Takealot's dominance in South Africa explained

[bwana]

oh really!? well that is pretty damn good then, i havent ordered from them in a while, i try support the smaller guys.

Just last week they swapped out a defective toaster that way.

 

[Neoprod]

As far as I know, Takealot are still making a loss though Covid probably has them busier than ever. Their model was predicated on burning through cash to provide the best service / lowest prices possible to capture as much market share as possible. Very Amazon-like.

Not sure what the Competition Commission wants them to do ultimately...raise their prices? Stop selling so much stuff? This is a pretty good example of a government department sticking their fingers in something they don't understand.

 

[system32]

Nobody forces you to type "www.takealot.com"
The product you're looking for is just a click away when searching the internet.

 

[furpile]

At least 2 of the 3 competitors have the sense to realise that what Takealot did is not wrong. They also took a big risk in borrowing all that capital to try and grow their business. We had years of vouchers that they used as Marketing to grow their customer base. They got it mostly right, and now they are very successful.

Having preferential treatment from suppliers is not unique to Takelot or online shopping either. Years ago a colleague told me he had a small music shop, and he could not compete with larger businesses because of the discounts they received from the suppliers. If you sell enough of a product, they could get up to 40% off from the supplier. Thus the small shop cannot compete on price. This happens everywhere.

 

[grok]

I remember articles on here about billions being invested in takealot, even at a loss, why do you think that was if not to make them the dominant player?

Takealot is hellova convenient..

* you can get stuff like nao if you willing to pay the same day delivery fee,
* I've returned something 'cos I wanted the non-wireless version instead and they sent a coutrier to come fetch the unwanted one at my work.
* I once had a laptop stolen during a burglary on thursday but started a new project on the monday, had a laptop delivered on the sunday.

I buy from them when it suits me, but they piss me off with their loading prices then pretending its a moerse discount.
Then again I shop around & compare prices so good luck with that little scheme..

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

takealot isn't perfect, but its a whole lot better than some of the competitors that DONT deliver easily in SA.

now if amazon or wallmart or one of the big international players were to invest n takealot,
and share their knowledge of how to run an operation,

we might have a new king being crowned.

 

[Markd]

Uh.. Thats like majorly illegal.

It happened with multiple suppliers. They had a product that they didn't want to be devalued by price cutting so they generally they just implied that they wouldn't be able to supply if you went under a certain value. Some like the one in my example was quite explicit. So basically there were loads of shops and everyone was generally running the same price. It took away differentiation on price, which frankly as a small retailer is actually a good thing sometimes. I don't want to lose my customer to some guy who's happy to not make any money and sell the goods R50 cheaper. And trust me, people do that often. Save R10?? Deal! It encouraged you to think about other ways to differentiate. But as I say in the end the juice just wasn't worth the squeeze.

 

[rodmur]

The have no quality control and sell a lot of garbage. My average is 2 out of 4 returns

 

[friedpiggy]

My big issue with Takealot is their changing prices. Go find a random item that you care nothing about. write down the price, then go and load that page 3 times a day for a week and suddenly the item is about 10-20% more expensive.

Was looking at urns for home brewing and couldn't decide on one so was going in and out for a week looking at various options. suddenly the front runner went up drastically. left it for a few weeks and the price came back down again. That to me is a big nono when it comes to dealing with a supplier. I dont mind the annual increases, but dont increase the prices just because you can at random times of the month.

 

[Slegdehammer67]

There is only one problem I foresee here and it is the pricing of products. OK, they are very big and as a result, should be able to supply products at competitive prices, hopefully, they do...HOPEFULLY

 

[K3NS31]

Just try buying something from almost any other online shop in SA. What a nightmare - terrible interface, can't find stuff, can't place orders, difficult to pay...
Then you get to the delivery issues.
No wonder TAL is killing it. They're good, but it helps when everyone else sucks.

(Notable exceptions - I just tried Makro's order online and pick-up in store - nice. Not as good as TAL pick up points due to their higher numbers, but smooth nonetheless; Loot and most other Tech / computer stores are OK; Everyone else seems to suck.)

 

[konfab]

Here the real thing that the communists at the competition commission don't understand is that Takealot has created thousands of small businesses through their third-party marketplace.

If I had an issue with Takealot, it is their search function. It is garbage.

 

[ArmatageShanks]

I love @TAKEALOT and have supported them 100% since day 1 literally
Today for the 1st time I went and picked up my parcel at a delivery point for R25 delivery because it was under R450 and what a pleasant surprise how well that went.

The staff at the Somerset West branch were full of smiles and laughs and very cheerful at 6 pm. I was in and out in under 90 seconds

Well Done

That's because they were laughing at your drunk arse.

 

[ArmatageShanks]

The have no quality control and sell a lot of garbage. My average is 2 out of 4 returns

I think you are picking garbage mostly, QC is not their responsibility, they are not the manufacturer.

 

[cda]

It happened with multiple suppliers. They had a product that they didn't want to be devalued by price cutting so they generally they just implied that they wouldn't be able to supply if you went under a certain value.

Yeah but still, that's called collusion and it's extremely illegal.

 

[Splinter]

The have no quality control and sell a lot of garbage. My average is 2 out of 4 returns

perhaps use the internet to review products before you buy?

 

[Splinter]

Yeah but still, that's called collusion and it's extremely illegal.

Its more anti-competitive behavior. Price fixing. Can be reported.

 

[MikeaMatrix]

This is capitalism. This is what voting with your money looks like.

You give people what they want, better than your competition.

Win.

You wanna win?

Do it better than Takelot. Otherwise stfu.

 

[juro]

Hey government, here's a novel idea: leave businesses alone and let the market decide, ffs!

 

[Flytrap]

I love @TAKEALOT and have supported them 100% since day 1 literally
Today for the 1st time I went and picked up my parcel at a delivery point for R25 delivery because it was under R450 and what a pleasant surprise how well that went.

The staff at the Somerset West branch were full of smiles and laughs and very cheerful at 6 pm. I was in and out in under 90 seconds

Well Done

Customer of Take2 and Kalahari from the beginning and have never had a bad experience and only one hiccup in 10 years with Takelaot. When a product was faulty and needed to be returned they went out of their way to help. They build their dominance by persistence and SERVICE. Can't say the same for some others and some brick-and-mortar stores. Sorry if you can't compete but surely that says more about your business practice that about Takelot's?