% gross margin.

Retail media is compounding faster than any merchandise line in South African retail today.

Takealot posted its first profit in 15 years; Pick n Pay stayed profitable for a second year.

Payments

Is how South Africans quietly moved money online in 2025.

92% of retailers are satisfied with their payment providers this year, 2025.

Capitec Pay alone carries around 40% of payment value at some processors.

Digital wallet payments grew more than 35% year on year.

BNPL works best for purchases between R800 and R8,000.

Is how South Africans quietly moved money online in 2025.

When Amazon Prime finally landed in SA...

Amazon Prime launched here on 3 June 2026, no minimum order.

Prime membership costs just R59 monthly.

South Africa is Prime’s 27th market.

No minimum order size.

Amazon Prime launched here on 3 June 2026, no minimum order.

The duty loophole just closed

SARS scrapped the R500 duty-free import concession in late 2024, closing a loophole.

Shein and Temu’s growth then collapsed from a 30 to 50% range down to just 7% in 2025.

Grocery delivery just crossed 100 million orders

Checkers Sixty60 sales grew 34.5% to R25.5-billion this year.

Sixty60 has now passed 100 million cumulative orders since it first launched to shoppers.

That’s now 10.3% of all of Shoprite’s total South African sales.

Grocery delivery just crossed 100 million orders

Shoprite’s Pixie meets the basket

Shoprite’s Pixie and Pick n Pay’s Penny launched in 2026, letting shoppers build a basket by voice or photo:

Both apps launched sometime in 2026.

Pixie runs on Google Gemini behind the scenes.

You can build a full basket just by sending a voice note or photo.

Shoprite’s Pixie and Pick n Pay’s Penny launched in 2026, letting shoppers build a basket by voice or photo:

The store, redefined

More than 55% of Mr Price’s online orders are now collected in a physical store, because discovery happens on a phone but fulfilment still happens at a branch.

Discovery happens online, on a phone.

Fulfilment stays local.

Real proximity.

Faster returns.

A real template.

More than 55% of Mr Price’s online orders are now collected in a physical store, because discovery happens on a phone but fulfilment still happens at a branch.

The biggest gap left

79.1% of South African adults are now online, but only 34.2% of them are actually shopping online, the single biggest opportunity left in South African retail.

Internet access reached 79.1% of adults in 2025, up from 77.5% just one year earlier, in 2024.

Only 34.2% of adults actually shop online, down slightly from 36.6% in 2024, because the market has saturated its first affluent, connected cohort.

79.1% of South African adults are now online, but only 34.2% of them are actually shopping online, the single biggest opportunity left in South African retail.

Payment behaviour

Retailers satisfied with

payments
92%

Capitec Pay's share:

~40%

Wallet growth:

(?)

Year-on-year increase in the use of digital wallets for payments

up 35%

PayShap adoption

Used by 40.8%

BNPL range

R800–R8k

The numbers

Peak transaction rate:

934/min

Cyber Monday volume:

700/min

Payment highlights

BNPL works best between R800 and R8,000 orders

Digital wallets have grown more than 35% year-on-year across retailers

Our payment infrastructure processed 934 transactions every single minute at the Black Friday 2025 peak

Platforms

Six platforms are driving South Africa's R130-billion online retail boom: Takealot, Checkers Sixty60, Pick n Pay, Bash, Amazon Prime, and Shein together with Temu, each with its own growth story.

Each platform has its own growth story, shaped by scale and regulation.

shops

Takealot

Sixty60

PicknPay

Bash

Amazon

Shein+Temu

From37
m²

Takealot's first full-year profit arrived fifteen years after launch, on eighteen percent growth.

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From50
m²

Checkers Sixty60 grew revenue 34.5 percent to R25.5 billion in FY2026, now 10.3 percent of Shoprite's total sales.

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From66
m²

Pick n Pay's online arm grew 32.7 percent in FY2026, profitable for a second straight year running.

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From93
m²

Bash grew 49.2 percent in FY2026, the fastest-growing major platform, contributing R2.1 billion in sales.

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From76
m²

Amazon Prime launched in South Africa on 3 June 2026 at R59 a month, undercutting Prime Video.

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From105
m²

Shein and Temu's growth fell from 30-50 percent to 7 percent in 2025, after SARS closed a loophole.

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see the shift

Online retail is growing at roughly 22.5% a year, turning last year’s R130-billion into a forecast R159-billion by 2026.

