Selling FROM South Africa

This site is best viewed in a modern browser with JavaScript enabled.

Selling FROM South Africa

MariaanRoets

I see South Africa is not on your list of places to sell to, but is there anything preventing us from selling FROM South Africa?
I already have two successful e-commerce shops going, accepts Paypal, credit and debit cards via PayGate and PayFast and would really like to get going with Oberlo.

RutaGanusauskaite

MariaanRoets Hey there!

Using Oberlo you can sell to any country in the world! May I ask where you find such list that says that you cannot sell in South Africa? That must be a false information and I'd like to fix this.

Rest assured that you can definitely operate a dropshipping business in South Africa!

Best of luck!

DuncanJamesColville

MariaanRoets i run 2 stores using Oberlo, im in Durban. Works super well

DuncanJamesColville

MariaanRoets just to add, I'm running a video blog series at the moment highlighting my Journey with the platform. https://youtu.be/HVbZzmF2PYk

Goodas

MariaanRoets I have just lunched a store from Ghana with Oberlo, South Africa should work super with Oberlo

ofentse

MariaanRoets I see I am over 1 year late. But your post is valuable.
a) I see that South Africa is limited to only 2 Payment service providers PayGate and PayFast. Been using PayFast. I think because I want to support Paypal, Mastercard or VISA only, I need to add PayGate.
b) I assume you sell from South Africa to other places outside of the African continent. Although there are sales in South Africa, the customer service is more difficult I find.

AlisonMaryFourie

Hi Mariaan I am in South Africa and looking to start up as a Affilitated Marketer. I would love to connect and chat with you.

MarioKom

AlisonMaryFourie Hi.. i am looking for big suppliers for motor oil and car parts in Soutn Africa..

Busi

DuncanJamesColville Hi Duncan, I have set up my online store selling local products. I am now looking into dropshipping other products. I have never shipped anything from outside South Africa before so I would like some advise in terms of shipping methods and delivery time. Can you help please?

karenn

DuncanJamesColville
Duncan how are you getting around delivery times?

Nixxie

DuncanJamesColville DuncanJamesColville hi there..any advice on the best and safest way of delivering goods to SA. This is my main worry

ShingiChimuti

DuncanJamesColville I'd also like to get in touch with you Duncan. Interested in something you said on your vid. Hope you're good

Nixxie

Duncan I've watched your vid! Very interesting. I just can't seem to get around the delivery/shipment side of things to SA. Which platform could I message you on?

ofentse

Nixxie Delivery/Shipment to South Africa is a turn off. But it is usually safer to be upfront with clients.

Mufasa

WHAT!!!!!!! SOUTH AFRICANS!!!!!! YES FINALLY!!!!,Hi guys I'm currently a student at the University of Pretoria(so Im broke lol) and a newbie to this world of ecommerce,I would like to connect with other South Africans as well,I'd like to ask also when setting up a Paypal business account for my shopify store what do I input in the API section ?How do I go about setting up the taxes?And how have you guys(fellow South Africans) setup your payments systems. My name on facebook is Kamohelo Mufasa Mareka,I'd very much like to connect with you guys for a bit of assistance in setting up my first store and getting of the ground,this newbie process is like fighting Hulk in the mud in the middle of a storm,Thank you.

RutaGanusauskaite

One more person from South Africa has just joined the community! Welcome @DavidSayers!

TracyMulwela

Hi Guys, I am also from SA and I sell beauty products. I am new to oberlo and i am worried about shipping timelines or ETA to customers. How can I control that?

RutaGanusauskaite

TracyMulwela Hey Tracy,

You need to check what shipping options your supplier offers. Pick the one that offers the best price/delivery time ratio.

Good luck!

pres27

TracyMulwela Hi Tracy, what is the name of your store

AletheaRoss

Hi there! I am in the process of setting up a store through shopify and have added a few products via Oberlo to my store but I am not sure how to go back and check shipping options as I have noted that many products do not ship to South Africa

RutaGanusauskaite

AletheaRoss Hey there,

Go to Oberlo -> Manage Products -> My Products -> Click on the product you need and it will redirect you to supplier's page. From there, you'll be able to see the shipping methods and costs that the supplier offers.
image find-products-supplierpng.png

Hope this helps!

tergola

Goodas

Hi Goodas,

I'm in Ghana and want to learn how you launched your store from Ghana, particularly the Payment Account Settings at Checkout.

