Mvubu and Naude (2016:274) have described the SCM of organisations as the management of seamless, value-added flows of products, information and funds throughout the supply chain. FMCGs are often products that offer a low profit margin and have high sales volumes such as beverages, packaged food, personal care and household cleaning products (Bala & Kumar 2011:23). The global FMCG industry is recognised as a leader in SCM practices (Rodrigues 2013:351). Fast-moving consumer goods organisations’ primary focus is creating a supply chain that provides for the needs of customers in the most effective and efficient possible manner (Syed & Siddiqui 2019:9386). Because of the agile nature of FMCG supply chains, flexibility is crucial for meeting customers’ demands (Govender et al. 2018:1766).

Likewise, in South Africa, the FMCG industry represents one of the most important growing economic SCM sectors for gross domestic product (GDP) development (Meyer, Niemann, Uys & Beetge 2019:3). The FMCG retail industry in South Africa is faced with the challenge of providing high service quality to customers. Service quality is described as the distance between a customer’s expectation of how they feel a service should be performed, and their perception of how that service was performed (Gouws & Motala 2019:1).

The South African FMCG industry has experienced had immense growth in the past 2 years, which examines consumers’ online purchasing behaviours, reported that 91% of South African consumers who have access to the Internet have made a purchase online, with the most significant growth in the fashion industry and online restaurant deliveries and meal kit services (Nielsen 2018). However, the FMCG retail industry has one of the most challenging and complicated supply chain industries to manage not only because of the complexity of its goods and service offerings but also because it is very end-consumer centric (Singh et al. 2018:398).

A way to address the pressures arising in the FMCG industry to remain competitive is to incorporate the use of social media throughout the supply chain as it permits the development and meaningful CRM with current and existing customers (Rapp et al. 2013:547).

Social media is a group of Internet-based applications that build on the technical foundations of Web 2.0 and allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content (Whiting & Williams 2013:133). Social media includes online sources of information that are formed, distributed and used by consumers to inform one another about products, services and brands (Whiting, Williams & Hair 2019:133). Moreover, social media comprises social networking sites, online communities, video-sharing sites, review sites, dating sites and the virtual game world (Gussenhoven & Rabinowitz 2014:9). The Internet has boosted the abundant growth of social media in the past decade, with the emergence of social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram amongst others (Meixner et al. 2013:29).

As social media is vast and ever-changing, how a customer can identify a physical store by its branding must be the same way in which a customer can identify the organisation’s online presence and be able to access the right accounts when needed (Kapoor et al. 2018:532). The ability to meet customers’ demands in full and on-time is what creates a competitive advantage for FMCG retailers (Vogt, Förster & Kabst 2014:85). Social media communication strategies offer FMCG retailers a mechanism for improving their agility for customers engagement, smoothing demands and gathering data about customer opinions on goods being provided, at a low cost compared with paid marketing and advertisement campaigns (Kasemsap 2018:1154).

Diffley and McCole (2019:114) posit that organisations that have little to no social media presence are lagging behind their competitors. Ultimately, social media use has influenced organisations to change how they view and manage their customer relationships, which has required a transformation of traditional approaches to meet the changing demands of customers (Pearson 2015:20). Unlike traditional media, social technologies push towards collaborative relationships with customers rather than mere exposure and impression marketing (Markova & Petkovska-Mircevska 2013:90). Social CRM is based on the four basic building blocks of ‘social engagement’ (Evans, McKee & Bratton 2010:15), which are consumption, curation, creation and collaboration. These fundamental blocks lead to and support a ladder-type engagement model with customer collaboration as the end point and desired result (refer to Figure 1).

The study was guided by generic qualitative research design. Generic qualitative research seeks to understand a variety of perspectives and the views of those people who are involved with the study (Bellamy et al. 2016:672). This research approach draws concepts and insights from data as opposed to using data to test a preconceived hypothesis (Taylor, Bogdan & DeVault 2015:7). The generic qualitative approach was therefore used as this was the most appropriate research technique for this study. By using generic qualitative research, the researcher already has a body of pre-knowledge about the topic but aims to gain more understanding of the perspectives of participants to add to the existing body of knowledge (Percy, Kostere & Kostere 2015:78). This study aimed to investigate the opportunities and challenges of social media in supply chains in the FMCG retail industry. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior managers in the FMCG industry.

