For an increasing number of local consumers, the first visit to a business is no longer through its doors but through a Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp page.
A snapshot survey by this publication’s Business Desk suggests that social media has moved beyond being an advertising tool to become part of the sales process, with businesses using digital platforms to find customers, answer enquiries, take orders and drive payments. The shift is particularly visible among small and emerging businesses, where the cost of reaching customers can be a significant barrier.
Strattcomm Director Sibusiso Mngadi, a company that helps businesses navigate the digital age, said companies that failed to adapt to digital commerce risked losing ground to competitors that had moved online.
“Traditional ways of doing business no longer work. Those who go on social media also need the right skills in how to compete and how to position their brand,” Mngadi said.
He said businesses were increasingly using influencers, such as comedians like Gedlembane, to attract attention and position their brands in the social media space.
Meanwhile, for Sanda Dlamini, founder of premium confectionery brand The Treat.co, the shift is already reflected in her sales.
“Most of my orders come from Instagram and other popular social media platforms,” Dlamini said.
She said boosting had helped expand her customer base. Boosting involves paying a social-media platform to promote a post to people beyond a business’s existing followers, usually according to selected audiences or locations.
Dlamini said the strategy had helped her reach potential customers more than 20km from where she lives. “I do a lot of gifting and I have a growing clientele. My dream is to go beyond the Eswatini market,” she said.
The journey from seeing a product online to buying it, however, increasingly passes through WhatsApp.
Several traders interviewed said Facebook and Instagram often serve as the discovery point, while WhatsApp becomes the place where customers ask questions, request prices, place orders and arrange delivery. Digital payments such as MoMo and EFT can then complete the transaction.
An employee of a Matsapha business specialising in home and office interiors and renovations said sales originating from social media had steadily increased over the past two to three years.
“Anyone visits and often times conversations that turn to sales start on the platforms. We accept MoMo pay and EFT methods of payment. Running a business has truly changed,” the employee said.
A vehicle-battery retailer with branches countrywide similarly said many of its customers now come through online engagements. Dolly X, who operates an industrial laundry and house-cleaning business, said the change had also transformed the economics of advertising.
Having operated before the rise of social media, she said she had moved away from traditional media because of its cost.
“On social media there is day and night exposure of your products and services to target clients and potential clients at no cost. I have moved away from advertising on traditional media because it is very costly,” she said.
Economist Thembinkosi Dube said businesses had little choice but to adapt as customers changed how they found and interacted with suppliers. Another economist Sanele Sibiya said some businesses increasingly had ‘virtual premises’, while warning that the shift created challenges around taxation, regulation and illicit online trading.
The regulatory system is also being pushed to adapt.
The Eswatini Revenue Service (ERS) has been digitising tax administration. Such includes TaxCore electronic invoicing, while a July 2026 notice also provides a legal framework for electronic submission of fiscal data and supporting records through the ERS e-invoicing system.
The Central Bank of Eswatini is similarly developing the payments infrastructure supporting digital commerce.
The emerging model is increasingly straightforward: customers discover businesses online, move to WhatsApp to engage, and complete purchases electronically.
