In what will no doubt become a regular feature on SA’s retail calendar in future, Massmart held its inaugural Growth Summit in Sandton this week, and the Trade Intelligence analyst team was fortunate enough to be invited. This new platform brought together Massmart and potential new suppliers, as well as existing ones to pitch on new category inclusions and scaling of their businesses. Having received a massive 1,600 entries, only the top 250 suppliers were invited to present on the day, 80% of which were from South Africa, with the remaining businesses representing ten other African countries. Successful suppliers were notified immediately of their acceptance with a ‘golden certificate’, which indicated a Massmart buyer’s intention to list the product, amidst much cheering and vuvuzela blasting. Unsuccessful candidates were given direction on how to improve their products for future consideration, making it a constructive and worthwhile outing for all. Suppliers were also treated to presentations from Walmart and Massmart executives on their focus areas and ways of working with suppliers, as well as masterclasses by leading industry experts on various topics. The day ended with an overview of potential partnership opportunities, and of course provided a significant networking opportunity for all in attendance.

Comment: A fantastic initiative that allowed those present to witness Walmart and Massmart’s values in action – fostering connections with African suppliers.

Beauty retailing events that bridge the gap between the convenience of online shopping and in-person experiences are turning heads. First we had the Clicks Beauty Playground; now there’s the Takealot’s House of Beauty event, which was held for the first time this last weekend in Bryanston. Tickets for the three-day event sold out in just 30 minutes, with lucky attendees walking away with a R2,000 goodie bag for their R295 ticket price. To extend convenience, attendees were able to purchase select products at the event and have them delivered in minutes through TakealotNOW, the online retailer’s on-demand delivery service via the Mr D App. With TikTok as the event’s media partner, social media platforms were abuzz with talk of the event, which Takealot has announced it will look at bringing it to Cape Town and Durban later this year.

Comment: When it comes to beauty products, consumers will always prefer seeing, feeling and smelling the items they are planning to spend their hard-earned on. Combine this with snappy delivery and the hype that only the socials can generate for a winning formulation.

The ninth edition of the Truth and BrandMapp Loyalty Whitepaper is now available here, reflecting the claimed loyalty programme behaviour of ±20 million South African consumers, with gross monthly household income of just under R10,000 or more. According to the report, 82% of South African shoppers now make use of loyalty programmes (up from 76% in 2023), with individuals relying on an average of 10.3 programmes to help them make ends meet. As many as 77% of respondents say that these programmes influence where they choose to buy their groceries, with cashback being the most desired benefit. Which loyalty programme do South Africans use the most? Clicks ClubCard according to the whitepaper, with an 80% usage rate amongst economically active consumers and 73% amongst mass market punters (versus 76% and 66% respectively for Checkers’ Xtra Savings). “We have definitely seen a shift in cashback redemption,” explains Dr. Melanie Van Rooy, Clicks Group Chief Marketing Officer. “Members don’t just spend their cashback on luxuries, but often on staples such as soap and toilet paper.” According to the authors of the whitepaper, loyalty programmes are the third most likely way consumers will use to face up to rising prices, behind cutting back on clothing and going out less.

Comment: Sobering stuff and a sign of the times, when just a few rands saved here and there is often the difference between a shopper walking through your door or not.

Well done to Shoprite, who has commissioned a new report on South Africa’s SMME sector. The study, led by Arthur Goldstuck, MD of World Wide Worx, gathered insights from 800 SMME owners nationwide. It highlights the diversity within South Africa’s small business sector, but also found significant systemic challenges related to gender, age, geography, and education, revealing the critical need for targeted support for female entrepreneurs and improved access to markets and resources in underrepresented regions of the country. Access the report here for more telling insights. Next, Massmart is partnering with The Beer Association of South Africa (Basa) and the South African Liquor Brand Owners’ Association (Salba) to strengthen relationships and promote responsible trading and consumption of beer in KZN. The initiative seeks to engage with traders, encouraging them to trade responsibly as well as inspiring them to become ambassadors for responsible drinking campaigns. It also aims to educate stakeholders about the dangers of the illicit trading of alcohol and the importance of compliance, as well as to gain a better understanding of the challenges faced by alcohol traders to create a more sustainable and inclusive alcoholic beverage sector that benefits both businesses and consumers.

