As the world moved indoors two years ago, the online payment space flourished. These are the biggest developments in 2021, and a brief look ahead. This year, South Africans embraced e-commerce, mobile commerce and digital payments like never before – all four major banks have seen massive increases in these payment methods since the start
South African expense management solution SlipMate has announced that it has enabled e-commerce functionality for its Mastercard corporate prepaid cards, a first-of-its-kind integration for the South African market. SlipMate is an intelligent expense management solution designed by Innervation Rewards that enables South African companies to reconcile employees’ corporate expenses from their Mastercard prepaid corporate card,
For Starbucks Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), maximizing customer satisfaction and keeping all aspects of a Starbucks café running smoothly is the top priority. Starbucks EMEA, with stores in 43 markets across the region, needed to streamline management of its technology and increase visibility into store operations. NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR), a leading enterprise technology provider,
Southern African citrus growers delivered 161.6 million cartons of local citrus across the world during 2021, an increase of 18.6 million cartons when compared to last year, despite an extremely difficult and complex season that put the entire industry under severe strain. The sector faced a number of serious challenges including the global shipping crisis,
New patterns emerge as online shopping evolves PayU, the emerging market payments leader, reveals that everything from the late-night shopping frenzy, to payment methods, to basket size has changed when it comes to Black Friday. Despite a significant increase of 30 percent in transaction volumes compared to last year, the total spend for the day
Customer demands for Checkers supermarkets in their neighbourhoods inspired the newly launched, smaller format Checkers Foods which today opened its first store in Gauteng. Checkers Foods at the Weltevreden Park Shopping Centre in Roodepoort has created 71 new jobs, and with three more neighbourhood stores scheduled to open in early 2022, Checkers continues to create
Checkers is launching its first standalone Little Me store with a range of top baby brands, including maternity wear exclusively designed and manufactured by local supplier, Cherry Melon. The affordable Miyu range, exclusive to Little Me, includes a selection of top-selling, quality basics which Cherry Melon is renowned for. (Watch video here.) Checkers is the
Not only has it retained its Coolest Mall status in the 2021 Sunday Times Generation Next Awards for the fourth consecutive year, but Mall of Africa has also scooped a total of nine wins in categories across the board – one Gold, three Silver and six Bronze awards – at the annual South African Council
The Shoprite Group’s Xtra Savings rewards programmes have scooped three awards at the 2021 South African Loyalty Awards, with both the Shoprite and Checkers brands recognised. Checkers won Best Programme of the Year in the retail sector while Shoprite won Best Programme of the Year among newcomers. Checkers also won the award for Best Strategic Use of
Townships are considered key to unlocking the South African ecommerce retail industry representing at least 40% of the national grocery market where despite the small basket size, the benefits offer a high return and the possibility of incredible growth. With ecommerce spend only accounting for 2% of SA’s total retail transactions compared to the global
As South Africa’s retail sector continues to expand, and product and pricing continues to converge – customer experience (CX) has become the most crucial factor in gaining, and retaining, customer loyalty and market share. A Q2 consumer survey carried out by customer experience partner, Merchants, shows that an omnichannel customer engagement strategy is critical in
Deep analysis by NielsenIQ has revealed that South African shoppers have dramatically reduced the frequency of their monthly shopping trips, which are down from an average of five trips per month two years ago, to an average of three. In addition, 500 000 households have been forced to stretch their monthly shop to beyond a
Nestlé announces industry-first pilot that reduces carbon dioxide emissions and recycles wastewater In partnership with The Emissions Capture Company, Nestlé has successfully piloted leading machine learning-based technology in Babelegi, at industrial scale, to deliver significant Scope 1 emission reductions, and wastewater recycling. Nestlé East and Southern Africa Region (ESAR) unveiled an industrial scale pilot project
As we near the festive season, Standard Bank is excited to announce that UCount Rewards members can now earn and redeem Rewards Points from more Rewards Retailers. This expansion of the Rewards Retailers is part of the bank’s key objective to give customers an array of retail choices aligned to their needs. The Standard Bank
SPAR expressed its deepest gratitude to its people, the SPAR retailers and their communities, who pulled together and worked tirelessly to protect, clean, restock and rebuild stores, bringing hope to their communities at a time when there were serious concerns around safety and food security. The business has seen changing consumer behaviour over the past
Cape Town – Naspers Limited (JSE: NPN) delivered a strong performance in the six months ending 30 September 2021, growing ecommerce revenues 52%. The group stepped up investment to further accelerate growth across its increasingly valuable internet businesses. Ecommerce revenue growth accelerated, up 52% to US$4.6bn US$5.2bn invested since 1 April 2021 to further accelerate
