We already know where South Africans shop – Online.
Since the pandemic, the local eCommerce market has expanded rapidly, as the convenience and immediacy of shopping on a website is hard to ignore for busy South Africans. This is evidenced by the last Black Friday (or Black November), where Sales increased 1,000 percent Compared to last year, local consumers source most of their electronics and hardware from online retailers.
But which retailer? This is one of the questions we asked in our inaugural PC & Laptop survey.
The responses were definitive, with one retailer in particular standing out – Takealot.
In fact, 22.2 percent of our respondents used it to buy the latest PC or laptop. In second place was Incredible (formerly Incredible Connection) with 19.6 percent, with specialist PC retailers such as Evetec, Computer Mania and Wooware completing the top five.
As for why Takelot is moving in this direction, the reasons are multifaceted. To that end, we need to look back at the global pandemic and national lockdowns, where online retailers and grocery delivery platforms flourished as South African citizens were stuck in their homes.
This period brought great success to Takelot, which was Fulfilling hundreds of thousands of deliveries One month. These deliveries extended beyond PPE, and included other essential items such as PCs and laptops. This, coupled with the fact that orders were fulfilled within a few days, added to the convenience.
Another important element to consider is the wide spread of inventory that Takealot holds compared to other online retailers. Apart from dedicated PC brands, Techalot offers far more models of hardware than other ecommerce platforms, third-party suppliers also assist in this regard.
Looking at a brand like Acer for example, Techalot not only has a dedicated store for it, but it also allows third-party sellers to carry the product, with the number of options being higher than a store like Incredible.
We also need to consider the discounts that Takealot often offers, and while there is some divisive rhetoric about how the platform handles dynamic pricing, discounts are easy to find on the site.
It seems that this dominance will continue for some time, at least when it comes to devices like PCs and laptops.
While much has been said about the introduction of Chinese platforms like Shein and Teemu, their forte lies in fashion and not electronics. Amazon has made some waves since launching nearly two years ago, but Takealot has yet to offer delivery speeds.
Like, Takealot is currently Unmatched in the local ecommerce sectorAnd as our most recent survey showed, South Africans will turn to it for the majority of their device needs.
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