Research and reports: online payments industry
Explore insights from first-hand research on payments preferences and consumer behaviour, conducted by the Stitch team. Download our in-depth reports to learn more about the payments industry in South Africa, and across the globe.
Consumer perspectives South Africa: Online gaming
Like so many other parts of the economy, gaming and sports betting in South Africa are being transformed by the growing adoption of online platforms - which saw a large surge during the pandemic. Some forecasts indicate that the online sports betting market will be worth $350.5 million by 2028, with 3.6 million users.
We wanted to understand how South Africans view gaming and sports betting, what they look for when choosing a platform and how they prefer to make deposits or withdraw funds. We surveyed more than 300 respondents to provide an up-to-date perspective on the online gaming market in South Africa.
Download our report to view our findings below.
Consumer perspectives in South Africa: Insurance
Research shows that South Africa leads in sub-Saharan Africa when it comes to insurance adoption rates. Many people own a range of products and, as insurance businesses continue to develop more innovative solutions that better suit the needs of the population, and education around benefits becomes more widespread, adoption rates look likely to rise further.
We surveyed over 350 South Africans to better understand their attitudes and perceptions around the insurance industry, their reasons for choosing one provider over another and how they think about premium payments and claims payouts.
Download our free 2024 insurance report for more.
Consumer perspectives South Africa: Travel
As the travel sector grows in South Africa, consumers looking to travel more frequently, for both business and leisure. We conducted a survey of over 300 South Africans across a range of age and income cohorts to understand their perspective on online travel booking, including their plans for future travel, how they choose a booking platform, how they prefer to pay and what they expect from the travel experience.
What are the most popular booking platforms across all travel booking needs? How much are consumers spending on travel booking? What do consumers look for when choosing a booking platform?
Download our full 2024 travel sector report for more.
Consumer perspectives South Africa: E-commerce
Recent research indicates the penetration rate of e-commerce in South Africa is at around 49% and is forecasted to grow to 60% by 2028. We surveyed individuals that have made a purchase online in the last six months and found that those who do shop online are doing so frequently, and across categories.
How much do South Africans spend online? How do they prefer to pay? What are their favourite platforms? What do consumers look for when choosing where to shop?
Download our full 2024 e-commerce report for more.
Guide: Payments in South Africa – a look at the landscape
The payments landscape in South Africa is going through a period of rapid change, with new digital payment methods rising to prominence and a traditionally cash-based economy growing increasingly open to alternative ways to shop and pay.
No one can say for certain where things will go from here, but it is helpful to understand where we’ve come from and what the current landscape looks like.
We’ve created this overview of the payments ecosystem in South Africa, covering the history and current state of the landscape, as well as a glossary of key terms.
4 ways deposit-based businesses can increase retention
Deposits and top-ups into wallet- or digital account-based apps and platforms continue to soar globally. A 2022 survey from McKinsey showed the share of consumers globally that intend to use three or more digital wallets in the coming years rose from 18% in 2021 to 30% in 2022.
In this guide, we’ve looked at ways that deposit-based businesses can offer a more seamless digital payments experience.
How to improve subscription payments + make collections a non-event
South Africa’s subscription economy was worth $530M in 2022, and it's predicted to grow 14% per year to reach $820M by 2025. One of the biggest challenges these businesses face is managing consistent, fail-free recurring payments from their customers.
Here, we’ve outlined four ways subscription-based businesses can optimise collection rates and recurring payments processes.
4 ways to boost e-commerce revenue with a better checkout experience
As South African consumers become more familiar with shopping online, they’re becoming more discerning and demanding a better, more convenient purchase and e-commerce checkout experience. In a recent survey, we found that 63% of consumers in South Africa indicated they would choose where to shop based on the payments experience.
We’ve outlined four ways e-commerce businesses can improve their checkout experience, and how Stitch can help finance teams improve payments operations.
Consumer payments preferences in South Africa: perspectives on cash
In South Africa today, cash transactions still represent an overwhelming majority. Even though the banked population technically surpasses 85%, many still take out cash on a regular basis to conduct their daily transactions.
We recently surveyed consumers across South Africa that prefer to conduct transactions with cash to better understand their reasons for choosing this method and whether the ability to pay in cash would influence their adoption of digital solutions.
Download our 2023 cash report for more.
Consumer payments preferences in South Africa: perspectives on digital payments
Over the last few years, South Africa has seen a dramatic rise in online purchases, which continues to grow. The e-commerce market in particular is predicted to reach more than R400 billion annually by 2025, from more than 1 billion transactions.
We surveyed consumers in South Africa to better understand their online purchasing and payments preferences, reasons for choosing one app or platform over another and how they perceive new payment methods.
Download our 2023 report for more.
Launching a business in South Africa
From startup founders launching a business in South Africa for the first time, to scale-ups evaluating South Africa as their next market, to pan-African and global enterprises taking advantage of the market opportunity – a great understanding of the South African landscape is an essential first step in going to market.
The Stitch Launching a Business in South Africa Guide can be a helpful resource on this journey, alongside the South Africa Investment Guide from Briter Bridges and GIZ Make-IT in Africa, where you can find additional information on fundraising, the investment landscape and an investor directory.