A total of 12 interviews were conducted with participants from 12 different FMCG retailers. The study employed homogenous sampling. This was used as the study investigated similar or identical characteristics within the FMCG retail industry, and homogenous sampling of the units (retailers) ensured the chosen sample members had similar or identical characteristics (Elmusharaf 2012:15). It allowed for deliberate selection of FMCG retailers to be studied because these organisations are ‘information-rich’ and offered the best opportunity to inform and add to the expected outcomes (Guest, Bunce & Johnson 2006:16). Organisations had to be located in South Africa, operate in the FMCG retail industry and to have been in business for over 10 years as this would reflect an organisation that has experienced changes in the industry.

Similarly, the most suitable and knowledgeable individuals in these organisations were targeted in an effort to get deep access to the organisations. Participants had to be in senior or middle management SCM position and have at least 3 years of experience in the industry. In studies consisting of homogenous participants, data saturation can be achieved within the first 6–12 interviews (Mason 2010:78). Data saturation was achieved after 10 interviews as no new information emerged after the 10th interview; two additional interviews were conducted before data collection was terminated. Table 1 shows a profile of the study participants.

The study explored a phenomenon that required the personal perspectives and experiences of participants and therefore made use of semi-structured interviews. These interviews provided an opportunity to generate rich data and gain insight into perceptions (Newton 2010:2). The semi-structured interviews were guided by a discussion guide with questions that allowed the interviewers to gain as much information as possible. Seven interviews were conducted at the organisations’ headquarters, and five interviews were conducted telephonically. A discussion guide was developed with the study’s research questions as a basis and underwent a pretest with one organisation. No significant changes were required, and data collection continued.

Interviews began with a brief description of the study followed by requesting participants to sign an informed consent form. All were recorded and the transcriptions outsourced to a professional transcription service.

These were checked to ensure the accuracy of information by reviewing each transcription whilst listening to the corresponding recording. The average length of interviews was 45 min as shown in Table 1.

This study employed a thematic analysis of data as this approach provides an in-depth description and interpretation of each participant’s perspectives (Vaismoradi et al. 2016:101). The thematic analysis was done in five phases, namely data familiarisation, generating initial codes, identifying themes, constructing thematic networks and integration and interpretation (Robinson 2014:25). This research utilised a computer-assisted qualitative data-analysing software (CAQDAS) package called Atlas.ti (version 8) to efficiently analyse the large amounts of data from the interviews. Atlas.ti is specifically developed to generate and manage codes as well as identify the relationship between codes and themes. The researchers became familiar with the data by reading the transcripts whilst listening to the recordings. During data analysis, inductive codes were created from the data and merged with deductive codes found (Braun & Clarke 2012:57; Creswell 2012:243). These codes were then analysed and combined into a set of overarching themes according to their relevance to the study’s overall research questions (Braun & Clarke 2012:57; Creswell 2012:243). These themes were then analysed against the transcriptions to ensure that they covered all relevant patterns (Braun & Clarke 2012:63–65). This process was repeated where it was deemed necessary.

Four trustworthiness criteria, namely credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability, were employed to ensure the trustworthiness of this qualitative research study (Polit & Beck 2012:583). Credibility relates to how well the findings in the study reflect the genuine perspectives and experiences of the participants (Lietz & Zayas 2010:191). To obtain credibility, the researchers firstly ensured compliance with the ethical requirements of both confidentiality and voluntary participation from each participant. Secondly, the researchers employed trusted methods such as purposive sampling and thematic analysis of the data collected to ensure accuracy (Polit & Beck 2012:584). Transferability was also ensured by using an existing methodology that can be replicated for alternate situations, contexts, practices or future research (Lietz & Zayas 2010:195; Polit & Beck 2012:585).

