Guides · 31 October 2026 · Shop Simply
What it really costs to start an online shop in South Africa (2026)
The short answer
For a small South African shop selling a physical product, the costs that matter are:
- The platform's monthly fee.On Shop Simply that's R89 a month, after you build your shop free for 60 days.
- Whether the platform also takes a cut of your sales. Some do, on top of the monthly fee. Shop Simply never takes a cut of your sales.
- Card fees, if you take cards. Paystack charges 2.9% + R1 per card payment and Payfast 3.5% + R2. Instant EFT is 2% on either.
- Nothing extra for bank transfer. The money goes straight into your own bank account.
- Delivery, which your customer pays as part of the order.
Everything else (a domain, photos, a designer) is optional when you start.
1. The platform fee, and the fee hiding behind it
Compare two numbers, not one: the monthly fee, and any percentage the platform takes of what you sell. A platform that takes a percentage costs you more every time you sell more, so the cheaper-looking plan can turn into the dearer one.
The sum is simple. If a platform takes 2% of your sales and you sell R6,000 in a month, that's R120 on top of its monthly fee.
On Shop Simply there is one plan. You build your shop free for 60 days, then it's R89 a month, and we never take a cut of your sales.
2. Payment fees: cards, instant EFT and bank transfer
Card payments go through a payment provider, which charges per payment:
| Card | Instant EFT | |
|---|---|---|
| Paystack | 2.9% + R1 | 2% |
| Payfast | 3.5% + R2 | 2% |
On a R500 sale, that's roughly R16 to Paystack or R19.50 to Payfast. We compare the two in Payfast or Paystack: which should you pick?.
Bank transfer has no provider fee. Your customer gets your banking details with their order, pays straight into your account, and you mark the order paid once it reflects. Plenty of South African customers prefer it. You can switch on cards, bank transfer, or both.
3. Your web address
Every Shop Simply shop gets a free yourshop.shopsimply.co.za address. On the R89 plan you can connect your own .co.za or .com domain instead. It's optional, and you don't need it to make your first sale.
4. Delivery
Delivery isn't a cost to you if you charge for it. You set your delivery fees: by order value, or free delivery over an amount you choose, and your customer pays them at checkout. Every product needs a weight in kilograms.
5. Photos and set-up
You don't need a photographer or a developer. Take your product photos on your phone and upload them straight to your shop. Add a product with a name, a price and a weight, and fill in the rest later.
A worked example
Say you sell 20 orders a month at R300 each: R6,000 in sales. Half your customers pay by card through Paystack and half by bank transfer.
| per month | |
|---|---|
| Shop Simply | R89 |
| Paystack card fees: 10 × (2.9% of R300 + R1) | R97 |
| Bank transfer: 10 orders | R0 |
| Cut of your sales | R0 |
| Total | R186, about 3% of what you sold |
Delivery is paid by your customers, so it isn't in the sum.
Try it before you pay anything
Build your shop free for 60 days: add products, set prices and delivery, and see what it costs you before you've spent a rand. Once your shop has a product and card payments set up, you can open it to shoppers for up to 30 days of your trial. R89 a month keeps it open for good.