Big change for Takealot orders

Takealot is changing the types of products it prioritises for stocking at its warehouse, increasing delivery times on many larger items.

Takealot recently communicated the change to third-party sellers who offer their products through its marketplace platform.

The company explained the change was part of ways to improve how it served customers.

“We’ve decided to focus on stocking smaller items measuring less than 1.5 metres in our distribution centres (DCs),” Takealot said.

“This change helps us ensure that our most popular products are readily available for quick delivery, aligning with our customers’ value.”

Takealot said larger items will be moving to a lead-time fulfilment model, meaning that they will not be shown as “In Stock” and will take longer to deliver.

“This simple adjustment allows us to offer these items without storing them in our warehouses while creating a more flexible logistics process,” Takealot said.

It should be noted that appliances have been excluded from this provision, so Takealot will likely continue holding stock of products like TVs, fridges, and washing machines at its distribution centres.

Most of the sellers on an online group who saw the post seemed happy with the change.

MyBroadband asked Takealot why it was focusing more on holding stock of smaller items, but it did not provide feedback by the time of publication.

One possibility is that customers have increasingly leaned towards buying products like cosmetics, clothing, groceries, and small electronics online, where higher-value large items were previously the bigger sellers.

In its 2024 and 2023 Black Friday sales, all 10 of Takealot’s best-selling products by volume were relatively small.

These included beverages, toilet paper, cosmetics, dishwashing tablets, and AirTags.

The largest was a Hisense 58-inch TV, which measures just about 1.5 metres diagonally but is considered an appliance, so it won’t be affected by Takealot’s recent change.

Takealot feeling the heat — but holding its ground

In the past few years, there has been a surge in e-commerce competition in South Africa.

In addition to the rollout of Amazon’s local marketplace in May 2024, Temu and Shein have become hugely popular in the past two years.

One area where the two Chinese retailers are particularly strong is in small and cheap items that are produced at an enormous scale.

Many of these products are also imported by third-party sellers on Takealot and other local platforms.

However, to make it worthwhile to sell these items, local sellers must add a profit margin to them.

While Takealot’s sellers cannot compete on price, there is one area where they most definitely will have an advantage over Temu and Shein — order fulfilment time.

By prioritising the stockholding of small items, Takealot can help extend sellers’ advantage in delivery times.

For some online shoppers, the ability to have an item at their doorstep in a day or two is more important than paying the lowest price and getting the product in a week or two.

Amazon.co.za is giving Takealot no breathing room on this front, with excellent delivery turnarounds thanks to its partnerships with experienced local couriers.

Despite the extra competition, a MyBroadband analysis of Google Search Trends data over the past year showed that Takealot continues to dominate the minds of most local online users.

While weekly searches for Amazon, Shein and Temu have trended around 20 to 30 in the recent past, searches for Takealot have consistently remained above 50.

The only time that searches for Amazon in South Africa jumped past Takealot searches was at Amazon.co. za’s launch in May 2024.

That momentum was short-lived, as shown in the graph below.