MyBroadband spoke to local e-commerce automation startup Wherehouse<\/a> about the trends they are seeing in the market.<\/p>\n Launched in January 2022 by Giovanni Joubert, Wherehouse integrates with multiple third-party marketplaces and e-commerce platforms such as Shopify and WooCommerce.<\/p>\n This gives Wherehouse some insight into sales volumes among merchants who list on a single platform like Takealot compared to those who sell in multiple locations.<\/p>\n \u201cMarket fragmentation is not unique to South Africa. Even in the US, while Amazon holds a significant market share, savvy shoppers can find better deals by exploring multiple marketplaces,\u201d Joubert said.<\/p>\n He said sellers often list their products on multiple marketplaces, with each platform investing in marketing and search ads that provide sellers with additional visibility for their products.<\/p>\n \u201cSome marketplaces impose fewer fees on sellers, while others offer additional services that benefit the merchants,\u201d explained Joubert.<\/p>\n \u201cFurther, sellers choose to diversify incase of emergency. For example, if Takealot were to stop selling my goods, I\u2019d still want buyers to be able to find them.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Wherehouse\u2019s website, they\u2019ve seen some sellers increase their turnover by 50% after listing their products on multiple platforms.<\/p>\n \u201cWe see a clear increase in sales when a seller expands from one to multiple marketplaces. Therefore, I believe this fragmentation will continue,\u201d Joubert told MyBroadband.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom the buyer\u2019s perspective, you just need to be a bit savvy and do your homework. By doing so, you can benefit from the various marketplaces competing for market share and grab a good deal.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked if they could share statistics on sales volumes across marketplaces, Joubert obliged with two sets of figures for the three months from April to June 2024.<\/p>\n The first set looked across all their customer accounts that integrate marketplaces.<\/p>\n However, Joubert noted that this included merchants who only sell through Takealot and others who don\u2019t have their own store through Shopify, WooCommerce, or another platform.<\/p>\n Overall, Takealot comprised 75.9% of sales volumes among their clients. Own stores made up 12%, and Makro 7.6%.<\/p>\n There is a sharp drop after this, with Bob Shop making up 1.6% of sales, and Amazon taking up 1.09% of volumes. Loot and Leroy Merlin make up less than 1% of total volumes each.<\/p>\n This picture changes drastically when only considering merchants who sell through three or more platforms.<\/p>\n Those sales volumes are summarised in the table below. Joubert said they may have more sellers in some product categories (e.g. electronics) than others (e.g. kids toys).<\/p>\n We also spoke to Joubert about his company and the technology he used to build Wherehouse.<\/p>\n \u201cThe very first line of code was committed on 10 May 2021, and the first customer subscribed on 5 January 2022,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Joubert said he\u2019s always dabbled with some sort of entrepreneurial venture, whether he was 13 years old and fixing iPhones out of his parents\u2019 garage or doing videography for companies and building websites.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing a software developer, I was looking for business problems to solve that I could turn into a software-based solution,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Among his many ideas, a service to help sellers automate managing listings across multiple e-commerce marketplaces grabbed his attention the most.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a freelancer, I built an e-commerce website for a brick-and-mortar retailer who reached out to find out whether I thought it would be possible to also list their products on Takealot,\u201d said Joubert.<\/p>\n \u201cSoon after, they were also looking at listing on Makro marketplace.\u201d<\/p>\n Joubert said a friend of his had launched an online store (Pro-Outdoor<\/a>) that completely exceeded expectations.<\/p>\n \u201cHe quickly came to realise that accounting automation would be required to keep up with the requirements of retail.\u201d<\/p>\n While researching the viability of a service like Wherehouse, Joubert said he started asking questions on various Facebook interest groups related to marketplace selling to gauge interest and see what problems sellers faced.<\/p>\n \u201cThe amount of buzz on these made me realise I was on to something,\u201d said Joubert.<\/p>\n Regarding his technology stack, Joubert said it is quite modern, as he had the flexibility to build with the libraries and languages that were most enjoyable to him at the time.<\/p>\n Wherehouse is built on Node.js for the backend, Vue.js for the frontend, PostgreSQL for the database, and Redis for queueing and real-time systems.<\/p>\n He built their website in Nuxt. Joubert said he uses typescript for Node, Vue, and Nuxt.<\/p>\n\n\n
\n Merchants on Wherehouse selling through 3+ platforms (April\u2013June 2024)<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n \n \nMarketplace<\/th>\n Sales volume<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n \n takealot.com<\/td>\n 54.37%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n makro.co.za<\/td>\n 17.20%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Seller\u2019s own store (Shopify, WooCommerce, etc.)<\/td>\n 15.00%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n amazon.co.za<\/td>\n 10.25%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n leroymerlin.co.za<\/td>\n 1.85%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n loot.co.za<\/td>\n 0.68%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n bobshop.co.za<\/td>\n 0.65%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n A South African technology startup<\/h2>\n
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