Takealot reveals Black Friday revenue

Takealot, which claims to be the largest online store‎ in South Africa, has told MyBroadband that despite its major technical glitches on Black Friday 2017, it still managed to generate R87 million in gross merchandising value (GMV) on the day.

The site suffered a massive downtime throughout the biggest online shopping day on the calendar on Friday, leaving scores of potential customers frustrated.

According to MyBroadband, Takealot said that it generated over R6 million in sales in the first hour of trade after midnight.

As Takealot’s Blue Dot Sale continued through Saturday and Sunday, it doubled its GMV from 2016 – driven by a 70% increase in site traffic and order numbers, MyBroadband said.

The retailer said it saw a record number of visits to its site on Black Friday, with over 2.2 million hits.

“Black Friday was one heck of a day. We started off with a site in cardiac arrest and ended the day being told we were owned by the Guptas, which of course is absolute nonsense,” said Takealot CEO Kim Reid.

“We are fully aware that the day was far from ideal for our customers and are incredibly humbled that people continued to support us throughout the day. We know we have disappointed some customers and we are very sorry to have done so.”

Read: Takealot is expecting its biggest Black Friday sales peak ever