Over the past two years, an increasing number of Chinese factories and cross-border sellers have begun to focus on the South African market.

The reason is simple: competition on European and American platforms is becoming increasingly fierce, competition in Southeast Asia is also intensifying, while the South African e-commerce market is still in its growth phase. For sellers with strong supply chains, quality products, and pricing advantages, Takealot’s local marketplace is emerging as a new avenue for expanding into international markets.

The opportunities for local stores on South Africa’s Takealot are very real. Chinese sellers account for less than 3% of the total; the platform is actively recruiting merchants; and local stores have conversion rates 20% to 30% higher than cross-border stores… All of these figures are accurate and have not been exaggerated.

However, every market has its barriers to entry. There are a few pitfalls that many sellers looking to enter the market don’t fully consider during the consultation phase. Before you decide to take the plunge, we hope you’ll read this article first.

Anyone who sells on Amazon knows just how much advertising costs have risen since 2023. Anyone dealing with European VAT knows that a single tax issue you can’t figure out can leave you completely exhausted. And everyone selling in Southeast Asia is asking: Where has all the traffic gone?

It’s not that we can’t do business in Europe and the U.S. anymore; it’s that it’s getting harder and harder to make money there, yet many people are still stuck in their old ways, unwilling to look up and see if there are other options.

If you’ve been in the cross-border e-commerce scene long enough, you’ve probably heard plenty of talk about ”new blue oceans.” Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America… Every so often, someone steps forward to claim that a certain market is about to explode. Most of the time, the ones shouting the loudest are the first to run, and very few actually stick around to make money.

So when someone tells you, ”Go to South Africa and start a Takealot,” your first thought is probably: “This isn’t just another concept, is it?”

This article doesn't discuss concepts—it focuses solely on data. Here are five sets of real data; after reading them, you can draw your own conclusions.

If you ask in a seller group, ”How do I get started on Takealot?”, chances are someone will tell you, ”Just open a cross-border store to give it a try—you don’t need to register a company.”

There’s nothing wrong with that statement—but it only tells half the story. If you want to do this seriously and for the long term, running a cross-border store isn’t the end goal—it’s just the starting point. And to take that next step forward from there, you can’t avoid the process of ”registering a South African company.”