South Africa’s largest e-commerce platform recorded 2X+ Q-o-Q growth in ad revenue, with Monetize.
South Africa’s largest e-commerce platform recorded 2X+ Q-o-Q growth in ad revenue, with Monetize.
September 21, 2022 | 2 min read
184.5M
ad requests
557.9M
ad revenue MRR
14.6%
of GMV

Challenges faced by the online store

One of the leading e-stores in South Africa faced the challenge of boosting brand visibility and sales across its marketplace, and managing the process efficiently. This not only affected seller experience, but also left something to be desired in shopper experience as well, as targeting and promotions were not always the most relevant. There was a gaping hole in their tech ecosystem in the shape of a comprehensive solution that met brands’ advertising needs, boosted shopper relevance - at minimum resource utilization.

How Monetize helped the retailer address these challenges:

Monetize helped the African marketplace by launching a 1-click and self-serve platform with AI-driven campaign suggestions and guidance across seller sizes. We also analyzed that the e-store was not able to serve relevant ads to relevant users, so to fix it we replaced the archaic process of defining ‘keywords’ with real-time NLP and user-intent-led products. The e-store received a full-funnel campaign analytics dashboard, including RoAS tracking, to provide it with a proper ad revenue stream.

All the implemented changes brought positive results in the e-store's performance as the head of the business department of the African estore stated, “The e-stores seller program powered by OnlineSales is truly Retail reimagined! 100% of our sellers using the platform prefer its proprietary AI mode for optimizing RoAS. Our ad CTRs are better than organic ones. Being able to match the right products with the right buyer, we are now delivering a much more personalized and seamless shoppers’ experience”.

The Results

  • As a result of all the implemented changes, the 184.5 M ad requests were managed per month with more than 389,448 SKUs at latencies of under 70ms.
  • 100% of sellers are using OnlineSales.ai proprietary AI mode for optimizing RoAS.
  • The African e-store observed that ad CTRs are better than organic CTRs.
  • The e-store generated over 557.9M ad revenue MRR in just 90 days.
  • And finally, 14.6% of GMV is now driven through Ads, surpassing the organic conversion rate.