Dependability was used as explained by Lietz and Zayas (2010:195) as the degree to which a research study’s procedures are documented, allowing someone outside the study to follow and critically evaluate the research process. Confirmability was used; this is concerned with objectivity, and steps were taken to ensure that the responses of participants were not influenced by the preferences or biases of the researcher (Polit & Beck 2012:585; Shenton 2004:72). Open-ended questions were used in the discussion guide to permit the participants to navigate through the questions by giving their experiences in their way (Milne & Oberle 2005:415). Also, transcripts of the interview recordings were confirmed by reading the interview transcripts at least twice whilst listening to the recordings (Milne & Oberle 2005:416). A detailed explanation of the context of the research study as well as a discussion guide and interview protocol are provided.

The ethical permission for the study was obtained from the Research Ethics Committee, Department of Business Management, University of Pretoria. All participants provided voluntary consent by reading and signing an informed consent form before the interviews commenced. The researchers emphasised the anonymity and confidentiality of information provided and findings of the study and reminded participants that they might withdraw from answering any question that they did not feel comfortable answering. Pseudonyms were assigned to each participant and firm to ensure further anonymity and confidentiality in the study.

The first research question of this study related to opportunities social media has created in SCM within the South African FMCG industry. The sub-themes that were identified are Internal Communication, External Communication and CRM (refer to Figure 3).

The second theme of this study relates to the challenges that social media has created in SCM within the South African FMCG retail industry. The sub-themes identified are empowered customers, the lack of control over the information that is shared on social media and fake news. (refer to Figure 4)

The third research question of this study relates to mainstream social media platforms that are predominantly used by FMCG retailers to communicate with their suppliers and customers. (refer to Figure 5)

This study aimed to explore the opportunities and challenges of social media in SCM within FMCG retailers in South Africa. The first research question of this study explored the opportunities social media has created in SCM within the South African FMCG retail industry. The study confirms that there are opportunities that organisations have identified, mainly the ability to communicate more effectively internally and create better external communication with customers. The second research question investigated the challenges that social media has created in SCM within the South African FMCG retailers. Empowered consumers can share their sentiments any given moment with a large audience that can be easily reached through social media, and respondents confirmed that customers are more prone to complain or leave negative comments than to compliment organisations. The lack of control over content that is shared by customers on organisations’ social media platforms is a challenge that most respondents experienced. Fake news affected some organisations, but it is a factor that all organisations that use social media are potentially exposed to.

The third research question examined mainstream social media platforms that are predominantly used by FMCG retailers and their customers within South Africa. All respondents in the study used WhatsApp and Facebook. The interesting finding is that WhatsApp is only used for suppliers and Facebook is only used for customers. The findings suggest that Twitter is used by FMCG retailers mainly for promotional purposes.

The findings of this study contribute to the academic body of knowledge by identifying the use of social media in SCM as a form of new technology that may affect the supply chains of the future. Organisations are aware of the impact that social media has on the supply chain, and organisations that seek to be market leaders in the field of SCM can leverage off the use of social media to differentiate themselves and allow organisations and brands to stand out. The implication for the academic body of knowledge is that the study’s findings motivate the integration of social media practice into the SCM of FMCG retailers that do not currently use social media and demonstrate how other FMCG organisations are already using this application, although there is also an opportunity to improve existing social media practices in their SCM.

The study revealed that social media platforms are currently being under-utilised by managers and organisations to engage with their suppliers and, more significantly, their customers. There is potential for organisations to use these social media platforms to gather data, as seen in some organisations that have gone to the extent of incorporating social media applications in their demand forecasting to derive real demand. As one participant mentioned, the need for experts to educate organisations on the true power of social media might be the catalyst for FMCG retailers to leverage the full benefits of social media platforms.

Secondly, managers should not see social media as a part of their technology strategy that is not worth investing in. Specifically, for supply chain managers, the study provides insights into how social media as a means of technology is being used in other organisations, as well as the potential importance that social media will have within SCM in the future. As technology grows and evolves, social media can provide organisations with alternative ways of effective communication with customers as well as cost-effectively create customer services solutions.

The small sample size used in this qualitative study limits the generalisability of its findings. Moreover, because of the qualitative nature of the study, only one participant from one department from each organisation was represented. Therefore, it would be valuable for future research to be conducted from a quantitative methodology to compare the research findings. Future research could focus on different sectors in the FMCG industry or other industries such as manufacturing or third-party logistics industries, which also have strong customer interaction.