Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management (ETDs)

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    Factors influencing coupon redemption in direct marketing campaigns in the South African retail market
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Dlamini, Reagan Wonder; Qwaye, Emmanual
    Coupons are discounts offered by businesses to drive consumers to buy specific products or services. Companies continue to invest in coupons as a marketing tool however, the redemption of these coupons remain extremely low at around 2% mainly due to little being known about the factors that influence coupon redemption. This study focuses on identifying factors influencing coupon redemption within the South African retail industry. Secondary data was collected from one of the South African retail companies. The data consisted of consumers that the retailer had targeted with a coupon campaign during the period June 2020 to June 2021. A Quantitative method was used where a set of independent variables from demographics, consumer behaviour and coupon design were identified and analysed to understand their influence on coupon redemption. The study finds that factors such as offering coupons that are redeemable in a wider range of products, targeting consumers that have shown previous redemption behaviour and offering a deeper discount increases coupon redemption. While, offering coupons on a product where a consumer has never spent or has low spending behaviour, framing coupons in percentages as well as sending more coupons to a consumer at the same time decreases coupon redemption.
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    Customer experience and engagement in the South African retail sector
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2022) Munsamy, Nadine; Penman, Neale
    Context The aim of this study was to conceptualise and validate a customer experience framework within the South African retail industry. A considerable amount of literature has focused on conversion rather than long-term loyalty and engagement outcomes. The South African retail industry is a mature one in which increasing competition and empowered customers require firms to create sustainable competitive advantage. The shift in power to consumers may be a potential threat or opportunity to firms, making it important to understand customer engagement. In light of this, this study endeavoured to understand the customer experience holistically, from the customers’ perspective, and its effect on the customer perceived value-customer satisfaction-customer loyalty model and how this may affect customer engagement. • A brief statement of the problem Customer experience is not clear in its conceptualisation. Studies that have been undertaken are primarily in the service environment. Customers’ experiences in their decision-making journeys within the purchase funnel are a key component of their experience of the organisation. Technology is reducing both consumer decision-making journeys as well as the loyalty funnel, giving firms fewer opportunities to engender loyalty. Producing a superior value proposition to acquire and retain customers is an important goal for marketing practitioners. In order to do this, they need a clearer understanding of customer journeys. • The method of the data collection A total of 792 respondents participated in the data collection process. The sample was collected from the University of the Witwatersrand database of students. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to check the efficacy of the data, and multiple regression analysis was then conducted. • The key findings The study validates that there is a strong positive effect of customer experience on customer perceived value-customer satisfaction-customer loyalty. Online customer experience has a greater effect on customer perceived value than offline customer experience. The study also validates the causality of the relationships within the South African retail context. There is a strong positive relationship between customer perceived value and customer satisfaction, validating that these are separate constructs. The final hypothesis proposes that customer loyalty may have a positive effect on customer engagement, but the results show a negative and inverse relationship between these constructs. • The key message The results of this study further strengthen the exigency for further conceptualisation and validation of customer experience frameworks in order to manage customer experiences optimally. The results also show that the combined effect of customer experiences in both the online and offline realms is important as these experiences have a strong positive effect on loyalty outcomes, thus validating the importance of the evolution of retail within this context into an omnichannel. Further research needs to be undertaken to assess the effect of customer experience on customer engagement, as this is increasingly becoming an essential element of customer acquisition goals for firms. Results of this study reinforce the importance of the assessment of customer perceived value as a concept separate from customer satisfaction, as literature has called for a holistic framework in which customer experience and customer perceived value may be evaluated.
