Checkers Sixty60 app is the biggest on-demand grocery delivery service in South Africa, and it has another on-demand delivery service — Zulzi — to thank for the successful platform.

Zulzi built the initial Checkers Sixty60 platform and is still maintaining it, including the customer app, the app used in stores, dashboards, the order allocation engine, and integration with SAP POS.

MyBroadband asked Zulzi about its involvement in developing Checkers’ original on-demand platform and since it revamped it.

“Yes, Zulzi built the initial Checkers platform, and we are still maintaining it. Zulzi still plays a major role, with over 34 Engineers, project managers, and quality assurance coming from Zulzi,” it said.

It also provided background information about Zulzi’s operations, which extends beyond on-demand grocery deliveries to liquor and pharmaceutical deliveries from seven dark stores.

Pharmaceutical deliveries include prescriptions where users can upload their script to the app and claim from their medical aid scheme in real time.

“The Zulzi platform was recently revamped and is currently processing over 5,000 daily orders from our own dark stores,” the company said.

“Our dark stores are located in Johannesburg North, Pretoria and Centurion. We have continued to grow at 80% year on year, and we currently have 300 drivers on our network.”

Zulzi said its current average delivery time is 17 minutes from a customer placing an order to it arriving at their address. The service is available seven days a week from 06:00 to 23:00 daily.

Founder Vutlharhi “Donald” Valoyi launched the company in 2013 with the intention of improving the speed at which online shopping packages are delivered in South Africa.

In 2015, Zulzi started delivering books and electronics to students within an hour, and its user base grew rapidly.

Zulzi appointed Michael Netshipise as chief technology officer to capitalise on the growth. He developed a platform which made it possible to order various products online and get them within 60 minutes.

Zulzi’s exceptional growth grabbed the attention of major retailers in South Africa, including Checkers.

Valoyi said Checkers was interested as it had no legacy systems at the time.

“We started to chat to them when they realised that we could build world-class systems that address some of their complex problems,” he said.

This included a new system for replacing missing products in real-time, a major challenge in online grocery retail.

Zulzi built the customer-facing app, the engine that manages product catalogues, and a dashboard to administer orders, users, and store managers.

It was an immense success, with Checkers Sixty60 quickly becoming a leader in the space.

“Sixty60 has been a huge success and an example of what we can do when we work together,” said Valoyi.

“Big corporations must be more flexible and be open to work with startups and allow them freedom to continue to grow.”

Checkers Sixty60 winning streak

Shoprite-owned Checkers launched the Sixty60 platform in November 2019, and it has reported strong sales growth each year.

The company’s latest operational update for the year ended 30 June 2024 revealed that sales on the platform grew by 58.1%.

The platform launched as the Covid-19 pandemic broke out and South Africa entered its lockdown. It was initially only available in select areas of Sandton, Johannesburg, and Cape Town.

“Sixty60 will offer unrivalled convenience because it does all the hard work for you,” said Shoprite Checkers chief on innovation and strategy Neil Schreuder said at the time.

“In our time-pressed society, providing consumers with a swift, on-demand grocery delivery service is like giving them back time: today’s most precious commodity.”

“The name Sixty60 captures the service’s main ambition: for customers to order groceries in sixty seconds and have them delivered in as little as sixty minutes,” he added.

Many believed that the online grocery delivery market would die down after Covid-19 lockdowns were lifted. However, services like Checkers Sixty60 have continued to grow.

Within 18 months, Checkers Sixty60 climbed to the top of the list of South Africa’s top grocery shopping apps, with more than 1 million downloads.

By December 2023, Checkers Sixty60 downloads stood at over 4.5 million, and the service expanded to 505 stores.

This article first appeared on MyBroadband.