South African grocery shopping continues to be a careful exercise in allocation. Households are navigating constrained incomes, rising food costs and a growing need to prioritise how and where they spend their money.
The latest SA Grocery Shopper Report by Trade Intelligence, a Smollan company, shows that pressure is both deep and widespread. Forty-two percent of grocery shoppers live in households earning less than R5,000 per month, but while individual spending power is limited, this segment collectively represents a meaningful share of national grocery spend.
At the same time, the cost of putting food on the table continues to climb. Although food inflation has moderated, the total cost of the food basket has risen by +69% since 2019. This sustained increase is reflected in sentiment by shoppers in Trade Intelligence’s survey of over 1,000 grocery shoppers, where only 46% of shoppers rate their financial health positively.
“There is a tendency to assume that pressure is lifting when inflation eases,” says Nicola Allen, Senior Retail Analyst at Trade Intelligence.
“But for most households, the cumulative increase in the cost of food over several years is what defines their reality.”
Compounding this pressure in South Africa is that household spend is being diverted through the rise of online gambling. Grocery is the most commonly sacrificed category among online gamblers, with almost half indicating they would otherwise have spent that money on food. With an estimated R75 billion lost to gambling annually, a significant portion of potential grocery spend is being redirected.
Savvy Grocery Shopping
In response to growing financial pressures, grocery shoppers employ multiple tools to stretch their budgets. Trade Intelligence shopper data shows that virtually no one is passive: just 0.1% of shoppers report doing nothing to help their money go further. While the full range of behaviours is broader, these are some of the most common tactics reported by the shoppers Ti surveyed:
- Planning ahead
Planning remains key. Making a shopping list and setting a grocery budget are among the most commonly used tools. These behaviours signal deliberate control over spend, rather than reactive decision-making in-store. - Referring to flyers
Despite the growth of digital channels, printed leaflets remain the most widely used source of grocery-related information. Digital platforms are expanding their reach, but paper-based promotions continue to anchor how many shoppers plan their purchases, and they are deeply invested in tracking down special offers. - Shopping around for bargains
On average, South Africans shop at four different stores for groceries, and among those using online channels, they engage with 2.4 websites or on-demand apps. This pattern highlights how shoppers are comparing prices, promotions and availability across multiple touchpoints rather than relying on a single retailer.
Promotions remain a near-universal consideration: only 5% of shoppers say they do not look for deals.
“What stands out is how deliberate shoppers have become,” says Allen. “They are not relying on one retailer or one channel. They are assembling their grocery basket across multiple options to manage cost.”
- Leveraging reward programmes
Reward programmes remain embedded in the shopper ecosystem, but their role is nuanced. According to a Trade Intelligence shopper survey, shoppers are signed up to an average of 5.1 programmes and actively use 3.8. Importantly, most shoppers believe that these programmes are designed to benefit them, indicating a level of trust in the value exchange. However, the broader shopping behaviour data shows that ‘loyalty’ operates alongside ongoing price comparison and store-switching.
Every rand works harder
Taken together, these behaviours reflect a shopper under sustained financial pressure, actively managing how their grocery budget is spent. Shoppers are stretching their budgets through a combination of planning, promotion-seeking, and shopping around.