Vodacom’s location-based deals app, Vouchercloud, has delivered almost half a billion rand in savings for local consumers in just over a year since its launch in South Africa.
Vouchercloud is a geo-location enabled product that seeks out the best local deals, displays them via the mobile phone, and allows users to redeem either digital or printed vouchers at participating retailers.
Vouchercloud has far exceeded its original target of one million users in South Africa by March 2015. In fact, more than two million subscribers now access Vouchercloud via feature phone by dialing *120*100#, a further 650 000 customers have downloaded the app onto their smartphones, and approximately 170 000 customers access deals via the website monthly.
Since its launch in the UK in 2010, Vouchercloud has become the leading consumer app in Europe with over six million active users in the UK, Germany, Netherlands and Ireland. South Africa was the first emerging market to launch Vouchercloud, and take-up has been even stronger than that seen in Europe over the equivalent period.
Lyndon Munetsi, Managing Director of Vouchercloud SA says that the high number of local customers demonstrates the popularity of the product.
“We believe we’ve hit the sweet spot among South African consumers looking to save money in a user-friendly way,” said Munetsi.
Savings are generated in three broad categories – food, fun and fashion. Over 70 percent of the vouchers redeemed are for groceries across LSM’s ranging from 0 – 10, followed by deals offered by the major clothing stores and brands.
One of the key factors attributed to Vouchercloud’s growth and market acceptance is that it is a free service and is available on any mobile phone, including smartphones and feature phones.
Vouchercloud, however, is not exclusive to Vodacom customers. “Even though we are a Vodacom product, the service is accessible by everyone in South Africa who has a cellphone, irrespective of network or service provider,” explained Munetsi.
“However, the key differentiator is that a Vodacom consumer will get a better deal than a non-Vodacom customer in terms of the discount offered.”
Speaking about new developments, Munetsi said: “We’ve added a geo-fencing feature that alerts the user to a particular new deal in the area through an audible alert on the phone, accompanied by a click-through option.
“Down the line we are planning more features to keep the product fresh, and of course we plan to grow our database of retailers even further.”
The Vouchercloud app is free and available on, iTunes, Blackberry App World and Google Play. There is no monthly subscription fee for consumers to use Vouchercloud.