The Heavy Chef E-commerce Entrepreneur Education Report reveals that the growth of e-commerce in South Africa has been accelerated by five years since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Interestingly, it is women leading the charge. The report shows that 63% of all e-commerce companies in South Africa are started by women. But like all South African
Clickatell, a leader in mobile communications and chat commerce, has been selected by leading African retailer Pick n Pay to manage their WhatsApp customer communication channel. Customers can easily access Pick n Pay services by sending “Hi” to +27 60 070 3037. The easy to navigate menu then allows shoppers to choose which action they
As Black Friday approaches, businesses worldwide are preparing for the busiest consumer period of the year. In South Africa alone, Black Friday sales have grown by an astounding 9900% over the past six years. One of the biggest drivers of this is the upsurge in online retail which has exploded by 66% since the onset
As the pandemic dispersed the workforce, necessitating more sophisticated means to connect, collaborate and communicate, digital transformation became a business imperative. Fikile Sibiya, CIO at fintech specialist e4, explains why a roadmap for the future is essential in this transformation, and elaborates on what it should entail. Organisations in diverse industries are transforming their business models
There has been some debate around whether Black Friday is relevant in South Africa, especially given the consumer’s stretched budget in 2021 – which was put under further pressure last week as the repo rate rose to 25 basis points. However, a consumer survey carried out by African retailer, Game Stores, found there may even
‘Value’, ‘health and nutrition’, ‘snackification’ – driving consumer trends Tiger Brands, South Africa’s largest food producer, has introduced a host of new and relevant innovations to its extensive product portfolio in response to rapidly evolving consumer needs and trends. These innovations target areas becoming critical drivers for consumer buying habits, including value, health and nutrition,
SA consumers can now use their RCS cards to pay for their online purchases from SA’s no.1 online fashion retailer RCS, the consumer finance arm of global bank BNP Paribas, has proudly announced its latest strategic partnership with leading online fashion retailer Superbalist.com. The new partnership, which was made official on 1 November 2021, saw
South African retailers are expected to ring up around R11.3 billion rand in additional sales over the period of November as consumers splash out on Black Friday deals, with general dealers expected to capture a 55% (R6.2 billion) share of the value. That’s according to new research conducted by the Bureau of Market Research on
Recognising the key role that digitisation is playing in the financial lives of more and more of its customers, South Africa’s leading fuel and convenience retailer Engen is prioritising electronic payment solutions at the core of its customer offering. With over 3.4 billion litres of fuel pumped from Engen forecourts in 2020, or approximately 25%
Supermarkets RSA The Group’s core business, Supermarkets RSA, increased sales by 11.6%. It is worthwhile noting this growth was achieved notwithstanding the following factors and their significant impact on the quarter: – The mandated closure of the segment’s LiquorShop business, which due to South African COVID-19 lockdown regulations was not able to trade for 48
This year’s Black Friday event, which has emerged to become a major highlight on the South African calendar, is expected to bring in higher sales volumes than last year as many retailers that were hard hit by decreased consumer spend in 2020 have started offering their specials ahead of schedule, giving consumers more time to
Vivo Energy Uganda the company that distributes and markets Shell branded fuels and lubricants, has appointed Johan Grobbelaar to be its new Managing Director. This appointment follows the successful leadership of the company by Gilbert Assi over the past four years, who has been appointed Managing Director of Vivo Energy Guinea. Johan joined the Vivo Energy Group
Further to the announcements released by the Company on 11 June 2021 and 29 July 2021 relating to the resignation of Ms Lebo Ntlha, the Group Financial Director, effective 30 November 2021, and the appointment of Mr Deon Fredericks as Group Financial Director from 1 December 2021, shareholders are advised that in terms of paragraph
From cool couches to top of the line electronics, pressies for the holiday season and pool accessories as summer waves at us, Black Friday (BF) 2021 looks set to be a biggie as shoppers return to malls to take advantage of some serious specials, while post-pandemic ‘professional’ online fundi’s get to grips with exploring and
By Sanjeev Raghubir, Sustainability Manager at the Shoprite Group The much anticipated and recently-released Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report presented a concerning summary of the current and future state of the climate. The IPCC report will inform world leaders as they gather in Glasgow for COP26 in November to craft a plan to
Checkers has announced the coming together of two award winning tech innovations, Checkers Sixty60 and the Xtra Savings rewards programme. Thousands of Xtra Savings deals are now available on the Sixty60 app for home delivery nationwide. “Customers have been asking us to offer all of the Xtra Savings deals they love in our stores on
Globally, over 300,000,00 tons of plastic is produced each year with only 10% to 15% recycled. Innovative packaging-free solutions that reduce the total amount of plastic created has become critical in the fight against pollution. Global retail specialist Smollan is focusing on the future of Greentech, and packageless retail as strategic components of the future
Small businesses globally go digital at three-times pre-pandemic levels To shed light on the impact the global health crisis – and ongoing recovery – has had on small businesses globally, Mastercard released Recovery Insights: Small Business Reset. The report revealed that in the Middle East and Africa, lodging small businesses have consistently outperformed larger businesses in 2021
