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Commerce media is quickly becoming the growth engine for businesses worldwide, growing at 2x the rate of search and social advertising and projected to reach $130B globally by 2026.
Until now, most of this growth has been led by big retailers and global marketplaces. But South Africa is catching up fast.
And through Flow, Zapper has become one of the first platforms in the country to put commerce media directly into the hands of local businesses.
Zapper, the mobile payments and loyalty platform used by millions of South Africans each month, has partnered with us to launch its offsite commerce media solution.
For Zapper’s merchants, this means the ability to run highly targeted campaigns to verified Zapper shoppers across Meta, Google, and TikTok – and then drive that traffic back to their e-commerce stores with measurable ROI.
What Zapper merchants can look forward to
With Flow powering the infrastructure, Zapper merchants can now:
- Reach high-intent Zapper shoppers on Meta, Google, and TikTok.
- Select audience segments like Zapper app users – food, retail and lifestyle.
- Drive loyalty and repeat visits with always-on targeting.
How it works: A Zapper merchant, say a local coffee shop, can target verified Zapper shoppers who’ve previously redeemed loyalty vouchers or purchased similar items, run a campaign across Meta or Google, and then see exactly how many of those shoppers went on to complete their purchase.
That’s the power of a closed-loop marketplace: keeping the entire customer journey, from ad exposure to purchase, inside a single ecosystem, so merchants can clearly connect media spend to real sales.
How Flow is making commerce media possible in SA
Behind the scenes, Flow’s commerce media platform powers the offsite targeting and reporting that enables Zapper to turn its highly valuable shopper data into audiences their merchants and other advertisers can now reach.
Zapper audiences now live in Flow’s Audience Marketplace
Beyond its merchant network, Zapper has also made its audiences available in the Flow Audience Marketplace, South Africa’s first shoppable marketplace for first-party data.
Advertisers and brands with a Flow subscription, can now access exclusive Zapper shopper segments, including:
- Food & dining enthusiasts
- Fuel buyers
- Beauty & health customers
- Everyday retail shoppers
With just a few clicks, these audiences can be added to cart and activated instantly into campaigns across Google, Meta and TikTok.
Why it matters for South Africa
Commerce media may be in its early stages locally, but the building blocks are already here:
- Millions of verified shoppers engaging across payments, retail and loyalty platforms
- Advertisers under pressure to move beyond third-party cookies
- Proven global benchmarks showing the power of closed-loop targeting.
- The tech rails from Flow – a commerce media platform that connects first-party data from SA’s leading businesses to advertisers and brands.
For South African businesses, the message is clear: don’t wait to get started . With our platform, the infrastructure already exists to start reaping the rewards of commerce media today.
Looking ahead
Zapper is just the beginning. As more businesses realise the value of their first-party data, South Africa’s commerce media ecosystem will grow rapidly — from retailers and fintechs to marketplaces and loyalty platforms.
Flow is here to power that growth, enabling any business with high-intent data to transform its audience into a scalable revenue stream.
