Shoprite, SA’s largest retailer and the owner of Checkers and Usave, said on Tuesday that its on-demand platform, Sixty60, grew sales by almost 35% to R25.5 billion, adding a record R6.6 billion in sales.
- Shoprite CEO Pieter Engelbrecht says rivals can replicate the group’s 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’s sales, and is now gaining traction at Shoprite-branded stores.
- Anchor Capital analyst Steph Erasmus called Shoprite the “gorilla in the room”, 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 – money the retail giant has already committed.
And even then, SA’s 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’ on-demand platforms and apps pose to Shoprite, CEO Pieter Engelbrecht said while a Sixty60 platform and its app features can be replicated, it’s “going to take time and money”.
“And that doesn’t mean we’re standing still. Every single day, we are improving on [Sixty60]. That’s why you can now ‘ask’ [through Pixie] Jamie Oliver what’s for dinner on the app. You can take a picture of your shopping list, and Pixie will understand your language and your writing.”
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 “not so unique that nobody else can do it”; 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 SAP enterprise resource planning platform, introduced in 2017, which serves as its “core system of record” 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.
“There 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’re doing something or adding something to it to make the experience better. In the end, it boils down to your level of execution.”
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’s current “level of execution”.
He rated the Sixty60 platform against rival platforms in the market and said it came out on top.
“I tested it all. For me, there is no question that Sixty60 is the best online platform. It’s reliable. That is logically driving the behaviour of customers because they have a great experience.”
This may explain why it continues to command such strong growth – 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.
‘Definitely a need’
Engelbrecht said while Shoprite Sixty60 was not expected to grow as fast as Checkers Sixty60, the group was still “very surprised” by the level of acceptance shown by Shoprite customers.
He said their basket size was “slightly smaller” than Checkers shoppers’ baskets, but it was “still profitable … There’s definitely a need for it.”
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.
“It’s a single delivery, but it’s 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’s 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 SAP S/4HANA platform for financial systems and HR over the next three years.
Engelbrecht also said there were “lots of opportunities” 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 “slowly but surely starting to contribute”.
“We’ve still got a long way to go with Outdoor, Uniq by Checkers, Petshop Science, and Medirite Plus,” 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 “gorilla in the room”.
“They 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.”
Erasmus agreed with Engelbrecht about rivals being able to copy the Sixty60 model, saying it “is going to take a lot of ammo and a lot of time”.
“I 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.”
This article first appeared on News24.
