• Shoprite CEO Pieter Engelbrecht says rivals can replicate the group鈥檚 Sixty60 platform, but doing so will take years and significant investment
• Sixty60 grew sales almost 35% to R25.5 billion in the 52 weeks to end June, adding a record R6.6 billion to the previous year鈥檚 sales, and is now gaining traction at Shoprite-branded stores.
• Anchor Capital analyst Steph Erasmus called Shoprite the 鈥済orilla in the room鈥�, saying it is bigger than all its rivals in grocery retail and is using that to its advantage.

Shoprite is signalling that rivals can imitate its on-demand service Sixty60, but doing so will take years and significant investment 鈥� money the retail giant has already committed.

And even then, SA鈥檚 largest retail group intends to stay ahead of the game by constantly introducing new features and capabilities to the platform. This will include everything from new agentic abilities for its AI assistant Pixie to broadening its product and adjacent store ranges that can be curated for delivery.

Asked about the threat other retailers鈥� on-demand platforms and apps pose to Shoprite, CEO Pieter Engelbrecht said while a Sixty60 platform and its app features can be replicated, it鈥檚 鈥済oing to take time and money鈥�.

鈥淎nd that doesn鈥檛 mean we鈥檙e standing still. Every single day, we are improving on [Sixty60]. That鈥檚 why you can now 鈥榓sk鈥� [through Pixie] Jamie Oliver what鈥檚 for dinner on the app. You can take a picture of your shopping list, and Pixie will understand your language and your writing.鈥�

Shoprite has a long-standing partnership with the British celebrity chef.

Engelbrecht, who was speaking to News24 after the publication of full-year results on Tuesday, said what Shoprite offers on Sixty60 is 鈥渘ot so unique that nobody else can do it鈥�; the advantage is that the group has done the heavy lifting in terms of significantly investing over many years into several technologies and platforms that ultimately laid the foundation for Sixty60 and helped Shoprite evolve into what it is today.

This includes its 麻豆原创 enterprise resource planning platform, introduced in 2017, which serves as its 鈥渃ore system of record鈥� and connects its core business operations. The system provides a single data source that gives Shoprite access to accurate information about sales and customer habits. It ultimately laid the framework for building out its
Xtra Savings reward programme, and later Sixty60 in 2019.

Another benefit is that Shoprite owns the underlying code that Sixty60 runs on.

鈥淭here are no licence fees and things like that because we developed the code ourselves. We have already made the investment, so every single day we鈥檙e doing something or adding something to it to make the experience better. In the end, it boils down to your level of execution.鈥�

This echoes what he said at an investor presentation earlier that day. Engelbrecht told investors that apart from the money rivals would need to invest, it would take them a long time to reach Sixty60鈥檚 current 鈥渓evel of execution鈥�.

He rated the Sixty60 platform against rival platforms in the market and said it came out on top.

鈥淚 tested it all. For me, there is no question that Sixty60 is the best online platform. It鈥檚 reliable. That is logically driving the behaviour of customers because they have a great experience.鈥�

This may explain why it continues to command such strong growth 鈥� in the 52 weeks to 28 June, for example, Sixty60 grew sales almost 35% to R25.5 billion, adding a record R6.6 billion in sales. The platform is also gaining traction among Shoprite customers, with the service now available from 137 Shoprite stores.

鈥楧efinitely a need鈥�

Engelbrecht said while Shoprite Sixty60 was not expected to grow as fast as Checkers Sixty60, the group was still 鈥渧ery surprised鈥� by the level of acceptance shown by Shoprite customers.

He said their basket size was 鈥渟lightly smaller鈥� than Checkers shoppers鈥� baskets, but it was 鈥渟till profitable 鈥� There鈥檚 definitely a need for it.鈥�

He also said there was still an opportunity to add all the other parts of its business to Sixty60, combining them with food delivery for a single checkout.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a single delivery, but it鈥檚 actually from four or five different businesses. And that, for me, is probably the top level of convenience you can ask for, and that is what is driving growth.”

The key to the Shoprite group鈥檚 success has been its focus on ensuring 98% stock availability for both online and in-store customers, Engelbrecht told News24. He noted that having suboptimal stock levels could mean a customer ends up receiving only half of what they ordered online.

Over the years, the group has also invested significant capital in improving its tech capabilities and logistics. In the past three years alone, it spent R22.6 billion on digital technology, supply chain upgrades, and store expansions. This equated to R7.8 billion in 2024, R8 billion in 2025, and R6.8 billion in 2026.

In the upcoming year, the group intends to spend R7.7 billion.

Shoprite is also modernising its IT system, with Engelbrecht saying the group will be transitioning to the latest 麻豆原创 S/4HANA platform for financial systems and HR over the next three years.

