Amazon trumps Takealot in same-day delivery test

Amazon.co.za outperformed Takealot.com in a recent same-day delivery test conducted by MyBroadband.

In early August 2026, we reported on what appeared to be a significant number of Takealot customers experiencing delays on same-day and next-day orders.

Takealot told MyBroadband that it maintained industry-leading delivery performance across its network, fulfilling millions of orders every month.

“Despite operating at this scale, our premium delivery services — including same-day, next-day and weekend deliveries — consistently achieve 98%+ on-time delivery rates,” it said.

The company said its delivery estimates were generated dynamically based on a combination of factors, such as product availability, fulfilment location, delivery address, and logistics capacity.

“When premium delivery commitments aren’t met, we take full accountability and work hard to resolve each case as quickly as possible,” it said.

It added that customers who paid for premium delivery but did not receive their item on the promised date also received account credits equal to the delivery fee.

In the last month, MyBroadband has continued to receive reports of same-day and next-day deliveries not being fulfilled on time.

One MyBroadband forum member said their last four Takealot same-day or next-day deliveries were delayed.

They cancelled two of the orders and bought the items on Amazon.co.za instead, which they said fulfilled according to the promised delivery schedule.

In one MyBroadband reader’s case, he placed an order for free next-day collection via his TakealotMore subscription at a pickup point on a Saturday. The order was only ready for collection on Monday.

On the same Monday morning, he ordered another package for same-day delivery. Just before 17:00, he received a notification that the order was out for delivery.

Almost immediately thereafter, he received a notification that the order was rescheduled, falsely claiming that no one was available at his office to take delivery.

After reporting the issue to customer support, the order was delivered to his house by a Mr D driver in the evening.

While fulfilled on the same day, it was later than the promised timeframe and would likely not have occurred if his house had been farther from the office.

Takealot and Amazon same-day delivery tested

To see if we could reproduce the experience the reader reported, MyBroadband conducted a head-to-head same-day delivery test between Takealot and Amazon.

We placed two separate orders for in-stock items at a nearby Takealot warehouse on Monday, 14 September 2026.

The first order went through at 09:55 for a R95 item, and we placed the second order at 10:00 for a R225 item.

In both cases, we paid R95 extra for same-day delivery to our office. While the account we used had a TakealotMore subscription, the minimum order value for free same-day delivery was R500.

We ordered the same products on Amazon.co.za at the same time; the cutoff for same-day delivery was noon, two hours later than Takealot’s.

The first update across the two retailers came from Takealot. Just after we placed the order for the second item, Takealot sent a notice informing us that its delivery date was pushed back to Tuesday.

The next was more positive: Amazon sent a notification that our second order had shipped at 11:48, while the first shipped at 11:49.

Takealot followed at 12:30 with a shipping notification for the first order, which was still scheduled to arrive on the same day.

The next notification came from Amazon, which stated that both orders on its marketplace were out for delivery via The Courier Guy at 14:57.

After checking the tracking page on the Amazon.co.za website, we found the company had combined our two items into one package.

That package was delivered at 14:57, meaning it took roughly five hours from ordering to delivery via Amazon.co.za.

Four minutes later, Takealot confirmed our first order from its marketplace was out for delivery. The package with just one of our two ordered items arrived at 16:30.

Unfortunately, our second Takealot order was delayed. However, Takealot delivered it first thing the following morning.

Amazon vs Takealot same-day delivery tests

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