Updated 11.06.2023

Top 10 South African Loyalty Programs 2023

South Africa is a country with some of the most diverse cultures globally, with 11 official languages. Just like the population, South African businesses have diverse loyalty programs to cater for the needs of more than 60 million people living in South Africa. These programs allow South Africans to show their loyalty to brands they love and support. This list ranks some of the best South African customer loyalty programs available today.

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Woolworths Rewards

Woolies customers can collect points when shopping at any Woolworths store nationwide or online. They can then redeem vouchers, discounts, money off orders, etc. The company rewards points for every purchase made by customers who have registered an account with their details and linked it to their card number.

Customers can collect points for free by entering the 16-digit membership number that appears on your card into the Woolworths Rewards website. They can also get points when purchasing gift cards at Woolies, either online or in-store. Woolworths offers personalized loyalty cards and virtual reward tokens that can become shared with friends and family members if desired by sending them an e-mail invitation. Besides this, there are also standard Loyalty Cards issued to staff members of Woolworths’ suppliers and business partners. These cards offer special discounts on goods bought at Woolworths stores in South Africa.

Edgar Club

Edgars Club South Africa boasts of a loyalty program that is open to everyone. It’s an excellent way for customers to earn points every time they pay with their cards at any Edgars Club store or outlet. You can use these points when you shop in-store, using the points calculator on the website, or booking coupon codes. There are also exclusive online discounts once you sign up as a loyalty program member, which saves you even more money.

Edgars Club Loyalty Program South Africa has five card types available. These are:

Gold Card – If you qualify for this membership type, receive extra benefits such as a special birthday offer and invitations to special events.
Platinum Card: This is reserved for our most loyal customers and offers even more privileges than the Gold level.
White Card: If you’re a new customer, this type of card will be perfect for you as it offers excellent benefits and lots of points every time you shop!
Green Card: This is a mid-range membership; it gives you all the benefits of Club Membership at a lower cost. You receive your points via e-mail after every transaction.
Purple Card: This card is for those who tend to spend more than R3000 each month at Edgars Club. As well as excellent benefits such as exclusive vouchers and discounts. The company also donates ten percent of the value of your transactions to charity. That’s two rands in every rand spent.

There are different ways of joining the Edgars Club Loyalty Program in South Africa. You can apply for membership online at the Edgars Club website. The application process is simple and takes less than five minutes to complete. You need all your details such as name, e-mail address, physical address, and proof of ID. It’s also vital that you accurately enter your contact number. This is because the company will use it in the membership pin validation process.

Edgars Club Loyalty Program South Africa makes getting your card quickly and easily by delivering it straight to your door. If you live within a particular geographical area, the company sends you out a pack with everything you need to start earning points straight away. Make sure you fill in all details correctly so we can send it to the correct place.

Once you’ve handed in your Edgars Club Loyalty Program South Africa membership form and received your card, start collecting points with every transaction. The company recommends checking out the latest vouchers available when you visit the website. This way, you can get even more value from your hobby. These coupon codes give discounts on popular electronics and fashion items such as shoes, tops, and handbags. You can also view exclusive online-only deals before they expire via e-mail if you’re signed up for our newsletter. Other benefits include:

Birthday voucher offer – We’ll let you in on a little secret: everyone loves receiving presents on their birthday. When you join Edgars Club, we’ll give you a voucher worth R250 to spend on yourself or someone else.
Exclusive events: When you join the Edgars Club, you become part of an exclusive club where everyone is friends. You’ll get invitations to special shopping parties and other exciting events the brand holds throughout the year.

Pick n Pay Smart Shopper

This rewards program lets customers collect points when they buy items from any of their stores nationwide. They can then redeem vouchers, discounts, etc. Customers must first become members of the program by providing personal details such as name, e-mail address, and mobile number.

Once logged in to the program, customers can check their spending history and points collected on the website. As a bonus, customers can also receive special offers from Pick n Pay partners by becoming a Platinum member.

