By Cikida Gcali-Mabusela, Founder of LOURO
Uber was not my first introduction to intrapreneurship. Before building at scale with Uber Eats, I started with Thola Africa. Different category. Different customer. Same lesson:
Consumers will always tell you who they are. The question is whether you’re paying attention.
One of the most defining insights for me came from understanding how people in South Africa consume. This became especially clear when we were building and scaling Uber Eats Market. What I learned was simple, but powerful: South African consumers don’t behave the way global playbooks expect them to.
Luxury in South Africa is similar, but different. Globally, luxury is often about heritage and exclusivity. In South Africa, it carries additional layers: access, identity and progress. It’s not just about owning something beautiful. It’s about what that ownership represents.
And the data reflects this complexity. South Africa’s e-commerce market has surpassed R400 billion, with sustained double-digit growth.. Over 70 percent of online purchases are made via mobile, making South Africa a distinctly mobile-first market. Fashion and accessories remain among the fastest-growing e-commerce categories. At the same time, premium retail nodes such as Sandton, Rosebank and the V&A Waterfront continue to see increased foot traffic and retail investment post-COVID.
This is why global players continue to invest aggressively in this market. Because the South African consumer is not one-dimensional. They are digitally fluent, but physically expressive.
LOURO was built as a digital-first brand. Intentionally. Because digital allows for speed, reach, direct customer relationships and building without traditional retail gatekeepers. It’s where discovery happens. It is also where community starts. And increasingly, with local creators such as Burnt, Fieldbar and Old School, it’s where brands are born.
If digital is so powerful, why step into physical retail this early? The answer is both business and emotional.
From a business perspective, physical retail accelerates what digital alone cannot. Trust remains critical, with 81 percent of consumers saying they are more likely to purchase after seeing and touching a product in person. Conversion rates in-store can be three to five times higher than online. Returns are reduced, particularly in fashion and accessories, and brand equity strengthens as customers assign higher perceived value to brands with a physical presence. In a category like ours, where craftsmanship, material and function matter, physical is not optional. It’s a multiplier.
But beyond metrics, physical retail does something deeper. It allows people to step into your world, to see themselves in it and to experience the brand beyond a screen. Because while we shop online, we connect in person. And for a brand like LOURO, built around identity, expansion and lived style, that connection matters.
Our presence at SOOK is not just a pop-up. It’s a point of view. A belief that the future of retail in South Africa is not digital or physical. It’s both, done intentionally.
This is the first of a four-part series. Through The SOOK Edit, we’ll be sharing the thinking behind LOURO, the philosophy that shapes our design and what it means to build for people who are expanding.
We’re not just building products. We’re building a world. And we can’t wait to share it with you.
