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3 big emerging commerce developments South African brands need to know about right now
The world of commerce is evolving at an overwhelming rate, with new channels, new tech, new opportunities, and while it is an exciting time to be a retail brand, it is also a confusing one. But there are only three big emerging commerce developments that South African brands need to know about right now.
Lebo Moerrane is VML’s head of digital and social media says there are only three big emerging commerce developments that South African brands need to know about right now (Image supplied)
In the 2025 edition of the Tomorrow’s Commerce report, VML’s team of global commerce experts make sense of the chaos by identifying 25 trends they believe are most likely to influence the future of commerce around the world in years to come and providing practical advice for businesses looking to get on top of them.
Top three trends
Here are three TLDR highlights that South African brands should take note of right now.
- Customers want some humanity with their tech
With AI-powered search, one-click purchasing, and lightning-fast delivery becoming the norm, the future of commerce is hurtling towards hyper-efficiency, moving customers from inspiration to purchase faster than ever.
We call this Compressed Commerce. However, this relentless focus on functionality risks stripping the joy out of shopping. Consumers crave engaging and entertaining shopping experiences, not just frictionless transactions.
At their core, consumers are human beings who want to be entertained, not just served.This desire for engagement presents a significant opportunity for brands – online and offline.
Globally, 64% of consumers surveyed find online shopping uninspiring and an equal percentage wish brands and retailers would make the online shopping experience more entertaining.
For generations, shopping has been a social experience – a pastime, mood boost, or way of connecting with friends and family.
As the world becomes increasingly automated, brands must find ways to inject creativity and playfulness into the digital shopping journey and build deeper emotional connections.
In China, brands are going high-tech with interactive product configurators, personalised AR experiences that blur the lines between physical and digital, and gamified loyalty programmes.
Of course, there’s already a thriving intersection between humanity and technology that is playful, engaging, and built on connection, and yet remains largely untapped – social media.
- The future of digital commerce is social
Social media dominates digital behaviour in nearly all areas, but until now, there has been one glaring exception: the realm of commerce.
With 94.5% of the world’s five billion-plus internet users on social media, social media represents the largest ready-made consumer market in history – and that’s across all consumer groups, not just Gen Z and Alpha.
Social commerce is growing steadily on a global scale and makes up only 6% of online purchases in SA.
Yet even with that modest percentage, it’s already proving extremely lucrative and is expected to grow exponentially by 2028In South Africa social commerce has created possibilities for small businesses.
We have seen the rise of the ‘Instagram boutique’, where small business owners are hacking social commerce and are combining multiple tools – like WhatsApp for customer service, Instagram to build advocacy and awareness, and partnering with small courier companies and even Uber Connect to get their products in the hands of consumers.
Social commerce is allowing primarily young people in SA a way of participating in the economy and the growing e-commerce market as a whole.
While South African brands contend with issues such as building consumer trust, ensuring data protection, and creating seamless shopping experiences within social media platforms, more mature markets are starting to explore the potential that social commerce brings.
Social commerce is evolving past the ‘buy now’ button on images or video content, it’s getting experiential.
Live stream shopping on platforms like TikTok means brands can leverage impulse purchase behaviour like never before; with shoppable AR filters, brands can drive digital sampling and implement a digital fitting room, allowing you to try on those shoes or that shade of lipstick all from your phone.
Local brands could be leveraging WhatsApp better. It’s the most widely used app in South Africa, but brands underutilise its business API, automated responses, and in-chat shopping.
Companies that personalise their WhatsApp experience with product recommendations and frictionless payments will gain a competitive edge.
Other opportunities include developing partnerships with established e-commerce players and leveraging community commerce through influencers and peer-to-peer communication.
Another underutilised opportunity is AI-driven personalisation to create the right piece of creative for the right customer at the right time as well as optimise in real time.
- Optichannel is the new omnichannel
Tech-fatigued consumers are increasingly seeking refuge from digital overload, creating a market for experiences that prioritise real-world engagement, relationships and mental well-being.
One of the leading tenets of business is to be where your customers are. But while new opportunities and approaches emerge seemingly every day, many brands and retailers would be wise to focus rather than fragment their efforts.
The concept of "omnichannel" – aiming for presence on every available marketing channel – is difficult to achieve since few businesses have the resources to be omnipresent across channels.
47% of brand leaders surveyed agreed there are too many channels for them to manage effectively.
The future belongs to "optichannel" marketing. Defined by strategic channel selection and personalised customer journeys, it’s a more focused, strategic, and pragmatic approach – you optimise around the channels that make the most sense.
This means making deliberate choices about where to engage consumers, not simply trying to be everywhere.
It also marks a new level of personalisation, using data to understand each customer’s preferences and context so deeply that brands can deliver the right message at the right time on the right channel.
Technologies like AI promise to make this incredibly granular level of engagement and delivery feasible, both logistically and cost-wise.
Ultimately, the brands that will succeed in the commerce environment of tomorrow are those that can deliver the efficiency and convenience that tech enables with the humanity that customers still crave.
About Tomorrow’s Commerce 2025Tomorrow’s Commerce draws on data from The Future Shopper and Future 100 studies, plus the brainpower of VML experts worldwide. Unless otherwise stated, key statistics presented are based on The Future Shopper 2024 survey, an independent global survey canvassing the opinions of 31,500+ consumers across 19 markets.
Download the full report here.
About Lebo Moerrane
Lebo Moerrane is VML’s head of digital and social media.Related
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