Chris Rolfe, CEO, Mobilitrix, says that in South Africa, there isn't a robust and sophisticated voucher market, unlike the UK and US, for example. However, with vouchers in a digital format, the world becomes unlimited. What is available today is mainly paper-based, but there are issues of clumsiness and fraud. "It's a very simple world," says Rolfe.

 

Whether a voucher or coupon is digital or paper-based, it still has to be distributed (direct mail, on-pack etc), redeemed (cashier for paper, little available for digital) and cleared. "What's exciting is that the redemption and clearing capability is moving to digital," says Rolfe. According to Rolfe, digital vouchers make it easy for targeting, provide green credentials (getting rid of paper), send reminders for redemption, fraud is more difficult and financial security.

 

On top of this, digital vouchers allow for the relationship with a customer to be tracked, vouchers can be personalised (including language), there can be engagement and added incentives and "it's a clear measureable way of attaining important CRM information from customers," says Rolfe.