Takealot's R1 billion e-commerce plans

[elvis_presley]

I don't think it's great at all. And many Ebay sellers aren't happy with the Ebay Global Shipping program. They apparently get forced into it. It costs money to ship the item to Kentucky, where Pitney & Bowes ships it by FedEx to SA..

Not sure what it's like for the seller, but as a consumer I love it... so that's not my problem I just enjoy the cheap prices and quick delivery.

Shopping services are cool too

I assume you mean Shipping services - do you know of one that's not a total ripoff? I've wanted to use one a few times, but always ended up just finding a slightly more expensive store that ships internationally because of the prices the forwarders charge.

 

[Space_Chief]

Not sure what it's like for the seller, but as a consumer I love it... so that's not my problem I just enjoy the cheap prices and quick delivery.

It is a problem because sellers when forced to go this route opt to not ship to foreigners. Secondly, with no forced option, the seller can use other methods to ship. You can negotiate with them. With Ebay Global Shipping, it's their (Ebay's) way or the highway.

Also as said, USPS is cheaper. I can't stress this enough. With PayPal you are protected against losses. I can understand the extra convenience of to-door delivery, but EMS also delivers to door. It's not much slower, maybe at max 2-3 days longer than FedEx.

I assume you mean Shipping services - do you know of one that's not a total ripoff? I've wanted to use one a few times, but always ended up just finding a slightly more expensive store that ships internationally because of the prices the forwarders charge.

Shopping not shipping. I have two people who do this for me. But I've used other services, japonicamarket, noppin and buyee for JA!. This is for Japan mind you. For the US I've used MyUS before.

 

[elvis_presley]

Also as said, USPS is cheaper. I can't stress this enough. With PayPal you are protected against losses. I can understand the extra convenience of to-door delivery, but EMS also delivers to door. It's not much slower, maybe at max 2-3 days longer than FedEx.

This honestly hasn't been my experience. Just taking an example from earlier in the thread, I searched for Roku3 - shipping is $35-$65 USPS depending on seller, or $18-$20 (+$20 charges) eBay shipping and $40 from MyUS. I don't know HOW ebay (and Amazon, for that matter) get those FedEx rates - and if your USPS/MyUS parcel gets caught by customs, you pay that $20 anyway. And this example is par for the course for things I buy on eBay, I always look for "Customs services and international tracking provided" in my eBay results and immediately go for those - I know it'll be cheap, fast shipping and no customs surprises.


With small items I'll agree with you. Get a wallet or something and you want to USPS it.

 

[xrapidx]

Damn, 4 zuma houses :wtf:

 

[MagicDude4Eva]

This funding run will put enormous pressure on Kalahari, Dion Wired, Makro and many of the other retailers who have not made the move into e-Commerce. A ton of money which can quickly go when used for expansion into Africa.

 

[elvis_presley]

This funding run will put enormous pressure on Kalahari, Dion Wired, Makro and many of the other retailers who have not made the move into e-Commerce. A ton of money which can quickly go when used for expansion into Africa.

Kalahari's owned by Naspers, and Dion Wired's majority owned by Wal-Mart - so both have billions at their disposal, too - which means if Takealot sparks off some kind of commerce war, it could escalate very quickly and us consumers would win bigtime.

 

[MisterFiftySomething]

Always thought they were insanely expensive???

Not really. For a lot of items they are the cheapest online and remember to look at the bottom line. A lot of sites charge you dearly for shipping. You can get a hypothetical DVD boxset at takealot for R499. Sure, you can get it at siteX for R449, but they charge you R90 shipping while with takealot it is free. So the bottomline is you pay R499 at takealot and R539 at siteX.

It's always best to shop around, though.

 

[MagicDude4Eva]

Kalahari's owned by Naspers, and Dion Wired's majority owned by Wal-Mart - so both have billions at their disposal, too - which means if Takealot sparks off some kind of commerce war, it could escalate very quickly and us consumers would win bigtime.

Exactly my point, there are no winners in a commerce war other than consumers which is great, as it will make e-commerce (and the scariness about it) more accessible to consumers over time. I doubt that we will see much aggressiveness across the different players, since products are still sourced by the same distributors and wholesalers at the same margins.

 

[elvis_presley]

Exactly my point, there are no winners in a commerce war other than consumers which is great, as it will make e-commerce (and the scariness about it) more accessible to consumers over time. I doubt that we will see much aggressiveness across the different players, since products are still sourced by the same distributors and wholesalers at the same margins.

