Takealot adds Mandarin to its seller dashboard as Chinese merchants join the platform

Takealot has added Mandarin as a language option to the advertising section of its seller dashboard, a small settings change that tells South African merchants something they have been saying for a year.

As MyBroadband reported on 16 September, the option appeared under the Ads and Promotions tab, and a local merchant spotted it and posted the find in a Facebook group used by the platform’s sellers. The addition points to what e-commerce analysts and merchants have suspected since late 2025, that a large share of the foreign sellers who joined Takealot in the past year are Chinese.

What the sellers are competing against

The number that matters to a local merchant is not the language setting. It is R1.

Multiple sellers compete on the same product listing, but only two offers make it into the Buy Box, the panel that shows the price and carries the buttons a shopper uses to wishlist or add an item to a cart. Merchants have complained that foreign sellers undercut their listings by a single rand to take that place, which is enough to win the sale.

Some local sellers have also alleged that Chinese merchants are cloning their products, including goods made here, and listing the copies at lower prices.

Takealot has denied that counterfeit goods have proliferated on the platform. “Takealot maintains a strict zero-tolerance policy regarding counterfeit goods, with immediate account termination for any sellers found violating this policy,” the company said. “Our robust anti-counterfeit measures include proactive monitoring, rapid response protocols, and comprehensive seller verification.”

How a competition ruling changed the Buy Box

The Buy Box rules are not an accident. The Competition Tribunal ordered Takealot to include the cheapest listing in the Buy Box, to stop the platform favouring its own stock, which it held in its own warehouses and could therefore always show first. Takealot complied and made the lowest price the default.

The order did what it was meant to do. It also handed an advantage to any seller willing to shave a rand off a price, and local merchants say that is exactly what happened to them.

Takealot has since reverted to prioritising the listing with the shortest delivery lead time, rather than the lowest price. That change matters for a South African seller holding stock in the country, who can deliver in a day or two, against an item shipping from China with a long lead time. E-commerce automation company Wherehouse previously told MyBroadband that the high lead-time accounts on the platform were most likely for items shipping from China.

Why Takealot is doing this

Takealot is not the only South African business under pressure from Chinese platforms. Shein and Temu sell directly to South African shoppers at prices local retailers struggle to match, and they let consumers bypass the local drop shippers who used to import goods from China, add a mark-up and list them on Takealot, Makro or Amazon.

The company’s answer is to onboard Chinese merchants directly rather than lose the shoppers. It said the expansion of international sourcing reflected the natural maturation of South Africa’s e-commerce market and followed global practice, where large platforms run hybrid marketplaces that combine local and international suppliers.

“Many of our established local sellers are themselves importing international products to remain competitive,” Takealot said. “Our approach treats all sellers equally, regardless of origin, everyone must comply with the same platform governance requirements.”

Amazon runs the same play in other markets, for the same reason.

What a local seller can still do

Giovanni Joubert, founder of Wherehouse, told MyBroadband that local sellers can still build sustainable businesses on Takealot by competing on something other than price. Local warranty support, easier returns and faster repairs are the obvious ground, because an item shipped from China cannot match them.

That is the practical advice a South African merchant needs, and it is worth more than a settings tab. The Buy Box rewards the cheapest offer, and the Rand is not a fight most local sellers win against a seller sourcing at Chinese wholesale prices. Delivery time, after-sales service and a warranty a customer can walk into a shop to claim are fights they can.

Takealot’s own figures on how many of its sellers are now based outside South Africa have not been published. The Mandarin option in the advertising dashboard is the closest thing to a public confirmation the platform has given.

Source: MyBroadband, Takealot adds Chinese to seller dashboard