Less than six weeks’ out from Black Friday, bigger retailers probably have their systems locked down and nobody wants to start rebuilding a checkout – but some of the things that cost merchants sales don’t require a total rebuild to fix.
The Online Retail in South Africa 2026 study by World Wide Worx, Mastercard and Peach Payments shows what is getting in the way.
Card declines are the biggest cause of abandoned carts, – cited by 61,2% of the 201 retailers surveyed. Shipping fees follow at 51,7%, compulsory account creation at 43,8%, and complicated checkouts at 40,3%.
“These aren’t necessarily technology problems, but they are friction points – and there’s still time to fix them – says Tracey-Lee Zürcher-Campbell, CMO at Payflex.
She offers the following four tips to retailers before Black Friday:
Shop your own checkout
When did you last buy something from your own website? Before Black Friday, do it properly. Use a smartphone and mobile data, work through the entire checkout and test every payment method – including what happens during authentication and when a payment fails.
Can customers switch payment methods without starting again? Only 42,8% of retailers currently offer that option.
“A failed payment doesn’t have to mean a lost sale,” says Zürcher-Campbell. “If the customer understands what went wrong and has another way to complete the purchase, you still have a chance to keep them.”
Offer the ways your customers already pay
South Africans now have more ways to pay online.
Cards remain important, but bank transfers, digital wallets and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) are all part of the mix. Yet only 36,8% of retailers surveyed offer digital wallets.
The proportion of retailers offering BNPL has grown from 15,9% of retailers in 2025 to 54,7% in 2026. The report notes that instalment options perform particularly strongly on purchases between roughly R800 and R8 000, where they can help with conversion and basket size.
“More payment options don’t automatically mean a better checkout,” says Zürcher-Campbell. “The important thing is giving customers the options that make sense for how they shop and what they’re buying.”
That means looking at what your customers already use, what suits your average basket size, and where another payment option could prevent a lost sale.
Let people buy without creating an account
Someone has found what they want, added it to their cart, and decided to buy. Don’t make them stop and create an account before they can pay.
Compulsory account creation is the third-biggest cause of cart abandonment reported by retailers – rising from 13,9% in 2025 to 43,8% this year.
If your platform allows guest checkout, make sure it is enabled. You can still invite customers to create an account after they have paid.
Don’t leave delivery costs until the end
Shipping fees are the second-biggest cause of cart abandonment, cited by 51,7% of retailers surveyed and up from 31,3% last year.
Customers shouldn’t reach the final stage of checkout before discovering what delivery will cost. Make delivery costs clear earlier, along with collection options, free-delivery thresholds, and Black Friday delivery cut-offs.
“You don’t need to rebuild your ecommerce site before Black Friday,” says Zürcher-Campbell. “Go through it as your customer would, find the points that make it harder to buy, and fix the ones you still can.”