Supporting local businesses as South Africa emerges from the COVID-19 crisis has never been more essential than it is now. Heeding this call, 2Engage has launched bonsella® into a number of taverns in Gauteng. bonsella® is the largest aggregated shopper rewards and loyalty programme in the independent main market in South Africa.
“With over 30 000 taverns across South Africa, the need for a solution that provides tavern owners with a competitive advantage in their local markets is paramount,” says Andrew Weinberg, CEO of 2Engage. “bonsella® encourages patrons to visit a specific tavern as opposed to one just down the road, which helps them grow their revenue and in turn helps them become mainstream, sustainable businesses. From the beginning of July this year, when our programme launched in the first 10 taverns, the data has shown a 69% overall increase in participating tavern business transactions,” says Weinberg.
bonsella® leverages a leading digital platform to deliver instant gratification rewards to members, while simultaneously gathering detailed shopper data and insights on customer behaviour. Weinberg says, “Customers receive instant benefits as a member of this programme. Once they have signed up for free as a bonsella® member, they are rewarded with instant airtime and free Wi-Fi for the purchase of participating products at the tavern.”
As part of this initiative, 2Engage have provided partner tavern owners with a point-of-sale device and Wi-Fi solution that delivers Wi-Fi access to tavern patrons, all at no cost to the tavern owners. Johannes Dlamini, owner at Johannes Tavern says, “I’m very happy with the bonsella® programme and POS machine. We have been using it for a while now and can really see our profits increasing.” Owner at Tripple 1 tavern in Tembisa also expressed his gratitude in partnering with 2Engage to introduce bonsella® saying “I’d like to take the opportunity to thank bonsella®. Since introducing the bonsella® program to our tavern my job has become easier and my customers are so happy with the free Wi-Fi zone provided by bonsella®.”
“Brands are encouraged to collaborate with bonsella® by promoting their products in taverns through dedicated campaigns and marketing initiatives, driven by our proprietary rewards and CRM solution,” says Xolani Radebe, Liquor Brand Manager for bonsella®. Brands have sight of unique category analytics and customer insights into the independent liquor trade. “Some of the data we’ve collected so far from the taverns shows that 57.4% of patrons buy beer, of which the majority is local South African beer, while only 7.7% buy ciders, and 5.8% buy spirits. This type of information can be useful for brands when planning their distribution strategies into this market,” concludes Radebe.
The bonsella® rewards programme has launched in 5 taverns in Tembisa and 5 in Grasmere since the lift of the liquor lockdown, with a rapid expansion plan over the next two years.