There are some things in this world that we battle to comprehend. Like nuclear fission. Or how a chocolatey confection can go so viral that Lidl’s TikTok Shop clears it at a rate of 72 bars per minute. Dubai-style chocolate, our 11-year-old tells us, consists of a Belgian chocolate shell filled with pistachio cream and shredded phyllo pastry. Its crispy, creamy goodness has caused quite the stir on the socials with one TikTok influencer racking up 6.7 million likes for a video of her eating the thing in her car. Of course the retailers are going to want to cash in, and why not use the platform that made it famous in the first place? The activation is Lidl’s second attempt at its TikTok Shop, after it recently dropped its ‘Protein Bundles’ on the platform, which sold out in just 18 minutes flat. Moving on, Walmart de México y Centroamérica, mercifully abbreviated to Walmex, has announced that it plans to invest $6bn into the central American country to boost its presence in the region and beef-up operations. At 7.6% of the total, Walmex makes up a significant chunk of Walmart’s overall sales and employs 200,000 Mexicans. The CAPEX will be used to open new stores and build two cutting-edge DCs that will integrate robotics and artificial intelligence technologies. The announcement comes at a crucial juncture, underlining Walmex’s commitment to the region amidst fluctuating trade policies across the border.

As is so often the case for an industry at the mercy of Mother Nature and global markets, the Oceana Group’s trading update for the five months to 23 Feb has revealed mixed results. While overall the results were “significantly lower” than its previous five months due to the normalisation of global fishmeal and fish oil pricing, Lucky Star remained the, ahem, star of the show thanks to steady consumer demand for affordable protein and continued brand and range expansion. Production volumes were also up, thanks to better-than-anticipated pilchard hauls and efficiencies gained from upgrades made to its cannery facilities. The hake business within what it calls its ‘Wild Caught Seafood’ division saw a +5% increase in total allowable catch and has benefitted from recent investment in the fleet.

Coca-Cola’s ‘Share a Coke’ activation is back, that iconic marketing campaign where Coca‑Cola bottles and cans are turned into personalised keepsakes by swapping out the logo with popular first names. Launched for the first time back in 2011, the 2025 edition is aimed specifically at Gen Zs with its fusion of digital and in-real-life (IRL) experiences (isn’t that just called life? Ed.). Fans will be able to personalise their digital Cokes with names through the mobile app and access the “Share a Coke Memory Maker,” an interactive digital experience where the kids can create videos with their own content and memes to share with friends. The campaign launches this month and will roll out to 120 countries. Moving on to drinks of the harder variety, Heineken is partnering with SterKinekor as an official sponsor of the Cannes Young Lions Competition for South Africa, a competition that gives young creatives the chance to represent SA on a global stage. Teams of two young professionals working in the creative, advertising, production or digital industries will be given 48 hours to conceptualise and deliver a creative brief. The winning teams will be sent to compete against others from around the world at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity in June. And finally, NielsenIQ has announced the recipients of its eighth annual NIQ Design Impact Awards. The global competition recognises and celebrates best-in-class package redesigns, and the impact they achieve for their companies. Winners included Tic Tac Mints, Kraft Mac & Cheese, Fanta, Kleenex, Status Deodorant to name but a few of the brands that enjoyed an increase in sales after launch of updated package designs as measured by NIQ’s proprietary Retail Measurement Sales (RMS) data.

Updating our monthly economic report was a rollercoaster of emotions for our esteemed inhouse economist this week. Let’s kick off with the good news, shall we? Retail sales for Jan 2025 came in at +7.0% (covered in last week’s edition right here), while headline inflation was only +3.2% in Feb, thanks to fuel deflation of -3.6% and contained food inflation of +2.8%. And the cherry on top, fuel prices have come down in both Mar and Apr. But now for the not-so-good news: the interest rate remained unchanged, with the SA Reserve Bank governor calling out the “extreme levels of uncertainty” in the world economy and the FNB/BER Consumer Confidence Index plummeted to -20 for Q1/2025 (from -6 in Q4). Why are consumers so down in the dumps? Well, it might have something to do with the survey launching just after news broke of the Budget Speech being postponed, a proposed +2.0 percentage point VAT increase (which fortunately didn’t materialise), as well as a couple of days of hectic load shedding that left almost as quickly as they arrived.

Comment: It has indeed been a tumultuous month, or longer… perhaps five years? For more information on the economic context, check out the Trade Intelligence South African Economic Report here.