You don't need an innovation lab to know your regulars

On Thursday, Dis-Chem released its results for the six months to 31 August 2026. Revenue grew 8% to R23 billion. Its CEO, Rui Morais, told News24 that the Better Rewards loyalty programme had delivered the biggest market share gains he has seen in 16 years with the group.

There was a catch. Headline earnings per share fell 12.8%. A big part of the reason was X, bigly labs, the in-house tech unit that built Better Rewards. Its costs doubled in the half. Reports put its setup cost at around R330 million in the year to February 2026. On Friday the share price had its worst day since 2018.

I read that and thought: this is the story Lekka was built around.

Loyalty works. That part isn't in question.

Better Rewards now has 8.2 million active members, up 27%, and has handed R1.5 billion back to shoppers in its first year. People changed where they shop because of it. Dis-Chem gained market share across its core categories while the wider market barely moved.

That is the point of loyalty. When people feel recognised and rewarded, they come back. They pick you over the place down the road. It isn't a gimmick. It is one of the most reliable ways to grow a business, and the big retailers know it.

Hundreds of millions of rand. A dedicated tech unit. A share price hit while the investment works its way through. Dis-Chem can carry that and back itself to recover in the second half. A coffee shop in Somerset West can't. Neither can a car wash in Hermanus or a salon in Durbanville.

So for years the independents have been left out. Not because loyalty doesn't work for them, but because the tools were built for budgets they will never have.

The irony is that independents already have the better relationship. The barista knows your order. The butcher asks after your kids. What they have been missing is a simple way to turn that goodwill into something they can see, count and build on.

Lekka Card started from one idea. Give independent businesses the same thing the giants spend fortunes on, without the lab, the app or the budget.

Customers scan a QR code with their own phone. No app to download. They collect stamps on a card they already understand. You see who your regulars are, how often they come back and when they've drifted away. You can send them an offer when it's quiet.

It is free for your first 50 regulars, with no time limit. Paid plans start at R249 a month as you grow. There's no setup fee, and we never take a cut of your sales.

We didn't need a lab or years of build time. Launched in early 2026, Lekka now has over 2,700 regulars across all nine provinces, who have collected just shy of 10,000 loyalty stamps at local businesses. Using typical spend for each kind of business, around R45 for a coffee for example, that's an estimated R2 million spent with independents.

And it's being used, not just signed up for. Stamp collection has grown every single month since May. Our vendors run coffee shops, butcheries, bakeries, car washes, salons, an ice cream parlour and even a hotel group. For a vendor with a few hundred regulars, the cost works out at a rand or two a month for each one.

Strip away the scale and Better Rewards is doing something simple. It tells Dis-Chem who comes back, how often, and what brings them back. That knowledge is what the R330 million buys.

A café owner deserves that same knowledge. Not at the same price, and not with a team of data scientists. Just a clear view of their regulars, so they can look after the people who keep them going.

That's where shared technology changes things. Dis-Chem built its platform for one retailer. Lekka is one platform shared by every vendor on it, so each business pays a small slice of the cost and still gets all of it.

In practice, a vendor gets a digital stamp card that customers collect on their own phone, with rewards they redeem themselves. They can see each regular's visit history and get a weekly summary of how the programme is doing. They can run offers to bring quieter customers back. On paid plans they can message their regulars directly, see business insights and export their customer list, which belongs to them. Every vendor also gets a public listing that helps new customers find them. Custom branding, Google review requests, team accounts and a refer-a-friend programme are there for those who want them. It works in English or Afrikaans, it's POPIA-compliant, and it doesn't mind which card machine is on the counter.

Dis-Chem spent a fortune to make 8 million people feel known. You already know your customers by name. Lekka just helps you keep count, and gives them a reason to come back.

Know your regulars. Support local. It's Lekka.