The booming e-commerce sector is outpacing oversight, with rising buy-now-pay-later usage, limited credit visibility and unregulated online gambling creating systemic financial risks for consumers, according to Jason Sive, CEO of digital revolving credit facility Mobicred and e-commerce executive at RCS.
Sive said South Africa’s online retail market is on track to exceed R150bn and account for 12% of total retail turnover by 2027. Beneath that growth, however, are emerging risks linked to credit visibility, payment innovation and online gambling.
Over the years buy-now-pay-later has rapidly evolved from a niche e-commerce tool into a mainstream financial product, with the global market projected to reach about $560bn in transaction value in 2025, according to recent reports.
The growth is driven by offering interest-free instalments, low-friction digital access to credit and immediate gratification for consumers. However, Sive warned that the model presents structural challenges for lenders and regulators.
He said that lenders have no clear way of assessing how many buy-now-pay-later commitments a consumer holds, creating a blind spot in affordability assessments. For retailers, buy-now-pay-later also carries cost implications, as it is typically the most expensive payment method to accept.
“Buy-now-pay-later is credit. You are providing a delayed payment obligation to a customer. Many first-world countries have started to regulate it and South Africa will need to follow. You cannot have a situation where lenders have no visibility of a customer’s full credit obligations,” he said.
Alongside credit concerns, Sive highlights the rapid growth of online gambling as a largely unregulated risk within the digital economy, flagging it as a “grave concern”.
He said the structure of the industry reinforces its own expansion.
South Africans spent about R1.5-trillion on gambling in the 2024/25 financial year, an increase of R400bn compared with the previous year, according to the National Gambling Board’s annual report presented to parliament last year. Most of this money was spent on betting, which accounted for R1.1-trillion in wagers, far surpassing other forms of gambling such as casinos at R293bn.
“We know how many of our customers are gambling and gaming monthly, and most of the time, those are the customers who cannot afford to be. The online gambling model is self-reinforcing ― increased revenue drives more advertising, which drives more participation, which drives more revenue. Without intervention, that cycle does not stop," Sive said.
He compared this proposal to existing rules in other sectors, especially those governing advertising and sponsorship, and said similar limits should apply to gambling. He said players who represent national sports teams should be banned from endorsing gambling products, and this ought to be a firm and obvious line in regulation.
We know how many of our customers are gambling and gaming monthly, and most of the time, those are the customers who cannot afford to be.
— Jason Sive, CEO of digital revolving credit facility Mobicred
New risks for first-time online shoppers are being introduced by the trend towards digital payments. Even though the number of digital transactions is increasing, many customers are still susceptible to fraud, necessitating a balance between security and usability.
Sive said businesses must carefully strike a balance between making transactions simple and maintaining their security. This is as customers may give up if the process is too difficult, but they may be put at greater risk if it is too easy. Customers have demonstrated acceptance of additional security measures when they are well-understood, he said.
According to Sive, digital payment solutions are increasingly being layered into traditionally cash-based environments, contributing to a hybrid system where both payment types coexist. This includes the use of QR codes for transactions such as tipping, where cash previously dominated.
He said that as more consumers enter the online retail ecosystem, financial service providers have a responsibility to improve awareness of safe digital behaviour.
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