New app supports a rapidly growing network of community-based entrepreneurs
Cape Town, South Africa, 1 September 2026 – Takealot’s Personal Shopper programme has grown to more than 16,000 entrepreneurs, as the e-commerce platform launches a new app designed to help its growing network manage customers, orders and their businesses.
The growth comes at a time when economic opportunity is emerging as a defining part of how South Africans think about sustainability. Kantar’s 2026 Sustainability Consumer-led Brand Ranking identifies lack of economic opportunity as the number one sustainability concern among South African retail consumers, cited by 38%.
Kantar’s research also finds that sustainability in South Africa is closely tied to progress, affordability and daily reality. The report notes that up to 40% of township residents’ monthly income can go towards transport costs simply to reach a mall, highlighting why access and affordability are central to the local sustainability conversation.
Against this backdrop, Takealot’s Personal Shopper programme has evolved from an initiative to improve access to e-commerce into a growing network of community-based entrepreneurs participating in the digital economy.
The programme enables trusted individuals in their communities to help customers access Takealot, while creating an income opportunity for the Personal Shopper themselves.The network of approximately 16,000 Personal Shoppers forms part of Takealot’s R150 million Township Economy Initiative, which is focussed on creating greater economic participation through e-commerce.
For Takealot Group CEO Frederik Zietsman, the significance of the programme lies in its ability to create economic value within communities rather than simply bringing more retail into them.
“A business can only be sustainable if the societies in which it operates are sustainable. We started to understand that there are millions of South Africans that the digital economy is not serving well. So we asked: how do we bring value-creating parts of e-commerce into the township?”
The Personal Shopper model addresses two sides of that challenge: people who face barriers to accessing e-commerce, and people looking for opportunities to earn.
One example is a 22-year-old student who earns around R10,000 a month through the programme, using the income to fund his studies and support his parents.
“You don’t necessarily need a degree or years of experience,” says Zietsman. “If you have a phone, credibility, social capital and the willingness to build something, you can start earning. That is a very powerful form of economic access.”
The programme also addresses a less visible barrier to e-commerce: trust. Personal Shoppers provide a human connection to a digital platform in communities where relationships and local knowledge remain important to how people make decisions and transact.
Technology to support a growing network
The scale of the programme has now created a need for dedicated digital infrastructure. Takealot has launched its Personal Shopper App, developed with Cape Town-based technology partner Touchfoundry, to support the next phase of the programme.
The app provides Personal Shoppers with purpose-built tools for order management, customer communication and business growth, reducing the operational complexity of running their businesses while giving them greater visibility and control.
“Building the Takealot Personal Shopper App required us to think beyond a conventional e-commerce product. We were designing technology for a real economic ecosystem, where simplicity, accessibility and the realities of township commerce had to be central to the experience. Our role was to translate that ambition into technology that can work at scale.” says Touchfoundry representative, Fabio Longano.
The partnership with Touchfoundry reflects how Takealot is using digital infrastructure not simply to make transactions more efficient, but to support access, participation and opportunity as the Personal Shopper network grows.
The Personal Shopper programme forms part of Takealot’s wider Township Economy Initiative, which aims to build greater economic participation through e-commerce, including through township entrepreneurs, small businesses, franchises and manufacturing.
