Privacy policy

At Retail Solutions ZA (Pty) Ltd (registration number: 2025/887516/07) (“Retail Solutions ZA”) we take the protection of your personal information seriously when we process it by virtue of your use of our software, software consulting services, our Platform www.retailai.co.za or any related platforms or applications (collectively, “the Platform”), or by providing us with your personal information in any other way. As such, we have created this privacy policy for you to read and to understand how we safeguard your personal information and respect your privacy (“Privacy Policy”).

Please note that Retail Solutions ZA is a private company duly registered and operating in accordance with the laws of the Republic of South Africa.

Not all terms are necessarily defined in order, and some may be defined in the Software License Agreement or other terms applicable to your use of the Platform (“Terms”).

Please ensure that you read all the provisions below, and our policies and guidelines which may apply from time to time, to understand all of your, and our, rights and duties.

#1. Important Information and Who We Are

Purpose of this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy aims to give you information on how we collect and process your personal information through any form of your engagement with us. This Privacy Policy complies with, and facilitates the obligations required under, the South African Protection of Personal Information Act, No. 4 of 2013 (“POPI”), as amended.

It is important that you read this Privacy Policy together with any other privacy policy or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you, so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your personal information. This Privacy Policy supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.

Responsible Party and Operator

Retail Solutions ZA is the “Responsible Party” and is responsible for your personal information when we decide the processing operations of your personal information. In certain instances, including where we process personal information through our software on behalf of a retailer using our services, we operate as an “Operator” of personal information on behalf of that retailer, who is the Responsible Party. In that case, that retailer’s privacy policy will apply to your use of their services.

Retail Solutions ZA is required to appoint an information officer, who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this Privacy Policy and our compliance with applicable data protection law. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact our information officer using the details set out below.

Our Contact Details

Legal entity: Retail Solutions ZA (Pty) Ltd
Information Officer: Petrus Jacobus Pretorius
Email address: privacy@retailai.co.za
Postal address: 9 Ferrox Street, Dana Bay, Mossel Bay, Western Cape, 6510
Telephone number: +27 83 468 5616

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the South African regulator’s office (Information Regulator’s Office of South Africa). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach any such regulator, so please contact us in the first instance.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy was last updated on 13 October 2026 and previous versions are archived and can be provided on request.

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during your relationship with us.

This Privacy Policy is subject to change without notice and is updated or amended from time to time and will be effective once we upload the amended version to the Platform. Your continued access or use of our Services constitutes your acceptance of this Privacy Policy, as amended. It is your responsibility to read this document periodically to ensure you are aware of any changes.

Third-Party Links on Platform

The Platform may include links to third-party platforms, plug-ins, and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share information about you. We do not control these third-party platforms and are not responsible for their privacy statements or terms. When you leave our Platform, or engage with such third parties, we encourage you to read the distinct privacy policy of every third-party you engage with.

#2. What We Collect About You

Personal information, or personally identifiable information, means any information about an individual, both natural and juristic entities (people and companies), from which that entity can be identified. It does not include information where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

We may collect, use, store, and transfer (“process”) different kinds of personal information about you which we have grouped together as follows:

Identity Data including names and surnames, and information about your company such as company name, addresses, VAT number and company registration details.

Contact Data including email address, physical address, billing address and telephone number.

Account Data including information available in your Platform account, including staff users' names, usernames, email addresses, roles, hashed passwords, hashed till PINs, user profile details and support enquiries.

Financial Data including supplier bank account details and payment information.

Transaction Data including details about payments to and from you, contracts, contractual terms, contract fees, sign-ups, invoices, product details, purchase history, loyalty balances and other details of products and services you have obtained from us or provide to us.

Technical Data including internet protocol address/es, login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, cookies, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access the Platform.

Usage Data including information about how you use our Platform, browser-based point-of-sale software, software consulting services, surveys and Services.

Marketing and Communications Data including messages sent or received by you while using the Platform or our Services, messages sent to us, your preferences in receiving notices and marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences as well as details of which communications were sent to you and how they were sent.

Business Data including supplier names, supplier contact details, supplier physical addresses, VAT numbers, banking details, product details, and data regarding your business and the services required by or performed by you.

Retail Customer Data, processed through Onyx only where a retailer elects to use its account and loyalty features, including customers' names, email addresses, telephone numbers, physical addresses, VAT numbers, company registration numbers or identity numbers, dates of birth, purchase history, loyalty balances, signatures captured on screen to record POPIA consent, the timestamp of that consent and the version of the privacy policy accepted.

