Launched in 2013, with the rise of online shopping, Shopify has been dramatically gaining popularity in the eCommerce community, especially for SMEs. South Africa is not outside the world’s trend; more and more online businesses are born to serve the world’s online shopping habits.

However, does Shopify work in South Africa? – the most common question of South Africans who are ready to join the Shopify market. Want to know the answer? Scroll down and you will see!

Getting Started With Shopify in South Africa

Sign Up

Shopify is designed to allow you to sign up effortlessly and risk-free. To take the first step to the eCommerce business in South Africa, access Shopify.com and sign up for a Shopify account. Shopify comes with a free trial for businesses to test out the platform before deciding to go with a plan.

It is not obliged to use the free trial. Therefore, you can go straight to the next step – selecting the right plan for your business.

Can you access Shopify.com? Definitely yes. That’s the answer to the question, “Does Shopify work in South Africa?”.

Choosing a Plan

When you are ready to launch your business with Shopify, it’s time to stop the free trial and pick one of the monthly pricing plans to really kick off your journey. Consider carefully your needs and goals, transaction volume and identify features and functionality needed to determine the best plan that serves your goal. There are 4 available plans for you to choose from, including the Basic plan, Shopify plan, Advanced plan and Plus plan for companies at all sizes.

Set up a Theme

Think of your brand’s style, spirit, and characteristics to choose an appropriate theme and template for your online store. Shopify offers an extensive Shopify theme library for South African businesses to choose from, both free and paid, so you can browse the theme store, and pick the best one that aligns to your brand image.

For your consideration, here are some most-used themes (free and paid) in South Africa:

  • Dawn (free)
  • Craft (free)
  • Studio (free)
  • Taste (free)
  • Spotlight (free)
  • Prestige ($380)
  • Impulse ($400)
  • Eurus ($270)
  • Empire ($340)
  • Symmetry ($380)
  • …

Configure Settings

Shopify’s default setting mostly covers sections for businesses to add and change to build your appealing store. First things first, let’s complete the general settings!

  1. General Settings

General settings are all about editing your store’s primary information, such as store name, email address and store location.

  • Add account email to receive Shopify notifications
  • Add customer email to allow customers to email you through
  • Enter the legal name of your business, if any
  • Set your timezone and other information

Click “Save” to officially make changes to your settings.

  1. Checkout and Shipping Settings
  • Payment methods: To set up payment methods, go to Settings ⇒ Payments. Here, you can choose Shopify Payment or third-party payment providers. Debit or credit card methods such as PayPal, Apple Pay, Shop Pay are the most popular payment methods globally and in South Africa as well.
  • Currency: You will have to decide whether to sell in ZAR or USD in South Africa. Enabling multi-currencies to display pricing in a customer’s native currency automatically.
  • Security features: Request extra security features from purchasers, such as ZIP code or CVV verification.
  • Shipping options: From Setting, navigate to Shipping and Delivery ⇒ Add shipping zones for South Africa or international destinations => Select Shipping Method ( You can choose one or more from flat rates, free shipping, courier integrations, international shipping, local pickups, and real-time calculated shipping)
  1. Plans and Permissions Settings

A business can not be operated by a person, but a team. Therefore, Shopify lets store owners “Add staff accounts” to access different functions within the store based on the level of staff accounts. This helps streamline the operation and comprehensive control over the store performance.

4. Legal Settings

Ensure your Shopify store meets South Africa’s legal requirements, like Refund Policy, a Privacy Policy, and a Terms of Service (ToS) Agreement.

Adding Products

To begin adding products to your store, Click on Products and Add Product. Inputting all important information such as product title and description, high-resolution photos, collection, product tags, pricing, variants, and inventory.

Shipping

If your business model is dropshipping, set up “Price-based rates” so that the system can assign different shipping rates for different customers based on the amount of order, weight, delivery speed, and distance.

Consider offering free shipping for a minimum order value.  This will help encourage customers to buy more to reach the free shipping level, leading to an increase in average order value.

Another essential part of shipping in South Africa Shopify is shipping solutions, which means how you deliver products to customers’ doors. In South Africa, Shopify allows merchants to set up shipping options with carriers, such as The Courier Guy, SAPO (South African Post Office), or Preferred Couriers Providers. It’s also available for South African businesses to integrate shipping apps to enhance delivery like ReturnMagic, Afrigistics, Flow, and many more.

How Much Does Shopify in South Africa Cost?

You may begin by using Shopify for three days at no cost. After that, three months are available for just $1 a month. This is a good way to determine whether Shopify is a suitable fit for you before choosing a plan.

Shopify offers businesses 4 tiers of pricing plans, from basic to premium; each plan caters to different business requirements, budgets, and sizes:

  • Basic: 19 USD/month or 365 ZAR/month, card rates starting at 2% 3rd-party for payment providers, ideal for solo entrepreneurs.
  • Shopify: 49 USD/month or 365 ZAR/month, card rates starting at 1% for 3rd-party payment providers, built for a small team
  • Advanced: 299 USD/month or 5,600 ZAR/month, card rates starting at 0.6% for 3rd-party payment providers, designed for companies with extensive product catalogs
  • Plus: 2300 USD/month or 43,076 ZAR/month, tailored for large enterprises with advanced needs and complicated requirements.

