Practical guides on building, running and growing an online store in South Africa — Shopify and WooCommerce, local payment gateways, couriers, VAT and POPIA. Written by the team behind 400+ South African stores built since 2014, and grouped by Shopify, WooCommerce, B2B and growth.
How to cancel your Shopify subscription (and what to do first) The exact steps to cancel or pause your Shopify store — plus the things to sort out first so you don’t lose your data, your domain or your Google…
Is Shopify legit? An honest South African review (2026) Straight answer, no marketing spin: is Shopify safe and legitimate for a South African store — and is it actually worth it here? From a Shopify Certified Partner that has built…
South Africa · Industry·September 2026·7 min read Where SA eCommerce growth is actually coming from (five charts from our 2026 report) Online retail crossed R150 billion and broke 10% of total retail for the first time. But the aggregate number…
South Africa · Strategy·August 2026·8 min read I built a break-even calculator for SA stores. Here is the uncomfortable thing it revealed. Almost every store owner we ask can tell us their revenue. Very few can tell us how many…
WooCommerce · South Africa·September 2026·14 min read WooCommerce hosting South Africa: the honest 2026 guide Your host is the single biggest performance decision you make on a WooCommerce store, and it is the one most people get wrong by about…
South Africa · Legal·August 2026·9 min read The POPIA privacy policy your South African online store actually needs Most SA store privacy policies are copied from a US template, mention the GDPR, and would not survive a single question from…
We have built more than 400 stores since 2014, and run over 100 WooCommerce-to-Shopify migrations. The same nineteen things catch people out. Not exotic things – ordinary, boring, expensive things, learned in the wrong order. Each of these is a…
Most AI prompt lists you find online were written for American stores. They assume Stripe, they assume USPS, they assume a customer who has never heard of load-shedding or lay-by. Feed them to ChatGPT and you get copy that reads…
South Africa · Strategy·August 2026·12 min read How to sell clothing and fashion online in South Africa Fashion is one of the biggest and most competitive online categories in South Africa — and one of the trickiest to get right,…
South Africa · Shopify·August 2026·9 min read .co.za vs .africa vs .com: choosing the right domain for your SA online store Your domain is your store’s address and a quiet signal of who you are and who you serve. For…
South Africa · Strategy·August 2026·10 min read Load-shedding and your online store: keeping sales running when the power doesn’t One of the quiet advantages of selling online in South Africa: your store doesn’t switch off when the power does —…
South Africa · Strategy·August 2026·11 min read VAT for South African online stores: when to register and how it works VAT is one of the most misunderstood parts of running an SA online store — and getting it wrong, in…
South Africa · CRO & UX·August 2026·12 min read Returns, refunds & the Consumer Protection Act: what SA online stores must know South African customers have real, legally-protected rights to return goods — and a returns policy that ignores them…
South Africa · Strategy·August 2026·12 min read POPIA compliance for South African online stores: what you actually need to do If you collect customer names, emails or addresses — and every online store does — POPIA applies to you. It’s…
CRO & UX · South Africa·August 2026·11 min read Mobile commerce in South Africa: why mobile-first isn’t optional Most of your South African customers are shopping on a phone, often on mobile data, sometimes on a patchy connection. If your…
Marketing & Growth · Strategy·August 2026·12 min read How to drive traffic to a new online store: the channel playbook for SA stores “Build it and they will come” is the most expensive lie in ecommerce. A new store has…
Strategy · South Africa·August 2026·12 min read Dropshipping in South Africa: an honest guide (does it actually work here?) Dropshipping is sold as the easy, no-capital way to start an online store. The model is real and legitimate — but…
CRO & UX · Strategy·July 2026·13 min read Conversion rate optimisation: a practical guide for South African stores Doubling your conversion rate doubles your revenue without spending a cent more on traffic. CRO is the highest-leverage work in ecommerce —…
CRO & UX · Shopify·July 2026·11 min read How to write product descriptions that actually sell (and where AI fits) Your product description is your silent salesperson — it’s what closes the sale when no one’s there to answer questions.…
Strategy · South Africa·July 2026·12 min read The true cost of running an online store in South Africa (the full breakdown) Most people budget for building a store and forget what it costs to keep one running. Platform fees, payment…