Pick n Pay Boosts Prepaid Airtime and Data Service

With prepaid airtime and data being the most popular value-added service (VAS) in South Africa, retailers need to ensure their consumer offering can make the most of this opportunity. 

Pick n Pay was one such retailer who boosted their customer experience, leveraging Electrum’s multiple provider VAS model to mitigate downtime and give them freedom over their commercials - while ensuring that customers could purchase prepaid airtime and data at till points.

The Challenge

Pick n Pay had a single prepaid airtime service provider (‘Provider A’). As a result, any time Provider A’s service was offline, Pick n Pay customers were not able to purchase prepaid airtime at till points or through digital channels. In addition to the risk of offline services, out of stock scenarios can also occur, which forces Pick n Pay customers to go elsewhere.

With a single provider limiting prepaid airtime availability, Pick n Pay was also not able to negotiate better rates for prepaid airtime and data since Provider A was their only integration.

The Solution

Pick n Pay leveraged Electrum’s multiple provider model with preferential routing. The solution included:

1. A new integration to Provider B for prepaid airtime and data.
2. Automatic failover functionality to allow Pick n Pay to switch between Provider A and Provider B if needed.
3. Preferential routing functionality with product catalogue management to send traffic to a chosen provider based on the product being purchased.

Once the solution was implemented, Pick n Pay was able to offer their customers a more reliable and improved service as a direct result of the automatic failover functionality between the two airtime providers. This solution made it possible to choose a preferred provider and to switch to the secondary provider should the preferred provider be offline or out of stock. 

As an additional benefit, Electrum’s API made it possible to salvage a transaction: when Provider A was out of stock, the transaction was rerouted to Provider B within seconds where it could be completed. The transaction won’t show as declined, and the customer does not have to start the transaction again at the POS. This made for a seamless and improved user journey when purchasing airtime. 

By adding a second service provider, Pick n Pay benefited from Electrum’s multiple provider model and preferential routing capabilities. Combined with product catalogue management, traffic was routed to different providers where Pick n Pay can be assured that they leverage the best commercial rates for their business and their customers.

Since Electrum’s Airtime API was already in use at Pick n Pay for Provider A, it was fast and easy to expand and include the new integration with Provider B. Pick n Pay could therefore get this improved offering to market quickly.

“The solution has provided a robust way for Pick n Pay to easily and automatically switch between mobile aggregators. This provides a more reliable experience to end users and increases Pick n Pay’s revenue.”  

Lyndon King, Head of Professional Services at Electrum

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