After almost two years at the helm of South Africa’s largest e-commerce business, Mamongae Mahlare is excited about the next frontier for Takealot, as it seeks to provide more opportunities for local small, micro and medium-sized enterprises to grow and trade successfully.
In keeping with its goal to bring services to all South Africans no matter where they live in the country, Takealot, in the past month, held business acceleration boot camps in Johannesburg and Cape Town to empower more small black businesses with opportunities to trade on its retail platform.Mahlare was inspired by the hunger and appreciation the SMMEs displayed at the boot camps, and said the programme was an opportunity for the businesses to understand how they can improve their operations.
A lot has happened since October 2021: the world is winning the war against the Covid-19 pandemic, masks have fallen, borders have opened and the business world is figuring out a new way of life. For local businesses that were adversely affected by a stagnant economy during the lockdowns, an opportunity to take their businesses to the next level through an incubation programme led by an e-commerce leader such as Takealot presents a chance to learn valuable lessons.
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the adoption of online shopping stood at 1.9%, but it more than doubled during lockdown to about 4%, although Mahlare cautioned that South Africa was still behind countries that sit at an adoption rate of between 12% and 25%.
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