South Africa’s e-commerce market has crossed a structural threshold. Online retail is projected to exceed R130bn, approaching 10% of total retail sales, after expanding sharply in 2024 and continuing to outpace physical retail through 2025.
Kevin Ssemwogerere, business development head at RMB. Image supplied
Independent coverage of the Online Retail in South Africa 2025 study confirms both the scale of growth and its spread across categories such as groceries, fashion and beauty.
Consumer adoption is broad and mobile-led. About half of internet users report shopping online weekly, with usage rising as payment experiences improve and delivery becomes more predictable.
The popular story of e-commerce focuses on storefronts and apps. The more consequential story is financial.
Every click triggers a chain of events that must happen quickly and accurately: funds must be collected and settled, transactions must be reconciled across multiple channels, liquidity has to be forecasted at the pace of demand, and regulatory obligations must be satisfied.
This is corporate treasury’s domain. Businesses that treat treasury as a compliance checkpoint will struggle to scale. Those that treat it as a growth system will convert demand into durable advantage.
E-commerce now competes on payments. Consumers show strong preference for methods that feel instant and safe, with rapid traction for instant EFT and PayShap, growing use of wallets, and selective adoption of Buy Now Pay Later.
Industry data and payment providers’ consumer work indicate that failure at first attempt often leads to permanent drop-off, which elevates payment reliability from a back-office metric to a revenue driver.
At the same time, the Rapid Payments Programme continues to expand features and bank participation. Adoption is rising, although awareness and user experience choices still influence usage patterns.
Treasury’s role has already moved beyond cash custodianship. It is now the architect of financial resilience. In practice that means forecasting liquidity to match demand spikes, reconciling at channel and SKU level, managing cross-border and FX risk in near real time, and building banking and fintech partnerships that reduce failure points and unify online and in-person payments.
Enterprise payment platforms and acquirers are investing to provide unified rails with built in fraud controls, analytics and reconciliation features. Treasurers should use this market shift to consolidate providers and lift service levels across the payment stack.
The road ahead
South Africa’s e-commerce boom is more than a retail revolution. It is a structural economic shift that requires collaboration among regulators, financial institutions, businesses and technology providers.
The promise of digital commerce now hinges on treasury teams’ ability to orchestrate liquidity, compliance and innovation in a fast-changing environment. The push for convenience through digital enablement is challenging traditional ways of doing business and reshaping regulatory interpretations.
Corporate treasurers will increasingly need to manage funds with greater flexibility while integrating into a complex network of role players across the cash flow management value chain.
Digital payments influence every stage of treasury management, from initial collection of funds to banking pooled resources. Compliance and service level conditions exert an overarching impact on treasury processes, as tighter industry expectations demand resilience in delivering the e-commerce customer experience.
In markets where e-commerce leads transactional activity, treasurers must maintain rigorous awareness and education on regulatory and operational issues to remain competitive.
A strong partnership model in transactional banking is therefore a formidable tool. Speed of execution, data-driven decision making, and deep knowledge of regulatory requirements will define success.
Treasury is not simply keeping pace with e-commerce. Treasury is shaping its future.
