Creating jobs through digitisation

Avon South Africa has partnered with Praekelt to connect budding entrepreneurs to life-changing earning opportunities through WhatsApp. The international beauty company is known for putting mascara on lashes and food on tables, as it provides a source of income for six million people around the world.

The bot – or Intelligent Assistant – aims to up the numbers and create more jobs in an unemployment-ravaged South Africa by digitising the signup process for women (and men) who wish to become Avon Beauty Representatives.

By moving the signup process to WhatsApp, Avon is moving further into the digital age.

“This is one of the first steps in our digital revolution, and it’s a big one in the right direction,” said Avon’s Executive Director of Commercial Marketing, Momin Hukamdad. “The future of Avon – and its Beauty Entrepreneurs – is brighter than ever.”

With WhatsApp already being the most used app in South Africa, the audience was already there – all that was needed was the backing of a Fortune 500 company and the technology to do it.

The easy-to-use chatbot allows users to sign up as representatives within minutes, and then use Avon's full suite of digital offerings to buy products, and find any information they may need to grow their beauty business in one place – the palm of their hands.

And this is just the start.

By embracing the digital world rather than fearing it, brands like Avon will soon be able to recruit seamlessly across multiple countries and communicate with current recruits on a much bigger scale. Features such as self-service, support, balance and order checking, and even earnings calculators will become a reality. This can be done across multiple countries, all while tracking data for analytics.

These innovative digital solutions not only make call centres 10 times more efficient and cost-effective, they empower agents with more data to simplify their jobs and win them time to take on more meaningful tasks.

With 370 000 messages and 12 000 unique interactions on the Avon bot within its first month, it’s easy to see why brands are opting for digital evolution to drastically improve life for their staff and customers, rather than fearing the change that is necessary for this kind of growth.