Discover how smartphones are driving the evolution of retail in South Africa, with e-commerce surpassing R130 billion in 2025. Explore the innovations in AI, social commerce, and augmented reality that are transforming the shopping experience.
Image: Supplied.
Online commerce is no longer new to the South African market, with research from World Wide Worx indicating that ecommerce surpassed R130 billion in 2025 and captured close to 10% of total retail sales.
Smartphone users are driving a significant portion of that growth, with around 55% of users reporting that they use their phones to shop online.
However, we are still in the early phases of mobile commerce, with a range of innovations reshaping how South African consumers discover, evaluate and buy products and services. Social commerce, artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality are changing how people shop by offering them immersive new experiences and deeper personalisation.
Brands and retailers on the cutting edge are already weaving AI into their e-commerce apps and websites to improve personalisation and convenience for their customers. Pick n Pay’s revamped asap! app, relaunched in 2025, uses AI search that learns a customer’s shopping behaviour to offer smarter product suggestions and streamline the browsing experience.
In the next wave of AI-enabled mobile commerce, we will see AI assistants in retail apps or messaging platforms that can answer your questions about products, suggest alternatives when items are out of stock, and guide you through complex purchases in a natural text-based or voice conversation.
Generative AI assistants will be able to do more than personalise suggestions based on your shopping history.
They will be able to use info like your browsing behaviour, location, budget and questions you ask to provide suggestions and information relevant to your needs.
Browsing menus, catalogues and forms could be a thing of the past.
For example, if you are shopping for a dinner party, the AI assistant might be able to help you with recipes and a shopping list while you browse.
Or when you are shopping for winter clothing, you could receive personalised styling suggestions, size guidance and outfit combinations rather than a simple list of recommended products.
In time to come, AI agents could even become your own personal shoppers.
They could put goods in your cart, based on your instructions and product availability. Then, the AI could apply loyalty rewards or discounts and select a delivery slot based on your calendar. With your approval, it could complete checkout and payment.
Another trend altering how people shop is the rapid rise of social commerce – which is about buying products and services directly through apps like WhatsApp, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. It makes your life easier by allowing you to buy with a single click from an app you use every day rather than needing to open another site or app.
Today, many of us find products through content in feeds on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube Shorts or look for advice and recommendations from friends and family on Facebook. Plus, many of the small businesses and larger companies we interact with use WhatsApp as a service channel.
With social commerce, you can check out in seconds after receiving a WhatsApp promo from a trusted ecommerce business or seeing something interesting on a live stream or short-form video. According to World Wide Worx’s consumer survey, more than a third of South Africans have bought something from WhatsApp, so the trend is already gaining momentum.
Finally, AR is something that brands and smartphone manufacturers have spoken about for years. Now, it has finally evolved beyond a gimmick into a technology that enhances the shopping experience. According to a Deloitte report, 71% of shoppers say AR experiences would make them more likely to buy or shop more often.
AR overlays computer-generated information on a digital display such as a smartphone screen. Your phone camera captures your surroundings so AR apps can place digital images over what you see on the screen. When you’re shopping for expensive items like furniture or premium clothing, this helps you picture how a product will look before you buy it.
Some makeup and fashion brands let customers try products virtually by placing clothes or cosmetics on their own image. With furniture, you can see how a couch or table would look in your living room before making a decision.
One of the key factors bringing these experiences to life is the availability of powerful but affordable smartphones. Immersive retail experiences, like AR product visualization, real-time video streaming and on-device generative AI, are smoother and better when running on a device with ample processing power, graphics performance and camera quality.
Today’s mid-range smartphones now include capable AI processing units, stronger GPUs and high-resolution cameras. As these capabilities move down the price curve, richer experiences become accessible to more people. In South Africa, entry-level Android devices priced below R1,500 are rapidly closing the access gap.
We are moving towards a world of better AI, more immersive formats, invisible payments and people who trust mobile as a shopping channel. At TCL, we aim to continue pushing boundaries of what mobile devices can do, while ensuring that the latest innovations reach lower-cost devices as quickly as possible. We believe the real promise of mobile commerce lies in making it accessible to everyone.
Ernst Wittmann, TCL Regional Manager for Southern & East Africa and Global Operator Account Manager for Africa.
Ernst Wittmann, TCL Regional Manager for Southern & East Africa and Global Operator Account Manager for Africa.
Image: Supplied.
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