Kalahari ceases to exist with finalisation of Takealot merger

Visit kalahari.com right now and for the first time since 1998 (that’s 17 years for the slower ones) you won’t find yourself on South Africa’s oldest online shopping site. Instead you’ll be redirected to the four-year-old and growing Takealot.

First announced in October last year, the merge between the country’s two biggest online shops has finally taken form. And it’s not the Takahari we had hoped for.

Scrapping the Kalahari brand and operating under the Takealot name going forward, the online shop is now one step closer to becoming “the most customer centric online destination in Africa“.

“From the outset of the transaction it has been the intention to operate as one brand, one site and one business and the past four months has been used to evaluate and restructure the business to ensure a smooth transition and ensure minimum customer disruption,” Kim Reid, co-CEO and the Founder of Takealot, said in a press release.

The transaction was structured in such a way that the business of Kalahari was transferred to Takealot Online (Pty) Ltd with major investors Naspers and Tiger Global Management each owning 42% of the new merged entity.

Read more: Takealot gets $100-million from Tiger Global but no expansion plans… yet

Management will remain in the hands of Reid and fellow CEO Willem van Biljon.

According to the release, all Kalahari customer accounts have been migrated to Takealot along with their transaction history and valid credits. It also notes that all undelivered orders will be fulfilled in due course and all relevant product warranties will be honoured in accordance with the normal practice at Kalahari.

“We welcome all the Kalahari.com employees who have joined takealot.com while acknowledging the hard work that went into building the brand and business. We look forward to their continued input and experience as they join us in building out takealot.com into the premier online shopping destination on the African continent,” Van Biljon added.

Here’s one last cheer to SA’s oldest online shop.