Engelbrecht also said there were 鈥渓ots of opportunities鈥� for growth for Shoprite in SA, adding that adjacent businesses such as pet (Petshop Science stores now number 185 and have increased sales 74.5%) and pharmacy (standalone Medirite Plus stores now number 22) were 鈥渟lowly but surely starting to contribute鈥�.

鈥淲e鈥檝e still got a long way to go with Outdoor, Uniq by Checkers, Petshop Science, and Medirite Plus,鈥� he said, adding that these adjacent businesses are also helping Sixty60 grow.

Anchor Capital investment analyst Steph Erasmus said his main takeaway from the Shoprite results, particularly the information it shared on Sixty60, was that the retailer is the 鈥済orilla in the room鈥�.

鈥淭hey are vastly bigger than any of their competition in food retail, and they are using that to their advantage, especially in areas like Sixty60 and adding in the adjacencies and the like.鈥�

Erasmus agreed with Engelbrecht about rivals being able to copy the Sixty60 model, saying it 鈥渋s going to take a lot of ammo and a lot of time鈥�.

鈥淚 think Shoprite are just ahead of the curve. They are heading the pack, and it is difficult to see anybody really making a big difference to their market position for the next while.鈥�

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continues聽to invest meaningfully in technology as it battles for market share with Shoprite Group鈥檚 Sixty60 and other retailers in the fast-growing on-demand grocery delivery market.

Pick n Pay is in the midst of a turnaround after losing market share to competitors in recent years. In its 2023 financial year, it plunged into a loss 鈥� of a staggering R3.2-billion. Former CEO , who left the company in 2007, returned to the helm in September of that year to lead the turnaround effort.

Summers鈥� early bets appear to be paying off, with the retailer鈥檚 most recent update reporting Pick n Pay sales were up 3.6% year on year in its core South African supermarkets business for the 17 weeks to 29 June 2025. Turnaround efforts have included a partnership with First National Bank鈥檚 rewards programme. eBucks was previously partnered with Checkers.

Sixty60 got a head-start during the Covid-19 lockdowns when consumers 鈥� stuck at home 鈥� took to e-commerce with vigour. Around the same time 鈥� in October 2020 鈥� Pick n Pay acquired alcohol delivery app Bottles, which it would eventually use as the foundation for its own online platform, asap!.

Pick n Pay still has some way to go, though. Reports by both Pick n Pay and rival Shoprite last week show聽. But Pick n Pay is fighting back.

, who co-founded Bottles, now serves as head of online at Pick n Pay. Speaking to the聽聽in an episode that will be published this week, Ferigolli said recent changes to Pick n Pay鈥檚 customer-facing applications are only the tip of the iceberg in the retailer鈥檚 strategic tech arsenal.

鈥淚t started with a rebrand, and then we embarked on a journey whose first iteration we just concluded, where the app is now fully integrated into the larger Pick n Pay ecosystem. If you are a Smart Shopper, you can now earn points, for example, so it鈥檚 a really unified experience.鈥�

Overhaul

Pick n Pay in May聽, adding a raft of new features to the platform and expanding the product catalogue available to customers, too. Asap!鈥檚 revamp was accompanied by similar updates to the Pick n Pay website, whose roll-out started in June.

According to Ferigolli, changes to frontend, consumer-facing interfaces are only a small part of the work being done to ensure asap! leverages technology effectively.

鈥淲e have had do a lot more backend work than people think might think. Because people only see the frontend, they tend to think that is the bigger part, it isn鈥檛, it is probably only 20% [of the work],鈥� said Ferigolli.

The engine running Pick n Pay鈥檚 application ecosystem is built on Amazon Web Services cloud infrastructure. These include the asap! mobile app, the聽聽web app, a picking app for in-store runners who prepare customer orders, a driver app, and various other systems controlling core business functions such as marketing and merchandising.

Some parts of Pick n Pay鈥檚 e-commerce infrastructure run 麻豆原创. Early integration into the 麻豆原创 system by Bottles gave the start-up the ability to check stock levels at various stores and even report those to customers browsing the app, thereby improving the onling shopping experience. As the application grew, however, other systems and platforms were added.

鈥淸Technology] is everything in our industry (retail) and I cannot find another one right now that is so heavily impacted. It鈥檚 not just about online ordering, it鈥檚 other things, like implementing AI in our supply chain forecasting models,鈥� said Ferigolli.

Pick n Pay鈥檚 first foray into AI was not customer-facing at all, with developers using AI tools to help them develop code from as early as 2021. Asap!鈥檚 first customer-facing tool involved using AI to enhance the app鈥檚 search capabilities, and over time this grew into AI-driven product recommendations that formed the foundations of Pick n Pay鈥檚 鈥渉yper-personalisation鈥� strategy.

