In a dramatic development for SA’s ecommerce landscape, it seems Amazon Marketplace may launch in South Africa next year, according to leaked documents in Business Insider (BI)
The company already has a presence in SA with call centres and local data centres located in Cape Town. And now it will potentially bring its well-known online marketplace, plus Amazon Prime services, to South Africa.
As BI puts it, the marketplace “combines its own retail operations (including its massive range of Amazon Basics own-brand goods) with third-party sellers from all over the world to sell, literally, just about anything you can imagine.”
The Prime offering gets you free deliveries for a wide variety of goods, as well as Amazon Prime video streaming services, Amazon Music, cloud storage for photos and videos, and Audible audiobooks – a tough act for local competitors like Takealot to follow.
This is NOT good for our bank accounts, that’s for sure! But is it good for South Africa?🤔
Amazon’s track record with working conditions is hardly squeaky clean, after reports suggested that workers in fulfilment centres in the US had to urinate in water bottles when bathroom breaks were allegedly restricted in order to push warehouse workers to meet packaging and delivery quotas, among other shocking revelations.👀
Fortunately SA has far more rigorous labour laws than the US and these already protect the thousands Amazon currently employs in the country, plus a fairly active Competition Commission that would nip anti-competitive behaviour in the bud.
There are also ongoing challenges to the company’s proposed headquarters for its existing services in SA at the River Club in Cape Town, along the Liesbeek River. The site is considered sacred by some Khoisan communities and has been met by legal challenges from environmental activists and heritage protection organisations, with a judge ordering a halt on the online retail giant’s construction in March.
So before we get excited about endless armchair shopping, we should take the time to consider the advantages and disadvantages that Amazon would bring with it.
Tshego is a writer and law student from Pretoria. A keen follower of social media trends, his interests include high fantasy media, politics, science, talk radio, reading and listening to music.
He is also probably one of the only people left who still play Pokemon Go.
