Loyalty programmes are especially relevant for today’s consumers, who are looking for ways to save money during these difficult economic times, says Clicks Head of Marketing, Dr Melanie van Rooy.
She said that one of the oldest retail loyalty programmes in South Africa, the Clicks ClubCard continuously added value to customers’ lives, with its continued focus on convenience, value and differentiation.
“Clicks ClubCard consistently delivers the richest rewards to its loyal customers. In the past year alone ClubCard paid out R590 million in cashback and since inception, has paid out over R5.5 billion in cashback spend,” Van Rooy said.
Meanwhile, the latest Momentum-Unisa Consumer Financial Vulnerability Index (CFVI) indicated that despite improvements, consumers’ finances remained under pressure.
It showed that the overall state of South African consumer finances improved slightly in the third quarter of 2022(Q3 2022).
Economist & Researcher at Momentum Metropolitan, Johann van Tonder, said that increasing food prices, load shedding, high fuel prices and political instability and corruption posed the highest risk to consumer finances in Q3 2022.
“In fact, the fastest climbing risk factor, though, is seen to be politicians not focusing on consumer needs. All of this was coupled with limits to resources consumers could access or use to deal with their financial challenges,” Van Tonder said.
The index indicated that income and expenditure indices increased, saving and debt servicing indices implied consumers were very exposed while debt servicing remained an “Achilles heel” for consumers.
“Rising consumer price inflation and interest rates, considerably reduced consumers ability to repay debt and save,” Van Tonder said.
He said that financial vulnerability continued to negatively impact consumers’ behaviour, particularly on two fronts.
The report indicated a further increase in the already high number of consumers whose dire financial situation was affecting relationships with family, friends, and colleagues.
“More consumers are focusing so much on their financial problems which causes them to neglect other important issues,” says Van Tonder.
Risk factors were expected to continue in Q4 2022, but in a different order.
“Load shedding is expected to be the highest risk factor, followed by political instability and corruption, and high food and fuel prices. The fastest climbing risk factor, though, is seen to be politicians not focusing on consumer needs.”
In conjunction with political instability and corruption (regarded as second highest risk for Q4 2022), Van Tonder says this indicates that political issues are becoming a growing risk to consumer finances.
Overall, he said that there was very little optimism surrounding the economic outlook for Q4 2022 as most people expect a deterioration in both the global and local economic environments paired with continued increases in inflation and a high unemployment rate.
As consumers prepare to weather the Q4 storm, load shedding was expected to continue interrupting the economy on its journey to success.
As part of Momentum’s Science of Success campaign, the CFVI is produced in partnership with the Bureau of Market Research of Unisa.
It aimed to provide South Africans with information and strategies on how they can accelerate their journey to financial success.
The CFVI is compiled quarterly from the views of key informants (researchers, bankers, insurers, retailers, government, economists, analysts, etc.) who deal with consumers daily and/or study consumer finances on a continuous basis.
On Wednesday, Checkers announced that its Xtra Savings customers can look forward to Black Friday-like deals with discounts of up to 50% during the second annual Xtra Xtra Weekend, a sales promotion exclusively for Xtra Savings members.
This would run from Friday to Sunday.
The Xtra Xtra Weekend was said to be Checkers’ biggest sales event of the year with deep discounts on essential groceries including instant coffee, long-life milk, cheese, washing powder and nappies.
It said that the deals did not stop there as shoppers could also expect savings on premium products such as air fryers, sparkling wine, butter, blueberries and more.
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