Checkers Online Shopping Bonanza – SAP Africa Information Center

This follows the success of Checkers Sixty60, which dominates the on-demand grocery delivery market in the country.

The company’s latest H1 results showed the on-demand grocery delivery service recorded a 63.1% increase in sales in the first half of the 2023/24 financial year.

Checkers Sixty60 contributed to Shoprite’s first-half sales growth, which increased by approximately R121 billion, representing a 13.9% year-on-year increase.

Shoprite recently launched an online on-demand delivery service aimed at supporting spaza shops and small retailers through its Cash & Carry wholesaler.

A fully automated online shopping system allows customers to browse and purchase a large range of goods in bulk.

This service offers competitive prices and free delivery within a 50km radius.

Mark Cotton, head of B2B e-commerce at Shoprite Group, said the service would help small businesses and spaza shops struggling with high transport costs and difficulty meeting demand.

“We are committed to supporting small businesses by providing innovative solutions to the specific problems they face,” he said.

Cotton added that the new service eliminates the need for companies to store excess inventory, which translates into greater cash flow and better times for business owners.

Shoprite said the new system has also improved the purchasing and order fulfilment process for retailers operating in cash & carry stores.

Merchants can access customer and product information, create and fulfill orders, and save orders for future reuse.

Customers using the platform can pay by credit and debit card, electronic transfer, in-store credit card, cash on delivery and through Shoprite money market accounts.

They can also benefit from additional savings and promotional offers through the Xtra Savings loyalty programme.

Shoprite and Checkers launched Sixty60 in November 2019, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Initially available only in select locations in Sandton, Johannesburg and Cape Town, the app had recorded over 3.1 million downloads by March 2023, and by September of the same year, that number had increased to 466.

While many believed that the popularity of the service was due to the lockdowns imposed due to the pandemic, once they were lifted, the service continued to grow at an incredible rate.

The company behind Zulzi — one of the country’s first successful FMCG apps — has developed an app aimed at Checkers Sixty60 customers.

In September 2023, Checkers Sixty60 launched the Xtra Savings Plus loyalty program.

The R99 monthly subscription gives customers unlimited grocery deliveries from Sixty60, additional in-store offers and personalised promotions.

Checkers Xtra Savings Plus subscribers receive the following benefits:

• Unlimited free Sixty60 deliveries with a minimum spend of R350 (non-subscribers pay R35 per delivery)
• 10% off in-store purchases up to a maximum savings of R200
• Dual personalized offers in app and store
• No long-term commitments, and subscribers can pause or cancel their subscription at any time with a money-back guarantee

At the same time, the company partnered with Discovery Vitality to offer the Discovery HealthyFood benefits.

“The addition of Checkers as a partner promises to deliver an even greater impact on health,” said Dinesh Govender, CEO of Discovery Vitality.

Shoprite’s chief strategy and innovation officer, Neil Schreuder, said the move would enable Checkers and Sixty60 customers to make healthier food choices.

Shoprite attributes much of its success over the past five years to its implementation of SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.

“When you walk into a Shoprite or Checkers supermarket and see the full range of products available, displayed, priced and with promotions clearly marked, that’s exactly what the ERP system does for us,” he told MyBroadbad.

He added that SAP also contributed to Sixty60’s success.

“SAP Retail provides the real-time inventory and sales records necessary to accurately fulfill customer orders,” Shoprite said.

“The ERP system also provides Sixty60 with promotional information, pricing, and item data, ensuring that prices at Sixty60 are the same as in-store prices.”

The software rollout has been a mixed bag, with Shoprite partly blaming the launch delays on a shock 2019 earnings report.

However, in January 2019, stakeholders were assured that the upgrades had been completed and that improvements were already being seen.

This article first appeared here: Checkers online shopping bonanza – Izmu