How we see South Africa’s payments ecosystem changing in 2025

Instant, always-on payouts: enabling money movement 24/7, 365

One of the standout trends for us is the growing opportunity in omnichannel retail, where brands like Bash are seeing significant returns on their efforts to create a more unified and personalised experience for their customers.

We’re also working on a number of new things, from ways to improve our bank to bank payments solutions, to expansion into new areas of payment. There are plenty of exciting announcements in store for early 2025, so watch this space for the latest innovations in South Africa’s payments landscape!

In many instances, when it comes to payouts, the need for speed is paramount. For some businesses, such as travel booking platforms, the product or service is unable to be rendered until payments are sent to suppliers. 

Our recent consumer research in the insurance space found that 56% of consumers would be influenced to choose an insurance provider based on how easy it is to receive payment after a claim.

In the gaming space, payouts play an even bigger role. 78% of surveyed punters indicated that fast and easy withdrawals would influence where they choose to place their bets – with fast processing times as the number one indicator of a positive withdrawal experience.

Going into 2025, the ability to move money isn’t enough for enterprise businesses that want to scale faster. Quick, reliable and automatic payouts – available whenever a customer or client needs to access funds – can have a significant impact on business success, financial operations and customer satisfaction.

We first launched our Payouts solution back in 2022, soon after we announced our first pay-in method. Now, Stitch Payouts is one of the most reliable offerings in the market – offering 24/7, 365 service.

We can process payouts any day, anytime, over any payment rail available in South Africa. We automatically route each transaction using the optimal rail on the backend, depending on whether a business’ goal is to maximise speed or to reduce costs. 

Here’s how.

See Stitch Payouts in action: learn how Stitch and Jem have teamed up to make a tangible impact for over 120,000 employees through seamless payouts via earned wage access here.

How we see consumer perspective shifting in 2025

In October, we hosted the third Stitch Scale Summit, joined by speakers from Bash, OneDayOnly, Investec, Vitality Global, MultiChoice, SAB and many more.

The theme was all about the consumer: how their perspectives are changing, how they’re being influenced and the ways in which they consider where and how they spend their money. 

Here are some key insights that were shared, which we see playing out in South Africa’s payments ecosystem in 2025:

The rise of the omnichannel customer: 

“The omni customer is 5.5x more valuable than the customer who shops both channels [separately]. That’s a consequence of two things: a bigger basket size, and the annual order frequency. For omni customers that migrated from online to store, their subsequent in-store purchase is 2x any other store purchase.” - Luke Jedeiken, CEO, Bash 

Fintechs embracing the concept of a “cash and” economy: 

“The nature of being in a fintech means you are tech savvy, you are agile, you have consumer-driven products that you can do in a much shorter span of time. And you should leverage that advantage to enable the “cash and” economy.” 

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There is also an ongoing demand for human interaction and customer support in an increasingly digital shopping experience: 

“Yes, people want to have a frictionless digital experience. But you absolutely want to have a person at the other end of the line. We use our chat channels and in-store channels to make sure that we match people up with experts as quickly as possible.”

- Carlien Parsons, Head of Digital at The Travel Corporation

Check out the highlights of the 2024 Stitch Scale Summit here.

The next evolution in South Africa’s bank to bank payments space

South Africa’s bank to bank ecosystem has shifted once again, this time bringing the Pay by bank space into a world that more closely resembles card payments - meaning more convenience and security for end users, and a more standardised offering for merchants across banks.

As demand for instant, digital payments increases, traditional payment methods like card payments and manual EFT, which take longer to settle, are losing popularity. Request to pay (RTP) options like PayShap Request mitigate the uncertainty of delayed payments, including the additional costs accompanied with failed payments, disputes and fraud. 

Stitch is preparing to support enterprise merchants by offering a comprehensive suite of performance-driven services designed to navigate, orchestrate and optimise payments. We lead the way in Pay by bank solutions in South Africa, and are collaborating with the market’s leading banks that will be critical to bringing PayShap Request to life.‍

Explore what’s next in bank to bank payments.

Digital Wallets will continue to grow in popularity

In July, we launched our digital wallets solution to offer enterprise businesses in South Africa the ability to accept online payments via Apple Pay, Samsung Wallet and Google Pay – through one integration.

Enthusiasm for digital wallets and the use of them continues to grow, and they show no sign of stopping. A few months ago, Apple Pay launched for merchants on our sister platform, WigWag. Upon launching, 20% of card transactions became Apple Pay almost instantly – and card conversion grew from 77% to 94%, demonstrating both the high demand and high performance of this solution.

Get digital wallet payments for your business

Hitting the ground running 

We look forward to solving even more payments needs for the enterprises we work with, and finding new ways to enable more delightful experiences for South African consumers. Get in touch if you’d like to learn more about how Stitch can help your business optimise your payments stack.