As appeared in Business Live on the 30 March 2025 by THABISO MOCHIKO

According to the Truth and BrandMapp report, 26% of economically active South Africans rely on loyalty programmes to help with their daily financial struggles. Picture: SUPPLIED

Consumers are increasingly using loyalty programmes, especially those linked to food and fuel purchases, to cushion themselves against the high cost of living, with 82% having used them last year. This is up from 76% in 2023, according to a report this week by Truth and BrandMapp.

“Loyalty programmes play an enormously significant role in combating financial strain for consumers. Loyalty programmes are the third most likely initiative that consumers will use to deal with the rising cost of living, behind cutting back on clothing purchases and going out less,” said Amanda Cromhout, founder and CEO of Truth and BrandMapp and author of the report. She said 44% of South Africans cited rising food prices and high energy costs as keeping them awake at night — the third biggest concern for consumers behind corruption and crime.

Gordon Dodge, a consultant at consumer analytics and research Eighty20, said the loyalty landscape in South Africa had not only seen significant growth in the last decade, it had also seen an evolution of the programmes as they adapted to consumer needs and market requirements.

Retailers, including petrol stations, are investing heavily in their loyalty programmes to deliver meaningful, immediate value to their customers 

Gordon Dodge, Eighty20 consultant

“Some of the recent changes seen in the loyalty programme landscape over the past few years have been driven by the economic pressures placed on consumers — particularly from the rising cost of living, illustrated clearly in the Eighty20 credit stress report where overdue on lending (home loan overdue balances up 23% YoY and Credit Cards 13% YoY) remained concerningly high.”

South Africans are actively using 10.3 programmes on average, which is very high versus global comparisons, said Cromhout. Female consumers are using 11.1 programmes and males 9.6 programmes. Commenting on the benefits they would most enjoy, 37% say real cashback rewards,most respondents said double points and points that can be used as cash all amount to cash in some form or another and they stack up as the most preferred benefits, with the inclusion of birthday offers which steals the second position in consumer benefit choice.

According to the Truth and BrandMapp report, 26% of economically active South Africans rely on loyalty programmes to help with their daily financial struggles; 77% said the programmes tended to influence where they buy groceries; 51% where they buy fuel; 46% where they bank; 32% where they shop for clothes; 30% where they shop for health and pharmaceutical goods, and 26% which restaurants/coffee shops they use.

“Retailers, including petrol stations, are investing heavily in their loyalty programmes to deliver meaningful, immediate value to their customers. Over the past few years the various industries have seen a number of new players entering the market in an attempt to provide serious choice to the consumer,” said Dodge.

In 2019, petroleum giant Shell was the only major company with a loyalty programme called V+ benefiting customers at its retail outlets. Five years later, Sasol, Total Energies, Astron Energy and BP have all launched their own in-house programmes, with rewards varying from cashback to instant vouchers, personalised rewards, and partnership based benefits, he said.

Retailers such as Clicks, Checkers, Pick ‘n Pay and Woolworths are also focused increasingly on offering both instant benefits and longer-term cashback/points to reward loyal customers and help them stretch their budgets, said Dodge.

Of the top 10 popular loyalty programmes, eight belong to retailers. Clicks ClubCard maintains its popularity as the biggest reward card, followed by Checkers Xtra Savings, Pick n Pay Smart Shopper, Dischem Benefits, and Woolworths Rewards. Woolworths is planning to launch a new loyalty programme.

FNB has switched partners for its popular eBucks rewards from Checkers to Pick n Pay, enabling some of the bank’s customers to earn up to 30% of their spend back in eBucks and also earn cash when they shop, including on its food delivery app and Pick n Pay clothing.

Pick n Pay CEO Sean Summers said: “It is a huge priority to improve our offering to customers and this partnership will play a key role in adding even more value for both Pick n Pay and FNB customers. We’ve seen very promising results in just four months with only a select group of FNB cardholders. We are firmly focused on growing the popularity of our stores as the preferred grocery destination for millions of FNB customers who can now take advantage of these incredible eBucks rewards,” he said.

The Shoprite Group has now switched to Standard Bank bank’s UCount rewards programme. It has also added Discovery’s Vitality rewards scheme, through which members can earn rewards when buying healthy food products at Checkers and through its online platform Sixty60.

Shoprite Group CEO Pieter Engelbrecht said this month at the retailer’s financial results presentation: “I see a much wider relationship between us and Discovery. With our whole plan of going into health and beauty and accelerating our pharmacy business into a standalone, there is so much opportunity I see in that. With Standard Bank UCount, we believe that when times are tough we have to do everything we can to give customers better value, hence we formed this partnership.”

Woolworths will launch a new loyalty programme, MyDifference, which will combine its existing WRewards and MySchool cards.

“Customers have told us what they want is an easier way to engage with our programmes, where they can see what they are getting and also what they are giving back. Enabling one customer profile, with self-management of personal data, easy benefit engagements, communities of interest and full visibility to the causes you are supporting,” Woolworths CEO Roy Baggattini said earlier this month at the company’s financial results presentation.

According to Dodge, “the creation of powerful loyalty ecosystems between food retailers and financial services is certainly the next evolution of the loyalty landscape in South Africa and is a follow-on from the very successful partnerships seen between the same financial services and fuel retailers in the last 10 years. The coalitions illustrate not only how important loyalty programmes are to some of the largest institutions in South Africa, but also how strategic partnerships are being used to influence spending power across sectors”.

For the economically active consumers, restaurant chain Spur’s Family Card, which has 2.7-million active members, and is ninth among the 10 most popular rewards schemes, followed by retail clothing group TFG Reward. TFG’s brands include Foschini, and SportsScene.

“TFG Rewards, Cotton On Perks, and Ackermans +More have been consistently growing and improving and are a great example of retailers moving away from rewards being an extension of their credit offerings (store cards and credit cards) to now broadening their loyalty reach and including all shoppers,” said Dodge.

Commenting on future trends in loyalty programmes, Cromhout said one of the areas of focus is on whether South Africans are following the rest of the world in using loyalty programs to support sustainability and charitable efforts.

“At the moment, this is not something we’re seeing at all. In South Africa, globally, there’s a large number of consumers who wish the loyalty program to support sustainability initiatives. Whereas in South Africa, this figure is incredibly low. 13% of South Africans believe that this is an important issue that loyalty should get involved in, and only about 5% actually contribute points for sustainability problems. However, they do see that education is a worthy cause, but supporting and loyalty programs can play a role in that.”

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