Judge an eCommerce platform on three local tests before you look at templates. It must connect to a payment gateway your customers already trust, plug into couriers and pickup points that reach your buyers, and let you publish everything section 43 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act requires. Cost per sale matters more than the monthly fee.
Most advice on choosing an eCommerce platform is written for someone selling in Ohio. It never mentions that your buyer wants to pay by instant EFT, that your parcel is going to a PEP store in Mthatha, or that your checkout page carries legal obligations under an Act passed in 2002.
This is the machine you will work in every day for years, and migrating later is expensive because product data, customer records, order history and search rankings all have to move with you.
Fully managed platform or build it yourself?
A fully managed platform such as Shopify handles hosting, security patches, uptime and payment integrations for you. You pick a plan, choose a theme, load products and open. The trade off is a subscription in foreign currency, limits on customisation, and a rented foundation you do not own.
Self hosted WooCommerce on WordPress flips that. You control the code, the data and the hosting bill. In exchange you own the maintenance: updates, backups, plugin conflicts, malware scanning and performance tuning. If nobody enjoys that work, budget for someone who does, because an abandoned WooCommerce site becomes a security liability.
There is a third option people forget. Selling through an established marketplace lets you test demand with no site at all. Read How to Become a Seller on Takealot before you assume you need a storefront on day one. Many merchants run both: the marketplace for volume, their own site for margin.
Can it take the payment methods your customers actually use?
Card is not the only way people pay here, and a checkout that offers nothing else will lose you sales. Instant EFT, where the buyer picks their bank, signs in with their online banking credentials and approves the payment on their phone, is heavily used by shoppers who will not put a card number into a site they have not bought from before. Make sure your shortlisted platform has a maintained, official integration with the gateway you want, not a community plugin last updated three years ago.
Then look at the rate, because this is where your margin quietly goes. Payfast currently publishes a standard rate of 3.2% plus R2 per card transaction and 2% on instant EFT with a R2 minimum, both excluding VAT, and invites merchants averaging more than R50,000 a month to ask for custom pricing. Yoco publishes online card rates in a band of roughly 2.55% to 2.95% excluding VAT, with a small fixed amount per transaction on top and lower tiers that apply automatically as monthly volume grows. Rates move and higher volume usually earns a lower tier, so confirm the current number with the provider and check whether the quote includes VAT. Our rundown of the Best Payment Gateways for South African Businesses goes through the options. On one R400 basket the gap is small. Across a thousand orders it is real money.
What does the law require your checkout to show?
Section 43 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 lists what a supplier must make available on a website offering goods or services for sale. Among the items: your full name and legal status, physical address and telephone number, your registration number, place of registration and office bearers if you are a registered entity, a sufficient description of the main characteristics of the goods, the full price including transport costs and taxes, delivery timeframes, your return, exchange and refund policy, and your security procedures and privacy policy. The buyer must also be able to review the whole transaction, correct mistakes and withdraw from the order before finalising it. If you leave those duties out, section 43 lets the buyer cancel within 14 days of receiving the goods or services.
Section 44 gives the buyer a cooling off right. A consumer may cancel an electronic transaction without reason and without penalty within seven days after receiving the goods, or within seven days of concluding the agreement in the case of services. The only charge you may levy is the direct cost of returning the goods, and a refund must follow within 30 days of the cancellation. Section 42 puts a list of transactions outside these rules, among them customised or perishable goods, everyday foodstuffs delivered to a home or workplace, unsealed software and recordings, newspapers, magazines and books, auctions, financial services, and dated travel, accommodation and leisure bookings. Check where your own catalogue sits before you write the policy.
In practice your platform needs proper policy pages, a checkout that shows the total landed price rather than surprising the buyer with delivery at the last step, and an order review screen. Most serious platforms can do this, but the configuration is yours. Start with E-Commerce Return Policies Explained and How to Create Terms and Conditions for Your Website.
Does it connect to couriers and pickup points here?
Delivery is where local fit shows up most sharply. A platform built for the United States will quote a rate table that has nothing to do with moving a parcel from Germiston to Gqeberha.
