{"id":865753,"date":"2026-07-08T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=865753"},"modified":"2026-07-08T14:34:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T12:34:12","slug":"woolworths-and-pick-n-pay-are-coming-after-checkers-sixty60","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/865753\/woolworths-and-pick-n-pay-are-coming-after-checkers-sixty60\/","title":{"rendered":"Woolworths and Pick n Pay are coming after Checkers Sixty60"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Checkers Sixty60 is comfortably the dominant player in South Africa’s food delivery space, but Woolworths and Pick n Pay are introducing new systems to their on-demand offerings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since its launch in late 2019, just before the Covid-19 pandemic, Sixty60 has grown rapidly in South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the six months ending 31 December 2025, Checkers Sixty60 saw sales increase by 34.6% to R11.9 billion. The on-demand delivery platform is available at over 870 stores nationwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sixty60 is far larger than its competitors’ offerings, including Woolies Dash, Pick n Pay asap! and SPAR2U. However, the challengers are attempting to increase their share of the pie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woolworths has recently opened another dark store in Wynberg, Cape Town, as per its expansion plans for Woolies Dash. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dark stores are different from ordinary stores and are only used to manage logistics for last-mile deliveries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woolworths said that the new facility is designed to improve the speed, reliability and product availability of Woolies Dash for customers across the Southern Suburbs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said that this will allow it to meet the increasing demand for convenient shopping with rapid delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wynberg was selected as the latest site due to its strategic location within the local catchment area, allowing it to serve a growing base of online customers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur online channels continue to experience strong growth, with Woolies Dash playing a central role in driving this momentum,\u201d says Bradley Nitsckie, Chief Supply Chain Officer at Woolworths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs more customers choose online grocery shopping, we are focused on strengthening our fulfilment network to deliver the speed, availability and convenience they expect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new facility is also expected to improve the Woolies Dash customer experience by expanding the online range and improving access to delivery slots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With another dark store already in Cape Town’s city bowl, the group plans to offer additional dark stores across South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The facility will also create dedicated operational roles, supporting local employment and developing new skills within the online fulfilment sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notably, while Woolworths is rolling out its dark stores, Checkers has already launched six dark stores across the Western Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pick n Pay’s new AI system <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On the tech side, Pick n Pay asap! recently launched the AI-powered grocery shopping companion, Penny, which is powered by Google’s Gemini models. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new system went live on 6 July 2026 on the asap! app and will roll out to all customers throughout July. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of manual searches, customers will simply be able to ask Penny what they need using their voice, which will then build the basket. Customers can also use text and images for searches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“On-demand delivery changed how people shop. AI is now changing how they order,” said Enrico Ferigolli, Retail Executive: Omnichannel at Pick n Pay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“For years, the focus has been on faster delivery. The next disruption is removing the effort from shopping itself. Consumers no longer just want speed; they want shopping apps to think for them.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For every request, Penny will also recommend products based on customers’ preferences, including quantity, brand and price. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the system is integrated with Smart Shopper, it can also personalise recommendations based on previous purchases and shopping habits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the new system is a huge technological advancement for asap!, it still comes after Sixty60 launched its in-app companion, Pixie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pixie is also designed to predict individual shoppers’ needs, suggest regular restocks, and present a basket to customers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Checkers Sixty60 is the dominant on-demand grocery platform in South Africa, but Woolies Dash and Pick n Pay asap! are improving their digital offerings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":865807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2074833636839325891","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[5223,4067,949],"class_list":["post-865753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-checkers","tag-pick-n-pay","tag-woolworths"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865753"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":865811,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865753\/revisions\/865811"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}