In the year since founding its own innovation unit – called “X, bigly labs” – pharmacy retail group Dis-Chem has launched a financial services arm named Dis-Chem Life and an updated rewards programme as it aims to become a technology-driven “integrated healthcare provider”.
“Dis-Chem is moving to becoming an integrated healthcare provider and not only a pharmacy retailer,” said Thabiso Msimanga, executive head of customer solutions at X, bigly labs, in an interview with TechCentral.
X, bigly labs was founded by Dis-Chem Group CEO Rui Morais with Aliyah Allie, who now serves as the innovation hub’s executive head. Its employees include data scientists, medical doctors, marketers, solution engineers and other technical people.
Msimanga said the lab’s function is to investigate and experiment with technologies that “have the potential to futureproof the business”.
Dis-Chem’s revamped rewards programme, named Better Rewards, gives customers instant discounts on their spend at the till instead of giving them rewards points. Msimanga said the system was designed after speaking to customers who reported their frustration at having to spend a long time accumulating points only to have their rand value equate to relatively little in the end.
Better Rewards discounts start at 10% for members and can be stacked with other benefits within the Dis-Chem ecosystem. Members who fulfil their prescriptions at the pharmacy get an additional 5% in savings available to them for 30 days after their medication is collected. A partnership with Capitec allows rewards members who are also the bank’s customers to enjoy an additional 5% discount.
E-commerce next?
According to Msimanga, members who then also take on Dis-Chem Life products such as life or health insurance can get up to 100% discounts.
E-commerce in the pharmacy space is a market that is yet to be as well catered for as general retail. Msimanga said he could not give too much detail about Dis-Chem’s plans in the e-commerce space but hinted at an offering as an important aspect of its strategy.
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“The e-commerce side of things is something that is very important to us, and we are not just sitting aside and watching what is happening in the market. I cannot disclose much detail; all I can say is it keeps us awake at night and we are pushing hard to make sure that we can be second to none in terms of providing healthcare to customers at the click of a button,” said Msimanga.
Among the challenges that have made retail pharmacy lag the rest of the market is the amount of regulatory scrutiny medical subscriptions are subject to, to mitigate fraud and illicit drug abuse.
Msimanga said Dis-Chem has taken a lot of time to “think about the problem” because the company, as a healthcare provider, “has a responsibility” to ensure that scheduled medicines that are ordered online reach the right customer.
“Bigly labs has been put in place to essentially allow us to experiment with a lot of these technologies, spend time with customers and solve their problems. We have built a fit-for-purpose loyalty programme that allows customers to engage with the full Dis-Chem ecosystem and are looking at other technological solutions that will reduce friction for our customers,” said Msimanga. – © 2025 NewsCentral Media
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