Age-Restricted Sale Data, processed through Onyx where liquor or tobacco is sold, including a record that an identity document was checked, the cashier's name and the time of the sale. We do not retain the identity document or a copy of it.

Jasper Data including internal stock, recipe and production data, including the names of production runs. Jasper does not process customer information.

Chat and Messaging Data including the chat account identifiers, display names and messages exchanged with us and with the Onyx and Jasper assistants (and/or any other software assistants that we may develop) over messaging channels such as Telegram and WhatsApp, the daily briefings and alerts we send over those channels, and the record of which users have subscribed to them.

AI Assistant Data including the questions a user asks the Onyx or Jasper assistant (and/or any other software assistants that we may develop), the snapshot of that store's own trading data provided to the assistant so that it can answer, and the answers, summaries, briefings and suggestions it produces.

We also collect, use, and share Aggregated Data. Aggregated Data may be derived from your personal information but is not considered personal information in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal information so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal information which will be used in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Where we need to collect personal information by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you. In this case, we may have to cancel your access to our Platform or services, but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

#3. How Is Your Personal Information Collected?

We use different methods to collect personal information from and about you, including through:

Direct interactions: You may give us your personal information by corresponding with us through the Platform, email or otherwise. This includes personal information you provide when you:

use our browser-based point-of-sale software or software consulting services;
use our Platform or submit information through our website;
contract with us;
provide any services to us as a service provider or independent contractor on contract with us;
request information to be sent to you;
give us feedback.

Automated technologies or interactions: As you interact with our Platform, we may automatically collect Technical Data and Usage Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We may collect this personal information by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies.

Third parties: We may receive personal information about you from various third parties such as customers, suppliers and service providers, and analytics providers.

#4. How We Use Your Personal Information

We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to and for legitimate reasons, which you hereby expressly understand and consent to. Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances:

where we have your express consent to do so;
where we need to consult with you or perform on the Services contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you;
where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests; and/or
where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.

#5. Purposes For Which We Will Use Your Personal Information

We have set out below the purposes for which we will process your personal information, which includes:

to engage with you after you have contacted us via the Platform or otherwise;
to allow you to use Onyx, our browser-based point-of-sale software, Jasper, our deli and bakery production and stock control add-on to Onyx, any other software products we may make available from time to time, and to provide you with our software consulting services and other Services as contracted;
to create and administer staff user accounts in our software, including authenticating staff users through hashed passwords and hashed till PINs;
where a retailer elects to use Onyx account and loyalty features, to create and administer retailer customer accounts, record purchase history and loyalty balances, and record POPIA consent through a signature captured on screen, together with the timestamp and privacy policy version accepted;
to support compliance with age-restricted sales requirements by recording, where liquor or tobacco is sold, that an identity document was checked, the cashier's name and the time of the sale, without retaining the identity document;
to support internal stock, recipe and production management through Jasper, including recording the names of production runs;
to operate the Onyx and Jasper assistants and the daily briefing, including sending a snapshot of the relevant data from that store to a third-party artificial-intelligence service so that questions about that store can be answered, and delivering the resulting answers, briefings and alerts over messaging channels the user has subscribed to;
to keep records required of us by law, including tax, company and accounting records, and to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim;
to detect, investigate and prevent fraud, theft, security incidents and misuse of our Platform and Services, and to keep audit records of who did what on the Platform;
to allow you to communicate and share information with us and third party service providers;
to contract with you as a service provider to Retail Solutions ZA;
to provide it to our authorised service providers who need your personal information to provide their services to you (such as payment gateways);
to process and service your payment for any Services rendered by Retail Solutions ZA or its service providers;
to manage payments, fees, and charges;
to manage our relationship with you which may include notifying you about changes to our Terms, Privacy Policy, or Services or the delivery of communications and the effectiveness thereof;
to administer and protect our company, Platform and Services (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data);
to use data analytics to improve our Platform, Services, client relationships and experiences; and
to analyse information collected through our website, including through the use of artificial intelligence tools, to understand website usage and improve our Platform, Services, client relationships and experiences; and
to provide you with direct marketing and make suggestions about goods/services that may be of interest.

We do not intentionally process personal information of minors as part of our Services.

Marketing

We strive to provide you with choices regarding how we use your personal information for marketing and advertising purposes. We may send you direct marketing communications where you have consented to receive them, or where we are otherwise permitted to do so under applicable law.

If you are an existing customer, we may use the contact details that we obtained from you in the context of the sale of our products or services to market our own similar products or services to you, provided that you were given a reasonable opportunity to object to such marketing at the time your details were collected and in each subsequent marketing communication.

