Tag: retail

Most loyalty programmes are built once and then applied across the board. While this approach may seem logical from an efficiency perspective, what works in aviation does not carry into hospitality or retail. Yet many programmes are still built as though customer behaviour follows a single pattern.

Data from South Africa's year-end trading period signals resilient consumer demand. It also highlights a strong foundation for continued growth in digital transactions across business and consumer segments. As businesses of all sizes embraced digital payments, transaction volumes and values maintained strong momentum. The 2025 festive season trade results reflected this robust consumer activity.

Sometimes, it takes an outsider to allow South Africans to recognise that SA retail innovation is positive in their own country.

In recent years, retail and eCommerce businesses have adapted to the increasing influence of digitalisation. Customers now demand user-friendly digital interactions, with little tolerance for inconveniences. Surprisingly, 86% of customers are willing to abandon a brand after just two negative experiences.

In today's fiercely competitive retail landscape, prioritising customer experience has become crucial for attaining sustainable competitive advantages and ultimately ensuring long-term success. This underscores the need for retailers now more than ever to prioritise customer engagement and aim to enhance the overall customer experience and deliver unparalleled customer satisfaction.

South African retailers have successfully driven positive consumer perceptions through special offers and affordable product promotions, but their customer service capabilities are leaving much to be desired. This is according to the South African Retail Sentiment Index, conducted by DataEQ in collaboration with us.

Digitalisation within the retail space often goes hand-in-hand with disintermediation. While removing the middleman can be beneficial, in the case of the South African main market, it can lead to damaged relationships and a lack of trust between spaza owners and wholesalers.

South African customers are highly conscious of what, how and where they buy. Besides being budget-conscious, they're very aware of the impact of their choices, and this year, consumers will increasingly be driven by preferences.

While traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers attempt to navigate their way out of the Coronavirus pandemic, local online retailers are seeing a massive spike in sales, as the shift from real to virtual goes into overdrive. What’s next for the retail industry, and as lockdowns are eased around the world, to what extent will these spikes remain?

Black Friday is what happens when the dangerous mixture of anxiety and excitement are blended in a retail test tube. Although we might think that we know what is going to happen, the result is almost never as predictable as we would like it to be; with the risk that it might all blow up always a possibility. Each year in the build-up to the day, both consumers and suppliers deal with the fact that things can go horribly wrong.