South Africans are warming to idea of shopping online, with retailers’ sales showing considerable growth over the festive season.

The retail sector saw a marked increase in sales in November and December 2024 compared to the previous year, signalling renewed consumer sentiment and increased spending.

However, the way consumers engage with retailers is changing: they’ve become more accustomed to the convenience of e-commerce, with data from industry players including Visa showing that the proportion of online sales to total retail spend over the festive season was markedly higher than the rest of the year.

“South Africa holiday retail spend jumped by 7% [year on year]. Online shopping increased by 23.3% [year on year], showing consumers are increasingly relying on its convenience during the busy holiday season. Of total retail spend in South Africa, 84% of payment volume was in-store versus 16% online,” Visa said in a report that looked at spending from 1 November to 31 December.

Akshay Bhayroo, head of data science in First National Bank’s credit card division, said the company also saw an uptick in retail sales in December, with online retail sales growth of 19% year on year among its clients.

Bhayroo said online spend contributed 19% to total retail spend in the period, also far higher than the 6% industry average.

FNB clients spent most in total at Takealot, with Checkers Sixty60 second. Although more money was spent by FNB customers at Takealot, with sales growing by 17% year on year, Checkers Sixty60 sales jumped by 30%.

Travel

Observations by Discovery Bank provide clues as to why online transactions are higher in value over the festive season when compared to in-store purchases. In its 2025 Spend Trend: Festive Season Edition report, the bank singled out the travel spend category in its analysis. More flights and hotel bookings are made over the festive season and the amounts paid are generally far higher than any other category and usually paid for online.

“The December holiday period is known as a time of increased spending. So, it’s no surprise that our clients, in general, spent an average of 15% more than in other months of the year. From our analysis, they also spent 7% more when compared with the same period in 2023,” Discovery Bank said.

Read: Surging e-commerce tops 6% of total retail sales in South Africa

In a trading statement last week for the third quarter of its 2025 financial year, retailer The Foschini Group (TFG) said strong sales growth in the holiday period were driven by improved trading over Black Friday and in the lead-up to Christmas. Although sales for TFG Africa grew by only 4.6% year on year, online sales via TFG’s Bash platform surged by 41% and now account for 5.6% of South African retail sales, TFG said.

The reason online sales for TFG are closer to the 6% mark as a proportion of total sales – as opposed to the higher proportions observed by Visa, FNB and Discovery Bank – is closely linked to the retailer’s omnichannel strategy with its online platform Bash. Developed for TFG by Superbalist co-founders Claude Hanan and Luke Jadeikin, Bash is not meant to migrate in-store customers to online shopping. Instead, TFG uses a hybrid omnichannel model that offers customers the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of online shopping together with a tactile in-store experience.

According the Jedeikin, this leads to customers spending most of their decision-making time on the Bash app and then going into a store for fitting and collection of their items, where the payment is made. – © 2025 NewsCentral Media

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