MoData, leading specialists in providing digital solutions for financial services, has partnered with technology pioneers DataVisor to deliver a comprehensive suite of AI-powered fraud management solutions to its customers across Africa. This new partnership will give MoData clients access to DataVisor’s comprehensive fraud and risk management platform, which enhances and accelerates fraud detection, keeping companies
The wholesale platform brings efficient, reliable B2B eCommerce to Kenya, enabling market access for businesses of all sizes Backed by leading global logistics provider DP World (DPWorld.com), DUBUY.com opens a new digital trade corridor for Kenya and the East Africa region; The wholesale platform brings efficient, reliable B2B eCommerce to Kenya, enabling market access for businesses of all
A consumer survey carried out by local retailer, Game Stores, in October has found that consumers want the option to shop both in-store and online this Black Friday – despite a significant rise in e-commerce over the last two years. The retailer, whose month-long promotion is aptly called Black November, surveyed almost 2000 South African
HelloChoice is a proudly South African success story with a vision to modernise traditional agricultural produce trading through its wholesale online marketplace. Over 2,300 agricultural produce buyers and sellers have joined HelloChoice via its website and mobile app, trading over R150 million in the first three years. Specifically designed for South African market conditions, the HelloChoice mobile
Franchising has partnerships in its DNA, with the continued success of any franchise business dependent on these collaborations, so it makes sense for alliances to extend across sectors for the benefit of consumers: Service stations sell fuel; Galito’s sells great flame-grilled chicken. Galito’s is now Engen’s preferred partner in Namibia with a planned expansion of
The group is presently finalising its interim financial results for the six months ended 2 October 2021 (the Period). These will be announced on the JSE Stock Exchange News Service (SENS) on or about Thursday 25 November 2021. Shareholders are advised that headline earnings per share (HEPS) is likely to be between 30% and 40%
Internet auction and online marketplace bidorbuy teams up with Pargo to optimise the consumer experience for November’s great sale day and beyond By all accounts, Black Friday is expected to return to near pre-pandemic levels this year. With South Africa’s Covid-19 vaccination programme now well on track and even limited attendance at sporting events permitted,
NielsenIQ recently hosted a regional client webinar Navigating Through Turbulent Times that provided a deep analysis of a new era of price and promotions amidst the ongoing aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic. Driven by the NielsenIQ Analytics Intelligence division, the online event outlined the new realities around pricing strategies to help FMCG manufacturers make sense
When it comes to customer experience, you need to make a good impression at every point of contact. Get it wrong and your customers may go elsewhere. Consider these statistics from a recent Deloitte Digital survey: 60% of respondents said they “would likely abandon their favourite brand after a bad customer service interaction”, while 66% would
A Q3 consumer survey by retailer, Game, has found that despite 2021 being a challenging year economically, 67% of South African consumers are hoping to find the best possible deals on popular items this month – as retailers launch their plans for Black November. The survey found that groceries and essential items (77%), appliances (63%)
Trusted and rapidly growing enterprise retail software and IT specialist redPanda Software has announced that it has appointed industry veteran Peter Ludi as its business development director. Ludi, who most recently was regional director for unified ecommerce platform Flooid – formerly PCMS – will oversee redPanda Software’s growth as it partners with new retailers in
South African payment specialist, DPO South Africa, is expecting similar or greater growth for Black Friday 2021, due in part to local shoppers’ increasing comfort with e-commerce. Retailers are also expected to adopt a more aggressive approach this year as they fight to make the most of the retail event which has quickly gained favour
Annual Safety Day events take place across the Vivo Energy Group. Vivo Energy, the pan-African retailer and marketer of Shell and Engen-branded fuels and lubricants, has held its annual Safety Day across the whole company, reinforcing the importance of Health, Safety, Security, Environment & Quality (HSSEQ) at Vivo Energy. Safety Day is an opportunity for
To ensure all customers enjoy the same quality instore experience, SPAR South Africa’s Eastern Cape retailers each year raise funds to donate wheelchairs to residents in need. As part of these efforts, the retailers run the ‘Wheelchair Wednesday’ community campaign, now in its tenth year. The campaign is traditionally held over four Wednesdays in October
Shoprite created 42 new jobs with the opening of its supermarket at the Flagstaff Square shopping centre in the Eastern Cape. Shoprite Flagstaff Square offers customers a convenient shopping experience with 19 pay points and access to several in-store fresh food departments including a Meat Market, Hot & Cold Foods Deli, Bakery and Fresh Fruit
iVeri has announced that it has completed integration with software and consulting company Synthesis Software Technologies to increase the opportunities available to businesses using software-based Point of Sale (SoftPOS) across Africa and the Middle East. Synthesis became the first Tap on Phone solution provider in Africa when it launched Halo Dot with Nedbank in June 2020. This launch was