10 x

faster than physical retail, which crawls at 2-3.7% a year.

authorship

This report was authored by World Wide Worx, produced in partnership with Mastercard, Peach Payments, and Ask Afrika

World Wide Worx is South Africa’s leading independent technology research and publishing house, led by analyst Arthur Goldstuck. This report was compiled with data partners Mastercard, Peach Payments and Ask Afrika, dated 14 August 2026.

lead author

Goldstuck

R130bn

2025 online retail turnover

R130bn

R159bn

Forecast 2026 turnover

R159bn

22.5%

2026 turnover-weighted growth

22.5%

40.8%

Retailers already on instant EFT / PayShap

40.8%

Download the 2026 Online Retail Report, the definitive study of South African e-commerce from World Wide Worx, Mastercard, Peach Payments and Ask Afrika.

Get the full 2026 report

Download report

worldwideworx.com

Answers to
the report

All you need
to read

What is the Online Retail in SA 2026 report, exactly?

It's the Online Retail in SA 2026 report, produced by World Wide Worx in partnership with Mastercard, Peach Payments and Ask Afrika, covering how South Africans shop and pay online.

So just who wrote this report?

It was made by World Wide Worx, working with Mastercard, Peach Payments and Ask Afrika as its partners on the study.

So, just when is this report dated?

The report is dated 14 August 2026, drawing on Ask Afrika fieldwork through the end of 2025, current to August 2026.

How big is South Africa's online retail market?

South Africans spent about R130-billion online in 2025, well up from R96-billion a year before, and more than four times the 2020 total so far.

Did SA online retail really cross the 10% mark in 2025?

Yes. Three different ways of measuring it (a constant-price view, a strict nominal view, and a single best month) all confirm the milestone, and each one places it earlier than the report's own forecast had expected.

How exactly do South Africans pay for what they buy online?

Mostly by card and Instant EFT through PayShap, with Capitec Pay covering a big share of payment value, digital wallets rising fast, and buy-now-pay-later used most between R800 and R8,000.

What did Amazon do?

Amazon Prime launched in South Africa on 3 June 2026 at R59 a month, dropping the minimum order threshold most retailers rely on to protect delivery costs.

What's the 2026 outlook?

Online retail is forecast to grow about 22.5% in 2026, reaching roughly R159-billion by year end.

So, where can I actually download the full 2026 report?

You can download the report directly from this landing page.

Online retailJust crossed10%Of SAretail spend

Benchmark your Business

See how your growth compares to the 20–35% band the sector is compounding on, and where your category sits against grocery, fashion and marketplaces.

The Report

Track the payment shift

Plan with confidence

whereSouthAfrica Shops

KwaZulu-Natal Coast

City of Port Elizabeth

Johannesburg (Gauteng's financial capital city)

Gauteng Province

Pretoria, Gauteng's Capital City

Western Cape Winelands

Who's online

75.4%

found inSEL 1 High-income shoppers

59.4%

found inLSM 9-10 households

67.8%

found inR50k+ households

56.7%

found inConsumers with post-matric qualifications nationwide

39.5%

found in25-to-34 shoppers

46.9%

found inGauteng province shoppers

Where

75.4%

59.4%

67.8%

56.7%

39.5%

46.9%

Highlights

Eight shifts, one market

Profit at last

Takealot posted its first profit in 15 years; Pick n Pay stayed profitable for a second year.

Payments

Is how South Africans quietly moved money online in 2025.

When Amazon Prime finally landed in SA...

Amazon Prime launched here on 3 June 2026, no minimum order.

The duty loophole just closed

The duty loophole just closed

Grocery delivery just crossed 100 million orders

Grocery delivery just crossed 100 million orders

Shoprite’s Pixie meets the basket

Shoprite’s Pixie and Pick n Pay’s Penny launched in 2026, letting shoppers build a basket by voice or photo:

The store, redefined

More than 55% of Mr Price’s online orders are now collected in a physical store, because discovery happens on a phone but fulfilment still happens at a branch.

The biggest gap left

79.1% of South African adults are now online, but only 34.2% of them are actually shopping online, the single biggest opportunity left in South African retail.

Payment behaviour

Retailers satisfied with

payments 92%

Capitec Pay's share:

Wallet growth:

(?)

PayShap adoption

BNPL range

The numbers

Payment highlights

Platforms

Six platforms are driving South Africa's R130-billion online retail boom: Takealot, Checkers Sixty60, Pick n Pay, Bash, Amazon Prime, and Shein together with Temu, each with its own growth story.

shops

Takealot

Sixty60

PicknPay

Bash

Amazon

Shein+Temu

From37 m2

From50 m2

From66 m2

From93 m2

From76 m2

From105 m2

Online retail is growing at roughly 22.5% a year, turning last year’s R130-billion into a forecast R159-billion by 2026.

10 x

faster than physical retail, which crawls at 2-3.7% a year.

authorship

payments
92%

From37
m²

From50
m²

From66
m²

From93
m²

From76
m²

From105
m²

Answers to
the report

All you need
to read