South Africans are increasingly shopping around for promotions as pressure on household budgets makes consumers more sensitive to prices and special offers.<\/p>\n
A growing proportion of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sales are now taking place on promotion, according to NielsenIQ (NIQ), which said consumers have become more responsive to both price increases and promotional offers than they were a year ago.<\/p>\n
The shift comes even as consumers<\/a> continue to spend. South Africans spent R347.7 billion on FMCG products in the first half of 2026, with sales values increasing 5.5% and the number of units sold rising 7.7% compared with the same period last year.<\/p>\n But shoppers are becoming increasingly selective about where that money goes. \u201cThe theme of the first half of the year was a consumer who continued to become more cautious and cost-conscious,\u201d said Zak Haeri, MD for NIQ South Africa.<\/p>\n Haeri said retailers face a balancing act as consumers become increasingly accustomed to promotions.\u00a0\u201cIn the FMCG space, manufacturers and retailers face the challenge of using promotions strategically without conditioning consumers to wait for discounts before buying.\u201d<\/p>\n Show me the money<\/p>\n The hunt for value is also reflected in the extraordinary growth of loyalty programmes in South Africa.<\/p>\n Research from Truth & BrandMapp found that 82% of economically active South Africans used loyalty programmes in 2024, with the average consumer belonging to 10.3 programmes. A decade earlier, the average was just 3.6.<\/p>\n Cashback emerged as the most popular loyalty benefit across income groups, genders and generations, according to the South African Loyalty Whitepaper 2024\/5.<\/p>\n Clicks ClubCard had the top spot among loyalty<\/a> programmes used by economically active consumers, followed by Checkers Xtra Savings, Pick n Pay Smart Shopper, Dis-Chem Benefit and Woolworths WRewards.<\/p>\n Cash is king<\/p>\n The research also found that consumers were increasingly using cashback for necessities.<\/p>\n Clicks told the researchers that members were redeeming cashback \u201cas a currency for financial survival and we see redemption of cashback at an all-time high. Members don\u2019t just spend their cashback on luxuries, but often on staples like soap and toilet paper,\u201d said Dr Melanie Van Rooy, chief marketing officer at Clicks Group.<\/p>\n The loyalty market spans retailers, banks, insurers and other consumer brands. Alongside Clicks ClubCard, major programmes<\/a> include Checkers Xtra Savings, Pick n Pay Smart Shopper, Dis-Chem Benefit and Woolworths WRewards, while FNB eBucks, Capitec Live Better and Discovery Vitality have extended the rewards battle well beyond supermarket and pharmacy aisles.<\/p>\n KFC is one of the latest brands to enter the fray, launching a rewards programme that takes a different approach to the conventional points or till-discount model.<\/p>\n Purchases through its app or in-store kiosks instead unlock access to rewards including music festival tickets, gaming gear, sneaker drops, limited-edition collaborations and VIP experiences.<\/p>\n I’m a VIP<\/p>\n KFC Africa chief operations, digital and technology officer Siyabulela Ngcukana said consumers increasingly want rewards that reflect their wider interests. \u201cMost loyalty programmes treat your food choices separately from everything else in your life, but that\u2019s not how people live,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Ngcukana said \u201cyou\u2019re not just a KFC customer<\/a>. You\u2019re a gamer who also loves KFC, a fashion fanatic who orders Zinger Wings or a music lover with late-night cravings. Real loyalty recognises that.\u201d<\/p>\n The programme also allows rewards to be shared with family and friends, while members can choose to contribute the value of selected rewards to KFC’s Add Hope initiative.<\/p>\n The growing battle for consumers comes as spending patterns increasingly diverge between necessities and discretionary purchases. While FMCG volumes increased in the first half of the year, NIQ said the technology and durables market struggled as consumers delayed replacing products.<\/p>\n Sales values in the sector declined 5.8%, while unit sales fell 2.6%. Information technology sales values dropped 10.7%, while small domestic appliances fell 9.5%.<\/p>\n Consumers were increasingly concentrating spending on replacement and necessity purchases rather than lifestyle or convenience products, NIQ said. Haeri said purchases are still being made where consumers can see a clear practical benefit and value for money.<\/p>\n IOL BUSINESS<\/p>\n Get your news on the go. Download\u00a0the latest IOL App for\u00a0Android<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0IOS<\/a>\u00a0now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Africans are increasingly shopping around for promotions as pressure on household budgets makes consumers more sensitive to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[307992,138,307989,307983,307982,307985,23852,307981,307990,219,307988,10169,307993,14961,307977,111,139,307978,307976,69,307979,1466,307986,21472,307987,307984,307980,307991],"class_list":["post-627393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-add-hope","tag-business","tag-capitec-live-better","tag-checkers-xtra-savings","tag-clicks-clubcard","tag-clicks-group","tag-consumers","tag-dis-chem-benefit","tag-discovery-vitality","tag-economy","tag-fnb-ebucks","tag-kfc","tag-kfc-africa","tag-md","tag-melanie-van-rooy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nielseniq","tag-niq","tag-nz","tag-siyabulela-ngcukana","tag-south-africa","tag-south-african-loyalty-whitepaper","tag-south-africans","tag-truth-brandmapp","tag-woolworths-wrewards","tag-zak-haeri","tag-zinger-wings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}