From WhatsApp and Instagram orders to an online shop: a South African guide.

Many South African small businesses start by selling on WhatsApp and Instagram. A customer sees a post, sends a message, you reply with a price, they pay by EFT and send proof of payment, and you book a courier. It works for the first few orders a day. Then it starts to eat your evenings.

This guide helps you decide when to start an online shop, what to set up first so you do not overspend, and how the main options compare in rand. It also covers payments, couriers and keeping WhatsApp for support. Every figure comes from the provider's own page and was checked in October 2026.

Signs you have outgrown selling on WhatsApp

You need a shop when the manual work costs you sales or sleep. Look for these signs:

• You answer the same questions all day. "Is this still available?", "What sizes?", "How much is delivery to Durban?"
• You lose track of who paid. Matching proof of payment screenshots to bank statements takes hours, and a fake one can slip through.
• You oversell. Two people buy the last item because stock lives in your head.
• Orders wait while you sleep. A customer messages at 22:00, gets no reply and buys elsewhere.
• You cannot step away. If you are sick for a day, sales stop.
• Instagram decides who sees you. Your reach depends on the app, and you do not own your followers.

If two or three sound familiar, it is time to plan the move from Instagram to an online store. It does not have to happen in one step.

The middle step: a WhatsApp Business catalogue and payment links

Before you pay for a full shop, you can cut a lot of the back and forth with tools you may already have.

Set up a WhatsApp Business catalogue

The WhatsApp Business app has a catalogue built in. WhatsApp's help centre explains that you add each item from the Tools tab with up to 10 photos or videos, a name, and an optional price, description, link and product code. WhatsApp reviews each item before it shows. You can list up to 500 products or services, according to the About catalog page, and share a link to one item or the whole catalogue.

Put that link in your Instagram bio and your replies, so customers check prices and photos themselves. Set greeting and away messages too, so late-night customers get a reply.

Send payment links instead of bank details

A payment link lets a customer pay by card or bank on their phone, and tells you when the money is in. No more checking screenshots.

• Yoco. Yoco's payment link page says links are made in the Yoco app, need no website and can be sent on WhatsApp. Its online payments page lists 2.55% to 2.95% per online payment, before VAT, with no monthly fee.
• PayFast. PayFast's fees page lists a Payment Request feature, with cards at 3.2% plus R2.00 and Instant EFT at 2.0% (minimum R2.00), before VAT, and no monthly fee.
• Ozow. Ozow's pricing page lists payment request links, with bank payments at 1.5% and local cards at 2.85%, each with a R1.00 minimum. A request sent by WhatsApp costs R0.35. The page does not say whether these include VAT.

A catalogue plus payment links often buys a few more months. When you still cannot keep up, you need a shop that takes orders without you.

Your main options compared

Shopify

Shopify is a hosted shop builder: you pay monthly and Shopify handles hosting, security and updates. Shopify's South African pricing page lists Basic at US$25 a month, or US$19 billed yearly, and Grow at US$65 a month, or US$49 billed yearly. You pay in US dollars, so the rand cost moves with the exchange rate.

Shopify Payments is not available to South African businesses, so you connect a local provider such as PayFast or Yoco, and Shopify adds its own fee per sale: 2% on Basic and 1% on Grow. Our guide to taking payments on Shopify in South Africa compares the providers in detail.

Good fit for: sellers who want to launch quickly and not worry about hosting.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a free plugin that turns a WordPress website into a shop. WooCommerce's pricing page says the core is free, with no monthly subscription and no share of your sales. You pay for hosting, which it puts at US$25 to US$350 a month for most stores, and for paid extensions, at about US$29 to US$299 a year each.

You own everything and pay no platform fee per sale. The trade-off is that someone has to keep WordPress, plugins and backups up to date.

Good fit for: businesses that already have a WordPress site, or want full control and have someone to look after it.

Takealot Marketplace

Selling on Takealot puts your products in front of a large audience without building a shop. The trade-off is that the customer belongs to Takealot, and you compete on price next to other sellers.

Takealot's help centre lists a monthly subscription, a success fee charged as a percentage of the VAT-inclusive selling price that varies by category, fulfilment fees per item shipped from its warehouse, and storage fees if stock sits too long. We could not confirm the current subscription amount on a public Takealot page, so check it on the Sell on Takealot page and run the Fee Estimator in the Seller Portal before you apply.

Good fit for: products people already search for by name, with margins that can carry the fees.

Yoco

At the time of writing, Yoco does not sell a shop builder of its own. Its gateway page says it plugs into Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix and Shopstar. If you already use a Yoco card machine at markets or a counter, using Yoco online keeps all your sales in one place.

Good fit for: businesses that sell in person and online and want one provider for both.

Payments: what to offer

Offer card and at least one form of instant EFT, because some shoppers would rather pay straight from their bank. PayFast and Ozow both offer bank payments, and you can run two providers side by side.

Before you choose, add up the fees on three real orders: a small one, a typical one and a large one. A fixed R2.00 per payment matters more on a R150 order than a R1,500 one.

Couriers, lockers and pick-up points

Delivery cost often decides whether someone finishes checkout. Offer a cheap option and a fast one.

• The Courier Guy offers door-to-door delivery and Pudo parcel lockers, now listed on The Courier Guy's website. There is a Courier Guy Locker app in the Shopify App Store. Rates depend on your account, so ask for a quote.
• Pargo has more than 4,000 pick-up points in stores around the country, with plugins for Shopify and WooCommerce. Rates are on request.
• PAXI runs from more than 2,800 PEP and Tekkie Town stores. PAXI's business page lists a standard bag, up to 5kg, at R59.95 for 7 to 9 business days or R109.95 for 3 to 5 business days, store to store.

Keep WhatsApp as your support channel

A shop does not mean leaving WhatsApp. Use it for what it does best:

• Put a WhatsApp chat button on every product page for sizing and stock questions.
• Keep the catalogue, but link each item to its page on your shop.
• Reply to Instagram DMs with a link to the product, not a price list.

The shop handles the sale. WhatsApp handles the relationship.

A quick word on POPIA

A shop collects names, phone numbers and addresses, and POPIA applies to that personal information wherever it lives. Your shop needs a privacy policy that says what you collect and why. Section 69 of POPIA says marketing by SMS, email or other electronic message needs consent, except to existing customers, for your own similar products, who were given a free chance to opt out. Every marketing message must say who it is from and how to opt out. The Information Regulator oversees POPIA. This is general information, not legal advice.

What to do next

1. Count your orders and the hours you spend on them each week.
2. If you are not ready for a shop, set up the WhatsApp catalogue and payment links this week.
3. If you are, pick a platform and work through our Shopify launch checklist, which puts each step in order.
4. Test a full order, payment and delivery yourself before you tell your followers.

If you would like help, we set up Shopify shops for South African sellers, with local payments and couriers connected and tested. You can reach us on the contact page.