The rise of integrated online loyalty programmes is making strides in turning passive online browsers into active online buyers and, in the process, introducing an important market to the possibilities presented by e-commerce.
Online shoppers worldwide want a reason to stick with a particular retailer, suggests recent global survey findings from consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. The report gives some of the credit for such habits to loyalty programmes, with 71% of survey respondents shopping with their favourite merchants because of loyalty points and similar reward programmes.
"Our customers have long enjoyed the benefits of our loyalty rewards system," explained Sean Gomes, co-founder of Western Cape retailer Wellness Warehouse. "However, with the expansion of our offering to include an extensive online store, we realised we'd need to integrate this value-added offering so that our new, nationwide markets could also capitalise on Wellness Rewards."
This is where Innervation has stepped in. Angelina dos Santos-Barrett, Innervation's loyalty product manager, worked closely with Gomes and his team to implement an online rewards model that would revolutionise the e-commerce experience for Wellness customers in Cape Town and the rest of South Africa.
"Wellness customers can now create user profiles with ease, register their profiles for the loyalty rewards programme, perform transactions, view their loyalty balance and their last five transactions, and then redeem their rewards either online or in-store at their nearest Wellness Warehouse branch," explained Dos Santos-Barrett.
"In terms of innovation and the seamless online integration of loyalty points functionality, Wellness Warehouse has pioneered a customer-centric digital shopping experience that is seeing a steady increase in traffic to its site and, more importantly, repeat conversions nationwide."
With South Africa's average consumer download speed estimated to be at 3.54 megabits per second, more and more retailers are setting up online shops. Dos Santos-Barrett reports that an increasing number of her clients are now requesting the integration of e-commerce reward and loyalty programmes, as businesses scramble to take advantage of the trend, turning occasional window shoppers into brand-loyal online activists.
Yet according to a report published earlier this year by the Boston Consulting Group, SA's e-commerce offering was growing at a surprisingly slower rate (12.6%) than the average for developing nations (17.8%). The report predicted that online purchasing would account for 1.5% of all retail shopping in South Africa by 2016.
Within the South African context, where about 42.3 million active mobile phones and more than 59 million active SIM cards have been recorded, it makes more sense for retailers to ensure that their offering includes a mobile-optimised online store or app to further entrench the e-commerce - or "m-commerce" trend. Wellness Warehouse has invested in a fully responsive website with m-commerce capabilities to meet these ever-expanding needs of today's connected consumers.
As South Africa's broadband capabilities grow, so too will businesses' interests in making use of e-commerce and m-commerce. South African retailers cannot ignore the opportunities for rapid growth in these spaces.
