Agile retailers turn crisis into opportunity
With no sign of the present economic storm subsiding, small and medium-sized retailers need to identify ways to turn today's multiple crises into opportunities for growth. Evolving consumer tastes, new market pain points and emerging technologies all offer compelling...
Retailers eye smart solutions to energy woes
As South Africa grapples with rising power costs and ongoing loadshedding, many retailers are looking at ways to become more energy efficient and reduce their reliance on the national grid. Although implementing solutions such as solar can be expensive, the return on...
Retailers save when they automate cash management
As retailers face persistently high inflation, load shedding and the need to rebuild after Covid-19, their focus is turning to how they can improve their operational efficiency. With data from StatsSA showing that retail trade sales decreased by 2.5% year-on-year in...
Perceived customer value is the only metric that matters
Digital transformation has been identified as a key driver for optimisation in the South African fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) space, particularly in the main market. By Andrew Dawson, MD of MACmobile Bringing a consumer-like, app-driven e-commerce experience to...
Online activity boosts offline shopping
Of the R1,2-trillion in traditional retail spend in the last year, almost R300-billion was directly influenced by online activity, according to the South African Digital Consumer report. This means that a significant number of consumers are using websites, ecommerce...
The 2022 holiday planning guide for retailers
Economic uncertainty and changing consumer behaviors are exposing a complicated reality. By Zuko Mdwaba, area vice-president at Salesforce South Africa For retailers, it's never been more important to deliver excellent customer experiences alongside competitive prices...
Buy now pay later in SA will be a R2bn market by December
Hundreds of thousands of South Africans are paying for their goods by using buy now pay later (BNPL) which is growing 10% to 15% per month and recorded a 50% hike from the first to the second quarter of 2022. According to Payflex, South Africa's largest BNPL provider...
Is your retail business ready for the Amazon effect?
With Amazon reportedly set to launch in South Africa next year, forward-thinking retailers are starting to position themselves to defend and extend their share of the R30-billion per year retail e-commerce market. Those that are agile and innovative enough will...
What merchants and consumers need to know about RMS
When South Africa became the first country in the world to launch Authenticated Collections (Debicheck), replacing EDO (AEDO & NAEDO) with DebiCheck in 2021, consumers and merchants breathed a collective sigh of relief. Now Registered Mandate Services (RMS)...
Retailers brace for the post-pandemic landscape
There is little doubt that the pandemic has transformed the retail landscape for good, with a recent Flux Trends report highlighting that worldwide e-commerce sales will exceed $5-trillion for the first time this year, accounting for more than a fifth of overall...
How to do Black Friday better than the e-commerce giants
Black Friday shopping mania has been with Mzansi for over 10 years now, writes James Bayhack, sub-Saharan Africa director at CM.com. Online retail giant Takealot launched its first Black Friday sale in 2011, generating a turnover of R1-million. Seven years later,...
Online retailers set to bolster the checkout experience with click and collect
With Covid-19 almost a thing of the past, customers continue to shop online. Over the past two and a half years, we've seen a radical shift in retail with more merchants migrating online in an effort to simulate the brick-and-mortar store experience in a virtual...