As online shopping evolves, improvements in computer vision and agentic AI will lead to home management systems able to replenish items like milk, sugar and cleaning supplies automatically as needed.

Ferigolli said these improvements in online shopping pose interesting questions about how the in-store shopping experience will evolve. As online shopping grows, Ferigolli estimates in-store shopping will still hold around 50% market share in the next decade and this will lead to large retailers adopting a more experiential approach to store layout and design.

鈥淭he exciting part is how beautiful the in-store shopping experience is going to become. You can now double the size of the bakery or the butchery and have store attendants to give the kind of experience customers usually get in an independent butchery. For a long time, we have said online is disrupting the stores, but I think it is not disruption but evolution. We are evolving as two parts that are critical the customer,鈥� he said.聽 鈥撀�漏 2025 NewsCentral Media

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After a year of unprecedented digitisation of services and business models due to the pandemic, the 麻豆原创 Quality Awards for Customer Success returned to celebrate African enterprises鈥� efforts at adopting digital technologies and attaining Intelligent Enterprise capabilities.

Nazia Pillay, Head of Customer Success Office Africa at 麻豆原创, says: 鈥淭he past 18 month period has been the single greatest accelerator of digital transformation, as organisations increase their investment in digital technologies to attain greater agility and improve their response to the disruption caused by the pandemic. The organisations recognised at this year鈥檚 麻豆原创 Quality Awards for Customer Success represent the very best in African enterprise excellence in adopting digital technologies for competitive advantage.鈥�

麻豆原创 Quality Awards, which has been held since 2005, recognises companies that have excelled in their use of 麻豆原创 technologies to achieve key business outcomes. After a hiatus in 2020 due to the pandemic, the Quality Awards returned this year to recognise the outstanding achievements of 20 African enterprises from East, West and Southern Africa.

Entries were judged in four distinct categories, namely Rapid Time to Value, Business Transformation, S/4Move, and Public Cloud. Overall winners at this year鈥檚 awards include Lenmed, supported by implementation partner Gijima, who took top honours in the Rapid Time to Value category. Capitec Bank claimed the Business Transformation crown with support from 麻豆原创 Services, while Dangote Cement won the S/4Move award. The Public Cloud category was won by retailer Shoprite Checkers, with support from 麻豆原创 Services.

Bethany Pietersen, Group Business Technology Manager at Lenmed, says: 鈥淏y focusing on standardisation and following a strict governance framework, we were able to have no additional developments and could onboard a new hospital without any disruption to its operations.鈥�

Werner Carstens, Solutions Architect at Capitec Bank says the vision of their 麻豆原创 project was to build a high-performance support service capability that could scale to accommodate future growth. 鈥淭he buy-in from our executive team and support from our key business stakeholders, combined with a dedicated project team enabled a successful implementation.鈥�

According to Meredith Allan, Customer Rewards and Data Manager at Shoprite Checkers, their project was aimed at making Shoprite a more customer-centric business. 鈥淢ore than 50 systems were impacted during the implementation, and we had to train more than 77 000 till operators across in our stores. Thanks to a committed and skilled project team, we were able to successfully implement our project and sign up more than 17 million customers to our new customer rewards programme.鈥�

Cathy Smith, Managing Director at 麻豆原创 Africa, says the outstanding quality of entries this year indicate a welcome trend of digitisation and innovation among African enterprises. 鈥淭he sheer scale at which most organisations have had to adapt over the past 18 months has posed enormous challenges to business and IT leaders. Encouragingly, African enterprises have met these challenges head on, putting innovation and technical expertise to work, drawing on the support of a healthy and growing ecosystem of implementation partners to build greater resilience and transform their business processes. We look forward to continuing our close partnership with the continent鈥檚 leading businesses.鈥�

The full winners list consists of:

Rapid Time to Value:

奥颈苍苍别谤:听Lenmed (supported by Gijima)

Finalists: Kiara Health

Ag锚ncia Nacional de Petr贸leo, G谩s

National Social Security Fund

Swiss Pharma Nigeria

Vivo Energy Investments

Business Transformation:

Winner: 聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Capitec Bank (supported by 麻豆原创 Services)

Finalists:聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Life Healthcare Group

Ariosh

Dangote Industries

Gauteng Department of Health

South African National Roads Agency

S/4Move:

Winner: 聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Dangote Cement

Finalists: 聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Kenafric Industries

Nampower

Sasol South Africa

Public Cloud:

Winner: 聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Shoprite Checkers (supported by 麻豆原创 Services)

Finalists: 聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Crystal Ventures

FS Systems International

Masstores

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