Capitec customers spend three times as much at Shein

Capitec customers spent almost three times as much through Chinese online retailer Shein’s platform on Black Friday this year compared with last year.

While South Africa’s retail sector continues to be driven by a big “mall culture”, consumers have been shifting some of their spend to online channels, looking for better deals, a wider selection from abroad and convenience, particularly in areas like groceries.

Like its rivals, South Africa’s largest retail bank by customers saw a big jump in online spending during this year’s Black Friday, with a 43% year-on-year surge to R1.6bn. In that, the bank revealed that its customers spent R92m on Shein, rising from R35m in 2024.

This was for the Friday and Saturday of the Black Friday weekend.

Over the same weekend, Standard Bank reported that its online spend volumes grew by 75%, contributing to 23% of total volumes.

Consumer electronics continues to be a major draw for people spending online.

Naspers-owned Takealot, which ran Black Friday deals from November 3 until December 1, said its top orders were for everyday grocery items and electronics drove transaction values.

The company detailed its top Black Friday products by gross merchandise value (GMV) as follows:

GMV refers to the total value of merchandise sold over a given period through a customer exchange site.

Standard Bank also noted a big jump on Cyber Monday, essentially the Black Friday equivalent for electronics.

The bank’s retail unit reported total transaction volume was up 15% and value up 17% compared with Cyber Monday last year.

Credit card values grew 20% while debit card values grew 16% on the day.

Its top categories on spending growth were:

Findings from the banks are in line with recent data by the Ecommerce Forum South Africa (Efsa), which reported that e-commerce in the country has grown from 1% to nearly 10% of retail sales in just five years.

The Efsa study, by the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (Mistra) in partnership with Takealot, shows South Africa’s e-commerce market is projected to grow to R130bn by year-end, representing nearly 10% of total retail sales, with the balance at brick-and-mortar locations.

For Capitec, physical store shopping grew 11% from last year, reaching nearly R7.7bn.

“Shoprite remains the clear market leader for in-store Black Friday spending in both years. Superspar moved up to second place in 2025, a spot held by Pick n Pay in 2024, which dropped to fourth this year. Checkers also saw more Black Friday foot traffic as it claimed third place in Capitec’s 2025 spending data. Boxer rounds out the top five Black Friday retailers among Capitec’s clients,” the bank said.