Thanks.

Eric

ShingiChimuti

Hi everyone good to meet you. My name is Shingi, I'm setting up my store and am thinking of adding 'Orbelo/AliExpress' items to my store, in addition to 'normal' wholesale stuff. My question is what happens with customs duties and VAT? Do your/my customers have to pay that. Let's say I ordered a dress - textiles attract almost 40% in duties, wouldn't my customers be surprised/upset if they had to pay duties...in addition to the long lead time? Is there a way around this? Or a way to build this in the cost and price and have me pay that?

JakeBTC

Hi everyone I'm also new to dropshipping and affiliate marketing in South Africa. (KZN North Coast). Stumbled upon this thread looking for some answers, but found even more questions!

ShingiChimuti Have you managed to find out anything about customs/duties with regard to dropshipping in South Africa? This is the biggest question unanswered for me, and one of the main reasons I haven't started a dropshipping business yet.

@Mufasa Congratulations on getting started with your first ecommerce venture! I hope it has been going well. There are many obstacles, especially at the beginning. Did you manage to find any information on the API section or setting up taxes? Would be happy to share some advice/tools as a fellow beginner, however I can't help with those questions!

I'd very much like to connect with other affiliate marketers and dropshippers and discuss how we can build a network of support for beginners in South Africa. I believe it's a win-win that by providing a platform of locally relevant support we can boost ecommerce industry in SA, and give back to communities in the process!

ShingiChimuti

JakeBTC Hi there! Glad to know there's another newbie to walk this interesting journey with us!
On the duties it seems to me that orders under R500 don't attract duties (and VAT I think). You can google, 'duties + imports + south africa' - there are a bunch of articles which seem to suggest that if a buyer is under the R500 threshold then there are no duties. there are limitations though, I think its 3 orders per person per annum. from what I've gathered from other dropshippers, people who buy your typical dropshipping products are making impulse buys and realistically most will not be repeat buyers - but that means the chances of a buyer breaching their annual threshold is low. these are my conclusions. i've just decided i'm going to go for it and see how it goes. I'd suggest ordering a few items and shipping them to yourself whereever possible to see how the customs might turn out
i've also learnt from others that it's important to highlight everywhere on your store (product page right through to check out page) that it is possible the customer may have to pay duties (more importantly to highlight the shipping time) - seems to me that if you're upfront with this info then you're good to go. i've decided i'm just going to go for it and see how it goes!! very scary, very exciting!

ShingiChimuti

i forgot to mention: have a look at Zasstra (i'm sure are running off shopify + orbelo) - I plan on borrowing a lot of their T's and C's and the stuff in their FAQ's - its very useful. Also see how on their product pages they highlight stuff like shipping times. I think a lot of dropshippers are doing this.

JakeBTC

ShingiChimuti Thanks for the info, very useful! Going to do some more research. Especially regarding the customs. As someone with no background in finance, getting to know the ins and outs of taxes/customs/duties/etc is a bit of a headache!

For others who might be interested, here is the link to Zasstra's help page (https://support.zasttra.com/) as well as their Terms of Service agreement (https://www.zasttra.com/pages/terms-of-service).

I know this might be an odd question, but coming from an academic background the idea of "borrowing" T'S and C's as well as FAQ's without referencing or at least contacting Zasstra to ask permission feels like plagiarism. Is there a general etiquette around copying someone else's FAQ's and T's and C's ? I know a lot these days is open source, so perhaps this kind of legal documentation is fairly standard across many online stores?

Overall they're very thorough with their help section, and I think that principle of being up front with your customer can only stand in your favour. Thanks again for the advice!

Kurt_campher_2018

Hey guys. Is there some FB group that ZA dropshippers can join to learn more? I'm a noob and need some help just thinking through some problems.
Most of the groups I've joined are populated by US/International people.

Or is there anyone open to a skype call.

Thanks

JakeBTC ShingiChimuti WayneW pres27