Makro

Customers collect 1 point for every R1 spent in stores nationwide or online, which they can redeem for vouchers to get used in-store. Customers can also collect points when shopping online at their website or by phone using the MyShopping app. They can then redeem vouchers for use in-store.

You must be a member of the program to collect points, and membership is free (with no obligation to start shopping). To join, you need to show your ID document at the time of collecting reward points.

You can also sign up for Makro’s Frequent Buyer Club, which you will receive by e-mail, providing exclusive special offers to new members only. They reward points for every purchase made by customers who have registered an account with their details and linked it to their card number (regardless of what item bought).

Pick n Pay

Spar rewards its customers with points at a rate of 1 point for every R1 spent and can redeem points in increments of 500, 1000, and 5000. There was no mention of the current ‘Small Rewards’ scheme where customers receive 5 points for R5 or minor spending.

Customers may redeem their points at all South African Spar stores. Customers can redeem points towards any Tabasco product and in increments of 500 and 1000. Still, the most redemption is 5000 points, yield a 50% discount on items found in tabasco’s Grocery Department. Customers may also use the point of balance to buy Tabascos Gift Cards starting from R100 up to R5000.

You can also use points to enter sweepstakes where customers stand a chance to win either an Audi A4 valued at R1million or a BMW X5 worth R800 000 sponsored by Audi/BMW.

The company announced the changes via Spar SA social media pages across multiple platforms, including Facebook and Twitter. South Africans reacted differently to the changes. Some customers saying, they will switch loyalty programs, while others boasted excitement.

Cellucity Airmiles

Cellucity Airmiles is a unique rewards program that lets customers collect airtime for every rand spent on their prepaid accounts. Customers can also collect points when they purchase items from any of the over 800 Cellucity Airtime shops nationwide, which they can then redeem for vouchers use in-store. To join the program, customers need to register their Cellucity Airtime account with a valid ID document and a contact number.

They award points for every purchase made by customers who have registered an account with their details and linked it to their card number (regardless of what item you buy).

Customers can also collect points when they purchase items from any of the over 800 Cellucity Airtime shops nationwide. They can then redeem vouchers used in-store.

Discovery Vitality

Discovery Vitality South Africa boasts of a loyalty program that can earn points and redeem rewards with a wide range of partners. Discovery Vitality is a health insurance company established in 2008 by Discovery Group Holdings Limited from South Africa. Today, the South African-based insurer has over 1.5 million members.

Discovery Vitality Loyalty Program launched its loyalty program for all existing life policyholders and new applicants known as VitalityLife. The program promises to reward people for living healthy lifestyles through its ‘Vitality Forever’ reward system based on a point system or ‘coin.’ This coin system grants users the ability to gain access to:

Cash rewards
Upgrade their cover
Receive discounts on specific products
Make donations to charities, among other things.

Membership to the loyalty program is free and has the option of buying a policy with Vitality. The Discovery Vitality South Africa Loyalty Program has six strata:

Platinum
Gold
Silver
Bronze
Tertiary
Green (NEW)

Each stratum has its own set of benefits that are different from each other depending on how many coins they have accrued. The user’s coin value is also increased when they opt to participate in certain activities such as undertaking health risk assessments and completing their yearly tests. These activities add ‘coin’ for every training completed. A member may only rise through one stratum per year at most. Should they reach the top of any given stratum before the end of the year, they will only be able to rise to the top of their previous stratum.

Discovery Vitality Members may qualify for free cover depending on how many coins they currently have in their account. However, the user must reach at least ten coins before becoming eligible for the free life insurance cover, which is worth R500 000 over five years, with each currency adding more time onto it.

On reaching your first 100th coin, you move into the green zone and receive

3- 4 nights stay at any game lodge
Exclusive game drive experiences
20% off spa treatments

On reaching your first 200th coin, you move into the green zone and receive

7 nights stay at any game lodge
Exclusive game drive experiences
20% off spa treatments

Loot

This rewards program lets students collect points when they purchase items from any Campus Square shops nationwide. They can then redeem vouchers, discounts, etc.

