Giant retail company, Amazon had on Tuesday, October 17, said that it would launch its online shopping service in South Africa by 2024, making it the second African country so far, after Egypt where the U.S. e-commerce giant has set up a locally-dedicated website.
If successfully launched, South Africa will become Amazon’s 21st country with a local domain name-based website, opposing a significant number of online retailers dominated mainly by Naspers’ and Takealot.com
Amazon had said in a statement:
“The launch of Amazon.co.za in 2024 will equip independent sellers all over the country with an opportunity to quickly launch, grow, and scale their businesses.”
The launch of this service comes at a time when South Africa has experienced a significant rise in online shopping after the pandemic developed an opportunity for e-commerce to finally take hold, with retailers increasing the rate of on investments in response.
However, of late the spike in online sales appears to have peaked as South Africans have gone back to using shopping malls.
Additionally, with South Africa’s poor growth, high unemployment, electricity supply and transportation issues, analysts have grim hope for the launch to become a game-changer for Amazon or for it to be a major disruptor for the local industry.
In 2022, the Takealot Group CEO, Mamongae Mahlare, informed Reuters that the company’s vast delivery network and local appeal would guarantee that it competes well with Amazon.
It is still unknown how Amazon’s platform will be arranged as it will have to comply with the local competition authority’s rules which permits online retailers to divide their retail division from their marketplace operations.
