Whitepaper reveals 76% of South Africans are using loyalty schemes

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The whitepaper is a comprehensive annual snapshot of the loyalty habits of over 35,000 South African adults with a gross monthly household income of R10,000 or more. For the second time, there is additional insight into the loyalty behaviour of South Africa’s mass market consumer from MoyaApp included in the loyalty whitepaper.

MoyaApp has researched 11,500 consumers with a household income of R10,000 per month or less. The loyalty whitepaper is written and released by Truth, a Cape Town based consultancy firm, specialising in customer loyalty.

Shoprite Group takes title of most used loyalty programme for Economically Active and Mass Market consumers

This year, Checkers Xtra Savings takes first place as the most used loyalty programme for economically active consumers with 78% usage. They are marginally ahead of Clicks ClubCard (by 0.4%), which had the title of most used loyalty programme in four out of the previous seven whitepapers. For mass market consumers, Shoprite Xtra Savings regains its place in first position as the most used loyalty programme.

Meredith Allen, head of Rewards and Personalisation from ShopriteX episode 428, Let’s Talk Loyalty – September 2023: “Xtra Savings is operated in two of Shoprite’s banners: Checkers and Shoprite. They experience approximately 80% sales coverage through Xtra Savings, which is comparable, if not better than the world’s best loyalty programmes.”

There are no other changes in terms of top 10 positions for economically active consumers and FNB eBucks remains the only non-retail loyalty programme within the top 10 most used loyalty programmes.

In terms of the loyalty programmes which South Africans claim they can’t live without, 37% of economically active consumers’ state that Discovery Vitality is their number one loyalty brand of choice. There is a change to the mass market segment this year as 41% of mass market consumers say they can’t live without the Capitec Live Better programme. This is up by 4 percentage points compared to last year.

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Benefits most enjoyed by consumers

Over the years, cashback is consumers number one loyalty benefit and the 2023/4 study is not very different. For the economically active consumers, cash is still king. The top three benefits enjoyed by economically active consumers are related to cashback or points converted into cash. Interestingly, when it comes to the most preferred benefit for mass market consumers it is airtime and data, followed by cashback and points converted into cash.

Industry to Watch: Fuel

Fuel is one industry sector which has seen an explosion of loyalty programmes in the past 24 months. Previously, the fuel industry in South Africa rewarded its customers for fuel brand choice via partnerships only. Legislation restricts the direct discounting of fuel and hence the partnership model enabled fuel brands to drive potential increased sales via partnership programmes.

The biggest of these is Engen, in partnership with FNB eBucks and Clicks ClubCard. All fuel brands are using the partnership model. We now see four proprietary fuel programmes in the market. Shell V+ launched first in December 2019, Sasol Rewards in April 2022, Total Energies Club in April 2023 and Astron Energy Rewards later in 2023.

View the full 2023/4 Truth & BrandMapp Loyalty Whitepaper