South Africa - Nikulipe

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South Africa

South Africa

South Africa is a country located in Southern Africa, bordered by Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The 59 million inhabitants of the country officially speak English and 10 more languages. Southernmost African country possesses huge e-commerce market size of 7.2 billion USD which is expected to grow fast by 12.5% year over year. This makes South Africa an attractive market for international merchants.

Regions

Southern Africa

Country Facts

Capital Cape Town, Pretoria, Bloemfontein
Urban population 68%
Population 59.4 M
Median Age 27.6 Yr

Region Southern Africa
GDP 419 bn USD
GDP growth 4.9%
Official Language English, (Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Sepedi, Swazi, Sesotho, Setswana, Xitsonga, Tshivenda, Ndebele)
Currency South African Rand (ZAR)

E-Commerce Facts

E-commerce market revenue 7.2 Bn USD
E-commerce growth 12.5%

Online shopping habits Online Banking Payments, Wallets and Mobile Money get increasingly popular in South Africa.

People with mobile phone (estimate)

95%
Internet penetration

70%
E-commerce penetration

49.4%
People with bank account

84.1%
People with credit card

60.4%

Card payments
Online banking
Wallets
Other

Growth Opportunities

Businesses looking to grow their online sales into new areas have a lot of opportunities in South Africa. Here are a few examples among many others:

● Today, already 49% of the local population shops online regularly. South Africa’s huge e-commerce market is expected to grow even further – at 12.5% YoY, reaching 11.58 billion USD by 2027 .

● South Africa has a well-developed digital infrastructure: more than 70% of the population have access to the Internet, estimated almost 95% of the users are connected via mobile phones.

● While Cards are a popular way to pay online, Local Payment Methods like Bank Transfer LPMs and Wallets are gaining market share. Initiatives by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) – like the start of the new real-time payment system “Rapid Payments Programme (RPP)” announced to be launched during 2023 – further modernize the nation’s payments infrastructure and will increase attractiveness of LPM.

South Africa – with its middle-upper class income population and its already well established e-commerce market (and still rapidly growing) – is one of the most attractive markets for international merchants.