TCS | Takealot CEO Frederik Zietsman on township growth, EVs and the future of online retail

Loading player...
E-commerce will soon reach an important milestone in South Africa: by January, according to World Wide Worx research, online shopping will top 10% of total retail sales for the first time. The move to 15% and then to 20% will come much quicker.
That’s the view of Frederik Zietsman, CEO of Naspers-owned Takealot Group – South Africa’s largest online retailer – who was speaking to TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod on the TechCentral Show.
In the interview, Zietsman unpacks what’s driving the rapid adoption of online shopping in South Africa – Covid-19 was a key trigger – and what the future holds as international e-commerce giants step up their investments in the country.
He also discusses:
• How the competitive dynamics of the market have changed in recent years;
• The impact of the entry of international giants such as Amazon and Walmart and how this will reshape the market in the coming years;
• The decision to expand subsidiary Mr D’s focus from fast food to include new product categories;
• The township opportunity and how Takealot is working to crack that market;
• Takealot’s plans to move to electric vehicles in its logistics fleet, including a look at what’s needed to introduce electric motorbikes at scale;
• The challenge of crime in the logistics chain and what’s being done to fight it;
• Why Takealot is getting into the home loans business; and
• What’s going to drive the company’s growth in the next few years.
Don’t miss a fascinating conversation!
6 Oct 2025 English South Africa Technology · Business

Other recent episodes

TCS | The Cape Town firm quietly connecting Eskom, Pep and 6 000 ATMs

Réan van Niekerk Metacom has spent 25 years designing its own routers and running private networks for some of Africa's biggest retailers, without a cent of venture capital. In this episode of the TechCentral Show, founder Réan van Niekerk tells Fanie van Rooyen how the Cape Town company came to…
23 Oct 36 min

TCS | Frogfoot sees bigger fibre deals coming

Frogfoot plans to keep buying smaller fibre network operators in South Africa’s suburbs as the market consolidates, but CEO Shane Chorley stopped short of ruling out a sale of the business. “I’d be ignorant to say that we would ignore any offer,” Chorley said on the latest episode of the…
8 Oct 40 min

Meet the CIO | Vodacom’s Mohamed Sami on the agentic future

Mohamed Sami, group chief information officer at Vodacom, says autonomous AI agents that resolve customer problems without handing them to a human are the next big shift in customer experience – and that it is closer than many think. Speaking on TechCentral’s Meet the CIO podcast series, brought to you…
5 Oct 44 min