By: Natasha Archary

Despite concerns regarding how safe it is to shop for clothing on online stores such as Shein and Temu, South Africans are still shopping for clothing online.
This according to Tumelo Ramugondo, Head of Cedit Card at Standard Bank who joined Gugulethu Mfuphi on Kaya Biz sharing that online fashion sales in 2024 continues to grow.
“Most of the data that I look at has to do with credit cards, but I also have sight of all the spend that happens on debit cards as well.
There are always small differences between the credit and debit data, especially when it comes to larger purchases, but overall the trends are similar.
Most customers tend to use credit cards as a “rainy day” card, so when I’m short of spend then I will pull it out.
But, over the past 3-years there are some customers who will use their credit cards for rewards purposes, because credit cards comes with very good benefits whether it’s in the form of discounts or 0% interest.
So, because of this perspective a lot more customers are using their credit cards for day to day purchases, which they pay off at the end of the month so they don’t pay any interest.”
Tumelo shares that while the country’s economy is volatile, South Africa’s digital economy is continuing to show growth at a remarkable rate.
According to Tumelo there’s over 100% growth in online shopping for clothing, but it’s cheaper items at higher volumes.
With more South Africans looking to stretch their purse strings, online stores like Shein and Temu offer high fashion items for a fraction of the price of local or international brands.
Listen to the conversation on Kaya Biz:
Also read: Discussion: Is there such a thing as not being black enough?



