Amazon Opens Cape Town Walk-in Centre For Independent Sellers

For Amazon, which is striving to catch up with market leader Takealot, owned by Naspers, the centre can increase its product range, increasing potential revenue.

The biggest thing is product breadth for our customers. We just want to have loads of products that people can buy, Robert Koen, MD of Amazon sub-Saharan Africa, said in an interview.

More than 60 of sales in Amazons stores globally are from independent sellers - most of which are small and medium-sized businesses.

Located at Amazons head office in Cape Town, the centre offers local sellers a range of services, such as on-the-spot registration to sell on Amazon.co.za, training, product imaging and cataloguing assistance, and shipping and logistics support.

The e-retailer launched in South Africa last year May, its first sub-Saharan African country.