Does South Africa’s ecommerce future really lie with niche players?

The South African ecommerce space is pretty complex. On the one hand you’ve got players like Takealot attracting hundreds of millions of dollars in international funding. On the other you’ve got people from some of the world’s biggest retail companies suggesting that it won’t be a major force.

That flies somewhat in the face of the reasons given for Takealot’s merger with Naspers-owned Kalahari. At the time, both parties said it was so they could better compete in the international arena. It is however consistent with industry talk, which suggested that the merger had come about because there was simply no way that both companies could exist independently and make a profit.

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