Innovation trends in the wholesale and retail trade sector, 2019-2021

The South African wholesale and retail trade sector is a major contributor to GDP and offers significant employment. Businesses in the sector provide essential goods and services to consumers and serve as a crucial link in supply chains, connecting procedures to end-users. In recent years, businesses in the sector have faced multiple pressures, from the Covid-19 pandemic, to social unrest in mid-2021, and electricity shortages. This brief examines how much innovation happened in the wholesale and retail trade sector from 2019 to 2021, including the types of technologies wholesale and retail trade business used, the innovation challenges they faced, and the outcomes of their innovations.