The A to Z of Amazon's brand-new South African marketplace - what you need to know

Amazon on Tuesday launched its much-anticipated South African marketplace, and it has some compelling features for local consumers. A vast pickup point network, same-day and next-day delivery options, WhatsApp order tracking and a discount completion bar are among the service offerings on Amazon’s South African site.

In October last year, Amazon announced that it would be launching a South African marketplace in 2024, adding to its existing cloud computing business - Amazon Web Services - which has been operating locally for several years.

Amazon is the largest e-commerce company in the world, having brought in $575 billion in 2023 - equal to R10 trillion. To put that in perspective, the South African government collected R1.73 trillion in tax revenue in the last financial year.