African fashion retailer Zando’s apps and mobile site is now zero-rated on Vodacom’s networks, the company announced on Wednesday.
The agreement means that prepaid or contract users browsing or transacting on the retailer’s mobile apps or mobile website won’t be charged airtime or data fees if accessed through Vodacom.
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The retailer explains that the move is keeping in tune with South Africa’s greater move towards mobile.
“South Africa is fast catching up on the international trend of adopting a Mobile First attitude, with 61% of smartphone usage attributed to accessing internet and applications,” it claims in a press release.
Zando’s head of mobile Graham du Plessis shares a similar view.
“Currently data costs are a large talking point in the market and can be seen as a very real barrier to accessing the internet and thus stunting the ecommerce retailers,” he explains.
“As the data clearly shows there is a very strong trend toward mobile becoming more embedded in one’s everyday life, this step simply adds more choice for the consumer to browse what we have to offer.”
It’s not the first time Vodacom has zero-rated an internet service.
In September 2017, it added a number of University of Cape Town sites to the bracket. It has also zero-rated select Facebook traffic through its Facebook Flex offering.
In terms of zero-rated partnerships with other networks, du Plessis didn’t rule it out.
“Zando has zero-rated Vodacom users at this stage. The intent is to broaden the horizon across networks,” he told Memeburn in an email.
Edit: added statement from Graham du Plessis
Feature image: Zando
