Takealot crushes Temu and Shein

Takealot’s media sentiment score is significantly higher than that of most of its competitors, including Chinese competitors Temu and Shein.

E-commerce is fiercely competitive in South Africa, and most of the country’s top retailers invest heavily in their online shopping platforms.

The growth of Chinese online giants Temu and Shein in South Africa has also disrupted the local e-commerce market.

Another trend is that online shopping platforms are growing their product offering, which means they are all fishing in each others’ ponds.

Checkers Sixty60, for example, significantly increased its product range, including products from Apple, Dyson, Thule, Smeg, Samsung, and Harmon Kardon.

This means it is now competing directly against traditional technology shops like Makro, Takealot, and Incredible Connection.

The highly competitive e-commerce and retail market makes marketing and brand awareness crucial for survival.

Temu, for example, enjoyed rapid growth in South Africa through its aggressive online marketing campaigns.

It followed the model which fuelled its growth in the United States, where it spent an estimated $3 billion on online marketing in 2023.

Research shows that Temu’s aggressive online marketing is working. Following its ubiquitous marketing, millions of consumers now use its app to shop online.

Local e-commerce companies have far more conservative marketing strategies, which resulted in them losing market share to their Chinese competitors.

One of the biggest advantages for local players like Takealot, Makro, and Checkers Sixty60 is their proximity to local publishers.

Temu and Shein have a limited presence in South Africa, and their marketing strategies are focused on social media platforms and programmatic advertising.

The Chinese e-commerce players lack the capability and skills to establish commercial relations with South African publishers, an important marketing channel.

Press Pulse’s new online media sentiment report illustrates the poor performance of Temu and Shein on South African publishers.

Press Pulse, backed by Broad Media, is an artificial intelligence (AI) sentiment-measuring system that tracks the performance of companies in the local media.

It showed that Takealot achieved a sentiment score of 27 over the last 30 days, significantly higher than its closest competitor, Makro, on 16.

Temu and Shein had big negative scores at -19 and -17, respectively. This shows that they received significant negative press in recent weeks.

The chart below, courtesy of Press Pulse, shows the sentiment of the top e-commerce stores in South Africa.