What are Replenishment Shipments on Takealot in South Africa?

Takealot Distribution Centres (Takealot DCs) significantly reduce the time between order placement and order delivery. If you are a regular seller on Takealot, you may want to store your in-stock items in a Takealot DC to improve delivery times. However, your in-stock items are not infinite and you must replenish them occasionally. In this article, let's understand what replenishment shipments are on Takealot and how you can restock your inventory at a Takealot DC in South Africa.

What are Replenishment Shipments on Takealot in South Africa?

Replenishment Shipment on Takealot in South Africa is a process of stocking your inventory in advance in a Takealot DC. These 'in-stock items' remain at Takealot DC until they are sold to customers.

Takealot Distribution Centres, commonly known as Takealot DCs, are one of the many reasons South Africans choose to sell on Takealot. These centres focus on streamlining the packaging and delivery process by significantly cutting down the delivery time and costs. This system is ideal for businesses that frequently make sales on Takealot.

How does a Takealot DC improve delivery times?

In a nutshell, you stock the products you are selling through your Takealot account in a Takealot DC in advance. Even though there are no active orders for that specific product, you can still choose to stock your products in a Takealot DC.

Let's understand this with an example.

You are a Cape Town-based business selling your products to customers in Johannesburg. To streamline the delivery process, you may choose to stock your products in the Johannesburg Takealot DC in advance. So, if any customer residing in Johanessburg orders your products, they may receive their product within 1-2 days.

These 'in-stock' products are highly preferred by customers due to their enticing delivery times.

How do I replenish my 'In-Stock Items' on Takealot?

Step 1: Choosing the Items to Replenish a Shipment

To do so, log in to your Takealot Seller Account. You will be seeing your Seller Dashboard by default.

On this window, select the 'Shipments' option from the left-hand menu and click on New Replenishment Shipment. This should open a page that displays all the products that you sell on Takealot.

Now, find the products in the list that you want to restock at a Takealot DC. Sort out these products with the help of filters available in each column's header.

Did you find the product you want to replenish? Perfect! Now go to the end of that product's row. Under 'Qty Sending', you will see the initials for Johannesburg and Cape Town Takealot DCs. By default, their values will be zero.

Now, to which Takealot DCs do you want to send the replenishment shipments? And how many? Input respective values in the boxes, and then select the 'Create Shipment' button on the bottom right corner.

Step 2: Crafting a Draft Shipment

Now, depending on the locations you have chosen, Takealot may create draft shipments accordingly. If you have selected both Johannesburg and Cape Town, you will see two draft shipments.

Once you are happy with the information, select 'Create Draft Shipments'

This will take you to the next tab, which will be for Draft Shipments. If everything seems good to go, click on 'Process Shipment' to view your draft shipment.

Now, you will see all the products you will be shipping. You can change the quantity for sending or remove any items if necessary. Once done, click on 'Mark Shipment as Confirmed' in the bottom right corner.

After this, Takealot will ask you whether you want to decrease your stock at hand. This depends on how you are managing your inventory.

Once done, click on 'Confirm Shipment'.

Step 3: Confirmed Shipment Stage

Now that you have confirmed your shipment, you can print shipping labels and shipping notes, and book your delivery with Takealot. Furthermore, you can download Product Labels and a Picking List, Rename your Shipment, or Cancel the Shipment altogether.

There are two important steps to do here.

1. Printing the Product Labels. This will contain the Product Name and their Barcodes.
2. Booking your delivery with Takealot. You can either deliver it by yourself, select your own courier, or deliver it with Takealot's preferred courier partner. We prefer Collivery as our delivery partner.

This process must be understood practically. For such, we have an in-depth video covering every minute detail of the shipping aspect on our YouTube Channel. Please take a look.

Conclusion

Once you have completed all the steps, you can go back to the seller portal and mark the shipment as complete. You may check this order in the shipped shipment tab on Takealot until it is delivered to Takealot. Once the replenishment shipments are delivered to the Takealot DC, those products will be ready to be sold as 'in-stock items' in South Africa.

Remember, storing your 'Stock on Hand (SoH)' at a Takealot DC will incur extra charges after 30 days. While Takealot DCs significantly cut down on long delivery times, we highly advise you to keep a regular tab on these fees as they can quickly eat into your profits. We have a FREE Takealot Seller Course on Skill Space for a limited time where we explore the nooks and crannies of being a Seller on Takealot. Make sure you take advantage of the offer if you are interested.

For any questions, please feel free to reach out to us.