More than half of online shoppers in sub-Saharan Africa – 56%, the highest share of any region in the world – say they are likely to let AI make shopping decisions or even purchases on their behalf within the next five years, according to the DHL E-Commerce Trends Report 2026, whose South Africa-specific findings were released this week.

That is nearly double the global average of 29%, and well ahead of Europe, where only 18% of shoppers said they’d hand over the reins. The report, published by DHL in June, draws on surveys of 29 000 online shoppers and 5 800 e-commerce businesses across 29 countries.

South Africans are already among the world’s keenest users of AI in the shopping journey. The country ranks sixth globally for the use of AI-powered chat tools when shopping online, at 41% – behind only India (59%), the United Arab Emirates (51%), China (47%), Nigeria (46%) and Saudi Arabia (42%).

“The ability to understand and respond to customer needs has always defined success, but our new report shows that AI is now redefining that advantage at hyperspeed,” said Pablo Ciano, CEO of DHL eCommerce, in a statement. “Consumers can identify the best offer in milliseconds, and retailers can gain insights that allow them to instantly capitalise on changing demand.”

Enthusiasm may be running ahead of trust, however. As TechCentral has reported, Visa is laying the groundwork for AI payments in South Africa, enrolling local banks in its Agentic Ready programme for fully autonomous AI-driven transactions – yet none has gone live in the country, and Visa’s own Stay Secure 2026 study found that only 23% of South African consumers would trust an AI agent to complete a purchase on their behalf.

Thorny questions

Thorny questions around payment permissions also remain unresolved: asked who bears responsibility when an AI agent authorises a fraudulent transaction, Visa executives said the consumer remains the originating party, with liability determined case by case under existing rules.

The DHL report underlines the grip that Naspers-owned Takealot – which recently posted its first annual profit and has begun piloting instant deliveries in parts of Johannesburg, Cape Town and Pretoria – still has on local online retail.

It is the most-used marketplace among South African shoppers, at 88%, and among local online businesses, at 87% – this even as the platform bets on local scale to hold off Amazon and China’s Temu, which last year opened a local distribution warehouse to speed up deliveries to South African shoppers.

South Africans also emerge as the world’s most enthusiastic Black Friday shoppers: 68% said they made purchases over the Black Friday/Cyber Monday period in the past year, the highest of the 29 markets surveyed and far above the 41% global average. That squares with local data showing record online spending over Black Friday last November.

Social commerce is another local standout: 85% of South African shoppers surveyed have bought something on Facebook, well above the 63% global average.

But while out-of-home delivery is fast becoming the norm elsewhere – more than six in 10 returns globally now happen outside the home – South Africa remains a home-delivery market: 89% of local shoppers predominantly receive their online purchases at home, and 61% use home collection for returns.

Looking abroad

South African e-commerce businesses, meanwhile, are looking well beyond the country’s borders. Of those not yet selling internationally, 83% plan to expand within the next five years, targeting markets including the US, China, France and India. The report also ranks the South Africa-US corridor among the world’s busiest B2B trade lanes.

“South Africa is one of the region’s most developed e-commerce markets, with established platforms, growing digital adoption and a business community that is increasingly looking beyond local growth,” said Herman Venter, MD of DHL Express South Africa, in the statement. “For businesses, this means the fundamentals matter more than ever. Trust, reliable delivery, convenient returns and strong customer experience are central to competing online, whether locally or across borders.

Read: Takealot Group bets local scale can hold Amazon at bay

“For SMEs in particular, digital commerce creates a real opportunity to reach new customers and new markets. But long-term growth will depend on the ability to deliver consistently, manage cross-border complexity and build confidence with customers.”

The expansion ambitions come as South Africa’s online retail sector continues to boom, with research firm World Wide Worx having forecast that online sales would breach 10% of total retail for the first time by January 2026. – © 2026 NewsCentral Media