Taking A Closer At Loot.co.za

LOOT.co.za is one of the popular e-commerce sites located in South Africa. They compete against other websites like takealot and Raru. In this article, we are going to look at who LOOT is, what they offer, and then I’ll review LOOT. So let’s have a look at them.

Who is LOOT.co.za?

LOOT began in 2003, intending to become one of the leading online stores (e-commerce website) in South Africa. They have their head office and collections department in Cape Town with an additional warehouse near the Airport Industria in Cape Town and another Warehouse in Gauteng.

On their website, LOOT has written that they aim to provide their customers with “exceptional customer service, great brands, best prices, and several safe and secure payment options.” Bold claims, wouldn’t you agree? We will take a look if they do live up to their reputation a little bit later.

What does LOOT.co.za Offer?

Like the other local e-commerce websites, LOOT doesn’t vary much. They offer over 14million products spanning 17 different departments (Tech, Books, Toys, Outdoor, to name a few). LOOT has a massive variety of options to choose from. The big question is, what is the price difference between LOOT and other local sites?

To answer the question: “What is the price difference between LOOT.co.za and other local e-commerce websites?” we decided to search the same product across LOOT.co.za, Raru, and Takealot. Have a look at the price difference below:
Cooler Master MS110 Mouse Keyboard Combo:

Takealot:

Raru:

Loot.co.za:

In this price comparison, Loot was not the most expensive, yet they weren’t the cheapest either.

We also looked at something like a book:
Jamie’s 15-Minute Meals

Takealot:

Raru:

Loot:

Once again, Loot isn’t the expensive site, nor the cheapest one either. Loot sits nicely in the middle.

In both cases, LOOT.co.za was in the middle with their pricing compared to the other e-commerce websites. Being in the middle may not be the case with ALL the products that LOOT has to offer. However, if they are not the cheapest in some aspects, the pattern, unfortunately, holds for most of their products.

How have they been doing?

At the beginning of the article, I quoted from LOOT’s website, regarding their goals, you can see it below again:

“We aim to provide our customers with exceptional customer service, a great shopping experience, great brands, best prices, and many safe and secure payment options and are continuously looking at new ways to improve the Loot shopping experience – Loot Promise.“

This promise is quoted from their website’s FAQ section. Have they been able to live up to those claims?

• “We aim to provide our customers with exceptional customer service” – When looking at HelloPeter, it seems that this has been very difficult. While it’s impossible to please everybody, even those who have been happy with LOOT’s service in the past and who still use them, have started complaining about a lack of customer service, and poor feedback to emails or phone calls.
• “a great shopping experience, great brands, best prices” – Their website is easy to use, navigating it is relatively simple, and they have a lot of brands, so in that respect, they have lived up to this claim. However, competition is in any line of work, and it is no different with LOOT, their pricing isn’t terrible, however in the tests we ran, they were more expensive compared to the other well-known e-commerce websites.
• “many safe and secure payment options” – This is the case; however, it is nothing special as the other competing websites offer either the same or similar payment options. LOOT claims that they want to provide several safe payment options, and they are doing that, we cannot fault them on that.

In all, LOOT tried to live up to its goals, and a company that at least tries is a company that should be considered. Unfortunately, though, it is challenging to overlook the bad reputation they are building when it comes to not listening to their customer’s feedback, or not getting back to them at all. This is an area that lookt could attempt to improve.

Concluding Thoughts:

LOOT has been around for a long time, and they have grown in leaps and bounds. They do need some work and could start by revamping their customer service and may be looking at their pricing. The review, though, should not be taken in the wrong way. LOOT is an e-commerce site worth looking at before making any online purchases. If you have had any experiences with LOOT and would like to share, leave a comment below.