Takealot Connector for WooCommerce — offers, prices, stock and Takealot sales

Takealot Connector for WooCommerce connects the shop to your seller account on Takealot, the South African marketplace. The plugin creates offers for products already in the Takealot catalogue and keeps their price, RRP, leadtime and the stock of your warehouse the same as in the shop. Pro brings Takealot sales into WooCommerce as orders with fees, statuses and stock reduction.

What the buyer sees

A buyer on Takealot sees your product on the Takealot catalogue page with your price in rand, a struck-through RRP while the shop runs a sale, and availability from your warehouse. The price goes out in whole rand with VAT and your markup. When the product runs out in the shop or you switch selling off, the stock on Takealot becomes 0; the offer stays and is back on sale with the stock.

What the admin gets

WooCommerce → Takealot: the API key from the Seller Portal (API Access), “Check connection” with the seller name, the leadtime day range and the warehouses of the account, and the warehouse the stock goes from. Then the markup in percent and fixed, rounding to the nearest rand or up, RRP, leadtime, the quantity for products without stock management, safety stock, an exchange rate when the shop does not sell in ZAR, and the buttons “Link offers already on Takealot”, “Send changes now”, “Send all offers again”.

Products get a “Takealot” tab: sell or not, barcode, leadtime, own price and RRP. Variations have their own barcode and price, and each becomes its own offer. The tab also shows the offer number, the status on Takealot, the stock in Takealot warehouses (CPT, JHB, DBN) and the Takealot refusal text, if there was one.

In Pro, Takealot sales become WooCommerce orders: a check every 5 minutes, a daily re-read of 30 days, and at once through a webhook from the Seller Portal. One Takealot order is one shop order, with the amounts as on Takealot including VAT in ZAR, and the stock is reduced. Takealot fees (success fee, fulfilment, courier collection) are shown on the order together with what is left after them. A cancelled line is removed and its stock comes back, a delivered order is completed, a return is written to the notes.

How it works, step by step

1. In the Seller Portal open API Access, generate a key and paste it into the plugin; “Check connection” shows your account and warehouses.
2. Choose the warehouse you ship Takealot orders from (leadtime stock) and the price rules: markup, rounding, RRP.
3. If you already have offers, “Link offers already on Takealot” links them to products by SKU or barcode, so nothing is duplicated.
4. Switch “Sell on Takealot” on in products; for a product whose barcode is in the Takealot catalogue the plugin creates an offer.
5. Price and stock changes are queued and go out every 5 minutes, only what changed. In Pro, sales come into WooCommerce.

Under the hood

• Takealot Marketplace API v1 with the X-API-Key header; the key is stored encrypted.
• Price: with VAT, the sale price during a sale, with markup and rate, in whole rand. Without a rate no prices go out, and existing offers get stock 0.
• Only changes are sent; the queue runs every 5 minutes. When Takealot is unreachable or refuses the key, the run stops and the queue is kept.
• API log of 300 entries without the key.
• Pro: a webhook address with a secret token and an optional HMAC-SHA256 signature; the plugin does not trust the webhook body and reads the sales again from the API. Repeats are not processed twice.
• Pro: WooCommerce staff e-mails about Takealot orders can be switched off. Pro updates come from catcode.com.ua.
• HPOS compatible. Interface in English (en, en_ZA).

How to install

1. Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin: choose the zip and activate it.
2. WooCommerce → Takealot: paste the API key, save, press “Check connection”.
3. Choose the warehouse and save the settings.
4. Link existing offers, switch selling on in products and press “Send changes now”.
5. For Pro: paste the key or start the 7-day trial in the “Licence” section.

The “Download free” button gives the free version, the same one that goes to wordpress.org. Pro is the full archive; it appears in your account after a purchase or a trial.