Ironically, over-digitisation has driven shoppers to seek human help and care in physical spaces – with an overwhelming 93% of consumers saying it’s extremely or very important for brands to understand their needs and emotions
The AI epoch is indisputably here, as is evidenced by the launch of OpenAI’s controversial ChatGPT-5. This new era follows on from the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century and the world-wide disruption of the Knowledge Economy in the late 20th and early 21st century.
Now, businesses and brands are fast adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI) and mass digitisation to significantly increase productivity and efficiency to lead, or at the very least, remain in the game of attracting and driving customer acquisition to impact bottom-line growth.
The irony however is that as more business functions – from data collection and analysis to everyday operations – are performed digitally, the more customers seek to balance their services and customer experiences with humanness, personal empathy and real-life connections with trained, knowledgeable staff, in a physical environment.
So reveals the authoritative South African Customer Experience Report, now in its seventh consecutive year of publication.
This is a poignant 180-degree shift. The aggressive advent of digitisation and AI, not to mention the impact of and lasting effect from Covid-19 and its resulting lockdowns, led to most businesses offering their services, solutions and products digitally while their physical environments seemingly lost their importance as the primary place to purchase.
After years of aggressive ‘digital-first’ business strategies and a pandemic that pushed consumers online, the pendulum is beginning to swing.
The birth of ‘Bothism’
This year’s report – co-authored by Charlie Stewart, CEO of Rogerwilco, Amanda Reekie, Founding Director of ovatoyou and Julia Ahlfeldt from Julia Ahlfeldt Consulting – revealed a consistent insight across its data procured from surveying 2 000 online South African consumers and over 50 business leaders during Q2 of 2025:
While consumers use digital channels like ecommerce websites, apps or social media platforms to browse and buy from or Google AI Search and LLMs like ChatGPT to research and review products and prices, this year’s consumer poll surfaced the important role that stores and branches play in allowing people to touch and fit items, and to buy instantly, which 55% of respondents concurred with.
In fact, so important has the physical retail experience become, brands worldwide are upgrading stores to become flagship showrooms through which to enhance store layouts and drive fulfilment, increase customer engagement and build human connection.
“While 2025 saw the mass adoption of AI-powered tools and LLMs across most types of businesses and sectors to improve processes and operations, while speeding-up manual tasks, it paradoxically is also the year of the Human as consumers actively seek more in-person interaction and support in response to the digital deluge from brands they buy from,” comments Stewart.
The best of both worlds
Despite the growth of ecommerce in recent years, the 2025 report data strongly points to the revival of physical shops and retail branches, albeit in a new and different capacity and purpose. It is undeniably clear that people still enjoy physical stores – we are after all a nation who loves mall time – just as much as they are comfortable shopping, researching and sharing experiences online.
In fact, the South African Property Owners Association predicts record-breaking footfall in retail malls this year, and while some retailers are closing physical stores, such as Pick n Pay, others are investing in flagship ‘showroom’ style retail spaces like Nike which opened in Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront recently to build rapport among consumers by offering IRL experiences that delight, and ultimately make a sale in-store.
“The good old traditional shop is here to stay. Although it’s been tweaked to align with current times, the role of the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker, so to speak, is still relevant in today’s retail world. Consumers are choosing to physically go to a store to purchase specific items, learn about products or get a real feel for goods they like. While they may not always buy in-store and instead do so later online, the role of a branded physical retail space is clear,” comments Reekie.
Mind the empathy gap
When businesses and brands invest in improving customer empathy and creating genuine, real-world connections, this year’s report distinctly shows that these brands are demonstrating that customers’ wants and needs are understood, and that they are listening.
The human connection is particularly relevant right now given the broader context, which is that people are contending with geopolitical conflicts, widespread use of AI that may threaten jobs, an ongoing global cost of living crisis where every cent counts, slow to no new job opportunities and mass job cuts driving up unemployment. Businesses that work hard now to demonstrate compassion and empathy with what their customers are facing in their personal lives and within society in this tough macro and microeconomic environment, are far more likely to succeed.
With this as context, a consistent effort to ensure consumers are understood, appreciated for their loyalty, receive empathy and have access to human beings who can focus on their personalised needs, across the proliferated customer journey, has become a non-negotiable for businesses.
