Makro has undergone an accelerated e-commerce transformation programme in recent months, as part of Massmart’s overarching strategy to become a leading omnichannel (online and store) retailer in South Africa. The new native Makro app is the retailer’s first fully fledged and stand-alone shopping app, enabling customers to make purchases of general merchandise, liquor and pantry items.
“With the growth of eCommerce on Makro.co.za, an App was the natural progression and thanks to the foundations that have already been laid by the eCommerce team, we were able to develop this app fully in just eight weeks,” explains Llewellyn Walters, CEO of Makro. “We were also greatly assisted by learnings from previous Apps we have built in the Massmart group and the support of Walmart’s Global Tech team in Bangalore, India has been key to delivering this accelerated project.”
Massmart previously announced a multi-year eCommerce strategy which includes a mobile-first focus on enhancing customers’ digital experiences through its websites and apps. Jean Ochse, who is the Executive responsible for the development of Mobile Apps at Massmart says, “Two stand-out improvements that we have introduced are the search/discovery functionalities, making it easier to find products and we have also reduced the customer registration process by 70%, through eliminating unnecessary data fields and interactions in the process. Our aim was to provide customers with the most seamless shopping experience ever, so that they feel as though they have their closest Makro in their pocket. An example of this is with pantry and liquor items where we have improved the shopping experience through creating an intuitive way to view our promotions, shop the ranges and make it easier for customers to discover new products.”
The App provides access to over 120 000 products, a 30% expansion of Makro’s online product range since January. “The launch of the Makro shopping App represents a further significant step in Massmart’s eCommerce journey and we look forward to serving even more online customers through this channel,” says Walters.
The Makro Shopping App is available for download from the Google Play and Apple App store.