Pros and Cons of Using Shopify in South Africa

Even though Shopify is an emerging trend, selling on Shopify in South Africa has its benefits and drawbacks. Here is a detailed breakdown of the pros and cons when using Shopify in South Africa to help you decide if Shopify is the right e-commerce platform that benefits your business.

Pros:

  • Easy to use, no coding needed with drag-and-drop tool
  • Wide range of app integration and built-in tools to enhance management and operation
  • Support both local and international payment gateways
  • High page speed, optimized for all devices, including mobiles
  • Support local and global markets with multi-currency (USD, ZAR) and multilingual
  • Support local shipping
  • Allow using .co.za domain

Cons:

  • Additional cost for premium themes and plugins
  • Advanced features require support from third-party apps
  • Require additional apps or custom setups for addressing VAT or South Africa-specific tax compliance
  • Limited out-of-the-box shipping options

Practical Tips for Using Shopify In South Africa

Offer local payment methods

Focusing on customers is the key factor to being successful in the South African eCommerce market, and the availability of local payment methods is a game-changer. Make sure to integrate popular payment gateways in South Africa such as credit cards, debit cards, EFT ,and some digital payments, such as SnapScan, Zapper, Apple Pay, and Samsung Pay.

Optimize for mobile devices

Mobile-friendliness is an inevitable element when it comes to shopping online, where most consumers use their phones to find, browse, and buy items, and South Africans are no exception. This means ensuring responsiveness and seamless navigation on the small screen is a must if you want to sell on Shopify and other online platforms as well.

To do that:

  • Select a responsive theme that matches your brand style and looks great on all devices, such as PC, tablets, laptops and mobile phones.
  • Upload high-quality images and videos and compress them without compromising the quality
  • Regularly test your store performance on different devices to ensure smooth navigation and seamless user experience.

Optimize local shipping options

Shipping can be a huge barrier for South African online shoppers, with long delivery times and high shipping costs being common issues. To address this problem, make sure to provide a faster and more affordable delivery experience for your customers and make them shop at rest.

Utilize Shopify apps and tools

What makes Shopify stand out from other eCommerce platforms is its extensive ecosystem with tons of apps and tools to combat diverse business needs and requirements in every aspect, from marketing to analysis, inventory management, customer management, order management, and so on. These toolkits play a role as a practical weapon that helps you to optimize operations, stay competitive, and expand your business.

Top Shopify apps are most used in South Africa:

  • Shopify Inbox
  • Judge.me Product Reviews App
  • Product Reviews
  • Mailchimp: Email & SMS
  • Instafeed ‑ Instagram Feed
  • Klaviyo: Email Marketing & SMS
  • Omnisend Email Marketing & SMS
  • Shopify Forms
  • PushOwl/Brevo: Email,Push,SMS
  • Geolocation

Successful Shopify Stores in South Africa

Crocs South Africa

Established in 2002, through over 20 years, Crocs is now renowned as one of the most popular footwear brands in the world. Celebrating comfort, style, and innovation, each Crocs product is made from Croslite material, which creates lightweight, durable, and supportive shoes. It’s recorded that there are about 500,000 visits monthly to the Crocs website and the monthly revenue ranges from $501,000 to $1 million.

Crocs’s team also enters detailed product descriptions, sizing guides, and product counts to offer customers an informed shopping experience. Taking Shopify’s advantages of streamlined checkout, flexible payment methods, and great customer support, Crocs South Africa always maintains a prominent online presence with scalability and smooth performance, which cements the brand’s success in South Africa’s e-commerce space

PLANTIFY

Plantify is a South African brand specializing in gardening products such as indoor plants, planters, gardening accessories, lifestyle and homeware products. No matter what you are looking for, a tree for your working corner or stylish pots, visiting PLANTIFY will help you find all your gardening needs.

PLANTIFY’s website embraces a sense of freshness, relaxation, and environment, aligning with their values. They enrich the customer shopping journey with rich-information product pages, care instructions, and plan suggestions tailored to characteristics, lifestyles, and desires, making customers cultivate a green thumb.

Ackermans

Currently, Ackermans is one of South Africa’s top retailers providing value-for-money products. Founded in 1916, Ackermans has become a household name, serving the various needs of South African families. From clothing to footwear and accessories, for men, women, and kids/free, and home essentials, this brand has it all!

On the other hand, the Ackermans site is the epitome of convenience and simplicity. Visitors can move seamlessly through organized categories, detailed product descriptions, and awesome online-only deals. With the commitment to bring high value to customers without compromising quality, the brand’s consistency is to focus on affordability and accessibility, making them the first choice of South African families.

Conclusion

Does Shopify work in South Africa? Now you have the answer. Shopify provides South African eCommerce businesses with a powerful platform to build, manage and grow an “online empire.” The perfect combination of speed, versatile options, and robust features, Shopify empowers South African entrepreneurs with opportunities to reach a wider audience, expand their growth, compete with global companies, and thrive in this bustling e-commerce landscape.

Open your mind, choose a plan, and start your path to success!