While you're 100% correct the same-supplier thing will set a minimum price, there are other ways they could push it forward - for example, Hirschs salespeople get 13% commission, even if they say hello at the door and show you the toaster you gave them the exact model number for. I'd love to be able to order online at, say, 10% off the ticket price and pick up at my nearest store. Same applies to Dion, Game, etc - they all have giant distribution networks to get the products to the stores - many times I'd be MORE than happy to take a 10 minute drive to my nearest Game to pick up something instead of waiting overnight from an online shop, if only I knew for a fact it'd be there, and the price was the same as an online shop.

 

[MagicDude4Eva]

While you're 100% correct the same-supplier thing will set a minimum price, there are other ways they could push it forward - for example, Hirschs salespeople get 13% commission, even if they say hello at the door and show you the toaster you gave them the exact model number for. I'd love to be able to order online at, say, 10% off the ticket price and pick up at my nearest store. Same applies to Dion, Game, etc - they all have giant distribution networks to get the products to the stores - many times I'd be MORE than happy to take a 10 minute drive to my nearest Game to pick up something instead of waiting overnight from an online shop, if only I knew for a fact it'd be there, and the price was the same as an online shop.

The "order online / pickup in-store" has been a common thing in Europe for quite some time. In Germany for example, some 8 years ago you could order online from CyberPort.de in the morning and would get your parcel by close of business the same day via Deutsche Post. The SA postal service is one of the many reasons why online retail is crippled (another is the reluctance of all the different couriers to properly work together and everyone doing their own thing). Perhaps in the end it needs someone like a Takealot to bring a proper same-delivery fulfilment process to SA.

 

[Progenix Oj101]

Who remembers how TakeALot (Take2) started out?

Here.

The service back then was very good too.

No bloody way, I used TSM once (Quake 3 Arena as I couldn't find it in local stores at the time) but never made the connection to Take2 o.0

 

[Space_Chief]

This honestly hasn't been my experience. Just taking an example from earlier in the thread, I searched for Roku3 - shipping is $35-$65 USPS depending on seller, or $18-$20 (+$20 charges) eBay shipping and $40 from MyUS. I don't know HOW ebay (and Amazon, for that matter) get those FedEx rates - and if your USPS/MyUS parcel gets caught by customs, you pay that $20 anyway. And this example is par for the course for things I buy on eBay, I always look for "Customs services and international tracking provided" in my eBay results and immediately go for those - I know it'll be cheap, fast shipping and no customs surprises.

You prepay customs duties. But that costs extra. Someone actually charges for that. And the seller ships to PBI in KY and charges you for that and PBI charges you an additional fee. FedEx itself may be a little discounted because it's a high volume shipper but customs surprises by USPS can be queried and amended. Customs via post office is always less than by couriers.

It's also not cheap. It's more expensive than USPS for sure. And while you get your item faster, it's not like one really needs it a week earlier. FedEx charge R160 or equivalent for customs processing. PBI in turn charges you that or maybe a discounted fee. You're paying a greater convenience fee and there is no way out of it because sellers can't offer a choice, it's either PBI or USPS. Never mind that PBI is only available for USA.

With small items I'll agree with you. Get a wallet or something and you want to USPS it.

I've USPS'ed, Hong Kong Post-ed and Japan Posted items as much as $2000 each. Insurance included, EMS. For bigger (more expensive) items I went in person.

As said if I add up all the money saved over the years by not being scared of USPS et al it really comes to a very big sum.

 

[Space_Chief]

No bloody way, I used TSM once (Quake 3 Arena as I couldn't find it in local stores at the time) but never made the connection to Take2 o.0

*Some* of the TSM guys started Take2.

You can see the TSM forums look a lot like the forums on Take2 before Take2 took them down.

 

[Space_Chief]

The "order online / pickup in-store" has been a common thing in Europe for quite some time. In Germany for example, some 8 years ago you could order online from CyberPort.de in the morning and would get your parcel by close of business the same day via Deutsche Post. The SA postal service is one of the many reasons why online retail is crippled (another is the reluctance of all the different couriers to properly work together and everyone doing their own thing). Perhaps in the end it needs someone like a Takealot to bring a proper same-delivery fulfilment process to SA.

European shipping is not so hot either. Sending across Europe by DHL (Amazon) can also be a slow, laborious process. In store pickup or pick up at various drop off points is available overseas too.

