Discusses the prevalence and reliability of express delivery firms within the country, time from large U.S. cities, and relevant customs procedures, including de minimis amounts.
Last Published: 7/14/2019
Express delivery has experienced rapid growth in South Africa as a popular retail mode of distribution, and recent investments and development of this niche by leading global brands testify to its prospects; e-commerce has also been driving this as have grocery home-delivery order services offered by departmental stores. Mobile compact products for B2C transactions primarily use express delivery services since it is still comparatively more expensive than in other more developed economies. A major reason for this is that the growing number of sub-contractors to the multinational service providers do not have the necessary national delivery footprint. This results in added costs that consumers ultimately bear. In the mining and offshore sectors, express delivery of spares for critical maintenance of capital equipment in Africa has been an established business, but this is currently experiencing a downturn, given the high costs.

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