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Shoprite who last year pioneered a sort of nameless loyalty programme awarding instant airtime for purchases of marked products have gone and done it again, with SA’s first workable mobile couponing initiative. This time they’ve named it: it’s called EeziCoupons, and once again the emphasis has been on rollout and execution, which is a very Shoprite way of doing things. Here’s how it works: shoppers view coupons on their cellphones, purchase those products and enter their WiCode on the pin pad at the till. The total discount is deducted, and the savings revealed at the bottom of the till slips.  The WiCode (so named for the WiGroup which has developed the system) gives punters access to thousands of bucks worth of discounts at once. It also gives Shoprite access to absolutely scads of data about which shoppers want what.

Comment: And all without so much as a rubel being spent on an actual loyalty programme.

Keeping their eye on the ball this week, or every possible ball in the air at once, depending on which way you prefer to see it, are Pick n Pay who as hinted last week are indeed launching South Africa’s first all-mobile bank. It will be called Mobile Money, is being “provided” (a term which has some special if unspecified significance in the mobile realm) by Tyme Capital, and is modelled on the granddaddy of all mobile money schemes, Kenya’s M-Pesa. Tyme have got around the more stringent local regulations by limiting accounts to a maximum of R25k and daily transactions to a grand. Pick n Pay will cash money in and out of the system, apparently, through their stores, but it will otherwise operate as a full-service mobile bank with the added appeal of punters being able to send cash from one side of the country to the other via those microwaves.

Comment: An interesting move for a business which has so many other major projects underway at present, from the inauguration of a new NGO to the bedding down of centralised distribution.

Skinny Santas in red plastic santa suits ringing bells outside furniture stores. People you’ve never clapped eyes on claiming to be the postman pitching up in mid November for their Christmas box. And Massmart talking down their prospects for the holidays: the traditional early signs of the festive season are everywhere. The Men in Black have announced – Noël, Noël – that their margins will remain under pressure through 2013 as their low-price market share strategy rolls out and that – Deck the Halls – sales during the December spree will probably remain flat compared with last year. This will enable them to say “Jus, we were only stoked ay” with a look of pleased surprise on their faces come March when the numbers tell a different story. They have, you will note, recently reported that sales increased 16.2% for the 20 weeks to 11 November, a period for which they had previously, no doubt, offered a gloomy prognosis.

Comment: Falalalala, lalalala

Tiger Brands upped its revenue by 11% to R22.7bn for the year to September. This despite the fact that domestic sales declined 3% for the period, as unemployment, indebtedness and inflation take their toll on punters. So whence the largesse, then? Why international sales, of course, which in the case of Tiger means mainly on the mother continent. Of note has been the partial acquisition of Dangote Flour Mills in Nigeria, in which the stripy one will be increasing its stake, and the Davita Trading distribution business, which exports South African-made product to the hinterland. Acquisitions on the continent have cost Tiger R3bn over the past three years, and they’re already contributing 15% to group turnover and on track to double that every year in the near future.

Comment: So great abroad, but very tough in the grains and bread market back home.

So Astral Operations Limited, the parent company of Country Bird, has done the manly thing and settled with the Competition Commission (hereafter “The Comish”) to the tune of R17million over the small matter of colluding with its competitors, viz  Rainbow Chickens, Afgri, the Sapa and the Animal Feed Manufacturers Association back in the early noughts to divvy up the market through the allocation of territories and customers, to the disadvantage of The Little Feller (Pty) Ltd, charging prices up to 25% higher off a similar cost base. The penalty, harsh as it is, is evidence of the priority with which The Comish addresses threats to the supply and price of staples.

Comment: Collusion, like bed-head hair gel, muffin-top jeans and Ricky Martin was all the rage back then.

If you don’t happen to get hold of the 15th Annual Deloitte Holiday Survey (Plett again. Any further questions? OK just kidding. We accountan … ahem, professional services guys like to kid), here are the salient points, under the headers they’ve given us, in a nutshell:

Increased spend in SA. Except for us. We’re going to Verbier.
Food and gifts claim the biggest share of the holiday spending pie. Again.
Economic outlook remains gloomy. You don’t say.
But consumers stay optimistic. That’s the spirit.
What’s in the stocking? We like to keep our legs there. Not that it’s any business of yours.
The cross-channel trend continues. We tried swimming it once, damn cold, and a heck of a way. Ended up in The Admiral Harvey in Dover polishing off about 7 pints of Newkie Brown instead.

Comment: Look, we did say in a nutshell.

Appropriately, and probably timeously, DionWired has launched an online version of itself, offering an extended product range plus exclusive online promos and free delivery anywhere in South Africa, having noticed the tendency of punters to mix it up a little, researching online and buying in-store or vice versa, and no doubt wanting a larger slice of the action than its 18 stores are able to capture. Nice one.