The Power of Ownership...

Loyalty programmes are the business. Customers get to cash in on rewards – be it free merch or spend opportunities – while companies keep their clients happy and coming back for more.  It’s a sweet deal for everyone. But Almero Oosthuizen, head of Marketing at The Purple Group, says that there is even more of this win win value to be had in loyalty programmes which offer their users share ownership as a reward. EasyEquities brings this value to the table.  

We recently partnered with a staff rewards loyalty tool called Encentivize, which allows employers to reward their staff when they achieve set goals or show positive behaviour. Those rewards can then be exchanged with one of the fresh partner brands like Superbalist, Woolies and now EasyEquities. Having EasyEquities in that mix means that staff can essentially exchange their rewards for shares in the very company they work for, taking the idea of ownership to a whole new ongoing level of wow. “For listed companies EasyEquities is the best solution inside that space. It means that employees can become shareholders and it creates an impactful bond between them and their company. All of a sudden the CEO is talking to shareholders instead of staff. There is value to both the employer and employee. From a listed company point of view, rewarding staff through shares is very powerful,” says Oosthuizen.

Powerful – and largely underestimated. Our research tells us that ownership has a massive influence on return business and word of mouth marketing. A study by US management consulting firm Bain & Company, which compared the behaviour of shareholders vs non shareholders in the retail space, showed that customers spend around 60% more with retailers they own shares in than with retailers they don’t have any ownership in. “The other significant stat from that study shows that customers are 106% more likely to refer a company they own stock in to friends and family,” adds Oosthuizen.

In a country like South Africa where there is a need for people to become better savers, this way of thinking extends beyond just listed companies, who would directly benefit from having their staff invest in the growth and success of the organisation they work for. EasyEquities gives users a cheap and easy way to invest, and because we offer fractional share rights investing can be done with whatever rewards value they have available. By exchanging rewards on EasyEquities, loyalty programme members become mega-smart spenders – able to watch their money grow alongside local start-ups, growing businesses and the economy at large.