Cell C has taken steps to address its market share in South Africa by embracing the gig economy and implementing the Spaza 5 000 pilot project.
The project, carried out by gig technology company M4Jam, gathered market analytics in the informal sector to help Cell C roll out products and services strategically.
Spaza 5 000 has initially targeted three provinces in South Africa – Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape and Limpopo. As contracted, M4Jam sent jobbers into the field to geo-locate spaza shops, profile and interview the spaza owners as well as gather detailed information on their telecoms product sales to help Cell C understand the telecoms market dynamics in the informal sector.
In all, 5 152 spaza shops were mapped, roughly evenly split across the three provinces, with 15 146 discrete jobs completed by jobbers hailing from those locations, over four months in 2019.
With the information received from the Spaza 5 000 pilot, Cell C and M4Jam have now launched this project nationally to map an additional 115 000 spazas which Cell C will have access to.
The national rollout will create 230 000 jobs for M4Jam jobbers with a total of roughly R13 million of revenue paid out into these communities.
M4Jam is a micro-jobbing company which connects clients with registered jobbers who are provided with training to carry out a multitude of tasks on a part-time basis.
More than 220 000 South Africans have already signed up with the platform and move from task to task when projects arise in their location.
Tasks can take from seconds to a few minutes to complete, are operated through the jobbers’ cell phones, range in value and complexity, and jobbers receive payment in cash and airtime.
The effect of this project has had a profound impact for many jobbers from the informal communities.
The training video for Spaza 5 000 was watched more than 100 000 times. M4Jam CEO Georgie Midgley says the platform’s gig economy opportunities have brought much-needed income to community members around the country.
The majority (96%) of the Spaza 5000 jobbers were black, 65% were female, 70% were 25-44 years old. “Sixty-three percent of jobbers earn most of their income from M4Jam,” Midgley says. “Fifty-four percentare technically unemployed and 24% are breadwinners.
“Only 14% have access to the internet or WiFi, showing that the platform can be utilised by anyone with a suitable device.”
Dino Naicker, executive: marketing and special key accounts at Cell C, says: “It’s been a phenomenal experience working with M4Jam. An absolutely professional approach delivering invaluable insights that will help inform Cell C’s strategy and activities over the next year.”
In terms of the valuable analytics, Cell C gained insight into which province stood out with the most opportunity for market share growth, based on spaza owner needs. This data includes information such as new paint for their spaza shops, a high level of spend on airtime and data, and a desire for cheap smartphones.
“In the three provinces, province 2 revealed that many spaza shop owners are also interested in new paint jobs for their shops. Province 3 is dominated by Cell C’s competitors, with not much market share to gain, and average spend per customer remains low. In province 1, Cell C is viewed positively as the most affordable airtime option, but the company’s branding is least visible and its SIM cards are not the most requested by customers.
“Already, there are tangible examples of how Cell C can start to take action in this area,” says Midgley.