Every year we go through the same nonsense with Takealot around Black Friday. For some reason, the online retailer marks up most of its products around Black Friday only to discount them while pretending that customers are actually getting a decent deal on the stuff they buy. Of course, Takealot loves playing dumb about this and uses the ol’ “we are not in charge of the prices on products. 3rd party sellers set the prices”.
There is some truth to the matter though. Takealot does give 3rd party sellers access to adjusting product pricing at any time. This means if you sell something on the store, you can easily mark up the original retail price and discount it to what the product actually sells for. That way, customers think they are getting a deal when they are simply buying the product for the original RRP.
But Takealot isn’t innocent. The company has done this multiple times in the past on products they sell themselves. It is also sad that around Black Friday, suddenly all of their listings skyrocket in price to fool customers into thinking they are getting a larger discount. Chances are, you’re not.
READ MORE Best Laptop Black Friday Deals in South Africa
Granted, there are products on Takealot that are genuinely discounted. It is just sad that it is hard to sort through the dumpster fire of fake trash sales in order to find the actual deals.
Take the latest Black Friday TV deals post I wrote this week. I struggled to find the same TVs on sale at Takealot. While they were listed, many of the TVs had a much higher RRP than elsewhere and the discounts were the same or perhaps R100 – R200 more. The retailer simply cannot be trusted and I personally try and avoid promoting their Black Friday sale on my site.
Taking a look at social media, Takealot is being called out for its shady tactics. Twitter user Shaun Oakes posted a photo of a Samsung TV that was retailing at R9,999 last week but has magically been increased to R11,999 this week during Black Friday. Meanwhile, the sale price leads people to believe they are saving a lot more money on the technology. However, you can actually buy this TV any time of the year and pay the same price as Black Friday. There’s no real “Black Friday” special happening at all.
Ah Takealot, up to your old tricks again.
The image on the left was taken a week ago (I’m pricing TVs so I took a screenshot)
The image on the right is from today (the same model, with the price mysteriously now up by an extra R1k 🤔) pic.twitter.com/HMN8bgEkA1
— Shaun Oakes (@shaunoakes) November 22, 2022
How to Avoid Being Scammed on Takealot
You can work around this issue. I always urge people to GOOGLE THE DAMN PRODUCT FIRST. While Takealot is SA’s biggest online retailer, there are other stores out there that sell the same stuff. A simple Google search in the “Shopping” tab will reveal what the product sells for at other stores. That way you can see whether or not Takealot is trying to pull a fast one on you.
While Takealot offers some great shipping options, sometimes it is better to save more money on a product and wait a few days to get it delivered from say Incredible Connection instead.
If some other stores don’t show up in the Google Shopping search, go to the website and find the product itself. Often, other retailers don’t pay Google Ads to show their shopping links in the searches. It doesn’t mean they aren’t selling the item cheaper.
Use Serval!
I also recommend trying out a website called Serval. The site lets you paste the URL for the Takealot product into a search bar and it shows you the highest and lowest selling price for the product for the last few days. You can also scroll back to the last few months and see what Takealot had the product listed at.
Y’all, I need this Dyson Vacuum!
If Serval shows you that the Phillips Airfryer was R1999 throughout the year, that is NOT a Black Friday sale. You can buy this on sale another time. Try and find products that have only recently dropped in price during the month of November. Don’t let Takealot fool you into thinking everything on their site is a Black Friday sale, it isn’t.
Be safe out there this Black Friday, folks. Don’t let Takealot fool you. Also, be sure to check out all our Black Friday posts below. They include sales on games, notebooks, TVs and more (not linked to Takealot).
- Xbox Store Black Friday Sale Now Live With 70% Off
- South African Black Friday Gaming Deals
- PlayStation Store Black Friday Sale Now Live With 70% Off Games
- Best Black Friday TV Deals in South Africa
- Prima and Xbox Black Friday Deals Offer Massive Discounts
- Best Geek Deals in South Africa For Black Friday
- Best Laptop Black Friday Deals in South Africa
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