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    Service innovation and consumer welfare in the on- demand grocery retail market in South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Makofane, Reabetswe
    To meet the need of time-constrained consumers in South Africa, last-mile logistics organisations and grocery retailers have implemented a grocery-on-demand solution, where consumers can order a basket of goods to be delivered to their home from within an hour to a day. This study locates the grocery-on-demand offering within innovation definitions and investigates the non-monetary value created by the actor network enacting the offering. In this study, a mixed-method approach was taken to understand the value created and enjoyed by firms and consumers. The understanding of value creation by firms is investigated through expert interviews and media analysis of the topic of grocery on demand, while consumer value- in-experience is investigated and estimated through a consumer survey. Six experts across retail and strategy consulting were interviewed, 30 articles were analysed and a sample of 420 consumers responded to the survey. The research findings are that firms are able to attain value through consumer-facing service innovations without charging high rates for the service. This is attained by enjoying the effects of improving their relationship with consumers. The research suggests that consumers enjoy more value through engaging this service innovation than they forfeit in payment, through time savings, increased well-being and improved relationships with the firms. This report contributes to models that business leaders and innovation managers can use to analyse potential value attainable through service innovation
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    Determinants of consumers’ willingness to use cryptocurrency as a form of payment in retail
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2022-07) Potelwa, Myezo
    The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly increased the number of online shopping transactions and cryptocurrency has been used as payment in some of these transactions. Some retail consumers are opposed to the use of cryptocurrency and some retail consumers want to be able to use cryptocurrency as payment in retail payments. Woolworths hired Insight, the management consulting firm, to help Woolworths executives find out whether it will increase or decrease Woolworths’s revenue if Woolworths starts accepting cryptocurrency as payment. Insight conducted its research in South Africa. Research participants answered the research questions by completing questionnaires online via the Qualtrics website. People of all ages shop at Woolworths, but for ethical reasons, Insight’s research only took the responses of adult research participants (people aged 18 and over) into consideration. The research approach of this consultancy report is quantitative research. The target population consists of South African adults. This consultancy report gathers data by using questionnaires with close-ended 7-point Likert scale questions. The reliability of this research is measured by Cronbach’s alpha score. The validity of this research is determined with exploratory factor analysis, which is conducted with IBM SPSS Software. The statistical processes that are used to analyse data include multiple regression analysis, correlation analysis, t-tests and ANOVAs. The dependent variables are Gender, Age, Environmental ethics, Ethics regarding criminal activity, Technology proficiency and Customer Equity. The dependent variable is Willingness to use cryptocurrency as payment. Money, time, common method variance and common method bias are limitations of this consultancy report. The anonymity of respondents is respected. This consultancy report takes the responses of respondents who have given informed consent into consideration. This consultancy report found that even though there will be some retail consumers who are opposed to the use of cryptocurrency as payments in retail because of their environmental ethics, there are many more consumers who want to be able to use of cryptocurrency as payments in retail because of the convenience of cryptocurrency payments, the lower transaction costs of cryptocurrency payments and the reduced risk of exposure to credit card fraud and identity theft when making cryptocurrency payment
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    Factors that impact the adoption of online food delivery services by urban consumers in South Africa
    (2021) Capri, Talga
    Online Food Delivery is defined as the process of ordering food from a website or application for the following categories; fresh produce and groceries, ready-made meals or “take-aways or meal kits(Hirschberg, Rajko, Schumacher, & Wrulich, 2016). Online Food Delivery (OFD) services offers consumers convenience of access and time savings but not all consumers may trust OFD services and may perceive risks that can undermine OFD adoption and use. This research examined the factors influencing consumer adoption of OFD services among urban consumers in South Africa. This study followed a positivist paradigm and developed an extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) model comprising twelve hypotheses. A self-administered online cross-sectional survey was used to gather the data from a convenience and snowball sample of urban consumers drawn from a local University and the researcher’s professional network. A final usable sample of 180 consumers was available for analysis. The sample represented an adequate number of both male and female respondents, higher income earning groups, mainly over the age of 35, from multi-individual households with access to the requisite technologies, and who were familiar with OFD purchasing. The discriminant and convergent validity of constructs as well as the reliability of the construct measures was confirmed, except for the UTAUT2 construct of habit which was dropped from the model. Correlation and regression analysis was performed to confirm the strength and direction of the relationships between the proposed construct. Results supported performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and trust as the most significant factors driving OFD adoption. These findings have implications for practice such as strategies around 1-Click ordering, intuitive application navigation, continuous social engagement methods, rewards, loyalty programs, maintaining quality and freshness of meals and an efficient delivery service. Suggestions for future research are provided
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    Critical factors that drive and influence consumer intentions to use m-commerce in retail stores in South Africa
    (2021) Raikane, Millicent
    With the growing popularity of smartphones, new opportunities in m-commerce are emerging, and these are facilitated by technological developments in internet access as well as easy access to mobile applications. However, even with these developments in technology, m-commerce adoption in South Africa is still slow. This study examined the factors that influence and/or inhibit South African consumers from adopting m-commerce, with a specific focus on the retail sector, by extending TAM. This study adopted a quantitative research methodology, and data was collected from 806 respondents through a web-based cross-sectional survey. Only 699 of the surveys were completed and therefore used for further analysis. The data was analysed by employing Factor Analysis, specifically, principal components analysis. Correlations analysis was used as an initial test of the hypotheses and thereafter, a multiple regression was run and used to accept or decline the hypotheses formally. The findings revealed that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, social norms, self-efficacy and trust positively and significantly affect consumers' intentions to adopt m-commerce. Perceived usefulness was found to be the most significant determinant for m-commerce adoption. Perceived risk was found to have no effect on South African consumers’ intentions to adopt m-commerce. Therefore, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, social norms, self-efficacy and trust are the critical factors required to drive m-commerce adoption. As retailers, marketers and developers begin to develop successful m-commerce strategies, it is important that they take into consideration these factors to ensure consumers adopt m-commerce, specifically focusing on perceived usefulness