Takealot Pivots to Third-Party Logistics for Rival Retailers, Posts First Full-Year Profit
Takealot is pivoting to offer third-party logistics services to competing South African retailers while reporting its first full-year profit. The dual development marks a significant strategic repositioning for the country's dominant e-commerce platform.
Takealot: when your biggest competitor becomes your best customer
The R171 million profit is the headline, but the real story is the mechanism behind it.
Takealot already owned the warehouses and delivery fleets it needed to run its own store. Filling that same capacity with orders from Woolworths, Mr Price and Pepkor costs almost nothing extra — the infrastructure is already paid for. So every rand Takealot Fulfilment Services earns from a rival is nearly pure upside.
That's a genuinely different business model — and a harder one for anyone to displace, because the economics only work at Takealot's scale.
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- SA E-Commerce Shake-Up: How Takealot Became a Logistics Partner for Its Rivals · itnewsafrica.com · T2