EcoCash, Cassava Smartech’s fintech business, has launched a
real-time rewards programme on a digital wallet that will earn customers up to
15 percent of value transacted.
A first on a mobile money service, the EcoCash Rewards
programme – powered by CashbackAPP Africa – was unveiled at a media event in
Harare today, where company executives said the programme will reward EcoCash
users and offer the capability to tie in merchants to their consumers’ buying
patterns.
Commenting on the reward programme, Cassava Smartech CEO Mr
Eddie Chibi said EcoCash customers will be able to enjoy EcoCash Rewards by
simply transacting at any participating merchants.
“Once a payment transaction is complete, an EcoCash customer
automatically accumulates points which they can redeem for value into their
EcoCash wallet by going to the EcoCash menu on their phone and selecting ‘make
payment’, followed by ‘EcoCash Rewards’,” Mr Chibi explained.
“A customer can earn up to 15 percent in EcoCash Reward
points of value transacted, depending on their selected merchant,” he said. He
added that merchants would cut across all sectors of the economy – and would
include retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers and tourism and hospitality
players, among many others.
EcoCash CEO, Ms Natalie Jabangwe, speaking at the launch event, said the EcoCash Rewards programme will be a permanent feature on the EcoCash wallet, and was set to offer customers lifetime value.
“We are excited to introduce EcoCash Rewards as a permanent
feature to our valued and loyal customers. The depth of customer entrenchment
to our EcoCash platform requires us to offer a level of customer lifetime
value. Through data intelligence, we can understand our customers’ buying
patterns overtime, track their loyalty to our platform and connect this with
the linkages to our merchant network, by mapping those value points within the
EcoCash ecosystem,” said Ms Jabangwe, whose award-winning EcoCash service
boasts of over 9 million customers in Zimbabwe.
She said the new offering would offer customers some relief,
coming at a time in Zimbabwe’s economy where austerity measures have resulted
in a general scaling back of consumer spending. She said she believes providing
a win-win model that links the consistent value between consumers and retailers
would unlock unprecedented value between consumers and merchants through
incentivisation for repeated purchases, thus creating ecosystem-wide benefits.
The EcoCash Reward programme is powered by Cashback APP Africa, the international loyalty business whose partnership with EcoCash will greatly enhance the value proposition to Ecocash customers and merchants.
CashbackAPP Africa CEO Mr Kim Hodgson said the decision to
partner with EcoCash was very easy to make.
“When we decided to enter into the African market, and subsequently
Zimbabwe, we immediately identified Ecocash as our ideal strategic partner. “
“We are elated that we have now cemented this partnership
and produced a world-first product which brings the power of both innovators
behind a unique digital rewards offering,” said Mr Hodgson.
Mr Chibi said the idea was to leverage big data analytics
and unique usage behaviour to reward both customers and merchants using
best-in-class capabilities from our rewards partner.
“Our aim is to use smart data intelligence to give value to
both our customers and value-chain partners. It’s about employing value-adding
technological capabilities to offer more to our customers and our over 60 000
channel partners,” he said.
The new rewards programme will likely offer EcoCash – which already controls over 95 percent of the mobile money market share in Zimbabwe – long term customer loyalty, something that is certain to give an uplift to its parent company, Cassava Smartech Zimbabwe.
