The new e-commerce company formed through the merger of Superbalist and Spree may use its scale to compete against global firm Amazon, which is increasing its presence in SA. Naspers subsidiaries Media24 and Takealot.com said on Monday they would merge their respective online fashion brands, Spree and Superbalist, to create an e-commerce behemoth called FashionCo. Derek Engelbrecht, the retail sector leader at EY, said "the move in the local market is no doubt seeing whether they could compete, should Amazon decide to pull the trigger … as Amazon is what most retailers benchmark the quality of their strategic vision against". This also comes after Amazon Web Services announced it will be deepening its presence in the country to establish physical roots to bring the operation clo-ser to local customers. This merger of two of SA’s online behemoths talks to an inevitable trend. "The amount of money we spend online will double every year. Although it comes off a small base, those busine...
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