On-demand grocery delivery services have mushroomed across South Africa, but none has captured the imagination quite like Checkers Sixty60.
Since its 2019 launch, the service has surged ahead of competitors, powered by its fleet of turquoise-liveried motorbikes zipping through neighbourhoods to deliver groceries and gadgets to homes, offices and hotels.
The Covid lockdowns supercharged demand. Today, it’s more than just a delivery mechanism. Children celebrate Sixty60-themed birthday parties, toy versions of the brand’s bikes are sold in stores, and teens even arrive at their matric dances driven on a Sixty60 bike.
It’s not that home deliveries are new. As long ago as the 1960s, local grocers in many towns would deliver fresh bread daily by bicycle to regular customers, and daily doorstep deliveries of milk were routine.
Thrupps, the upmarket grocer founded in 1892 in Joburg, delivered groceries to homes by horse-drawn cart as early as the late 19th century and after that by bicycle and branded vans. Now Thrupps is based in the suburb of Illovo and still offers same-day deliveries within a 10km radius for a fixed delivery fee of R47. These days customers call in, e-mail or WhatsApp their orders.
In Sixty60’s tech-centric world people can shop from their cellphones, desktops, tablets — even smart TVs — and select a delivery window that suits their schedule to the hour.
So what has Checkers done that has left its competitors struggling to catch up?
For one thing, there’s the tech behind the turquoise. Toby Shapshak, editor of Stuff.co.za, believes the key is in how the system was built. He says Neil Schreuder, Shoprite’s chief strategy & innovation officer, created the delivery arm and was able to build it on the foundation of an extensive store network.
Schreuder is also MD of ShopriteX, the digital innovation unit that fuses talent, tech and data science. ShopriteX has a team of 250 people working on data science, technology, media, digital commerce and personalisation, all aiming at a more “customer-centric” business.
Sixty60’s app is in a league of its own, says Shapshak. “Shoprite has shown how you can build a humble startup-like business inside a large corporate. It’s easy to be impressed with how it has won the delivery app wars. But it could only have been done if the underlying business and technology backbone could handle it. And it can.”
Shoprite’s tech spend tells part of the story. The group spent R7.7bn on capex in financial 2024, of which R1.6bn was on IT. That’s more than Pick n Pay’s R800m and Spar’s R500m capex in total.
Users can now shop via Sixty60 on the web from their computer. Before the launch of the Checkers e-commerce website earlier this year, Sixty60 was available as a mobile app and accessible on smartphones and tablets.
And the company’s loyalty net has expanded. Standard Bank has partnered with Checkers to offer UCount Rewards members with discounts. Last year, Discovery Vitality changed its retail partner from Pick n Pay to Checkers. (In November 2024 Pick n Pay launched a new partnership with FNB.)
Sixty60 has expanded far beyond groceries. Last year it introduced smaller white goods — so now kettles and irons can be bought alongside lettuce and cereal — as well as electronics and sports watches. It recently added pet food. It owns Petshop Science, which was launched in 2021 as a standalone brand.
Schreuder says Sixty60 is able to deliver the “final 5km” more efficiently than others. “We can do it faster and more affordably than normal online retailers,” he says, referring to local operator Takealot and global ones such as Shein and Amazon.
In-store pickers are trained to choose items with the longest remaining shelf life, and customers unhappy with quality can report directly through the app and receive instant refunds.
With the Shoprite group’s supply chain delivering millions of products daily to more than 3,000 stores, the last 5km are all Sixty60 needs to manage
Schreuder has described Sixty60 as “the most disruptive thing to happen to food retail in 40 years”. A key part of its success is its “closed-loop” measurement — tracking individual shopper habits across in-store and online environments, and measuring the effect of advertising campaigns through customer card swipes in stores and online.
The platform is powered by AI and machine learning to enhance the customer experience by learning constantly from data and improving over time. Zyla de Bruyn, Checkers’ head of digital commerce and development, says the company’s AI models now predict individual customer needs, enabling smarter, more personalised service and regular recommendations.
With the Shoprite group’s supply chain delivering millions of products daily to more than 3,000 stores, the last 5km are all Sixty60 needs to manage — and 80% of South Africans live within that distance of a Checkers or Shoprite store.
There are 630 Checkers, Checkers Hyper and Checkers LiquorShop stores in South Africa. Sixty60 is available in 601 of these locations, with 96 added in the past year. From March, Sixty60 began rolling out to selected Shoprite stores as well.
The app has been downloaded more than 5.2-million times. Sixty60 sales surged 47% by value in the six months to December 2024. It maintains a 95% on-time delivery rate, with an average delivery time of 33 minutes. This is the result of better planning and selection of products, not faster delivery.
All Sixty60 drivers are contracted to Pingo, a company initially established as a joint venture with logistics group RTT and now a wholly owned subsidiary of the Shoprite group. The 14,197 jobs created through Sixty60 since inception include drivers, in-store pickers and other support staff.
The number of drivers per store depends on factors such as order volumes, store location and delivery demand in the area. While Pingo is not obliged to provide independent contractors with insurance, it has negotiated comprehensive cover at favourable rates and all Pingo drivers are insured.
Drivers don’t pay for their own fuel. A fuel fee is paid per delivery, based on specific kilometre bands and adjusted monthly in line with the fuel price. Drivers are equipped with helmets if they don’t have their own of a similar protection level, as well as protective jackets, rain suits and other apparel.
Beyond its regular stores, Sixty60 now runs three high-volume dark stores (distribution centres that are not open to the public and are used only to supply online orders) in Cape Town (in Gardens, Maitland and Ottery) to support areas where demand exceeds in-store capacity. No doubt there will be more to come.
Meanwhile, competitors are playing catch-up. Pick n Pay relies on a combination of its own Asap! platform and Mr D. Woolworths Dash, Woolies’ on-demand grocery service, achieved 49.2% sales growth in the first half of financial 2025.
Spar is still trying to find its feet in this regard. CFO Reeza Isaacs concedes that “it’s no secret Sixty60 is making inroads, and we’re trying to play catch-up at the moment”. Spar’s Spar2U is active in only about 600 of its 2,500 stores. It has recently partnered with Uber Eats as a second delivery channel. Despite its limited reach, Spar2U grew delivery volumes by 174%, albeit off a low base, in the six months ended March 2025.
As to why competitors are lagging Sixty60, Anchor Capital investment analyst Robbie Proctor says it boils down to outsized investments made by Shoprite in its distribution network and technology infrastructure. This, he says, ensures better in-stock levels and consumer applications. “Another key aspect relates to Sixty60’s first-mover advantage,” he says.
Then there’s the brand and its resonance. A report released by Brand Finance in June says: “Checkers has emerged as the region’s strongest brand, with a brand strength index score of 97.7 out of 100. Brand Finance research reveals that Checkers earns outstanding domestic brand perceptions across several brand strength metrics, including likeability, consideration and recommendation.”
The report says Checkers outperforms global household names such as Walmart in the US, Coles in Australia and Marks & Spencer in the UK when compared with their respective home markets, which are larger and more competitive. It adds that Checkers’ reputation is driven by an outstanding pricing regime and overall brand experience.
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