Takealot, an e-commerce store in South Africa, has continued to lead all e-commerce businesses and aims to top the chart in five years’ leaving Amazon behind. Earlier this week, the global and renowned online store Amazon launched its marketplace in South Africa, offering various options, including door-to-door delivery or using one of 3,000 pickup points.
Amazon has collaborated with Pargo and The Courier Guy to achieve doorstep delivery for local delivery and logistics. However, Discovery Bank’s SpendTrend24 report says the recently launched marketplace is gaining a solid customer base in South Africa.
The report highlighted Amazon’s US website as the third most visited eCommerce platform in South Africa and an online store suitable for wealthy South Africans to spend their money without stress.
Nevertheless, Bob Group’s managing director, Andy Higgins, stated that Amazon would take longer than expected to become the dominant e-commerce store in South Africa.
He said, “Takealot will remain the dominant player in the industry for the next few years as Amazon slowly expands its product range and improves its service.” He explained that the view of “local is lekker” will also help Takealot in the short to medium term.
“What happens will depend on Amazon’s ability to execute locally. Amazon may end up buying a local logistics company. If that were to happen, it could change the game.
However, Higgins urges South Africans to quench their thirst for Amazon’s fast rise as it will start off on a small scale and more slowly than expected. He said Amazon has a replica of the Takelot pricing model with most likely the same sellers with the exact cost base and charging the same price.
