Shoprite expands grocery online delivery to lower-income customers

Source: Reuters/Nqobile Dludla

Facing fierce competition from rivals Pick n Pay and Woolworths, the supermarket group is expanding its Sixty60 online delivery to Shoprite customers after entering the quick commerce market in 2019 via its upmarket Checkers chains.

Following a successful pilot in Gauteng and the Western Cape provinces, Sixty60 is set to launch in 19 Shoprite stores across eight provinces, the company said.

"For a couple of months, we had three stores as a pilot to test the water to see if there is demand and the answer is there is a demand," Pieter Engelbrecht, the group CEO, told Reuters, adding that the rollout won't be as big as that of Checkers Sixty60.

Checkers Sixty60 has expanded the store base from which it services Checkers customers to 601 stores.

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The group also plans to add more than 10,000 general merchandise products to its revamped Checkers Sixty60 app, which now competes with big e-commerce players such as Takealot and Amazon.

Shoprite, with more than 3,400 stores, including OK Franchise across 10 African countries, reported headline earnings per share from continuing operations of 662.3 cents in the 26 weeks ended 29 December 2023.

Group sales from continuing operations grew by 9.6% to R128.6bn, as the retailer's core business, Supermarkets South Africa, achieved sales growth of 10.4%, with like-for-like sales growth of 6.1%.

The sales growth in Supermarkets South Africa was supported by strong volume growth as a result of across-the-board gains in customer visits, up 4.1% and average basket spend increase of 6.1%, Engelbrecht said in a statement.

For January, sales growth in Supermarkets South Africa was ahead of that reported for the first half, Engelbrecht told investors.