Takealot facing inquiry over dominance in South African ecommerce

Hanno Labuschagne

Hanno Labuschagne

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Takealot facing inquiry over dominance in South African ecommerce

The Competition Commission will launch an “Online Intermediation Platforms Market Inquiry (OIPMI)”, which will encompass companies such as Takealot, Uber Eats, and Airbnb.

The Commission published a draft for public comment outlining its plan to investigate these markets and stating that “the Commission has reason to believe that there exist market features which impede, distort or restrict competition amongst the platforms themselves, and which undermine the purposes of the [Competition] Act.”
 
...they can't even frikking get returns done. 3 weeks and waiting...
 
1. Get billions in investments
2. Focus on growth and not profitability
3. Buy out/crush major competitors
4. Artificially inflate prices

...scum. But I still support them because hey, they deliver when they say they will. But scum nonetheless.
 
The cronies want in on the action.....
 
Wysjoumuis said:
Takealots dodgy prices should be investigated
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It was. Head of litigation, Lucifer, found a clever way around it by calling the price the "listing price" and now it is legal.
 
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Hanno Labuschagne said:
Takealot facing inquiry over dominance in South African ecommerce

The Competition Commission will launch an “Online Intermediation Platforms Market Inquiry (OIPMI)”, which will encompass companies such as Takealot, Uber Eats, and Airbnb.

The Commission published a draft for public comment outlining its plan to investigate these markets and stating that “the Commission has reason to believe that there exist market features which impede, distort or restrict competition amongst the platforms themselves, and which undermine the purposes of the [Competition] Act.”
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Give better service?
Work yourself into viable option?

oh wait. blm. we can't. we must use kill them if they come do business on our stoep.
 
The online shop and the delivery system should be decoupled. Running a (good) delivery network is a "last mile" intensive operation, and like ISPs and fibre providers, it creates a more efficient market if one can separate out who's good at running a delivery company vs who's good at providing a good online store.
 
Hamster said:
1. Get billions in investments
2. Focus on growth and not profitability
3. Buy out/crush major competitors
4. Artificially inflate prices

...scum. But I still support them because hey, they deliver when they say they will. But scum nonetheless.
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Its basically Amazons business model ;)

Except amazons prime service office extremely good value to customers, same day shipping, fantastic returns and prices ...
 
So it's illegal for a business to do well?

I don't think that Takealot is nearly 'dominant' enough for this to be an issue. My last 3 online purchases have been from other retailers, just because they had better prices and/or stuff that I wanted which Takealot didn't have.
 
newby_investor said:
So it's illegal for a business to do well?

I don't think that Takealot is nearly 'dominant' enough for this to be an issue. My last 3 online purchases have been from other retailers, just because they had better prices and/or stuff that I wanted which Takealot didn't have.
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No, it's under scrutiny about favoring/promoting and selling its own stuff while also selling the same thing from competitors and charging competitors for it. Sort of like pick n pay charging simba chips to sell its chips but putting the simba chips in the far corner behind the washing powder and mops, while offering its no name brand chips at the front of the store next to the checkout with a big sign pointing to it, and a tiny 1cm sticker stuck on the ceiling pointing out there are simba chips somewhere in the corner of the shop. Just to overly dramatize it.
 
Takealot has never failed me. Time for other operators to come to the party. You suck compared to Takealot (except Wootware).

I wonder who was moaning, Raru and Lood. :ROFL:
 
Sounds like people are being sour grapes. Not much different to people complaining that Amazon is too dominant in the US and Europe and how it is destroying independent businesses. Before then it was Walmart destroying small towns so it’s nothing new really.

Either you use their platform on their terms or you don’t. They can charge whatever commission they want. If you don’t like it as a seller you don’t need to use them. Are they in a position of power? Of course. Could they abuse this position of power? Of course.
You can always build your own platform or use your own site but as the one retailer who uses Takealot said that isn’t so easy.
“Takealot is probably 95% of our turnover,” one seller told MyBroadband. “For every 30-40 orders on Takealot, we maybe do one on our own website.”
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They are like a mall and the terms of doing business with them is like renting a shop in a mall. They take a cut and you can sell your stuff.

Essentially Takealot’s growth is due to the fact that they provide a better overall service for most people than anyone else and that’s good enough for them to get repeat business. The fact that some processes like returns or delivery times etc. need to be improved is evident but that doesn’t mean they are being totally unfair and taking everyone else’s business away.
 
Mystic Twilight said:
No, it's under scrutiny about favoring/promoting and selling its own stuff while also selling the same thing from competitors and charging competitors for it. Sort of like pick n pay charging simba chips to sell its chips but putting the simba chips in the far corner behind the washing powder and mops, while offering its no name brand chips at the front of the store next to the checkout with a big sign pointing to it, and a tiny 1cm sticker stuck on the ceiling pointing out there are simba chips somewhere in the corner of the shop. Just to overly dramatize it.
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The thing is if they don't like it they're welcome to go sell their stuff somewhere else. No one's making them use Takelot to sell their stuff.
 
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