Tech investments by JSE-listed Pepkor are paying off, helping the group to drive retail success and agile business operations.
This is according to Venette Van Zyl De Villiers, Pepkor head of data and analytics, who says the group’s expenditure on new technologies brought a “real value contribution”.
Van Zyl De Villiers spoke to ITWeb on the sidelines of the ongoing AI Expo Africa 2022 in Sandton.
The event, in its fifth year, is being attended by investors, small business, as well as global tech brands, discussing AI and other tech applications that can be deployed to enhance productivity in the business environment.
For Pepkor Group – whose brands include PEP, Ackermans, Refinery, Dunns and Tekkie Town – technology is a key catalyst to drive growth in the retail sector.
Retailers in Africa have accelerated digital investments, driven by consumer demand, according to consulting firm Deloitte. It says businesses are doing even more to embrace new technology, exploring digital products and experiences.
In line with the trend, Van Zyl De Villiers tells ITWeb the Pepkor Group is upping investments in technology to enhance the shopping experience, as well as increase accuracy and efficiency in its operations.
“We have done a lot of projects across the retail chain. We do projects in supply chain; we do projects in store allocations; we do projects in store arranging; and we also do customer value analytics.
“Every single thing you build, you need to be able to measure; and in the measurement of that, in the last year, we achieved about R235 million worth of contribution towards profits. We know it works.
“I think a mistake many businesses make is that they don’t measure appropriately. You need to agree with the business right from the start how you measure [return on investment] and then measure it.
“Tech is the future for the retail sector. A lot of people say data is the new oil and I absolutely believe that. I think the ability of humans to make decisions in big data is becoming minute. Integration of data across the value chain is becoming a challenge for all businesses.
“So, I believe if you don’t put AI and machine learning into place, where automated decisions are enabled through the communications and interaction, then you are going to miss the next big trend.”
Explaining the impact of big data on Pepkor, she says: “Our business is very much focused on data. We believe every company is data-driven today, and we use the data flowing in from the whole value stream of retail customer and financial services, to enable our decision-making in the long-term. We believe every decision point in the business must use data to enable value-driven decisions.
“We also believe our departments, specifically, need to drive the actualisation of the value of data through decision-making processes at every point.
“Data-driven decisions, machine learning and AI have driven some real value contributions, both in terms of savings and revenue driving.”
Looking ahead, Van Zyl De Villiers says the company will increase tech investments as it is “only scratching the surface” at the moment.
“We are only starting with small pieces. We planning to build a really big AI machine and system that’s going to drive what products we put in store, how to communicate engagement with customers. It’s going to be one AI platform for future decisions.”
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