Takealot claim to be the premier online shopping platform in Africa. With the merger of Takealot and Kalaharai.com in May 2015 this claim is right on the ladder.
Takealot sell the widest range of quality products from one place in the country. According to Alexsa Bidorbuy is their nearest competitor. Bidorbuy is an online auction or buy now site and is the equivalent of EBay in South Africa. Whilst they may compete for customers, they cannot really be considered a true competitor in that they do not only sell new products and quality cannot be guaranteed to the consumer. The same applies to Gumtree and OLX who also rank highly, but their products and services come from all over South Africa. Once again, anyone can sign up and sell. For discerning customers they are really not an option.
According to Alexa rankings, Takealot sits between Standard Bank and Junk Mail, both very popular sites, and Bidorbuy trails below that. According to Similar web, Takealot was sitting at ranking of 30 and was trending downwards until the recent Kalahari merger.
Regarding downward trending, Groupon is not likely to be the cause of any problems for Takealot. They have an annoying signup for newsletters before visitors can view the products on their site and this would account for a huge bounce rate. As far as I can see the only promising thing about Groupon is that shipping is included in prices quoted. Many external companies or individuals provide the end service which can be problematic for the consumer
Another online site is Onedayonly which is ranked at 231 in South Africa. They offer one day specials on very nice products but are not able to indicate to the buyer the quantities available. No shipping is in included in prices and refunds rather than product replacement seems to be the norm. They have a laid back FAQ page. Too laid back with a “Yo-Bro” angle that will probably bounce older bread winners.
The closest potential online competition to Takealot who provide after sales service, good duality and in-house staff is Dionwired. Dionwired sell electronics, beauty products, appliances, audio, computer and photography equipment. Whilst they do not have as big a range of product as Takealot they do, according to General Manager, Andrew Jackson, “effectively offer a presence in every town and city across South Africa.” This is useful for persons resident in outlying areas.
One advantage Dionwired has is that they offer real time TV license validation, a functionality they developed. This is a legal requirement in South Africa. Taking the hassle out of anything like this is a plus factor. This might account for the fact that DionWired is the biggest online seller of TVs in South Africa. Customers can apply for credit online.
The success and upward trending of Dionwired can probably be largely traced to the fact that Whois states they score a whopping 89 percent on their SEO score. Their estimated traffic is 230k. Of their visitors, most spend just under four and a half minutes on site, with a bounce rate of 38%. In comparison, Takealot visitors stay for an average of 7 minutes.
This difference could be accounted for in the fact that the landing page for Takealot clearly indicates the merits of buying from them with only one small movement of the mouse scroll. The visitor to the site does not need to click for all categories, as they are clearly displayed on the left menu. The “tied the knot” banner at top right of the landing page immediately assures customer confidence as the Kalahari brand is well known and trusted. The Dionwired site has a leaflet download in the left hand menu. This is a good place to draw the web reader’s attention, but few people want to time-waste with downloads, so the space could be better used. If a visitor wants to find out more about how it all works, they need to scroll right to the bottom of the very long landing page. Scrolling bounces customers. Excessive time spent looking for answers bounces even more.
In summary, Takealot has to keep an eye on Dionwired as a potential competitor in South Africa
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