If you are not an existing customer, we will generally only send you electronic direct marketing communications if you have consented to receive them, or where we are permitted to contact you once to request your consent in the manner prescribed by law.

You may ask us to stop sending you marketing communications at any time by using the unsubscribe or opt-out prompts included in our communications, or by contacting us directly. We will not charge you for opting out, and we will process your request in a manner that is free of unnecessary formality.

Where you opt out of receiving marketing communications, we may still process your personal information where we have another lawful basis to do so, including where necessary to provide our services to you, comply with our legal obligations, or communicate with you about non-marketing matters.

Third-Party Marketing

Whilst we may use your personal information within our company, we will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal information publicly with any entity outside of Retail Solutions ZA for marketing.

Change of Purpose

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.

If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules and where required or permitted by law.

#6. Disclosures Of Your Personal Information

We may have to share your personal information with the parties set out below for the purposes set out above.

Internal Third Parties including other entities or parties in the Retail Solutions ZA group and their respective directors and employees, acting as joint responsible parties or operators;
External Third Parties including:

third-party service providers who need your personal information to provide their services to you pursuant to your use of our services;
service providers and contractors providing their services to us and acting as operators of your personal information on instruction from us;
South African or other national governments and/or their respective authorities pursuant to our adherence with legislative requirements; such as tax; and
professional advisers acting as operators or joint responsible parties including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services as required.

Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our company or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other organisations or merge with them. If such a change happens to our company, we may continue to use your personal information in the same way as set out in this Privacy Policy.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal information and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal information for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal information in accordance with our instructions and standards.

#7. Cookies

The Platform may make use of “cookies” to automatically collect information and data through the standard operation of the Internet servers. “Cookies” are small text files a platform can use (and which we may use) to recognise repeat users, facilitate the user’s on-going access to and use of a platform and allow a platform to track usage behaviour and compile aggregate data that will allow the platform operator to improve the functionality of the platform and its content, and to display more focused advertising to a user by way of third party tools.

The type of information collected by cookies is not used to personally identify you. If you do not want information collected using cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows you to deny or accept the cookie feature. Please note that cookies may be necessary to provide you with certain features available on our Platform and thus if you disable the cookies on your browser you may not be able to use those features, and your access to our Platform will therefore be limited. We do not set cookies that are not strictly necessary for the Platform to work unless you have agreed to them. Where we use such cookies on our website, a notice appears asking you to accept or decline them, and nothing is loaded unless you accept. You may change your choice at any time by clearing this website’s stored data in your browser, after which the notice will appear again. Our software applications use cookies and equivalent browser storage only to keep you signed in and to remember your settings.

#8. International Transfers

We may share and process your personal information outside of South Africa for the purpose of cloud storage or to engage with third parties or for purposes of providing any Services or as may be shared within any group of companies of which Retail Solutions ZA may form part from time to time, or processed outside of South Africa by the employees, directors or agents of any such group as part of its structure and operations.

Whenever we may transfer your personal information out of South Africa, we will ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

We will only transfer your personal information to countries that have appropriate data protection legislation in place similar to that of South Africa; and/or
Where we use service providers, we may use specific contracts/clauses which ensure personal information is processed and secured lawfully.

You are welcome to contact us if you want further information regarding transfer of personal information out of South Africa.

#9. Data Security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used, or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered, or disclosed, including storing passwords and till PINs in hashed form rather than plain text, separating each customer's data by store, restricting access by user role, and running the Platform on our own server behind HTTPS. We also limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a legitimate need to know. They will only process your personal information on our instruction and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal information breach and will notify you and the Information Regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

#10. Data Retention

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purpose we collected it for including any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal information, the purpose for which we process your personal information, any other South African applicable law requiring us to retain the personal information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

We may also anonymise your personal information (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

#11. Your Legal Rights

You have rights in relation to your personal information where we are the relevant “Responsible Party” over such personal information. Please contact us to find out more about, or manifest, these rights:

request access to your personal information;
request correction of your personal information;
request erasure of your personal information;
object to the processing of your personal information;
request a restriction of processing your personal information;
request transfer of your personal information; and/or
right to withdraw consent.

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive, or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

Users with citizenships from jurisdictions other than South Africa, please note that we comply with South African data protection laws when processing your personal information as we are a South African entity. Should foreign law be applicable to your use of the Services and/or the Platform in any way, including how we may process your personal information, please contact us and we will gladly engage with you on your rights.