Automation drives ecommerce gains in South Africa.
South Africa’s e-commerce sector recorded strong growth in 2025, with order volumes across all channels increasing by 47% year-on-year (YOY), according to a new report by e-commerce marketing platform, Omnisend.
The report is based on an analysis of nearly 3 000 South African e-commerce platforms, drawing on data from social commerce, online marketplaces, brand-owned websites, emails, SMS messages and push notifications sent in 2025.
Despite a significant increase in online order volumes, the report found that the growth was unevenly distributed, with a small group of high-performing e-commerce brands capturing a disproportionate share of demand.
The top 5% of best performing businesses accounted for 44% of total order growth during the year, highlighting increased concentration within the market.
Omnisend attributes this trend to changes in shopper behaviour and marketing performance.
While consumers engaged less frequently with digital marketing messages, they were significantly more likely to convert when they did. This placed greater emphasis on timing and relevance, benefiting brands that could respond quickly to customer behaviour through automation.
According to the data, behaviour-based automated emails generated 30% of total email revenue, despite accounting for only 3.9% of total email sends.
“What we saw in 2025 reflects broader economic conditions – growth returned, but it was not evenly shared,” says Marty Bauer, e-commerce expert at Omnisend. “Consumers remained cautious after years of financial pressure, making more deliberate purchasing decisions. Brands that could react quickly to customer intent were better positioned to capture that demand.”
On a global front, the Omnisend report analysed e-commerce performance across and 150 000 brands globally, drawing on data from 27 billion emails, 321 million SMS messages and 458 million push notifications sent in 2025.
Global e-commerce order volume growth didn’t arrive all at once in 2025. It built steadily over time.
The report found YOY worldwide growth climbed from 82% in Q1 to a peak of 146% in Q4, before settling at 98% for the year overall. This reflects total e-commerce orders across all sales channels, not just revenue attributed to Omnisend messages.
At the same time, that growth became increasingly uneven. Nearly six in ten brands increased their order volume during the year, which suggests that many global businesses were moving in the right direction. But strong market-level growth masked a different reality at the brand level.
Bauer adds: “The report reflects a year where ecommerce looked exceptionally healthy from a distance, but far more competitive up close. Growth didn’t disappear, but surely it was more concentrated. Brands that found traction early and were able to react quickly to customer behaviour accelerated faster, while many saw smaller, incremental gains that didn’t reflect the headline numbers.”
Marty Bauer, e-commerce expert at Omnisend.
Fewer clicks, higher intent
Omnisend’s marketing performance data shows that product quality increasingly outweighed volume for South African e-commerce brands. Although click rates declined, the value of each interaction rose sharply, signalling stronger purchase intent among engaged shoppers.
Click rates measure how often users click on links in ads, emails, or website content,
Year-on-year figures for South Africa show average revenue per email increased by 43%, from 66 cents to 99 cents, while email click-to-conversion rates almost doubled, rising from 6.09% to 11.99%. Over the same period, overall email click rates fell by 29%.
Email revenue in e-commerce is the direct income generated from sales driven by email marketing campaigns, including newsletters, promotions, and automated messages.
“Clicks became harder to secure in 2025, but they were far more valuable,” Bauer notes. “Consumers were more selective, and when they engaged, they were ready to buy. This rewarded brands that prioritised relevance and efficiency over message volume.”
Automation drives outsized returns
The report indicates that the fastest-growing South African e-commerce brands made extensive use of automated, behaviour-based marketing to engage customers at critical moments in the buying journey.
Automated emails generated 30% of total email revenue, compared to just 3.9% of sends. Revenue per automated email was R16.43 significantly higher than the R0.99 generated by scheduled campaigns.
Automation also delivered stronger conversion performance across channels. Automated email click-to-conversion rates reached 26.8%, compared to 11.99% for scheduled emails. Similar trends were observed for SMS and push notifications, where automated messages consistently outperformed scheduled communications.
Click-to-conversion rate measures how effectively clicks on an ad or link turn into desired actions.
“Automation works because it responds to existing customer intent rather than interrupting it,” says Bauer. “In an environment where attention is limited and choice is abundant, timely and relevant messaging proved far more effective.”
