Massmart group bets on mobile ‘super app’
Massmart, the owner of Builders, Game and Makro, believes the future of online retail in SA is mobile platforms. In SA, smartphones are much more accessible and affordable than laptops, and many of its customers already access its websites from their phones.
Massmart has announced Builders and Makro will be the main “anchor stores” on the Vodacom Super App, a mobile application that is expected to be launched in mid-2021 and is being built with Chinese Alipay Technology the world’s largest mobile payment provider.
This “super” app will be a single app that Vodacom customers can use to access other apps inside it, including Makro and Builders apps. Vodacom aims to use the app to offer financial services to millions of users, some of whom may be part of the informal economy and excluded from banking services. The app will not require customers to have bought expensive mobile data to use it.
If the app takes off, Massmart could tap into a new, younger customer base market that is increasingly shopping online.
Super apps in China are the norm: the Chinese use We Chat, which is a chat service similar to WhatsApp that also enables users to pay bills, access other websites and shop online.
If Vodacom’s super app succeeds, it could expand Massmart’s customer base, as the group takes its first step towards its “mobile first” digital strategy.
INVESTEC FACES STIFF COMPETITION IN EUROPE
Investec Property Fund (IPF) is taking a gamble by making European logistics assets its offshore focus. This looks like a calculated move on the face of it but it won’t necessarily prove to be a masterstroke.
IPF said on Tuesday it would exit the UK by selling its 38.04% stake in property owner Argo Property Fund. The group was smart to sell its interests in Investec Australia Property
Fund, now called Irongate Group, in 2020 at a hefty profit. It leaves IPF investing solely in SA as well as its fast-growing panEuropean logistics platform.
Co-CEOs Andrew Wooler and Darryl Mayers say that there is large demand for warehousing and high-end logistics properties as online shopping is less developed on the continent than it is in the UK.
But while their logistics platform grows, so does the competition in Europe. They now need to prove to their investors that they and their management partners can sweat their assets there especially while some of their SA assets are battling.
South Africans may be shopping under level 1 lockdown restrictions but many aren’t cash-flush, having taken salary cuts in 2020 amid the pandemic, with the economy contracting 7%. Many people have also been retrenched and are cashing in pensions while they struggle to find new jobs.
Mayers said at the end of September that IPF was having challenges with certain legacy assets in SA. These included The Firs, a multi-use centre in Rosebank; lifestyle centre Design Quarter in Fourways; and Balfour Mall in Balfour Park.
Mayers said IPF had a plan for the Design Quarter, but that it did not necessarily mean the asset would be sold in the near future.
IPF has seen its share price rise 12% over the past 90 days as investors regain confidence in listed property and foresee a resurgence in the sector in 2021.