Look for live rate integrations with national couriers, and for counter to counter or pickup point options. Pickup networks run out of retail stores let a customer collect near them, which is cheaper than a door delivery and works for buyers without a reliable street address. That one feature can change the economics of a low value line. Check too whether you can set rates by province or postal code, because outlying area surcharges will eat your margin if the checkout does not pass them on. Our Guide to E-commerce Shipping in South Africa covers the options.
What will it cost you per month and per sale?
Compare total cost of ownership, not sticker price: subscription, hosting, theme, the paid apps you will genuinely need, the gateway percentage, and any fee the platform charges on top of the gateway. Subscriptions billed in dollars also move with the rand.
Then plan for tax. The compulsory VAT registration threshold rose from R1 million to R2.3 million in taxable supplies over any twelve month period, effective 1 April 2026. The voluntary threshold moved at the same time, from R50,000 to R120,000. If you cross the compulsory line, your platform must show VAT inclusive prices and produce tax invoices with the required fields. Check that before you need it. Our Guide to Value-Added Tax (VAT) in South Africa explains where the line falls.
Will it still work at ten times your current volume?
Scalability is not only about server capacity. Ask what happens to your workflow at 50 orders a day rather than five. Can you bulk edit prices? Does it handle variants properly, so one product in four sizes and three colours does not become twelve listings? Can it manage stock across a shop, a warehouse and a marketplace without overselling? Test load speed on mobile too, since most traffic arrives on a phone.
How does it handle customer data and support?
Every order gives you personal information, and the Protection of Personal Information Act makes you responsible for it. Your platform should support a clear privacy notice, a record of what the customer agreed to rather than an assumption, restricted admin access for staff, and the ability to find, correct or remove a customer record when a valid request comes in. Deletion is not automatic, because tax and accounting rules oblige you to keep transaction records for years, so the practical answer is usually to remove marketing data and keep the invoice. Any plugin asking for access to your customer database is a decision, not a checkbox.
On support, the real question is what happens at 19:00 on a Saturday when checkout breaks mid promotion. Managed platforms usually include round the clock support in the fee. On a self hosted build, your support is whoever you have on retainer. Arrange that before you launch.
Frequently asked questions
Which eCommerce platform is best for a small business starting out?
There is no single winner. With no technical help and a need to sell within a week, a fully managed platform is safer. If you already run a WordPress site and have someone who can maintain it, WooCommerce makes sense.
Do I need to register a company before I can sell online?
You can trade as a sole proprietor. Section 43 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act still requires every online supplier to publish its full name and legal status, a physical address and a telephone number, and if you do register a company it adds your registration number, place of registration and the names of your office bearers. A registered entity also makes opening a business bank account easier.
Must I accept returns on an online order?
Usually yes. Section 44 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act gives a consumer seven days after receiving the goods to cancel without giving a reason and without penalty. You may charge the direct cost of returning the goods, and the refund must follow within 30 days of the cancellation. Section 42 exempts a defined list, including customised or perishable goods, everyday foodstuffs delivered to a home or workplace, unsealed software and recordings, books and magazines, auctions, financial services and dated bookings, so check whether what you sell falls inside it. Separate rights under the Consumer Protection Act, such as those covering defective goods, apply on top of this.
When do I have to register my online store for VAT?
Registration becomes compulsory once your taxable supplies exceed R2.3 million over any twelve month period, a threshold that increased from R1 million on 1 April 2026. Below that you may register voluntarily once your taxable supplies pass R120,000 over the past twelve months, which lets you claim input VAT on stock and platform costs. That voluntary threshold rose from R50,000 on the same date.
Is it better to sell on a marketplace or build my own store?
A marketplace gives you existing traffic and buyer trust, at the cost of commission and no direct customer relationship. Your own store gives you the margin, the customer list and the brand, but you must bring the traffic. Many merchants prove demand on a marketplace first, then build their own store.
Further reading
Originally published in November 2023. Updated September 2026 with current VAT registration thresholds, published payment gateway rates and the disclosure duties that apply to online stores. Gateway pricing changes often, is quoted excluding VAT and is usually tiered by volume, so confirm the rate directly with the provider before you sign up. This is general guidance, not legal or tax advice.
