Naspers-owned Takealot vowed to deal with service-related issues on its platform during an inquiry into e-commerce competition in SA, after allegations by regulators that it had intimidated small businesses using its platforms to trade.

A Business Day report notes the Competition Commission is holding public hearings for its online intermediation platforms market inquiry, which seeks to explore the structure of SA’s e-commerce market.

In a tense exchange this week characterised by hard-hitting questions by James Hodge – who is leading the probe on behalf of the commission – the company said most of the issues it had with sellers are service-related and a consequence of being a fast-growing business.

‘We have listened to some of our marketplace sellers participating in these public hearings who have raised service or operational issues they have experienced,’ said Frederik Zietsman, CEO of Takealot.com.

‘We value their feedback.’

Kim Reid, founder and chair of the company that also runs online clothing and food delivery platform Mr D Food, said that while the company would continue to address these problems, they should be distinguished from competition issues.

‘What we do is we take the seller inputs on an ongoing basis and we address them. We will continue to address these problems as we grow the business,’ she said, but ‘service issues are not competition issues’.

Full Business Day report