Amazon(dot)co(dot)za was South Africa's 18th most-visited website in September, overtaking Temu, Shein, and The Foschini Group's Bash, according to Similarweb data reported by MyBroadband. It climbed 18 places in a month.

Only Takealot is ahead of it, and it moved up one spot to 12th. Amazon launched its South African marketplace two and a half years ago, in May 2024.

The rankings show how quickly the order has shifted. Behind Takealot and Amazon, Bash ranked 27th after falling eight places, Temu 30th and Shein 33rd. Checkers, Clicks, Truworths, Samsung and Shoprite all climbed into the top ten online stores. Google searches tell a similar story.

Searches for Amazon grew 77% over the past year, the fastest of the four big online shops, and its share of their combined searches rose from 16.9% in 2025 to 20.7% so far in 2026. Takealot still leads with 39.6%, though its share is down from 42.2%; Shein rose to 23.9%, and Temu fell from 18.1% to 15.8%.

Phones are a different picture, and they matter because most South Africans go online on their phones. Temu and Shein still lead the shopping apps. On Android, Amazon ranks fifth, behind Takealot, Shein, Temu and Checkers Sixty60. On iPhone, it ranks seventh, one place behind Takealot, with Temu first.

Amazon was slow to start here, and many shoppers were underwhelmed by its early product range. It has since expanded its selection, and its Prime membership launched locally at R59 a month, with free and faster delivery on thousands of items plus Prime Video.

MyBroadband's Hanno Labuschagne compiled the Similarweb rankings and Google Trends data. E-commerce veterans Andy Higgins, executive director of Bob Group, and Claude Hanan, co-head of TFG Labs, told the publication they were not surprised by Amazon's slow-burn approach, which it has used successfully in other markets. MyBroadband also profiled the head of Amazon SA this week.

Web traffic is an early signal, not a sales figure. Similarweb estimates visits, and someone browsing Amazon is not necessarily buying there. Still, the direction is clear. When we looked at SA online retail shares earlier this year, Amazon held 12.7% of the market before Prime launched, well behind Takealot's 35.3% and Shein's 21.5%.

Since then, Shein and Temu have been slowed by the SARS import crackdown, while Amazon has added Prime and is now running an early Black Friday sale. Amazon's weak spot is phones, where Temu and Shein are still ahead, so the next number to watch is whether its app climbs too.

For local sellers, the practical point is that Amazon is no longer a side channel. With only Takealot ahead of it on the web, listing on both is starting to look like the default.

You might also like our piece on Sixty60 selling airtime, Checkers' standalone toy stores, and TikTok's AI shopping assistant.

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