Students need to register an account with their unique student reference number and e-mail address to join the program. They award points for every purchase made by customers who have registered an account with their details and linked it to their card number (regardless of what item you buy).

TFG Rewards

TFG Rewards Loyalty Program South Africa has one of the most extensive customer bases in the continent. They are a market leader with over ten years of experience providing world-class service to the South African public and business sector.

Apart from their vast clientele, TFG has its product range, including

Bills Payments
Mobile Top-up and Virtual Visa
Safaricom airtime across Africa through Safaricom Pays app

The company’s key feature is its instant money transfer platform that allows customers to send or receive money without any restrictions -regardless of where either party bases its location on the globe.

TFG Rewards Loyalty Program South Africa will be offering free mobile data to all existing and new prepaid Vodacom subscribers who buy a data bundle.

FNB eBucks

FNB eBucks Loyalty Program South Africa boasts the most significant number of eBucks partners with over 20,000 stores throughout South Africa. These include major retailers such as Edgars, Clicks, Foschini Group, Mr. Price Group, Spar, and Redefine Properties.

The program launched in 2000 is an extension of the very successful FNB Business Rewards Account, with more than 100 000 active business customers using the account to purchase their material needs online or at their local store. With fully transactional and flexible arrangements, you can build up your eBucks whenever you buy on any of our transactional products.

What makes the FNB eBucks Loyalty Program unique is that there’s no joining fee for businesses/sole traders. But membership is subject to specific eligibility criteria. That is you have to complete the application form and submit it. You can find these criteria on request from your FNB Relationship Consultant or Call Centre Agent.

The beauty of the program is that you can enjoy earning eBucks when you spend in one of our partner stores. You can also earn eBucks for all your transactional accounts with us. Complete an application form and submit it either by fax or e-mail. Once approved, you will be able to start earning eBucks immediately at no cost. However, please note an annual membership fee per member, which will boast an application after six months (from the approval date) if the account remains active at this stage.

However, there are no complicated calculations since we give you one eBucks for every R1 spent. So if you were to spend R1000 in a partner store, 500 ebucks would get deposited into your account (subject to the terms and conditions).

To date, South Africa has over 2 million active FNB Business Rewards Account holders, with 400 000 new account openings annually and with eBucks rewards growing at an average of 20% per annum. FNB is expecting exponential growth in this program and is extremely excited about its potential in South Africa and what it means for small business owners.

Advantages of South African Loyalty Programs

The South African loyalty program market is growing fast, with an average of 3.2% increase each year. Its greatest advantage is that it is a big step towards customer satisfaction and retention. Other benefits include:

Increases customer lifetime value (CLV) through repeat purchases;
Increases the probability that customers will buy extra products;
Reduce marketing costs;
Strengthens relationships between your company and its customers;
Helps get rid of counterfeit goods by identifying fake customers
Provides many opportunities to get feedback from your customers

Even so, before getting into a loyalty program, you should ask yourself the following questions:

Does it make sense with your target segment?
Do you have the technology needed for this program?
How much time, effort, and money do you need?
Will it be easy for me to implement?

What are the Most Significant Issues for Loyalty Programs?

The costs of running loyalty programs can be very high. It would help if you didn’t run out of money before your customers do
Delivering rewards to customers can be time-consuming and expensive, so reward small purchases as well. This increases the chances your customer will buy more products which in turn makes up for this investment
If it is too complicated, no one will use it. Make sure you avoid complex systems to prevent churn. You need an easy way to input information into your system if you want your customers to use it
Don’t make rules that are unfair or difficult to understand. By making a program with many rules, only the most dedicated customers will use it, and they may leave because of these unfair rules. If there is no benefit to the program and it is too hard to use, people won’t even bother.

The loyalty programs are a great way to earn more points and rewards. South Africans need to determine which of these top 10 loyalty programs will work best for them based on the advantages, disadvantages, who they shop with most often, their needs, etc. Once you have found your perfect program, use it.

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