The two rewards programmes now look very similar
Picture: Gallo Images/Jacques Stander
Retailer Clicks has overhauled its ClubCard proposition with instant 10% savings on more than 2 500 health, beauty and wellness products.
The move follows rival Dis-Chem’s relaunch of its loyalty programme as ‘Better Rewards’ in October 2025.
The Better Rewards programme also sees shoppers receiving 10% off on more than 180 brands (more than 10 000 products), with additional boosts for Capitec clients, Dis-Chem insurance customers or those who use the pharmacy.
This is one of the biggest changes Clicks has made to its loyalty programme in years. Earlier in 2026, it changed the cashback cycle to a monthly one (from every two months).
Rivalry
The two rewards offerings look incredibly similar (right down to the yellow logos used to denote the savings), and the move speaks to the intensifying competition between the two pharmacy groups.
Both have shifted into areas where the other had traditionally been strong (Dis-Chem’s push to open smaller stores, for example, and Clicks’s renewed focus on attracting dispensary clients).
Clicks has introduced two additional banking partners, Standard Bank and Absa.
Standard Bank uCount Rewards or Absa Rewards members can now earn up to 30% on their health and beauty purchases. It has an existing longstanding partnership with FNB (eBucks).
Clicks has not yet explained how this discount model is funded, but rival Dis-Chem did earlier this year. It is highly likely that they operate in very comparable ways.
Dis-Chem’s discount model
At its 2026 results presentation, Dis-Chem CEO Rui Morais explained how it built its new programme off learnings from ‘Extra Rewards’, which was “an instant discount programme at point of sale that was centred at [its] policyholder base”.
Effectively, the Better Rewards programme is “collectively funded” by participating vendors (suppliers) and the retailer.
Just “repurposing some of the funding that was assigned to benefit points and paid out to partner associations directly into the Better Rewards basket” gets the base discount to 10%.
“The brands that were selected to be part of the Better Rewards programme were selected as a function of their commoditised nature, the value of the brand participating and the importance of that brand and that product in the health basket of a South African consumer.”
Before the introduction of Better Rewards, the group saw sales growth of 83% – with this accelerating in the 17 weeks under the new model.
“Of course, the 9.2% is highly discounted. If you think about the contribution of Better Reward brands to total front shop trade, it’s significant.”
Participating brands saw value growth increase from 6.1% (prior) to 11.8%, with volume up from 5.7% to 18.7%.
Morais says this is driving market share gains for the group.
“What you have is effectively a fully funded programme as a function of vendor participation in the way that we’ve reimagined the use of what was being paid out under the Benefit programme and to participating partners.”
ClubCard ‘incredibly important’ to Clicks
Clicks has 12.9 million active ClubCard holders and acquired 800 000 new members in the six months to February.
This base has more than doubled in the last decade.
In the six months, it paid back R527 million to members.
Basket sizes of ClubCard members are roughly double that of shoppers who aren’t and the split is weighted to nearly 70% female.
The proposition is incredibly important to the retailer, with these members comprising 83.7% of sales. Sales of items on promotion now make up 47.8% of turnover.
The core ClubCard benefit remains – members earn 2% cashback on qualifying purchases (4% for Baby Club or seniors on Wednesdays).
This article was republished from Moneyweb. Read the original here.
