South African consumers save billions in loyalty programme rewards

Picture: David Ritchie

Picture: David Ritchie

Published Sep 19, 2018

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CAPE TOWN - South African consumers have saved billions of rands in loyalty programme rewards offered and are increasingly taking advantage of their reward points given the country’s tough economic climate, which is having an impact on consumer goods including fuel, electricity and food.

According to Clicks customer marketing executive, Heloise Janse Van Rensburg, the Clicks ClubCard loyalty programme, one of the oldest, which was introduced in 1995, was doing exceptionally well, especially given the tough economic climate the retailer was trading in.

Janse Van Rensburg said this speaks to how the retailer’s ClubCard customers valued their cashback rewards.

“Our Clicks ClubCard has 7.5 million active members.We provide simple, easy rewards that are accessible and convenient to our customers. In 2017 alone, over R320 million was paid to ClubCard members in cashback rewards,” said Janse Van Rensburg.

She said ClubCard cashback could be used to pay for purchases in Clicks, Claire’s and The Body Shop stores.

Consumers have saved billions of rands in loyalty programme rewards offered and are increasingly taking advantage of their reward points.

Janse Van Rensburg added that ClubCard had an array of ClubCard partners like Shell, Discovery HealthCare, Sorbet, The Body Shop, Musica, SpecSavers and Execuspecs, City Lodge Hotel Group, Europecar and Netflorist where customers can earn further ClubCard points and benefits.

John Bradshaw, Pick n Pay’s head of marketing, said the Smart Shopper rewards programme was launched in 2011 to reward loyal customers, the retailer’s way of saying thank you to its customers.

Bradshaw said customer reaction to the launch of the programme exceeded Pick n Pay’s expectations and the retailer currently had more 7 million active customers.

He added that Pick n Pay modernised Smart Shopper early last year to introduce more personalised discounts and during this financial year, offered R3 billion in personal discounts to its Smart Shoppers.

File Image: IOL

“Accessibility is critical and we always look at ways to make this easier for customers across multiple platforms. We have already gone digital with the launch of our mobile app which as proved very popular. Innovation has played an important role in Smart Shopper’s success,” said Bradshaw.

He added that every Thursday, Smart Shoppers receive personal Just for You discounts on the products they buy most often.

“These are worth over R500 per customer per year. These personalised discounts are automatically loaded weekly for each Smart Shopper. Customers can claim these by loading the discounts onto their card at the Smart Shopper kiosk in-store, via email or on the Pick n Pay mobile app. The card is then swiped at the till with the qualifying products to get the savings. These personalised discounts have been well received with customers and over a million customers are using their personalised discounts,” said Bradshaw.

Woolworths said the Woolworth WRewards programme was not a traditional points based programme and customers enjoy instant savings at point of sale (POS) on their till slip and on the Woolworths App, product voucher offers and up to 3 percent Cash back when buying with their Woolworths Credit card.

Woolworths said the WRewards in its current format had been in operation since September 2010 customers have saved a total of R538m during the period June 26, 2017 to June 24 2018. 

Consumers have saved billions of rands in loyalty programme rewards offered and are increasingly taking advantage of their reward points. Picture: Nabeelah Shaikh

“No other programme gives you the opportunity to give back via a Community Loyalty programme such as MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet. To date the MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet programme has given back over R570 since its inception in October 1997,” said Woolworths.

- BUSINESS REPORT 

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