Top South African retailer’s new plan to take over online shopping

The Foschini Group (TFG) plans to grow its market share in South Africa’s highly competitive clothing retail space through its eCommerce platform, Bash.

This strategy will see TFG turn all of its physical stores into “omni-stores” that function as fulfilment centres to improve inventory management and boost sales.

This will, in effect, see the physical stores be used as ‘warehouses’ to supply online sales made through Bash.

The retailer believes this will not only ensure that it does not run out of stock on its online store, but will also improve store densities and hike the percentage of sales using the click and collect option.

This was revealed in the presentation for TFG’s 2025 Capital Markets Day, which outlined the retailer’s corporate strategy.

In this presentation, the company explained that there is a close relationship between a brand’s inventory turnover and profit margin.

In other words, brands that better manage their inventories are more likely to be profitable.

This correlation will inform TFG’s strategy, with three shifts already underway to unlock inventory-led margin growth and expand the retailer’s return on capital employed.

These three shifts include –

• Upgrading the retailer’s planning systems to increase the frequency of stock turns and ensure fewer markdowns
• Leveraging TFG’s owned manufacturing 
• Building a demand-led supply chain, which will see TFG consolidate its distribution channels for apparel and homeware 

Along with these shifts, Bash is set to play a far larger role in TFG’s strategy going forward, with the eCommerce platform expected to unlock significant value for the retailer.

By turning its physical stores into “omni-stores”, TFG wants to ensure that it never runs out of stock and, consequently, loses sales.

The retailer will have omni-devices in its over 1,500 stores, meaning every store will have access to its full inventory.

This will allow TFG to rely on one of its biggest competitive advantages in South Africa’s clothing retail market – its extensive stable of brands.

Some of these brands include @home, Jet, American Swiss, Archive, Sportscene, Total Sports, Coricraft, Exact, Dial-a-Bed, Fabiani, Foschini, G-Star Raw, Markham, Sneaker Factory and Sterns.

The relationship between inventory turnover and profit margin for fashion brands can be seen in the graph below, courtesy of TFG.

Bash’s boom

Bash is a product developed by TFGLabs, a start-up created inside TFG and headed up by eCommerce veterans Claude Hanan and Luke Jedeiken.

Since its launch in early 2023, Bash has grown significantly, reaching breakeven two years ahead of schedule.

In the two-year period, Bash has surpassed 3.8 million app downloads, making it South Africa’s number one fashion shopping app.

The platform has also integrated 15 separate brand websites into a single, seamless digital experience.

It has expanded its reach into over 600 physical stores with in-store tech that gives customers access to 16 times more products. This has allowed the platform to drive sales and earn over R3.4 million in commissions.

Bash’s impressive growth comes as South Africa is experiencing an eCommerce boom, with retailers across the country investing heavily into their own online platforms.

This includes food retailers like Shoprite’s Sixty60 and Woolworths’ Dash platforms, as well as clothing retailers like TFG’s Bash.

TFG’s Capital Markets Day presentation explained that eCommerce is booming in South Africa and is forecast to grow five times faster than the country’s economy.

This has made the space highly competitive, especially considering the influx of international eCommerce giants such as Amazon, Temu, and Shein, which have become wildly popular in South Africa.

These global players have significantly intensified competition in South Africa’s retail market, as the country’s highly price-sensitive consumers are increasingly attracted to the low prices these retailers offer.

Therefore, local players are having to rethink or accelerate their growth strategies to compete, often focussing on areas outside of price, like quality, availability and digital-focused value-adds.

This explains why TFG is hoping to unlock significant value through its online offerings and an omni-channel strategy.