Pick n Pay coming after Checkers Sixty60 in South Africa

Pick n Pay has announced that its overhauled asap! delivery app is shooting the lights out, with the retailer’s on-demand grocery retail turnover having grown 40% year-on-year.

This growth was recorded in the first half of Pick n Pay’s 2026 financial year and came after the group underwent a complete technology transformation in April this year.

This comes as all of the country’s major food retailers continue to battle for market share in what has become the next frontier of food retail in South Africa.

Shoprite’s Sixty60 offering is currently the market leader, competing against Pick n Pay’s asap!, SPAR’s SPAR2U, and Woolworths’ Woolies Dash services.

In a press statement released on Tuesday, 2 December, Pick n Pay explained that its app continues to be profitable on a fully costed basis.

The retailer said its app has driven a 131% growth in first-time buyers since launch, with 78% of these new customers originating from the revamped platform. 

The service now offers over 44,000 items across 620 stores nationwide, supported by more than 2,500 drivers.

“The three full years of work to completely overhaul the app’s technology infrastructure, both on the back-end technology and on the front-end, have been worth it,” said Pick n Pay’s executive head for online, Enrico Ferigolli. 

The retailer said customers have particularly praised the ability to select preferred stores for delivery, access to Pick n Pay’s national network of hypermarkets with extended product ranges, and the functionality to spend Smart Shopper points.

The app’s search functionality has also been significantly enhanced with a refined artificial intelligence (AI) engine that delivers superior results. 

The intelligent search prioritises results based on individual shopping behaviour rather than simple keyword matching, and can even accommodate spelling mistakes.

“The large majority of shops start with a search, so we optimised this feature,” Ferigolli said. 

“This best-in-class search knows what you previously bought, prioritising search results that match your shopping behaviour.”

Alongside its revamped app, Pick n Pay also implemented a full website relaunch, which enabled on-demand ordering capability, resulting in over 200% growth in weekly website orders. 

Looking forward, the retailer said it will build on its partnership with FNB by introducing eBucks spending functionality in the asap! app in 2026. 

The retailer started participating in the FNB eBucks PayDay promotion in November, offering customers free delivery and special asap! deals on the 15th of every month.

“The FNB partnership has been extremely successful for us, and we continue to invest in it,” said Ferigolli.

“We have ambitious plans for further innovation in the coming year, including shopping lists, easy re-ordering of previous purchases, and meal planning features to help customers answer the question of ‘what’s for dinner’ more easily.”

The retailer will also integrate more Smart Shopper loyalty programme benefits into the app and continue working to optimise delivery speed and minimise stock-level impacts on customer expectations.

South Africa’s grocery delivery battle

Pick n Pay’s significant investment in its on-demand delivery services comes as retailers across the country are battling for market share in this highly competitive segment.

Shoprite’s Sixty60 offering currently reigns supreme, but all of South Africa’s major JSE-listed retailers have reported continued strong growth in their on-demand delivery services.

In Shoprite’s latest full-year results for the 2025 financial year, the retailer reported that its Sixty60 service grew sales by 47.7%. 

The service is now available in 694 locations, including five ‘dark stores’, providing Shoprite with one-hour delivery access to more than 80% of the addressable online market in South Africa.

Pick n Pay online business, which includes its asap! service and PnP groceries on the Mr D app, drove 48.7% online retailer turnover growth for the group in its 2025 financial year.

The retailer said the scale gains achieved have resulted in its online business now being profitable on a fully costed basis.

While no specific figure is available, the retailer’s website said its asap! service operates in over 400 Pick ‘n Pay stores, and is expanding its reach weekly.

Woolworths’ 2025 results revealed that its Woolies Dash service saw sales grow by 40% year-on-year.

Woolies Dash comprises 130 sites and one dark store, covering over 90% of the retailer’s customer base.

The retailer also revealed that the service is profitable on a fully-costed basis, with no supplier support, and said it would continue to scale Woolies Dash.

“South African online sales remain below global benchmarks. Nonetheless, we aim to grow our share, towards upper single digits in Food and double digits in FBH, while simultaneously improving profitability through scale, channel mix, and efficiency,” Woolworths said.

SPAR’s most recent full-year results were for its 2024 financial year, which revealed that the retailer’s SPAR2U offering had grown volumes by 380% year-on-year.

The retailer has not clarified whether the service is profitable, but said it would continue to scale the on-demand grocery delivery offering in line with evolving consumer needs.

The table below shows the number of sites where the four retailers’ on-demand grocery delivery services are available, based on their latest available full-year results.