Kalahari.net, South Africa's largest e-tailer and the eBucks Rewards Programme have announced that kalahari will join other powerful brands such as MTN, First National Bank, WesBank, RMB Private Bank and Momentum as a partner of the leading South African rewards programme. This means that eBucks members are now able to spend their free eBucks at kalahari.net, and, later this year, will be able to earn eBucks when spending in rand at kalahari.net.

Says Hein Pretorius, CEO of kalahari, "This is a strategic partnership for us that will not only give our customers an additional payment option but will also reward them for purchasing from kalahari.net. Effectively members of the eBucks Rewards Programme will be able to obtain all the latest books, CDs and DVDs for free using this payment method. This will take us yet a step further in making online commerce as convenient, easy, accessible and rewarding as we possibly can. In addition to this benefit to our customers, the partnership also makes perfect financial sense as eBucks members will now potentially spend a large portion of the R189m's worth of eBucks that are currently in circulation, with us."

Recent media reports* on international loyalty programmes report that the next wave in loyalty programmes will see members earning points whether they shop on- or offline, which they can then spend on- or offline. Lezanne Human, CEO of the eBucks Rewards Programme says, "We currently have over 670 000 members and our intention is to create an experience that is unsurpassed in the rewards that our members receive. This experience is both in where they earn eBucks as well as how they spend them. The more strong partners we get on board (on- and offline), the more choice our members have, hence the value in a partnership with an organization such as kalahari.net."

Recent studies undertaken by eBucks' partners indicate that eBucks has a significant impact on the profitable behaviour of their customers that are eBucks members. In addition to enhancing value for members, the partnership between eBucks and kalahari.net is also expected to have a similar positive impact on kalahari.net's business.

The spend side of the partnership (the ability for eBucks member to spend their eBucks on the kalahari website) is already functional and the earn side (whereby eBucks members earn eBucks on rands spent on www.kalahari.net) will be up and running later this year.

About eBucks:

eBucks, the rewards programme offered by First National Bank (FNB) and RMB Private Bank, is acknowledged as one of South Africa's leading rewards programmes with highly active members spending in excess of 80% of the eBucks earned in any given month.