Report reveals South African consumers spend R2k+ monthly online as BNPL soars
With feedback from more than 3,000 South Africans, Stitch's 2026 Consumer Payments Report provides a comprehensive picture of how South African consumers' purchasing and payment habits are changing.
Source: How South Africans Shop 2026
In the consumer report, it was found that South Africans are increasingly becoming familiar with shopping online and are blurring the lines between physical and digital channels.
Of South African consumers that participate in e-commerce, 62.5% of respondents said they now shop online as much as or more than they shop in-store. Only 2.2% shop almost exclusively in physical stores.
The research, a quantitative survey of 3,000 consumers and 27 qualitative conversations, takes a deep dive into how South African shopping and payment behaviour is evolving.
Here are the findings that matter most for businesses operating in this market.
This is not a market of small, tentative purchases. Seventy-six percent (76%) of online shoppers now spend more than R2,000 per month on digital purchases, with nearly a quarter (22.7%) spending over R10,000.
Clothing and apparel is the most commonly purchased category online at 78.1%, followed by groceries (67.8%), electronics (54.5%) and health and beauty (53.9%).
South African consumers are buying across the full spectrum of categories through digital channels, often across multiple platforms in the same week.
Direct brand websites lead all platforms at 74.6%, followed by retailer sites (68%) and marketplaces like Takealot and Amazon (61.8%).
The most significant platform shift in this year's data, though, is the rise of international low-cost platforms: 48.5% of South African online shoppers now use Temu, Shein or similar, up from a relatively small presence two years ago.
There is no single dominant payment method in South Africa anymore. Debit cards still lead across categories, but their margin is shrinking as bank-native and alternative methods gain ground. 93.3% of consumers tried a new payment method in the past year.
One-click digital wallets, such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, led adoption at 57.5%, followed by Buy Now Pay Later (38.9%) and bank-specific apps (38.6%).
Capitec Pay has become the second most preferred payment method across purchase categories, reaching 24.6% preference for online shopping in just three years since its March 2023 launch. Bank-native payment methods are no longer niche.
Source: How South Africans Shop 2026
When asked what matters most when choosing a payment method, consumers ranked convenience first (31.1%) and security second (23.6%), followed by rewards and cashback (15.9%) and speed (13.9%).
Checkout experiences that are both fast and frictionless, while feeling secure through biometric authentication or familiar bank-app confirmation, consistently outperform those that prioritise either attribute alone.
Stitch transaction data from Q1 2026 reveals a clear monthly rhythm tied to South Africa's salary cycle. The 25th is the single busiest shopping day of the month.
The last week of the month (22nd to 31st) accounts for roughly 35% of all monthly transaction volume. Average basket value on the 24th is 46% higher than on the 8th, and the median basket rises approximately 20% in the final week.
At a weekly level, Friday sees 37% more transactions than Sunday, but Tuesday carries the highest average basket value. And the peak shopping hour across the Stitch platform is 20:00 SAST, which is well after traditional business hours. Checkout systems need to perform at their best in the evening, not just during the working day.
Nearly four in 10 consumers (38.9%) tried Buy Now Pay Later for the first time in the past 12 months. Among credit-active consumers, 71% use it at some frequency.
Electronics remains the top BNPL category, but clothing & fashion is a clear second, chosen by 45.4% of BNPL users.
The spread across six categories shows BNPL is no longer confined to big-ticket purchases: from fashion to groceries, consumers are integrating flexible payments across their entire shopping basket.
Nearly half of consumers (48.7%) want BNPL available both online and in-store. This omnichannel demand is largely unmet by South African merchants, and it represents a clear first-mover opportunity.
26.9% of South African consumers who shop online now do so directly through TikTok, Instagram or WhatsApp. That makes it the smallest of the five platform categories in our data, but it is worth watching closely.
International low-cost platforms were at a similar level two years ago before surging to 48.5%. As TikTok Shop expands and WhatsApp Commerce matures, social platforms could become a primary purchase channel for younger consumers within 12 to 18 months.
Source: How South Africans Shop 2026
31–34% of South Africans are already active ChatGPT users, with use cases that include research, product comparison and purchase decisions. AI-sourced retail traffic has surged globally, with AI product recommendations showing 4.4x higher conversion rates than traditional search.
As agentic commerce moves from research to transaction, businesses with structured product data and API-first payment infrastructure will have a significant and compounding advantage.
Download the full report for the complete data.