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Johannesburg - Readers of Fin24 have reacted to takealot CEO Kim Reid’s comments about the Kalahari e-commerce brand being discontinued in future.
On Thursday, Fin24 interviewed Reid about the merger between e-tailers takealot and Kalahari. (You can listen to the interview by scrolling down to the bottom of this story.)
Kalahari is planned to be folded into takealot.com. A date for this transition has not been announced yet, but Reid said the merged e-commerce unit would communicate the change to customers before it happens.
Kalahari.com was established in 1998 and has become one of SA’s largest online retailers, selling millions of books, e-books, e-readers, music, DVDs, games, cameras and electronics.
Meanwhile, takealot.com was officially launched in June 2011 after the acquisition of an existing e-commerce business called 'Take2' by the US-based investment firm Tiger Global Management and Kim Reid in October 2010.
Going forward, takealot investor Tiger Global Management will have an approximate 41% stake in the merged businesses, according to Reid. Media company Naspers will also have an equal stake to that of Tiger Global Management and management and shareholders will own the remaining stake of the merged unit.
Kim Reid and Willem van Biljon will remain co-CEOs of takealot and the business is expected to be management-led.
See what our readers have to say about this development.
Fin24 reader Claudia Roux expressed her disappointment at the move to fold Kalahari into takealot.
“This sucks!! Kalahari is much better and (more) convenient than takealot. Prices are better, lead time faster, and website is user friendly.
Fin24 reader Clint Walker had this to say about the news.
“Sad really.
“Kalahari was the most reliable internet shopping services provider, in terms of delivery and product integrity.
“I'm fearful that this awesome company's output will now be diluted. Takealot was the site you go to if it wasn't available on Kalahari... to put it bluntly.
Fin24 reader Alfred, however, said he thinks the deal makes business sense.
“There must be moves or changes in the business to remain competitive and profitable but I can only say one thing about Kalahari which I’m not sure whether takealot does it: FREE DELIVERY when you buy more than R250, I mean for poor customers like me, that is something out of this world.
Fin24 reader Dr Elrika Senekal-van der Berg has expressed her worries over whether the merged business will still have its range of e-book options.
“I hate the idea that Kalahari.com will be discontinued. I am an avid e-book buyer and have NEVER found the ebooks I need on the takealot sites.
“I have always found great joy with using the Kalahari.com site and enjoy my e-reader even more than my kindle reader!
Reader Leon Schenk has also said he wants to see the Kalahari e-books section live on.
“It’s maybe a good thing, as long as the very good service continues, but, takealot's service is also excellent. As long as they carry on with Kalahari's e-books section, which almost on par with Amazon, except for Kalahari's higher prices than Amazon!
Fin24 reader JD Stegmann expressed opposition to the name-change
“I am opposed to the name-change. ‘Kalahari’ is a lot more South African than ‘takealot’. I only recently became a customer and am really impressed by Kalahari's service.
Dumisane Malinga, meanwhile, has questioned as to why the Kalhari brand needs to be discontinued.
“The Kalahari brand was stronger than the takealot brand.
“The Karl Ahari character was familiar to most consumers and whilst the back office operations will be takealot’s brand, they could have kept the Kalahari brand.“Their local and offshore rivals use simple names like ‘Amazon’ etc. And takealot is not memorable, easy to use and is ‘cumbersome’. Kalahari is the exact opposite. Presence of mind and ease of re-collection is what they need as they reposition or re-brand themselves in the market.
Fin24 reader Alet Toerien said Kalahari has become a part of South African culture.
“Very sad that the Kalahari brand is going to cease to exist. Rather let the takealot brand cease to exist. Kalahari is so part of SA and we are going to miss it.
Reader Dirk de Vos said he won’t miss the Kalahari television adverts.
“Yippee, at least we won’t have to put up with their irritating TV adverts anymore, then. I just hope takealot.com won’t start something similar…
Fin24 reader Laura said that she will miss the Karl Ahari character.
“Love the Kalahari brand and retail site, and am sadly not a fan of the Takealot website, in particular. Hope they learn from Kalahari. Karl Ahari will be missed too!
And finally, Jennifer Howard also said that she will miss Karl Ahari
“Oh no! No more Karl Ahari ads! They made my day... .”
Watch a video of Karl Ahari:
Listen to Fin24's interview with takealot co-CEO Kim Reid
- Kalahari.com is a part of Naspers, the owner of Media24, Fin24's parent company.