I don't really care about that though. For me, selection is important. Ebay/Yahoo Japan and other foreign stores have the selection. If I'm going to be ordering online, I may as well get the right product and not a crippled local version.

 

[elvis_presley]

You prepay customs duties. But that costs extra. Someone actually charges for that. And the seller ships to PBI in KY and charges you for that and PBI charges you an additional fee.

FedEx does put a big lump on if you use them direct, agreed... but if you get via Amazon's int'l shipping, or eBay's Global thing the surcharge is little if anything at all - all the figures are openly available, and you can find out the rates from the customs site and verify this. No big secret hidden costs. You pay once, and don't get any customs surprises - in fact, the last 2 times I've used the option with Amazon, a few weeks later I've got a R20 or R30 refund on my CC because it was cheaper than they thought.

It's also not cheap. It's more expensive than USPS for sure.

Um, did you miss the figures I posted? It's not up for discussion if USPS is cheaper, it's dead easy to find that it's not in many cases. This surprised me, too - didn't expect it.

As said if I add up all the money saved over the years by not being scared of USPS et al it really comes to a very big sum.

And as I've said - that's the old world, and I'd have agreed with you 100% a year or 2 ago. I also used to go normal mail as much as I can, but the new automated Amazon/eBay fulfilment has turned the shipping world on its ear. Accurate customs figures in advance, courier rates comparable to airmail, no surprises. It's changed a LOT. No wonder USPS is in a tailspin on the edge of bankruptcy!

Quick calculation: Kindle falls in 17% customs duty range - Amazon estimates $16.80 on a $89 Kindle, so that's R17'ish they're taking for themselves. I bought a Kindle 2 months ago, and got a R20 refund for their incorrect estimation, so they take nothing off. As I said - no secrets, all open numbers, you don't have to guess if they're charging you anything, because they obviously aren't.

 

[BrokenRSA]

*Some* of the TSM guys started Take2.

You can see the TSM forums look a lot like the forums on Take2 before Take2 took them down.

And these same guys will be starting a new eCommerce site soon as well. Looking forward to see what they'll be offering.

 

[Progenix Oj101]

*Some* of the TSM guys started Take2.

You can see the TSM forums look a lot like the forums on Take2 before Take2 took them down.

I don't know, the only forums I used back then were NF/PM.

 

[Space_Chief]

FedEx does put a big lump on if you use them direct, agreed... but if you get via Amazon's int'l shipping, or eBay's Global thing the surcharge is little if anything at all - all the figures are openly available, and you can find out the rates from the customs site and verify this. No big secret hidden costs. You pay once, and don't get any customs surprises - in fact, the last 2 times I've used the option with Amazon, a few weeks later I've got a R20 or R30 refund on my CC because it was cheaper than they thought.

The figures I paid last time I used PBI were consistent with a R160 fee for brokerage. It would have cost me much less to have the items delivered with EMS and pay customs in SA Rands here. You pay for the convenience. You always pay less with USPS. I also had to pay the $30 the seller used to UPS the item to PBI in Kentucky. I paid about R1200 worth of fees on a R2500 product.

Um, did you miss the figures I posted? It's not up for discussion if USPS is cheaper, it's dead easy to find that it's not in many cases. This surprised me, too - didn't expect it.

As compared to what?

And as I've said - that's the old world, and I'd have agreed with you 100% a year or 2 ago. I also used to go normal mail as much as I can, but the new automated Amazon/eBay fulfilment has turned the shipping world on its ear. Accurate customs figures in advance, courier rates comparable to airmail, no surprises. It's changed a LOT. No wonder USPS is in a tailspin on the edge of bankruptcy!

Again I the rates are more expensive. Secondly USPS is not in decline because of this but because it is a government run juggernaut. Anyway I don't share your enthusiasm for this. But if you're happy to pay more for convenience, I won't argue.

Quick calculation: Kindle falls in 17% customs duty range - Amazon estimates $16.80 on a $89 Kindle, so that's R17'ish they're taking for themselves. I bought a Kindle 2 months ago, and got a R20 refund for their incorrect estimation, so they take nothing off. As I said - no secrets, all open numbers, you don't have to guess if they're charging you anything, because they obviously aren't.

It's difficult to compare Kindles to Kindles as Amazon sells Kindles, they're their own branded product. But for similar items from other sellers USPS is always cheaper. Take the cheapest courier and the cheapest USPS shipper, and USPS will always win. And as said, customs does not always levy you, sometimes you pay 0. With Amazon, you always pay unless the item really is cheap.