Nedbank has introduced a “super app” called Avo, which incorporates the functions and services of a wide range of other useful apps. In contrast to the FNB banking app, which provides extensive functionality that helps users manage their financial lives, the Nedbank app is a platform for helping to manage users’ lifestyles. Both apps are examples of large service providers embracing a platform approach rather than simply offering core functions.
“Today’s
banks have an opportunity and a responsibility to do far more for their
customers than merely provide
financial services,” says Ciko Thomas, managing executive for retail
and business banking at Nedbank. “Platform ecosystems are the perfect
way for them to deliver these comprehensive value propositions that
their customers deserve.”
Avo offers the following services from one app:
- Online groceries and food: “Get your all of your groceries from leading retailers in one delivery, or browse the Avo Shop for essential items at the best prices.”
- Essential professional home services: “From a burst pipe to pest control, whatever you need, we have the service provider for the job, and we find them for you.”
- Digital home entertainment: “From Showmax to Tidal, Deezer and more, we’ll keep you entertained during lockdown and beyond.”
- Airtime, data and electricity: “Need to top up? Get airtime, data and electricity bundles.”
- Users are rewarded for shopping on Avo, earning 1% in Avo Points on every transaction they make on the platform.
Nedbank
says that, due to COVID-9, its plans had to pivot from a
physical-activation-led launch to a purely digital
and essential-needs-based approach. A test version of Avo had been
delivering essential goods, providing home entertainment and connecting
home service providers across provinces.
Previously,
its strategy of becoming a “digital-first” financial services provider
led to the launch of the Nedbank API Marketplace, a platform aligned to
open banking
standards, which “creates opportunities to disrupt the traditional
approach to banking and financial services while laying the groundwork
for a truly client-centred, market-orientated and innovation-driven
future in the digital world”.
Fred Swanepoel, chief information officer of Nedbank, says Avo was “created
to bring customers and businesses together, accurately matching
customer’s lifestyle needs to product and service offerings through
powerful artificial intelligence, safe and secure payments, and
bank-grade security”.
Nedbank initially made Avo available to its own staff, and has signed up more than 5,000 customers, along with
170 registered Home Repair and Services merchants. The
Avo beta version has been released to Nedbank Money App users, with a
phased release planned for Nedbank clients, before a full
public launch.
“The
capacity to add massive value to every aspect of a person’s life or
business is what makes a platform ecosystem really worthwhile,” says
Thomas. “This new digital
engagement platform is a massive next step for us on this journey to be
more than a bank, but rather through leveraging our digital leadership
to be a creator, facilitator and enabler of real and lasting value.”
