SA online shoppers not settling on one way to pay

No single payment method is preferred by even one in five South African online shoppers, despite retailers offering more ways to pay than ever. New research shows instant EFT or automated bank transfer lead the field, but are preferred by just 16.4% of consumers, suggesting that as payment choice expands, South Africans are spreading their options rather than converging on a favourite.

The Online Retail in South Africa 2026 study by World Wide Worx, Mastercard, Peach Payments and Ask Africa show how widely those preferences are spread. Debit cards follow at 15.3%, saved card details at 10.6%, credit cards at 9.3% and Capitec Pay at 9.1%.

What matters more than the method itself appears to be the experience: speed and security are the two biggest reasons consumers give for how they prefer to pay.

What this tells retailers is that there isn’t one payment method they can assume their customers will prefer. The question isn’t how many payment options you can put on a checkout. It’s whether you understand how your customers want to pay and what matters to them when they get there.

BNPL acceptance is growing

Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) is a good example of how South Africa’s payment mix is changing. More than half of the online retailers surveyed, 54.7%, now offer it at checkout, compared with just 15.9% reporting BNPL usage in 2025. That’s more than three times the proportion recorded a year earlier.

The consumer numbers tell a similar story. More than half of the 1,400 online shoppers surveyed, 45.6%, use BNPL. Of all consumers surveyed, 12.4% say having it available enables them to make higher-value purchases, while 9.9% say it makes checkout easier and 9% say it encourages them to shop more frequently.

What’s interesting is how customers are using that flexibility. Being able to split the cost gives shoppers more control over how they manage their spending, whether that’s making a higher-value purchase or simply making checkout easier. For retailers, it’s about recognising where that flexibility adds value for their customers.

Payment habits are still changing

South Africans are open to changing how they pay online. Among consumers who identified a new payment method they would consider, 71% say they are likely to try one within the next year. BNPL leads the options they would consider at 11.6%, followed closely by PayShap (11.5%), instant EFT (9.8%) and Apple Pay (9.6%).

For retailers, that means there probably isn’t a payment mix you can set and forget. Customers are still trying different ways to pay. Watch what they actually use and how that changes, rather than trying to predict which payment method will eventually win.

The South African payments market isn’t moving towards one winner. It’s moving towards more choice, and customers are deciding what works for them purchase by purchase. For retailers, the advantage won’t come from having the longest list of payment options. It will come from knowing which ones their customers actually use, and why.

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