Takealot has launched its so-called “Blue Dot Sale” the place South Africa’s largest on-line retailer hosts hundreds of merchandise on sale for the subsequent few days main as much as its Black Friday offers this weekend. The Blue Dot Sale is now in “Early Access” which is simply one other method to attempt to get South Africans to mindlessly run to the web site and spend cash on “discounted” merchandise which aren’t cheaper within the first place.
Takealot has a infamous popularity for worth gouging. Where the retailer ups the usual RRP for a product solely to low cost it to make it appear to be you’re saving cash on it. Granted, there are real gross sales on the location. Not every little thing is a lie. However, many of those costs throughout this Black Friday insanity are repeats of random gross sales which happened a number of instances prior to now. The common South African typically falls sufferer to those faux gross sales and in the long run, you’re not profitable in any respect.
Here are some tricks to keep away from being scammed by Takealot and its Blue Dot Sale
Use Serval Tracker
I can’t preach this sufficient. Use Serval. The website is a implausible database which tracks merchandise on Takealot and reveals what they bought for prior to now in comparison with the present retail worth.
All you have to do is copy the Takealot hyperlink into the Serval monitoring subject and it’ll present you its worth historical past. Here, you’ll have the ability to see precisely how a lot they price earlier than the Blue Dot Sale fiasco began to stop shopping for one thing which has simply been marked up for the sale.
For instance, taking a look at Takealot’s high merchandise choice on the Blue Dot Sale web page, you’ll see that many of the merchandise have truly been the identical worth prior to now throughout different random promotions. So there’s no actual Black Friday sale occurring right here. You can doubtless buy them in December for a similar “Blue Dot Sale” worth. Here are a couple of
Unless a product reveals a reduction for the primary time this week, then maybe make the most of the sale. If it doesn’t, Takealot isn’t discounting it past any worth level prior to now. For instance:
- AEG 508L Refrigerator – R15.999
This product has solely been R14,999 for a single day final week. Apart from that, it hasn’t been underneath R16.599. So this is able to be an honest sale given its worth historical past. However, you could possibly all the time await it to drop to R14,999 once more. It has prior to now.
Use the Serval Browser Extension
If copying URLs just isn’t your factor, Serval has a browser extension which you’ll be able to set up on Google Chrome. It will mechanically present the worth graph for every product when you’re shopping the web site. It is nice for Chrome customers. For everybody else, simply use the web site – servaltracker.com
Shop Elsewhere
You know you don’t have to buy at Takealot throughout Black Friday (shocker!). There are many retailers in SA who respect prospects sufficient to not worth gouge merchandise and make the most of them. Makro, Incredible Connection, Nexus Hub and Hi-Fi Corp all have gross sales happening. Here are a couple of suggestions to assist on this state of affairs:
- Research your product beforehand. Know what it sells for
- Check a number of shops for one of the best itemizing
- Be certain to test delivery prices and supply ETA
- Pointless saving R200 on a product when you have to pay R200 for supply
- Go to the shop to purchase the merchandise
- Always higher to see issues in particular person
- Saves the wait time for supply
Check out all our Black Friday gross sales we now have noticed under:
