The competition authority has revealed the approval of the merger application of takealot.com and Kalahari.com, two of South Africa’s ecommerce players, on the 5th of January 2015. According to the authority, the online retail merger becomes effective on 01 February 2015.
Takealot.com’s founder and co-CEO Kim Reid said, “We are excited about the approval of the transaction. This will allow us to build a significant retail entity in South Africa, one that continues to be truly customer focused.”
Currently the retail market for consumer goods in South Africa is approximately R800 billion, of which less than 2% is online. Worldwide online retail as a percentage of total retail is growing. China has an online retail market share of 10%, whilst in the US and the UK it is already approaching 15%.
With the merger of the two businesses a single platform of scale is created to take advantage of the significant growth opportunities in online retail in South Africa.
“This is a necessary step in the evolution of online retail in South Africa and exciting news. The South African e-tail market is a highly dynamic one, and we foresee significant growth in the future” said Oliver Rippel, senior executive responsible for Kalahari.
The newly formed ecommerce market leader will eventually trade under the takealot.com brand, using Takealot’s platform and technology, led by Takealot’s existing co-CEO’s Kim Reid and Willem van Biljon.
For now, existing customers of both sites will continue to shop as usual on the respective sites.
Staff Writer
