Takealot is South Africa’s version of Amazon.

The company’s financial results for the year ending March 31, 2021, show its rise and rise with revenue increasing by 65% during that period.

For many, Takealot is the first port of call when it comes to online shopping. Some of its sales have come under scrutiny over the years for overstating discounts, which is why a new tool is worth checking out before you click ‘checkout’.

MyBroadband writes that the tool “makes it easy for Takealot shoppers to see whether they are scoring a good deal on a discounted product or whether the saving shown to them has been overstated.”

All you need to do to check is to copy and paste the Takealot product URL into the top right corner of Servaltracker.com:

Top right, “Paste Takealot URL or Product ID to search”.

For example, Takealot’s homepage has the Hisense 32″ HD Smart TV with Digital Tuner as one of the top deals.

When I enter the URL into Serval, I get this.

Green represents the current price, and the other line is the listing price:

This TV was actually cheaper during mid to late October.

Let’s try this again with another product listed among the top deals, the DJI Mavic Mini 2 Flymore Combo:

The drone combo is cheaper than it has been since July, although only by R1 000.

Ashton Hudson, a data engineer, is the man behind the tool’s creation:

Hudson told MyBroadband he created the site out of frustration for not having price history information when trying to buy products from Takealot…

Hudson said he currently tracks about 500,000 popular products on Takealot.

He says that while Takealot’s Daily Deals were “consistently good” the “% off” figures on other deals shouldn’t always be taken at face value.

“Some of the companies selling through Takealot adjust the ‘listing’ price to make it look like their products are on more of a discount than they really are.”

It never hurts to be armed with as much information as possible when shopping online, especially as we draw ever nearer to Black Friday.

Shop wisely.

[source:mybroadband]