The hidden infrastructure behind SA’s small business growth

When peo­ple talk about small busi­ness growth in South Africa, the con­ver­sa­tion usu­ally fo­cuses on fund­ing, mar­ket­ing, or dig­i­tal plat­forms. But there’s an­other fac­tor qui­etly de­ter­min­ing whether many small busi­nesses suc­ceed or strug­gle: de­liv­ery in­fra­struc­ture. In con­ver­sa­tions with small busi­ness own­ers across South Africa, one pat­tern ap­pears again and again: The mo­ment an on­line store be­gins re­ceiv­ing or­ders from other provinces, lo­gis­tics quickly be­comes the biggest op­er­a­tional chal­lenge. Ex­pand­ing be­yond your im­me­di­ate city is often the mo­ment when a busi­ness be­gins to scale, but it is also the mo­ment when re­li­able de­liv­ery be­comes es­sen­tial.

De­liv­ery as growth in­fra­struc­ture

When de­liv­ery works well, it ex­pands op­por­tu­nity. Busi­nesses are no longer lim­ited to the cus­tomers who live within dri­ving dis­tance of their store or ware­house.

In 2024, South Africa’s e‑com­merce mar­ket grew by 35% reach­ing $5.2 bil­lion, and was pro­jected to sur­pass $7 bil­lion in 2025, ac­count­ing for nearly 10% of total re­tail sales. Small and medium‑sized en­ter­prises (SMEs) are dri­ving this ex­pan­sion, and their abil­ity to com­pete na­tion­ally de­pends on whether de­liv­ery net­works per­form re­li­ably.

The re­al­ity is that a re­li­able lo­gis­tics net­work al­lows en­tre­pre­neurs to serve cus­tomers across provinces and grow far be­yond their local mar­ket. But when de­liv­ery fails, through de­lays, in­con­sis­tency, or lack of reach, the im­pact is im­me­di­ate. A missed de­liv­ery can mean lost rev­enue, dis­ap­pointed cus­tomers, and rep­u­ta­tional dam­age that small busi­nesses can­not eas­ily ab­sorb. This is why lo­gis­tics is in­creas­ingly shift­ing from a back­ground func­tion to a strate­gic en­abler of growth.

A light hearted re­minder

We re­cently pro­duced a light-​​hearted tele­vi­sion ad­vert where a hus­band pan­ics as his wife goes into labour, and the first per­son to ar­rive on the scene is a de­liv­ery dri­ver. While the mo­ment is in­ten­tion­ally hu­mor­ous, it re­flects some­thing we see every day in the lo­gis­tics in­dus­try: tim­ing mat­ters.

De­liv­ery is often about being present at the mo­ment when some­one needs you most. For busi­nesses, that mo­ment might be:

• Stock ar­riv­ing be­fore shelves run empty
• A crit­i­cal com­po­nent de­liv­ered be­fore pro­duc­tion stops
• A cus­tomer re­ceiv­ing an order ex­actly when promised

These are the mo­ments that de­fine trust and shape cus­tomer re­la­tion­ships.

What suc­cess­ful SMEs have in com­mon

Across the lo­gis­tics net­works serv­ing small busi­nesses, cer­tain pat­terns ap­pear re­peat­edly in com­pa­nies that scale suc­cess­fully.

• They ex­pand be­yond their im­me­di­ate city. De­liv­ery en­ables en­tre­pre­neurs to reach cus­tomers na­tion­ally, open­ing new mar­kets that would oth­er­wise re­main in­ac­ces­si­ble.
• They treat de­liv­ery as part of the cus­tomer ex­pe­ri­ence. For many cus­tomers, the de­liv­ery ex­pe­ri­ence is the final in­ter­ac­tion they have with a brand. Re­li­a­bil­ity and trans­parency shape how that brand is re­mem­bered.
• They choose lo­gis­tics part­ners that scale with them. As busi­nesses grow, their op­er­a­tional needs be­come more com­plex. Lo­gis­tics providers that can sup­port this growth be­come an im­por­tant part of long-​​term suc­cess.

These fac­tors are in­creas­ingly shap­ing how small busi­nesses com­pete in the dig­i­tal econ­omy.

Look­ing ahead

The next decade will likely bring even greater change to the way small busi­nesses op­er­ate and com­pete.

Same-​​day and on-​​demand de­liv­ery ser­vices will allow in­de­pen­dent re­tail­ers to match the speed and con­ve­nience cus­tomers ex­pect from global plat­forms. Sus­tain­abil­ity will be­come a grow­ing pri­or­ity, with greener lo­gis­tics so­lu­tions and lower-​​carbon de­liv­ery mod­els play­ing an im­por­tant role in the in­dus­try’s fu­ture. Ad­vances in tech­nol­ogy, from AI-​​driven route op­ti­mi­sa­tion to im­proved track­ing vis­i­bil­ity, will con­tinue to in­crease re­li­a­bil­ity and ef­fi­ciency across de­liv­ery net­works.

At DPD, these are areas where we are con­stantly in­vest­ing and evolv­ing along­side the busi­nesses we serve.

The quiet en­gine be­hind growth

Re­li­able lo­gis­tics has qui­etly be­come one of the most im­por­tant pieces of in­fra­struc­ture sup­port­ing South Africa’s small busi­nesses. As the coun­try’s en­tre­pre­neur­ial econ­omy con­tin­ues to ex­pand, de­liv­ery net­works will play an in­creas­ingly im­por­tant role in en­abling growth. Be­hind every grow­ing on­line re­tailer, ex­pand­ing man­u­fac­turer or am­bi­tious startup is a de­liv­ery net­work help­ing that growth be­come pos­si­ble. As more en­tre­pre­neurs look be­yond their local mar­kets to reach cus­tomers across the coun­try, the strength and re­li­a­bil­ity of those net­works may ul­ti­mately de­ter­mine how far South African busi­nesses can go. DM

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Author: Andy van der Velde, CEO of DPD