If you're a Takealot customer, you may also have received the sleek black pop-up inviting you to join them on WhatsApp for exclusive deals, surprise treats, wishlist price drops and “so much more”. There’s a green sign-up button and a POPIA-compliant consent disclaimer at the bottom.

That's it. No fanfare, no news pieces or launch events.

The signal was picked up, however, by WhatsApp-first HR platform Jem’s founder, Simon Ellis, who welcomed Takealot to the SA WhatsApp-building scene in a LinkedIn post. And it got us asking if Takelaot’s doing something entirely new we’re not aware of yet…

Simon’s screenshot reveals a few details: Firstly, it's personalised. So Takealot is matching the existing customer database to WhatsApp numbers. That's a data integration play, not a simple broadcast channel.

Second, "wishlist price drops" implies a direct link between products, wishlists and WhatsApp messaging. Could they be planning to notify us when our saved items go on sale? (Oh, please let it be so).

Third, the consent flow is clean. They’re ensuring POPIA compliance from the start, so this is probably something meant for scale, not an experiment.

Let's be honest, if it’s just a promotional channel, it’s a far cry from the level of in-chat shopping experiences retailers are rolling out in India and Brazil. 

Takealot has run WhatsApp campaigns before: their 2023 "Retail Therapy" campaign with Techsys Labs was an AI-powered WhatsApp shopping assistant that gave you personalised product recommendations. And we’re hoping for something more along those lines.

The platform has so much potential: Layer communication with order tracking, customer support, returns management and eventually in-chat checkout, and you suddenly have a powerful commerce platform.

It’s not too far-fetched: Meta's WhatsApp Business API already supports catalogues, cart functionality and payment integrations. SA companies like Dis-Chem, Makro and MTN have deployed offerings with similar capabilities.

Takealot is a R12.9 billion revenue-generating giant with 11’000+ marketplace sellers and an app that already dominates SA e-commerce. It’s exactly the kind of e-tailer we’d expect to lead the way in this type of channel.

Think about the competition: Checkers Sixty60 is dominating groceries, but it's app-only. Same with Woolworths and Pick'n Pay. A massive WhatsApp integration play by Takealot gives it a low-friction line to millions of customers already using it for daily chats.

The big question, as always, is if you already have a strong storefront, with push notifications, wishlists and personalised recommendations all built in, would a major WhatsApp play complement that or risk pulling engagement out of your app and into a popular channel that (let’s face it) Meta owns? 

That last point matters: building on Meta's rails means the risk of API pricing, terms and policies changing. It adds a level of dependency that a dominant player might not want.

It's less of a risk for the likes of Jem and their WhatsApp time and attendance product we spoke of recently. But that dependency risk is something Takealot is surely well aware of.

But, we digress…

We don't actually know what Takealot’s apparent new WhatsApp will be, but it could be more than a marketing side project. If Takealot moves from notifications to transactions, even partially, it could accelerate the adoption of WhatsApp commerce across the whole of SA retail, which is pretty interesting.

Of course, we've reached out to Takealot for comment and can’t wait to be able to update this post when we know more.

Watch this space.

Related reads: Jem's WhatsApp time and attendance system | Strove Lite WhatsApp launch | Employee recognition tech