First, do you actually need a full online store?
Before you build anything, be honest about what you are selling and how. Not every business needs full e-commerce:
- A few products, low volume → you might start by selling over WhatsApp with a catalogue and a PayFast payment link. No store required.
- A growing range, regular orders → a proper online store earns its keep: product pages, a cart, checkout, stock and delivery.
Starting smaller and upgrading later is completely valid — and cheaper than building a big store you are not ready to run.
Choosing a platform
The main routes in South Africa:
- Shopify — polished, hosted, quick to launch; a monthly fee plus transaction costs. Great if you want to get going fast and need nothing unusual.
- WooCommerce (WordPress) — flexible and you own it, but you (or someone) has to host, secure and maintain it.
- A custom or purpose-built store — for when your product, pricing or workflow does not fit the templates, or you want it fast, distinctly yours and built to rank.
There is no single right answer — it depends on your range, budget and how much you want to manage yourself.
Taking payments
To accept cards and instant EFT in South Africa, you will use a local gateway — PayFast, Yoco, Peach Payments or similar. They handle the card processing and pay out to your bank, taking a small percentage per sale. Set this up early; it is often left too late.
Delivery and fulfilment
Work out delivery before you launch, not after the first order:
- Couriers like The Courier Guy, Pudo (locker-to-locker), PostNet and Aramex are common for small stores.
- Decide on flat-rate, per-area or free-over-a-threshold delivery, and build it into your prices.
- Be clear about delivery times on the site — uncertainty loses sales.
What it really costs
Roughly, in Rands, to start:
- Domain: ~R150–R300 a year.
- Platform: from ~R0 (WooCommerce, plus hosting) to a Shopify monthly fee; hosting for self-managed stores from a few hundred Rand a month.
- Payment gateway: usually no monthly fee, around 2–4% per transaction.
- Build: from a tidy DIY setup to a professionally built store — a wide range, so get a written quote.
The honest truth: the store is the easy part. Photos, descriptions, pricing, delivery and actually driving traffic are where the real work is.
Common mistakes
- Building a big store before validating that people will buy.
- Forgetting delivery and payment costs, then having no margin.
- Poor product photos and thin descriptions.
- No plan to drive traffic — a store nobody visits sells nothing.
Where we come in
We help South African businesses start selling online without overspending — from a simple WhatsApp-and-PayFast setup to a full custom store, matched to what you actually need. Tell us what you want to sell and you will get a clear, written quote in Rands within one working day.