Many cash-strapped consumers turned to loyalty programmes last year to stretch their spending power.
Johan Moolman, CEO of eBucks Rewards, said since the start of lockdown, the 7.4-million registered eBucks users spent more than R740m on essentials such as fuel, groceries, airtime and data as well as other day-to-day necessities, helping them to stretch their monthly budgets.
Standard Bank noticed the same trend, but declined to disclose the number of members of its UCount rewards programme or the value of payments made.
Fayelizabeth Foster, executive head: customer loyalty at Standard Bank Group, said when lockdown began the bank introduced Checkers/Shoprite and Woolworths vouchers for redemption so customers could purchase essential items.
Standard Bank's UCount rewards programme costs its customers R25 a month and members earn points for spending using their Standard Bank credit, cheque and debit cards, as well as earning and redeeming points at 20 retail partners such as Dis-Chem, Makro and Incredible Connection.
We saw an increase
— Christine Wu,
in the redemption
of cash rewards
over this period
Managing executive of customer value management at Absa
Christine Wu, managing executive of customer value management at Absa, said they saw spend primarily in the grocery and health & beauty category.
Absa Rewards programme customers get points when making a purchase using their Absa card.
These points can be spent at retail partners such as Dis-Chem, Food Lovers Market and Woolworths.
John Bradshaw, retail executive for marketing at Pick n Pay, said their Smart Shopper programme saved South Africans more than R2.5bn last year through its points, personalised discounts, and combo or Smart Price deals.
Among the popular groceries shoppers stocked up on for Black Friday or Christmas were coffee, cooking oil and washing powder.
"Many Smart Shoppers saved their points for Black Friday or Christmas," he said.
Trading in points for cash has increased in popularity.
More consumers started cashing in using Standard Bank's PureSave offering, which allows customers to redeem points for cash.
Absa's cash-back rewards also saw an uptick.
"We did see an increase in the redemption of cash rewards over this period," said Wu.
More South Africans are also signing up to rewards programmes.
Bradshaw said Pick n Pay now has more than 7-million active members and reported a 30% increase in sign-ups in the past year.
Neil Schreuder, chief of strategy and innovation for the Shoprite Group, said during its first week an average of more than 450 customers per minute signed up for a Shoprite Xtra Savings card. The card was launched in October 2019.
"During the pandemic we've seen a steady increase in rewards members as people in SA continue to look for ways to save on groceries and everyday products," he said.
FNB's eBucks programme has seen an increase of more than 275,000 members since April 2020.
The number of active Pick n Pay
Smart Shopper members.
— 7-million+
Absa's Wu said the bank had little movement on new members: "Pushing sales was also not the customer-centric thing to do given the tough economic conditions."
Reward programmes were also adjusted.
Wu said Absa saw a large take-up in the payment relief programme. The Rewards programme took this into account to ensure customers don't drop tiers as a result of credit accounts not being up to date, or not depositing a salary into their account.
The bank now offers customers up to 30% back in cash on grocery and fuel spend. In 2019 it was up to 20% back. It also added two new categories, including up to 30% back in cash on purchases at Dis-Chem.
In addition, it added up to 30% back on digital lifestyle spend through a number of partners including Bolt, Bolt Food and Zulzi.
eBucks also made changes. eBucks level 1 starts at zero points and customers will get new one-off booster points to help them move up reward levels quicker within a month, 40% back in eBucks on Netflix and Spotify monthly subscriptions when they use family banking or qualifying spousal accounts, and earn additional eBucks through Smart Spend.
Standard Bank decreased the redemption threshold on its PureSave account from 20,000 to 2,000 rewards points. Because customers could not swipe their cards, the R20,000 credit card spend criteria for tier 5 was removed and it introduced redemptions of rewards points into the Solidarity Fund to assist with raising funds to fight the coronavirus.
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