E-commerce marriage pays off

SOUTH Africa’s largest e-tailer, takealot.com, has launched a new TV ad, which aims to solidify its union with fellow online retailer Kalahari.com.

The ad features the popular Kalahari.com character Karl Ahari searching for love on a dating app. A blue light emanates from his cellphone, capturing his attention. Later, a very dapper Karl sits in a restaurant, anxiously awaiting the arrival of his date Dot, the character representing takealot.com. The two walk towards each other and embrace lovingly, showing “takealot.com and Kalahari have become one”.

The coming together of these two heavyweights represents a significant moment in the South African e-commerce industry. The operations of the businesses have been merged to create an efficient platform of scale, building takealot. com into Africa’s premier online shopping destination.

Commenting on the creative approach, takealot.com chief marketing officer Declan Hollywood said: “Mergers are typically no more than ‘boardroom talk’ but we wanted to take a fresh, creative approach and bring South Africans along on the journey with us. Our aim is always to leave our customers with a smile, and that’s exactly what the ad sets out to do.”

Kalahari.com was one of the pio- neers of online retail in South Africa, launching in 1998.

“We respect the history of Kalahari, and the popularity of Karl as its lead character, hence our decision to bring him on the journey too.”

The weekend the ad began flighting, takealot.com took out full-page newspaper ads and the combination of the platforms resulted in the company’s best customer response yet.