South African small businesses struggle to reach customers beyond their local market due to lack of access to major e-commerce platforms

86% of South African SMEs sell online but only 32% use major marketplaces, leaving them trapped in limited local markets with minimal growth potential. These businesses lack the logistics infrastructure, payment processing capabilities, and seller tools needed to compete on established platforms. Current solutions either don't exist locally or are prohibitively expensive, forcing SMEs to rely on basic websites that generate minimal sales.