Takealot smashes Amazon South Africa in online popularity
Takealot is significantly more popular than Amazon South Africa, according to the latest data from Google Trends and Similarweb.
Amazon South Africa launched in May 2024 to much fanfare, with the promise of an online shopping experience which would provide “great value” on a “broad selection” of products.
Backed by its global powerhouse parent company Amazon, many shoppers expected Amazon South Africa to offer exceptional pricing on a huge range of items – as Amazon is well known for in the US.
However, this was not the case – and its pricing was the same or more expensive than Takealot on many items.
An analysis by MyBroadband also showed that it is often cheaper to buy and import technology products from Amazon US than it is to buy the same products from Amazon South Africa.
Ecommerce experts in South African have raised concerns about the prospects of Amazon South Africa as a result, stating the US-backed company has a fight on its hands to win local market share.
“I think Amazon has got a tough road ahead. They’re not just going to come in here and take market share,” said Iser-Expert CEO Jonny Aarons.
Bidorbuy founder Andy Higgins echoed this sentiment, adding that Amazon has not always been successful in entering new markets.
Amazon’s massive decline
To see if Amazon South Africa is making inroads into Takealot’s leading position in the local market, we looked at the latest data available from Google Trends and Similarweb
Google Trends details the popularity of specific topics using real-time data from its Search, News, and YouTube platforms.
Similarweb is a global data aggregation company specialising in web analytics and web traffic, detailing the performance of websites across the world.
Google Trends and Similarweb are both good systems to use to measure an ecommerce company’s popularity – as ecommerce companies rely on online traffic to acquire new customers and make sales.
A poor performance in online popularity rankings therefore shows that an ecommerce company is not hitting the right notes with the market in which it operates.
Google Trends data shows that Takealot is far ahead of Amazon South Africa and its domain Amazon.co.za when it comes to popularity in Google Search.
The graph below shows the performance of Takealot and Amazon South Africa in Google Trends between 16 June to 16 September 2024.
What will be concerning for Amazon South Africa is that when the Google Trends data range is extended back to May – when the company launched – we see its popularity has declined sharply following a burst of initial interest.
The graph below shows the performance of Takealot and Amazon South Africa in Google Trends between 1 May to 16 September 2024.
It is clear that when Amazon South Africa launched on 6 May, there was a lot of interest online about the ecommerce platform – likely generated by the extensive news coverage the launch received.
Amazon South Africa has failed to maintain that interest, however.
Its popularity in Google Trends declined rapidly in the days which followed, and continued to fall throughout June.
From July onwards, it has stabilised at a fraction of Takelot’s popularity.
More visitors, more time
Website traffic data from Similarweb tells a similar story, with Takealot receiving substantially more visitors to its website than Amazon South Africa.
The graph below shows the number of monthly unique visitors Takealot’s and Amazon South Africa’s websites receive – based on data from Similarweb – over June, July, and August 2024.
It must be noted that Similarweb data is based on a combination of measurements channels, including first-party analytics, contributory networks, digital signal partnerships, and public data extraction.
Takealot is also dominant when it comes to shoppers spending time on its website.
Data from Similarweb shows that people spend well over 5 minutes on average on Takealot’s website each time they visit.
By comparison, people spend under 1 minute 30 seconds on Amazon South Africa’s website each time they visit.
The graph below shows the average visit duration per user on Takealot’s and Amazon South Africa’s websites over June, July, and August 2024.
The Google Trends and Similarweb data paints a clear picture of Amazon South Africa not catching up to Takealot in the past three months when it comes to popularity online.
This aligns with feedback from industry experts who have stated that it will not be a walk in the park to dethrone Takealot as the leading ecommerce player in the country.
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