Black Friday6.12.2023

How much Takealot Black Friday shoppers really saved on its best-selling tech deals

Most of the best-selling tech products discounted on Takealot on Black Friday were available at their lowest prices ever, tracking service Serval shows.

Takealot recently shared the top-selling products on its store for Black Friday 2023 in terms of units sold and gross merchandise value (GMV).

In terms of units sold, only two products in the top 10 were tech items. However, in GMV, all products were in the tech category.

MyBroadband analysed the Black Friday prices of the tech products — 11 in total because one Hisense TV was a best-seller in units and GMV — to see whether they were really good deals.

We found that seven out of the 11 were at their lowest prices on Takealot since first being monitored. In addition, their “list prices” on Black Friday were at the lowest yet.

This is significant because the list price, or supplier-suggested retail price, is the reference point to calculate the discount percentage.

Some retailers and suppliers have previously been accused of artificially inflating this price to make a deal seem better than it is.

Although this has also happened on Takealot, the site hosts numerous merchants that set their own list prices for products.

While Takealot exercises some oversight over this, a product’s listed price could be exaggerated by badly-behaving sellers or simply by mistake.

The other four products on the list were not at their lowest prices ever recorded.

However, the Hisense 55-inch Mini LED 4K TV was still discounted by over half its listed price of R20,999, which was its lowest list price on record.

The Apple iPad 9 64GB Wi-Fi-only model was discounted to R5,999 from R7,499. Its lowest price on record was only R200 cheaper over a year ago.

The best deal on the Ecoflow River 2 portable power station on Black Friday was R4,119, marked down from R9,999.

While this would appear to have been a significant discount, the seller that featured as the recommended option on the day after Black Friday had it for even cheaper — R3,499. In addition, their list price was substantially lower at R7,999.

The standard PlayStation 5’s R11,999 Black Friday price was above its best-ever price of R11,299 since being tracked by Serval.

Its listed price of R13,699 was also higher than its lowest-ever list price of R12,799.

However, the PlayStation’s price has been increased twice in South Africa since its introduction, so the latter is not that suspicious.

The best-selling products on Takealot over Black Friday and their pricing history is summarised below.


Hisense 58-inch 4K TV — Excellent deal

  • Black Friday price: R5,999
  • Lowest price on record: R5,999
  • Black Friday “list price”: R10,999
  • Lowest “list price” on record: R10,999
  • Effective Black Friday discount: 45%


Xiaomi 4K Ultra HD TV Box — Excellent deal

  • Black Friday price: R799
  • Lowest price on record: R799
  • Black Friday “list price”: R1,299
  • Lowest “list price”: R1,299
  • Effective discount: 38%


Samsung 65-inch 4K TV — Excellent deal

  • Black Friday price: R9,899
  • Lowest price on record: R9,899
  • Black Friday “list price”: R13,999
  • Lowest “list price” on record: R13,999
  • Effective discount: 29%


Hisense 55-inch 4K Mini LED TV — Excellent deal, but not cheapest price yet

  • Black Friday price: R9,899
  • Lowest price on record: R9,499
  • Black Friday “list price”: R20,999
  • Lowest “list price” on record: R20,999
  • Effective discount: 53%


Ecoflow River 2 portable power station — Decent deal

  • Black Friday price: R4,119
  • Lowest price on record: R3,499
  • Black Friday “list price”: R9,999
  • Lowest “list price”: R7,999
  • Effective discount: 59% (overstated)


Hisense 70-inch 4K TV — Excellent deal, but not cheapest “list price”

  • Black Friday price: R9,999
  • Lowest price on record: R9,999
  • Black Friday “list price”: R16,999
  • Lowest “list price” on record: R15,999
  • Effective discount: 41%


Hisense 65-inch 4K TV — Excellent deal

  • Black Friday price: R8,899
  • Lowest price on record: R8,899
  • Black Friday “list price”: R14,499
  • Lowest “list price” on record: R14,499
  • Effective discount: 39%


Samsung Galaxy A24 — Good deal

  • Black Friday price: R3,599
  • Lowest price on record: R3,599
  • Black Friday “list price”: R4,999
  • Lowest “list price” on record: R4,999
  • Effective discount: 28%


Apple iPad 9th generation — Average deal

  • Black Friday price: R5,999
  • Lowest price on record: R5,799
  • Black Friday “list price”: R7,499
  • Lowest “list price” on record: R6,499
  • Effective discount: 25%


Hisense 4K 50-inch TV — Excellent deal

  • Black Friday price: R4,226
  • Lowest price on record: R6,899
  • Black Friday “list price”: R6,999
  • Lowest “list price” on record: R4,226
  • Effective Black Friday discount: 40%


PlayStation 5 — Mediocre deal

  • Black Friday price: R11,999
  • Lowest price on record: R11,299
  • Black Friday “list price”: R13,699
  • Lowest “list price” on record: R12,799
  • Effective Black Friday discount: 12%


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