South Africans have new payment preferences

Our latest research report, The 2025 South Africa Consumer Payments Report, shows that more South Africans are increasingly willing to try new and alternative payment methods, from digital wallets like Apple and Google Pay, to Pay by bank and even crypto. Forward-looking enterprises are moving quickly to offer these payment options, recognising that a slow or clunky checkout experience can lead to abandoned carts and lost revenue.

In this blog, we unpack the payment methods gaining traction and practical ways to avoid common pitfalls when expanding your payment methods.

South Africans are ready to pay differently

While cash and card payments still dominate, over 90% of respondents say they have tried a new or alternative payment method in the past year. 

Digital wallets: Over 70% of our respondents have used digital wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay, up from 54% the previous year. One in five use these frequently or always to pay. 

Merchants that adopt Apple, Google and Samsung Pay, especially for online payments, could see increased basket sizes, as adoption is often higher among high-income earners. Additionally, they can improve success rates and processing speed, as seen with data from one of South Africa’s largest online retailers. 

When an enterprise retail client launched Apple Pay with Stitch, over 33% of orders from iOS users were paid with Apple Pay from day one, growing to 40% within two weeks. Apple Pay also outperformed traditional card payments, with conversion rates exceeding 90% and 95% of transactions processed within five seconds of initiation. 

Pay by bank: Nearly 50% of South Africans surveyed have used Pay by bank or Capitec Pay for the first time in the last year. The demand is reflected in Capitec’s financial results - Capitec Pay’s net income grew by 89%.

With 84% of adults holding a bank account, the growing use of bank-led alternative payment methods reflects rising consumer trust in their banks and demand for real-time payment options. Merchants are incentivised to support Pay by bank as well. Bank to bank payments provide merchants with the chance to protect their revenue by reducing card processing fees and chargebacks, with faster settlement times. 

Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL): 45% of those surveyed indicated they have used BNPL at least once. Often used to purchase larger ticket items that consumers cannot afford upfront, BNPL is effective for merchants looking to convert higher cart values, especially in the retail space.

Crypto: A third of respondents say they have used crypto to pay for daily purchases. Major retailers can leverage crypto payments to reach a wider audience and position themselves as innovative leaders in the space, as seen with Pick n Pay. After making Pay with crypto available as a payment method across their stores, the retailers saw over R1 million per month in sales made via this method within a year. 

Despite growing adoption of these payment methods and others, expanding your payment offering isn’t without risks. Without the right safeguards, new methods can introduce friction, erode trust or even push customers away. From our research, consumers avoid new payment methods due to fears around fraud, poor user experience, unfamiliar providers and ultimately lack of access.

Pitfalls of adopting new payment methods

According to SABRIC, banking app fraud accounts for 60% of all digital banking crimes, and Card Not Present (CNP) fraud accounts for 68% of total card fraud. As a result, consumers have likely been burned by fraudulent online payments and are naturally suspicious of checkout processes that ask for personal or sensitive information. 

While it may seem that asking fewer questions will improve conversion, that doesn’t mean that consumers are willing to sacrifice security for speed, even if it means going through extra steps to authenticate a payment. When given the choice, over 90% of respondents said they would prefer to use biometrics or passkeys to approve a payment rather than not.

Beyond fraud concerns, 25% avoid new methods due to perceived high fees and poor UX, while 18% say they simply don’t understand them. Significantly, 45% of consumers will not complete a payment if they don’t recognise the provider. That means for businesses, brand familiarity plays a critical role in building trust online.

Secure payment methods your customers will use

To overcome these adoption challenges, enterprises need more than a wide range of payment methods; they need the right partner to secure them. Partnering with a payment gateway that offers strong fraud prevention, secure payment options and seamless UX is the quickest way to future-proof your payments stack.

Stitch is built with enterprise payments in mind. With Stitch Shield embedded into every transaction, businesses get ironclad fraud protection without sacrificing speed or experience. Features like Dynamic 3D Secure (3DS) intelligently apply authentication only when risk is detected, helping reduce fraud without hurting conversion. Stitch is also PCI DSS Level 1 certified, ensuring card data is handled according to the highest global security standards. Combined, these tools give you the trust, control and protection needed to confidently scale your payments offering.

‍