Retailer of the year is KFC

KFC Grand Prix winners Toni Joubert and Bridgette Dike with Enver Groenewald of Avusa Media (centre).

click to enlarge

Edgars fell from second to fifth with Shoprite rising from third to second and Pick n Pay at third has risen from fifth. For grocery shopping, Shoprite dominated, taking the first spot across all three new categories as well as winning first place as top supermarket for overall customer experience.

One of the most interesting shifts for the Retail Awards shifts this year, was in the shopping centre categories. Maponya Mall has become a rising star in a category that has been dominated by well-established shopping malls such as Menlyn Park and Sandton City. Although Menlyn Park once again won in Gauteng Maponya Mall moved from third to second, pushing Sandton City from second to third. For the overall top shopping centre Menlyn again won but Maponya entered the top three for the first time by seizing second place, followed by Sandton City.

Promotions pay off

Avusa Media partnered with TNS Research Surveys for a second year to conduct the retail survey, which showed that retailers that were on the rise had focused on hard brand promotion. This resulted in a lot of jockeying amongst second and third place winners when reviewing the results from last year. TNS spoke to 3500 consumers in South Africa, in both metro and non-metro areas of the country.

Shoprite winners Deliah Mabutha, Sufara Sheriff, Bonita Bachmann and Michelle Moodley with Enver Groenewald of Avusa Media (centre).

click to enlarge

"Effective marketing is vital to maintain brand consciousness and brand retention in SA, especially in the aftermath of one of the worst economic recessions. This is the foremost body of research on how retailers have fared in this economic climate based on an independent study of consumer ratings," says Enver Groenewald, Avusa Media GM: Advertising Revenue and Strategic Communications.

New categories

This year, a few categories were restructured and seven new categories were added for credit furniture stores, cash furniture stores, specialist telecommunications stores, retail benefit programmes and monthly grocery shopping, weekly grocery shopping and more-than-once-weekly grocery shopping.

"Strongly marketing reasonable pricing during these lean times definitely has worked for retailers. However, retailers that heavily promoted their brand equity, what the brand stands for and their own private labels are reaping the rewards," explains Neil Higgs, director for innovation and development at TNS Research Surveys.

Woolworths as a brand has done just this and for the first time it makes it into the top three grocery shops grabbing the third position for the weekly grocery shopping and more-than-once-weekly grocery shopping categories. Pick n Pay came in at second place for all grocery shopping categories.

In the other new categories Woolworths' card was the winner of the retail benefit programmes followed by the Truworths card and then Clicks Clubcard. Specialist telecommunications stores was won by the Vodashop/Vodacom4U/Vodacare group of outlets, with the MTN suite next and Telkom Direct in third.