“There has been an over-emphasis on digital adoption among brands and businesses in recent years, largely undertaken to radically cut costs or reduce headcount among staff whose role can be automated.
“The downside of this shift to digital however has created a divide among customers who have lost the human connection with the brands they buy from. As a case in point, 93% of consumers surveyed said that it was very important for organisations to understand their needs and emotions. Only 55% of businesses said the same. Clearly there is a disconnect and I fear that brands are blindly marching towards a point of no return,” says Ahlfeldt.
While consumers report value for money (18%) and getting help easily (15%) as key reasons to buy from brands, the businesses surveyed reported a starkly different view. Almost a third (27%) believed that repeat business is due to their brand values resonating with customers. Further, only 5% of businesses said that living up to their promises was important compared to 15% of consumers who indicated otherwise.
“Many brands talk about their values, often with little to back it up,” comments Stewart, “but consumers have clearly said they want to see action, not lip service, report 59% of the sample.”
“While technology can indeed, and is, greatly improving businesses’ core operating functions and agility, it’s a human who, if engaged when browsing, buying or seeking help, leaves that critical lasting impression. Loyalty is won in the moments when customers feel seen, heard, and helped, not just self-served,” says Ahlfeldt.
The advent of the ‘Super Duper Shopper’
A class of affluent, digitally fluent Super Duper shoppers has emerged and they are setting the bar for omnichannel (on- and offline) expectations. These are high-income, tech-savvy consumers, and, though they may represent a small portion of the population, they account for an outsized share of spend and have set the bar for customer experience (CX) expectations.
“Super Duper Shoppers” are highly influential on social media, and – given reviews made by customers of a brand or experience are often shared on Meta (55%), Instagram (20%) or TikTok (35%) – this cohort of consumers play a pivotal role in creating a brand’s reputation by becoming powerful third-party, trusted, social media publishers.
Of course, this also presents risks: the same “Super Duper Shopper” can turn on brands too, with 46% reporting to sharing their experiences with friends and family online or in-real-life, openly expressing their dissatisfaction and frustration following making a purchase (on- or offline) or having a shopping experience that doesn’t meet their needs or expectations.
“It is easier to both disappoint and delight with humans in the mix. Delightful experiences happen at physical locations (21%), during delivery and pickup (15%) and (14%) interacting with a customer service agent (not face-to-face) . Similarly, the poor experiences happen at physical locations (20%), during delivery (13%) and while interacting with call centre agents (20%) It is humans that have the power to make or break your brand at key moments. Ignore this at your peril – says Reekie
Winning the lion’s share of wallet
Operating within this new business environment where Bothism exists, to win the lion’s share of wallet, and grow among their categories, brands need to be trusted, empathetic and be more human while simultaneously offering digitally “always-on” channels.
“Bothism reiterates the notion that a really good customer experience requires a balance between seemingly opposing forces – technology and humanity, efficiency and empathy, digital and physical. Brands that understand and embrace this blending of emotional intelligence with operational excellence while innovating across channels, will naturally stay deeply human at the core,” says Reekie.
Businesses must also get the very basics right: espouse customer care, do what they say they will, offer many moments of delight and create an honest, human-led relationship with existing and future customers.
“It costs 6-7 times more to win a new customer than to keep one. In South Africa, that challenge is magnified by rising living costs that are squeezing disposable income, the mass digitisation sparked by Covid-19 that left many businesses functional but faceless, and consumers’ renewed appetite for the human touch of in-person service. The brands that will own their categories are those that blend seamless online and offline experiences while keeping empathy and human connection at the heart of everything they do,” concludes Ahlfeldt.
About The 2025 South African Customer Experience Report: Produced by ovatoyou, Rogerwilco, and Julia Ahlfeldt CX Consulting – marks its seventh year as the benchmark study on local CX trends. Based on feedback from 2,000 consumers and over 50 business executives, the report compares customer and corporate perspectives, finding a shared belief that CX is improving. Key drivers include digital innovation, process efficiency and a growing appreciation for balancing technology with human interaction – what the report terms “bothism”.
