The best thing Amazon’s South Africa launch has done is make Takealot better. It may sound reductionistic, but it really is the case. Takealot is good, even if it has had a few unforgivable brainfarts with returns.
Takealot still has some tricks up its sleeve
Suddenly, next-day deliveries are standard and all-round efficiency and speed have been improved. And that isn’t even with the new subscription service, called TakealotMore. The R40/m subscription offers unlimited next-day deliveries (for over R500) and two same-day deliveries a month. The R100 premium package gives unlimited same-day delivery.
I am more than happy with a reliable next-day service, and I am not inclined to pay a subscription for every service I use regularly. I already pay Sixty60 R100/m for unlimited free deliveries (on orders over R350), and it covers a vast number of bases – including same-day deliveries of Bomb Squad beer.
I looked through the Amazon.co.za site when it launched, and was as surprised as everyone else at how sparse it was. Don’t let that fool you. It is a behemoth, and it has arrived. By the end of the year, this will be a different picture and Amazon’s renowned economies of scale and logistics will be pumping.
There was one thing I spotted immediately. It tells you everything you need to know about the way Amazon short circuits the previous generation of commerce and its business model. A friend asked me for a good recommendation on a power bank. Let’s call him Hugh.
I fired up my Takealot wishlist of the best such products (I have wishlists for chargers, laptops, cables, and endless boxes of Legos for my son). Because Amazon had launched that week, I checked under a generic search for “power bank”.
Read More: TakealotMore is the retailer’s R40/m solution to taking on Amazon
The excellent Xiaomi 20,000mAh 50W power bank that I have, and often recommend, because its 50W fast charge can also charge a laptop, was R350 cheaper. It was R750 on Amazon.co.za, instead of the usual R1,100 on Takealot. “Buy this immediately”, I told him and messaged all those people who had recently asked me for similar recommendations. It’s a good product at a very good price.
That’s the other good thing that Amazon will usher in, better prices.
But the rest of what is currently on Amazon.co.za is sparse, and notably so. The best thing it has done is make Takealot, and all the other e-commerce players who don’t want to see their lunch being eaten, lift their game.