Homechoice is one of South Africa’s established retail and financial services brands, trusted by millions for over 40 years.
Known for homeware, electronics, fashion, furniture, and flexible credit solutions, the business plays a crucial role in delivering accessible, convenient retail products and credit to customers across the country.
As customer behaviour increasingly shifted toward digital and conversational channels, Homechoice recognised the need to modernise how it engages across the full customer lifecycle, from marketing and credit prequalification to post-purchase support and service enquiries.
Scaling engagement in a conversational-first world
Homechoice’s customer interactions had traditionally been driven by call centres, supported by a growing number of digital touchpoints. As volumes increased, this model became harder to scale efficiently.
Customers were engaging across WhatsApp, social platforms, email, and SMS, but these channels operated in silos.
Agents relied on multiple tools, reporting was slow, and customer context was often lost between interactions. At the same time, customers increasingly preferred chat-based engagement over phone calls, expecting faster responses and greater convenience.
To maintain its trusted customer experience while supporting growth, Homechoice needed a solution to unify its engagement channels, reduce reliance on voice, and deliver consistent, secure conversations on the platforms customers already use.
Unified, chat-first engagement across channels
Homechoice partnered with Codified Development, a Cape Town-based systems integrator and Infobip partner, specialising in conversational customer experience and automation.
Together with Infobip, the teams implemented a chat-first engagement solution across priority use cases in a phased approach.
In the initial phase, Homechoice unified its customer interactions across WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, email, and SMS, with Infobip providing the underlying messaging infrastructure and Codified leading journey design and integration.
This approach enabled more consistent, connected conversations across the customer journey, allowing Homechoice to follow customers seamlessly from marketing campaigns through to sales, service, and ongoing communications.
Using Click-to-WhatsApp Ads, Homechoice converted high-intent clicks into real-time conversations, while unified customer profiles enabled more relevant follow-ups and personalised engagement. Furthermore, automation was introduced to manage repeatable enquiries, while agents handled more complex interactions through a single interface.
Measurable wins – engagement strengthens, efficiency improves
Homechoice’s shift to a chat-first engagement model delivered measurable improvements across customer experience and operations, with Infobip using metrics provided directly by Homechoice. Customer satisfaction increased from 76% to 91%, reflecting faster response times and the availability of always-on conversational support across preferred digital channels.
As more customers moved from voice to chat, call volumes decreased by 35%, easing pressure on contact centre teams while maintaining service quality. At the same time, Click-to-WhatsApp Ads achieved conversion rates of 8–10%, demonstrating the effectiveness of turning high-intent clicks into real-time, two-way conversations rather than static web journeys.
By introducing automation and unified agent workflows, Homechoice reduced manual effort across routine enquiries and repeat interactions.
This allowed service teams to focus on more complex, value-driven engagements, improving the relevance and consistency of customer communications. The consolidated platform also established a scalable foundation for future conversational use cases across marketing, sales, credit, and support.
“This project reflects how businesses can meet customers where they already are by making chat a core engagement channel rather than an add-on. By unifying channels and enabling automation at scale, Homechoice has been able to simplify interactions for customers while supporting measurable improvements in service and conversion,” says Shaun van Rooyen, vice president of Growth, Infobip
From an implementation perspective, the collaboration highlighted the importance of pairing platform scale with deep integration expertise.
“Codified Development selected Infobip after years of testing multiple contact centre solutions. Their platform scales high volumes of traffic, incorporates partner feedback, and offers a fully integrated CPaaS and SaaS suite essential for modern customer engagement,” says Craig McLeod, CEO of Codified Development.
“By relying on Infobip to manage the core messaging platform and scale, we are able to focus on automation, customisation, and client trust, ensuring Homechoice can deliver consistent, personalised conversational experiences.”
Watch for more information here.
