The future of in-person and omnichannel commerce in South Africa

South Africa’s retail landscape is converging: physical and digital commerce are no longer opposing forces but interdependent systems that shape one another’s success. 

At our recent Scale Summit, we hosted a panel titled The future of in-person and omnichannel commerce. Stitch CEO + Co-founder Kiaan Pillay was joined by Wessel Koch, Chief Executive of Commercial at Ackermans, Natalie Kelbrick, Head of Banking and Payments at Shoprite Group, and Dmitriy Anderson, CIO and Head of E-commerce at Leroy Merlin. 

The panel explored how retailers are navigating the convergence of online and in-person retail through payments, technology and customer experience. Here are some key takeaways.

Moving from channels to ecosystems

The distinction between “in-store” and “online” is fading. The future is less about channel migration and more about orchestration, ie. how to create one coherent brand experience that travels with the customer across touchpoints through a coherent ecosystem.

Retailers are no longer choosing between physical or digital investment. They are optimising both, recognising that most South African consumers will continue to blend their journeys: researching online, paying in-store, or purchasing in person and managing returns digitally.

Payments as the bridge between physical and digital

Across all three retailers, payments emerged as the linchpin of trust and inclusion.

For Shoprite Group, payments have been a central pillar of growth for Checkers Sixty60 and other online brands. The challenge has been balancing reliability (“Will it work?”), trust (“What happens when it doesn’t?”), and choice (“How do I get my money back, and on what terms?”).

Natalie Kelbrick, who leads digital payments for the Group, emphasised the importance of testing, iteration and learning: not assuming which customer segments will adopt new payment types but “being pleasantly surprised” by real-world uptake.

“We often think, ‘those customers won’t use Apple Pay,’ and then we’re pleasantly surprised. We use those learnings to roll it out across the Group.”
— Natalie Kelbrick, Head of Banking and Payments at Shoprite Group

At Ackermans, cash and lay-buy remain vital. Customers still find comfort in paying in person, often returning to the same cashier by name. But digital tools are being layered in gradually. Rather than forcing customers online, the company focuses on educating and offering choice, moving customers along the comfort curve.

“We’re not driving customers online or keeping them in store – we’re giving them the choice.”
— Wessel Koch, CEC Ackermans

Omnichannel in practice: design, data, and devices

The discussion illustrated three very different expressions of an omnichannel strategy:

• Shoprite’s “payments-first” integration, ensuring that online and in-store transactions feel seamless and trustworthy.
• Ackermans’ federated retail model, balancing autonomy across group brands while enabling digital transformation from the ground up.
• Leroy Merlin’s digital retail expansion, where an unlikely category – hardware – found surprising traction through mobile commerce.

Leroy Merlin’s Dmitriy Anderson explained how the company’s mobile app – South Africa’s first hardware mobile app – which launched despite internal skepticism, has delivered more growth than expected without cannibalising web sales. Customers are shopping from their phones at home. particularly outside working hours, driving new demand that the web channel alone could not reach.

Data as the foundation of modern retail

Each brand highlighted the critical role of data in maintaining consistency across physical and digital channels.

At Shoprite, data fuels decisions when it comes to payment optimisation, fraud detection and customer experience, tracking everything from when they see the most abandoned carts (on Fridays) to shifts in payment behaviour between Sixty60 and in-store checkouts.

Ackermans uses purchase and credit data to identify affordability needs, which has led to innovations such as its rapid launch of FoneYam, a mobile device financing product built in 16 weeks and adopted by over 2.5 million customers.

“If you hone in on solving a specific customer need with the data that backs it, you’re more likely to succeed.”
— Wessel Koch, CEC Ackermans

Leroy Merlin applies algorithmic personalisation, feeding customer and card data into tools such as Dynamic Yield to surface relevant products and offers. Beyond search, the company is experimenting with conversational AI, allowing customers to plan events like “a braai next weekend” through natural dialogue.

The messy middle: returns, refunds and reconciliation

Panelists agreed that returns and refunds remain a pain point across the industry.

For Shoprite, multi-banking and settlement processes create friction when refunds cross channels (e.g. an online order returned in-store). Slow interbank settlement cycles have forced Leroy Merlin to develop pre-authorisation workflows that allow instant reversals if orders are cancelled.

“Customers don’t care that it takes ten business days—they just want their money back.”
— Dmitriy Anderson, CIO, Leroy Merlin 

Inclusion and trust: the human element of omnichannel

Omnichannel success in South Africa is not just about technology. It is about trust, familiarity and human contact.

Ackermans’ insight that 70% of customers in rural stores know their cashier by name is a reminder that physical interactions remain core to the retail experience. Digital channels will grow, but they must preserve that sense of relationship and humanness with customers.

As load shedding, connectivity and economic volatility continue to shape behaviour, most retailers see omnichannel not only as a growth opportunity but also as a resilience strategy – a way to keep trading despite these obstacles.

Key takeaways

• Omnichannel is not a migration but a merger. Customers fluidly cross between physical and digital, expecting a single, coherent experience.
• Seamless payments drive trust. Reliability, transparency and flexible refunds remain central to adoption.
• Data must translate into empathy. Insights should simplify customer choices, not just increase precision.
• Technology must serve people. Mobile apps, AI and digital payments succeed when they reinforce confidence and convenience rather than replace human touch.‍
• Inclusion is an advantage. Retailers that build bridges across cash, credit, and digital ecosystems will reach more South Africans.

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Watch the full panel interview here.