Takealot is South Africa’s answer to Amazon. The basic premise is that Takealot provide an online shopping mall and fulfillment centre for manufacturers, suppliers and sellers of goods.
For a start up business the sales pitch from Takealot is compelling as they will take care of marketing (to a degree), storage, order fulfillment, money collection and delivery.
Of course Takealot do not only charge a percentage of the sales price for every sale – they also add on what some people call ‘hidden fees’ for storage, platform, cancelled orders, storage at one or both of their Distribution Centers in Johannesburg or Cape Town, delivery to customer etc.
The fees below will not be exactly what your business experiences but are a reasonable indicator of the types of fees to expect and to include in your determination of selling prices online.
Here is a breakdown of what fees are being charged by Takealot*:
- Monthly Platform fee – R460.00
- Delivery to Customer from Takealot DC – R18.00 to R220
- Delivery to CT or JHB from supplier to Takealot – R253 to R550
- IDC Fees – R18 to R220 (between DC’s e.g. 1 item to JHB from CT to be bundled with 2 items in JHB for a 3 item sale)
- Storage fees (over 35 days in stock) – R4.00 to R1800.00
- Seasonal Storage fees (Nov to Jan over 35 days in stock) – R18.00 to R1080.00
- Success Fees – 5.5% to 15%
- Cancelled Lead Time – R57.50 (eg. out of stock)
- Order Removal – R2.87 per item
*Please note: Fees change so before making a decision please check the fees as listed by Takealot.
The fees are different for types of items and weight – the faster moving items have a lower success fee but one would expect those to also have lower margins.
You have to be moving a bucket load of stock at excellent margins to make it worth your while.
You sign a debit order with Takealot so that they can cover their fees should you not have enough sales to cover the monthly and transaction fees.
