By Paula Hulley, MD, Digitas and Commerce lead, PGA | Chair, IAB SA Connected Commerce Committee
Connected commerce has moved from being an emerging trend to re-shaping the current operating environment globally. Retailers are becoming media owners and social platforms are points of purchase. AI is increasingly shaping how people discover, decide and convert. As the ecosystem becomes more interconnected, progress is driven less by individual excellence and more by how effectively we work together. In my experience, stronger outcomes, greater opportunity and real momentum come from cooperation, rather than operating in silos.
While the pathways to purchase have changed, one thing has not: strong brands remain essential to building trust, confidence and long‑term value. The most effective commerce experiences are unmistakably on brand. Today, consumers don’t move through stages in a neat sequence; they move through moments, where discovery, evaluation and purchase can happen simultaneously, sometimes within a single swipe. What once took weeks can now compress into seconds, shaped by social commerce, retail media and AI‑led recommendations. In this environment, brand and commerce are no longer separate disciplines; the commercial experience itself has become a brand expression, shaped by data, creative, technology and experience design working in concert.
That belief in collaboration is what shaped the IAB SA Connected Commerce Committee. Seats were intentionally allocated across brands, retailers, platforms, agencies, data and technology partners to reflect how commerce operates in practice, as a connected system rather than a series of handovers. The committee establishes a cooperative ecosystem and working model, with live, informed discussion and clear objectives in mind, grounded in how people actually buy today and focused on delivering outcomes that are stronger together than they would be in isolation.
A committee built for the moment
South Africa’s e-commerce landscape has grown at a pace that’s been difficult to keep up with. The online retail sector reached R92 billion in 2024, up from R71 billion the year before, and there are now more than 32 million e-commerce users in the country, with mobile commerce emerging as the primary growth driver. Meanwhile, 78% of South African internet users between the ages of 16 and 64 use social media to research brands and products before they buy. Shopping is threaded through everything.
The people in the room
The IAB ran an extensive nomination and selection process across more than 70 industry nominations to identify the right mix of expertise, seniority, and perspective. The result is a 15-person committee I’mproud to introduce and that we’re announcing publicly for the first time here.
The committee includes myself as Chair and the following members:
- Lerato Zulu – Head of eCommerce: Digital & Performance, Old Mutual;
- Tanja Lategaan de Korte – Managing Director, Rainmaker Media;
- Bonga Ndlovu – Chief Marketing Officer, Honest Marketing;
- Jessy Severins – Group Executive: Retail Media, Takealot;
- Daniel Malan – Commerce Lead, Dentsu South Africa;
- Thando Manaka – Data Strategist, VML;
- Kiera Hayman – Retail Media Lead, Publicis Groupe Africa;
- Shivani Naidoo – Digital Marketing Portfolio Manager, Vodacom;
- Kyle Frazer – Chief Executive Officer, PlusNarrative;
- Kyle Gray – Commercial Director, Polygon;
- Samu Makhathini – Head of Group Media, Nedbank;
- Shaune Jordaan – Founder, Hoorah;
- Izak van der Walt – Project Director: AI & Automation, The Up & Up Group;
- Jenna Munro – Brand Manager, Garmin; and
- Candice Robertson, Client Lead, WPP Media.
Brands engaged alongside retailers, agency strategists collaborated with data specialists, and AI practitioners and shopper experience experts contributed to shared discussions. The focus was on working through connected commerce as an integrated system, recognising that better outcomes are achieved when perspectives are aligned, rather than operating in silos.
Everyone had real challenges they were trying to solve – measurement frameworks that don’t reflect how South African shoppers actually behave; retail data sitting in one silo while campaign data sits in another; budgets splitbetween trade and media, with no shared language to bridge the two – these are things people are navigating right now, often on their own.
What we’re building
At Digitas, we talk about the principle that every brand moment is a commerce opportunity. The corollary, though, is that commerce doesn’t happen in one place anymore. It happens across social feeds, search results, retail platforms, loyalty programmes, and the physical shelf, often simultaneously. Shopping may no longer be a siloed experience, yet most marketing strategies still are. The committee’s work is designed to close that gap practically. Our first three deliverables are already in motion:
- A South African retail and commerce media landscape report mapping the market and its scale;
- A South African retail media playbook, helping brands, retailers and agencies plan, activate and measure effectively across South Africa’s connected commerce ecosystem; and
- A retail media module within the IAB SA Online AdSpend Report, currently in survey, providing clearer visibility into the channel’s growth and impact.
From there, the committee’s agenda expands into developing best-practice governance frameworks for data and clean rooms, exploring how retail first-party data can be leveraged beyond FMCG categories, and working through the measurement and attribution challenges that consistently come up across the industry.
These won’t all happen overnight. This is a committee of volunteers who hold demanding day jobs, but the intention is clear: practical outputs, built by practitioners, for the industry.
Why this particular moment matters
Retail media is often described as the fastest-growing advertising channel globally, for good reason. It sits at the intersection of commerce intent and first-party data, which is exactly where advertising is heading as third-party signals become less reliable.
South Africa is at an inflection point on this. Players like Takealot and the major grocery chains are building out their media offerings. Brands are asking serious questions about how to activate in this space. And the agencies and technology partners in the middle need to maximise the available opportunities.
What’s been missing is the infrastructure: shared definitions, shared standards, shared understanding of how the pieces fit together. This committee exists to build something tangible to assist; that’s the standard we’re holding ourselves to.
To meet the committee, visit iabsa.net/iab-sa-connected-commerce-committee
Connecting Commerce. Elevating Brands. Delivering Real Growth.
Paula Hulley is the MD of Digitas, Commerce Lead, PGA, and Chair of the IAB SA Connected Commerce Committee. T