A day after Amazon launched its marketplace in South Africa, Takealot launched TakealotMORE, an offering reminiscent of Amazon’s “Prime” subscription service. Amazon Prime is yet to launch in South Africa.
Naspers-owned Takealot is currently South Africa’s leading e-commerce platform, responsible for almost half of all e-commerce sales in the country. It will be most impacted by Amazon's entry and possible success in South Africa.
Building up a lead in the growing subscription-as-a-service market segment might be a way to hedge against Amazon grabbing a significant delivery segment.
With the launch of the subscription service TakealotMORE, Takealot is seemingly being proactive and not letting Amazon launch Prime in South Africa first. Prime is one of Amazon’s fastest-growing verticals, adding more than $9 billion in sales revenue to Amazon’s balance sheet per the company’s latest results.
Some of the services offered by TakealotMORE include same-day delivery, next-day delivery, grocery delivery and free large-item delivery. Amazon Prime offers same-day delivery, one-day, and grocery deliveries as well as music and video streaming services. TakealotMORE has two packages costing R39 ($2) and R99 ($5) while Prime costs $7 and $15 per month in the US.
After Amazon’s South Africa launch plans were reported two years ago, Takealot has always maintained that it sees Amazon’s interest as a compliment to Takealot’s early market entry rather than a competitive disadvantage. With the subscription service, perhaps Takealot is signalling that it is ready for a dog to fight the global retail giant.