Five years down the line, eBucks has close to a million South Africans making use of its rewards programme. This month, the company has launched another rewards industry first in SA - its eBucks auction site WHEN THE FIRSTRAND GROUP started eBucks (www.ebucks.com) five years ago, they soon realised they were swimming in the murky waters of the dotcom era. The entire industry was facing an uncertain future as e-commerce buckled under the weight of the lack of mature technologies, venture capital scepticism and a lot of market hype.

The company launched in 2000 as a consumer e-commerce offering and formed part of FNB`s Internet banking portal. It was later split from the banking portal in 2004 to keep its focus, shortly after it showed sustainability eight months before its projected profitability target.

Throughout the years, the company has continued to innovate to stay ahead, signing up more partners and bringing out new features. Today, it is one of SA`s leading multi-partner rewards programmes, with numerous FirstRand Group companies it its fold. Its partners include banking giant FNB, as well as large retailer Makro. Growing its customer base 19% year-on-year, the company has allocated over R600-million worth of eBucks to its members since its launch.

At the helm of the company, CEO Lezanne Human says that today, the rewards programme has a very high member activity, with over 70% of allocated eBucks being spent monthly.

"As members use their eBucks, they traditionally look at ways to accelerate the earning of more eBucks, which, in turn, drives partner profitability. FNB offers its customers a broad range of financial services products, which allows them to earn reward points," says Human.

E WHAT?

Ten eBucks is worth R1. Customers can earn eBucks by purchasing or using products and selected services from a range of partners, and spend it in a number of ways. Customers can spend eBucks with a number of retail partners, including Makro, Arthur Kaplan Jewellers and World`s Finest Watches, GardenShop, The Golfers Club, Look & Listen and Spec-Savers using their eBuck debit cards, or shop online through its eBucks portal.

"The business model is based on partner companies allocating free eBucks to their customers to reward them for their loyalty. Customers have a variety of ways to spend their free eBucks on a wide range of products and services, and experience the reward of getting stuff for free. The points do not expire, and customers can top up their eBucks balances with rands, and pool or transfer their points to other eBucks members," says Human.

AUCTION ACTION

This month eBucks announced the launch of its highest unique bid auction facility on its Web site. Customers can use their eBucks to bid in an auction. It gives eBucks members the opportunity to use small amounts of their eBucks to bid for a product. The highest-bid auction differs from a typical auction in that it is not the highest bidder who wins, but the one who makes the highest unique bid closest to the maximum ceiling price. An administration fee is charged for participation in the auction, and the number of bids per auction is limited.

"eBucks has launched its auction with a once-in-a-lifetime Ferrari experience in Italy and ending with a VIP entrance to the Monaco Formula One Grand Prix, keeping with our theme of `Greatest rewards on Earth`," concludes Human.