Zando launches zero-rated shopping for Vodacom subscribers

The decision forms part of the retailer's focus on becoming mobile-centric, in line with global trends.

According to the company, South Africa is fast catching up on the international trend of adopting a mobile-first attitude, with 61% of smartphone usage attributed to accessing internet and applications. With smartphones becoming more affordable, more users have access to the mobile web itself and Zando looks to further support this consumer lifestyle initiative through becoming a truly mobile-first enterprise.

“This is a great step in the right direction to provide that added value to allow our customers to shop online and browse our mobile platforms without the worry of incurring any extra data costs. This aligns with our current Best Price strategy of ensuring our offering is value added driven. We choose Vodacom on the basis they currently have around 53% of the market share over other networks according to the Mobile In SA Report 2017,” said Graham Du Plessis, head of mobile at Zando.

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Addressing data concerns

According to the same study released by Effective Measure, the most telling stat for retailers was that 48% of users don’t purchase items when they are on a mobile connection, this suggests a potential pain point around data concerns. As the report further indicates respondents are comfortable conducting their banking, purchasing airtime and paying their bills via their devices, retail shopping, however, lags as it intuitively requires more browsing time.

“With 71% of unique browsers coming from a mobile source, according to Effective Measure’s latest February 2018 South Africa Online Insights release for publishers, the potential is there,” says du Plessis.

“Currently data costs are a large talking point in the market and can be seen as a very real barrier to accessing the internet and thus stunting the e-commerce retailers. As the data clearly shows there is a very strong trend toward mobile becoming more embedded in one’s everyday life, this step simply adds more choice for the consumer to browse what we have to offer. We wanted to play our part by taking away the cost barrier and by starting with zero rating Vodacom users in this first phase. I believe we are well on our way to really creating real value for our customers”.