VODACOM: Super App Set to Disrupt South African E-Commerce

Vodacom, the South African telco group majority owned by one of the world’s largest communications companies by revenue in Vodafone, is a leading and purpose-led African connectivity, digital and financial services company. Roots in South Africa have propelled the business’s operations to now encompass Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (the DRC), Mozambique, Lesotho and Kenya, with mobile networks covering a population of over 295.8 million people.

“We believe in a connected digital society that connects people, communities and things to the internet like never before,” states the group, and across the eight strategic pillars underpinning its top three position in African telecoms are a raft of references to the significance of digital technology and its implementation. “We aim to be the leading telco in all markets through best network and IT excellence, with digital at the core,” it summarises.

South Africa has a rapidly growing e-commerce sector, spurred massively since 2020 by the Covid-19 pandemic and its reverberations. Despite the boom in growth, online shopping still only accounts for around 2% of South Africa’s total retail spend – 14% less than the global average. Vodacom is here to harness its benefits to businesses and consumers alike, as unlocking the full potential of the e-commerce sector will have a prodigious impact on the entire economy.

VODAPAY SUPER APP

“We build an organisation of the future where digital is first for all employees, underpinned by innovation, agility and new skills,” Vodacom underlines, “and scale our financial services offerings to empower the lives of our customers through financial inclusion.” These aims have all combined to result in Vodacom’s launch of a super app in South Africa.

VodaPay, developed by Vodacom Financial Services in partnership with leading global digital lifestyle services platform and e-commerce giant Alipay, is an all-encompassing mobile payments solution that has been customised to meet the specific lifestyle and payment needs of consumers, businesses and tech developers. Alipay, which has in excess of a billion users, is in turn owned by Ant Financial, affiliate of China’s Alibaba Group Holdings.

“The world is moving toward e-commerce,” underlined Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub to Bloomberg, “and while leveraging off what we already have we also need to grow that side. Since we announced the VodaPay Super App in July last year, we have made significant strides in developing this technology solution that will transform the fintech ecosystem in South Africa.”

Developers and businesses of all sizes are now being invited to join the VodaPay ecosystem by building their very own mini programs, as termed by the group, which employ world-class technology to accelerate digital engagement and increase access to market. “The VodaPay Super App offers endless possibilities in acquiring new customers, trading and advertising through these Mini Programs,” Vodacom enthuses.

Vodacom reports that 70 businesses have already signed up or have committed to building their own mini programs on the one-stop shop for online transactions, including some of the giants of the African retail landscape. Makro, Builders Warehouse, Clicks and Edgars all occupy the list, as well as the likes of Game, Big Blue, FlightSite, Dollar Thrifty, NetFlorist, KFC and Booking.com, among many others.

Mariam Cassim, Chief Officer of Vodacom Financial and Digital Services, advised that VodaPay will be accessible to customers on any mobile network, but even more lucratively, it will be zero-rated for Vodacom users. “It is an opportunity for your business to join a platform that has 43 million customers, and the ability to customise your products for the customers,” she remarked of the multiple benefits the app will afford.

“The beauty of the super app is that, in time, it is actually meant to target every single segment that we have in South Africa. As a start, we will be focusing on the high-value segment, that is mainly the smartphone-enabled customers, and mid- to high-value segments. However, we have interesting use cases that look at the lower segments, such as creating bank accounts.”

WORLD OF POSSIBILITIES

This is the next logical step in Vodacom’s history of positively transforming millions of lives across its markets, initially by connecting them to voice and digital products and services. “Through our affordable products and services, we are bridging the digital divide in our markets,” it says at the dawn of this new era. African telecom operators’ businesses have expanded enormously from traditional voice calls into providing data and mobile payments, and digital financial services are now cemented as a significant aspect of the offering.

“As part of our vision to be a leading digital company that empowers a connected society,” says Vodacom, “we are using technology to transform our business model and enable a customer-centric and digitally-connected world.”

Together with Safaricom, Vodacom recently acquired the M-PESA brand, to accelerate its growth in Africa and lead its expansion into new African markets. “Our joint venture will allow Vodacom and Safaricom to drive the next generation of the M-PESA platform – an intelligent, cloud-based platform for the smartphone age. It will also help us to promote greater financial inclusion and help bridge the digital divide within the communities in which we operate,” Shameel Joosub commented of its perfect alignment with both Vodacom’s overall strategy and the aims of VodaPay.

M-PESA is the largest payments platform on the African continent. Launched in 2007, it now has 40 million users and processes over a billion transactions amounting to R366.4bn every month. M-PESA is operational in Kenya, Tanzania, Lesotho, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Mozambique and Egypt, and benefits from the growing smartphone penetration of these territories – currently around 25% of all M-PESA customers have access, a figure that is growing by 10% every year.

“We see this super app as a precursor to M-Pesa’s evolution,” Joosub explained, “supporting accelerated growth across our financial services’ businesses and assisting us in connecting the next 100 million African customers so that no one is left behind.”

Chief Financial Officer Rasibe Morathi highlighted the potential for the super app to boost the group’s revenue. “Our financial services offering both in South Africa and the international market will benefit from further augmentation and the deeper product offering that comes from this super app,” he stressed. “Today South African financial services contributes 4.2% of our service revenue, but that 4.2% is growing faster than the rest of our business.”

VodaPay provides the infrastructure on which merchants and consumers transact, managing all the login, authorisation and payments processing aspects of their transactions, while the app allows consumers to do everything, from paying bills and sending money to playing games and ordering takeaways.

“Businesses also have access to next-gen recommendation engines and data analytics to deliver personalised offers to customers as well as simplified checkout options, and advertising capabilities to drive sales,” Vodacom explained. “A choice is available for customers of paying upfront, with rewards, or with payment terms such as buy-now-pay-later and nano-credit offerings.”

“Our powerful partnership with Alipay strengthens our access to world-class technology and puts us on par with leading global digital counterparts,” Joosub neatly abridges. “If we are to drive financial inclusion, and go even further together, we want to offer the capabilities of the VodaPay Mini Programs to as many businesses, of all sizes, across multiple industries as possible.

“The adoption of digital technology is critical for businesses if they are to respond to change quickly and remain relevant in these uncertain times. As we position ourselves as a leading pan-African technology company, we are excited to see the innovation from businesses and developers who will partner with us in using this technology to connect people to markets, and to build and support a resilient, dynamic, digital economy,” Joosub outlines.

“It is the most sophisticated platform in the world and so I think it is going to be quite transformational for the fintech environment in South Africa. Through collaboration in establishing an inclusive mobile payment ecosystem, we can change the economic landscape for the benefit of the entire country.”