One of my absolute favourite places to buy
Some key points that this Online Shop offers:
- Customer care service is fantastic
- After-sales service is spot on
Site Build & Layout:
Takealot’s site was built very well. At first glance, it might look overwhelming and even a tad confusing. Especially if it’s your visit to the site. However, everything is actually very neatly categorized into its respective categories.
Takealot stocks a massive variety of items, and to make it easy to find, categories and proper filters need to be present, otherwise potential customers will find it very difficult to actually find what they are looking for. Here I must admit, Takealot is on the ball here.
I say this because I’ve been buying from them since the Kalahari days, and their website has undergone numerous updates and changes over the years. Their customer base is massive I presume and the website handles it very well.
The website is actually very responsive and when browsing the entire process is actually very simple.
Site Navigation:
With tons of products to choose from comes, a whole new can of worms, searching for specific keywords can bring up products from categories you are not looking for at all. Takealot’s search feature actually allows you to choose from which department you want to search in for your key phrase.
This makes navigation much easier because specific key phrases can bring back thousands of results.
You can use the sidebar on the home page to shop by specific departments for what you are looking for.
If you used the search bar, there are a lot of filter options available to help you narrow your search for that specific brand or model you are looking for. Takealot has put in the legwork to ensure their website is easy to navigate and use.
Checkout & Payment:
Once you added your shopping list to your cart, you can proceed to your cart, where you can have a final look at your list. Here you have the options to increase or decrease the quantities of the items in the cart. Very useful for household products that Takealot sells.
Once you have confirmed your cart, you move on to the delivery proceed where you can select your delivery method. Orders over R450. 00 is free, regardless of the item size. A decent extra that very few other shops offer.
However, I will admit that very few shops match what Takealot does. They have grown rapidly over the years and at this stage have over 80 Pickup points across the country. This gives you the option to pick up an item from a pickup point if you do not want to use door-to-door delivery.
If your order is small the delivery fee to a pickup point is the way to go. Delivery to these points is very affordable making almost any purchase more than worthwhile.
Takealot also has several payment options. There is cash, EFT, or credit options such as Mobicred. If you bank with FNB, you can also earn or use your eBucks to pay for your order.
Packaging & Shipping:
In most cases, Takealot’s shipping is very decently done. There has been a time or two when I was not impressed with the delivery. An example would be when I purchased an internal HDD and it was delivered in a box without any bubble wrap or other packaging. Basically, the HDD arrived just in an empty box, packages in its anti-static bag.
This is not the best or safest way to package such an item for shipping. My current order was a large item that could not be packaged; however, it was packaged properly. My second item was packaged in a larger box, without any additional wrapping. However, products such as these are usually safely packaged by the manufacturers before being shipped out to retailers.
Delivery times depend on the item you purchase. Takealot has a few varying delivery times. It depends on your area; standard delivery times are usually two to six days. If the item has to be ordered the delivery time will be longer due to the waiting on stock options.
Takealot also offers a premium delivery/ collect service. However, these are only available in Cape Town, Johannesburg & Pretoria. This is where the Warehouses are located.
MGR Gaming’s Conclusions:
My biggest reason for the review is to note the ongoing exceptional service I have received from Takealot. As I mentioned I have been buying from them for years. In all my years I have never had a bad sales experience. If an item was defective, a simple logging a return via the web or app and they collect it on their dime.
Once collected and inspected they will replace or refund the payment. The refund is usually in the form of Takealot credit but the option to have the credit paid back into your account is also available.
One of the best features I enjoy here is that they apply the same level of professionalism to all third-party sales. If the item was bought on Takealot they take full responsibility for the swap out or refund of the item.
In my years of purchases from Takealot I’ve had a few purchases that I was not happy with and in every instance Takealot has sorted it out for me. This deserves to be recognized because there are many shops out there whose after-sales service is absolutely terrible.
Takealot has grown to the point where it hosts several of its own sales. App-Only deals, Daily Deals, and other unique sales. Takealot’s pricing is very competitive against other retailers. Special Note here. At times third part resellers list items for prices that are incorrect or way overpriced. Takealot does not seem to set the price limit on items.
A little tip here. When on a product page you can see whether it is being sold by Takealot or a third-party retailer.
All in all, my experiences with Takealot have always been fantastic and I will continue to use them until those changes.
