If Shein and Temu continue owning the e-commerce game, South Africa could see over 34,000 retail and manufacturing jobs vanish by 2030.
This was revealed in a new BMA study, commissioned by the Localisation Support Fund, to support the R‑CTFL Masterplan.
South Africa’s job market is taking serious strain, with the national unemployment rate sitting at 32.9%
The report shows that from 2020 to 2024, Shein and Temu racked up around R7.3 billion in sales.
But that boom came at a cost: South Africa missed out on about R960 million in local manufacturing, plus nearly 2,800 factory jobs and over 5,200 retail positions that never happened.
And if this takeover keeps rolling? South Africa could miss out on R6.2 billion in clothing sales and over 34,000 jobs by 2030.
Simon Eppel, Director of Research at the SA Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (SACTWU), warned that “the surge in the market of cheap goods from these eCommerce offshore platforms is depressing the prices that local retailers can charge.”
He described the situation as “smash-and-grab economics, an easy way to come into a country, grab what they can, and leave all the costs to us.”
Eppel emphasized that the rise of these platforms is placing significant pressure on South Africa’s retail and manufacturing sectors.
