IAB South Africa’s Connected Commerce Committee aims to align its work with the global IAB Connected Commerce agenda, which champions smarter measurement, AI-powered personalisation, shopper-centric design, and media convergence across platforms and retailers.
Paula Hulley, IAB South Africa connected commerce committee chair, explores the importance of integrating online and offline shopping to create seamless customer experiences and pave the way for a new era of retail (Image source: © 123rf
123rf)
Except, in Mzansi, we’re faced with unique local market dynamics and consumer behaviours, too. The directive to the industry is therefore to adopt internationally proven strategies and insights while staying true to local realities.
A new reality
From grocery store apps and TikTok Shop to buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS), the boundaries between physical and digital shopping continue to blur.
As with most countries across the world, South African shopping has become channel-agnostic, with consumers browsing on their phones, researching on social media, comparing in-store, and buying wherever is most convenient.
For brands and retailers, this new reality demands more than merely presence. Yet, while the consumer journey has become more connected, the industry supporting it remains fragmented.
Retailers, marketing agencies, publishers, and platforms continue to operate within their own systems, each optimising performance in silos. The result is progress without cohesion.
Collaboration drives innovation
This is precisely why IAB South Africa has established a Connected Commerce Committee: to unify and elevate an ecosystem where collaboration drives innovation and the South African commerce industry can grow in step with global best practices while catering to local consumer needs.
Connected commerce takes digital transactions one step further by creating a seamless interplay between people, products, and experiences across different touchpoints and no matter where they are in their purchase journey.
In most instances, this organic flow is interrupted by fragmented data, inconsistent measurement, and misaligned incentives.It’s time for the industry to reconnect the dots, ensuring creativity, technology, and commerce operate as cogs within one machine.
- Connection
At the core, we need to begin with connection. The forces driving change within the commerce sphere — marketing, automation, and shoppers who navigate seamlessly between the physical and digital — are already here.
Retailers, especially, are often isolated from the brand and media conversations taking place, and collaboration between these entities will uncover growth opportunities and partnership models that exist within the retail framework.
- ClarityAt the same time, connection must be matched with clarity. Any meaningful progress lies in accurate, comprehensive, and unified measurement.
Centre of Excellence
The Connected Commerce Committee will be working closely with IAB SA’s Research & Measurement Council to integrate retail data into South Africa’s annual IAB SA-PwC Online Advertising Revenue Report (AdSpend Report).
And this is only the beginning, as many organisations are still learning how to embed a commerce-first mindset, linking creative storytelling with data or connected media investment to sales outcomes.
As part of this foundation phase, tailored training resources, workshops, and roundtables will bring together agencies, brands, publishers, and retailers to shape a shared vision of what benchmarks connected commerce.
This collective alignment will pave the way for a Centre of Excellence that cultivates ongoing knowledge-sharing and capability development.
Role of AI
AI has its role to play, too. Already, the technology has shown enormous promise for redefining shopper experiences through personalisation and automation.
However, this can only be achieved with solid data and analytics. By crafting the right metrics, analytics models, and shopper-centric design principles to enable responsible and effective AI-driven solutions, we can set the stage for a game-changing frontier where retail data’s power meets precision targeting.
Successful commerce
That said, transformation does not take place via mandates. Instead, by embracing shared intent and collaborating openly, the digital media and marketing industry can define what successful commerce in South Africa is.
