Takealot free delivery a winner

Takealot has reported an “overwhelmingly positive” response to its Amazon Prime-like online shopping and on-demand subscription service TakealotMore.

Launched on 9 May 2024, TakealotMore provides subscribers with a host of delivery-related benefits, including free same-day and next-day deliveries on Takealot and Mr D.

The company told MyBroadband that the subscription’s holistic online shopping offering made it unrivalled in South Africa.

It also said the 7-day free trial of the subscription contributed to its warm reception.

While both plans have seen strong growth, the Premium R99 plan has proven to be slightly more popular, Takealot said.

However, the retailer did not provide any specific subscriber numbers.

TakealotMore is offered in two tiers — Standard and Premium — priced at R39 and R99, respectively.

For orders over R500, the Standard subscription includes two free same-day deliveries and collections and unlimited free next-day deliveries and collections on Takealot.

It also boasts a free restaurant and grocery delivery on Mr D every month, with respective minimum order values of R150 and R350.

The Premium subscription boasts unlimited same-day deliveries and collections on Takealot for orders with a minimum value of R500.

All next-day and weekend deliveries and collections are free without any minimum order amounts, and subscribers get ten free standard deliveries for bulky items in a month.

In terms of Mr D benefits, their first five orders of the month with a minimum value of R150 will qualify for free delivery, while free grocery deliveries with a minimum value of R350 are unlimited.

Sticking it to Amazon

It would be hard to put the timing of TakealotMore’s launch on Thursday, 9 May 2024, two days after Amazon.co.za rolled out, down to mere coincidence.

Takealot parent Naspers previously said the company was getting more money to prepare for the launch of the US e-commerce giant.

Takealot CEO Frederik Zietsman also alluded to exciting new features for South Africa’s biggest online shop in the weeks leading up to Amazon’s launch.

TakealotMore offers many similar features to Amazon’s highly popular Prime subscription, which e-commerce experts felt would be key to setting the marketplace apart from local rivals.

In addition to free same-day and next-day deliveries on millions of items, Prime bundles online video, music, food, and gaming services from Amazon’s own stable of products and services in an attractive all-in-one package.

However, the Amazon.co.za marketplace debuted without any mention of Prime, and Amazon has yet to confirm any details about its local availability.

South Africans can already subscribe to Prime in one of its supported countries, but they don’t get any delivery-related benefits.

Perks they can enjoy include early access to sales, Prime Day offers, access to Amazon Video and Amazon Music streaming, and a Twitch Gaming subscription.

However, Amazon also sells a bundled Prime Video and Twitch Gaming subscription locally for R79 per month — much cheaper than buying an international Amazon Prime service.

The table below compares the features and prices of TakealotMore and Amazon Prime in the US.

While TakealotMore is currently focused on delivery-related perks, Zietsman has emphasised that the service would be ever-evolving, suggesting that it could add new features and benefits that would make it more competitive should Prime launch in South Africa.