continues聽to invest meaningfully in technology as it battles for market share with Shoprite Group鈥檚 Sixty60 and other retailers in the fast-growing on-demand grocery delivery market.

Pick n Pay is in the midst of a turnaround after losing market share to competitors in recent years. In its 2023 financial year, it plunged into a loss 鈥� of a staggering R3.2-billion. Former CEO , who left the company in 2007, returned to the helm in September of that year to lead the turnaround effort.

Summers鈥� early bets appear to be paying off, with the retailer鈥檚 most recent update reporting Pick n Pay sales were up 3.6% year on year in its core South African supermarkets business for the 17 weeks to 29 June 2025. Turnaround efforts have included a partnership with First National Bank鈥檚 rewards programme. eBucks was previously partnered with Checkers.

Sixty60 got a head-start during the Covid-19 lockdowns when consumers 鈥� stuck at home 鈥� took to e-commerce with vigour. Around the same time 鈥� in October 2020 鈥� Pick n Pay acquired alcohol delivery app Bottles, which it would eventually use as the foundation for its own online platform, asap!.

Pick n Pay still has some way to go, though. Reports by both Pick n Pay and rival Shoprite last week show聽. But Pick n Pay is fighting back.

, who co-founded Bottles, now serves as head of online at Pick n Pay. Speaking to the聽聽in an episode that will be published this week, Ferigolli said recent changes to Pick n Pay鈥檚 customer-facing applications are only the tip of the iceberg in the retailer鈥檚 strategic tech arsenal.

鈥淚t started with a rebrand, and then we embarked on a journey whose first iteration we just concluded, where the app is now fully integrated into the larger Pick n Pay ecosystem. If you are a Smart Shopper, you can now earn points, for example, so it鈥檚 a really unified experience.鈥�

Overhaul

Pick n Pay in May聽, adding a raft of new features to the platform and expanding the product catalogue available to customers, too. Asap!鈥檚 revamp was accompanied by similar updates to the Pick n Pay website, whose roll-out started in June.

According to Ferigolli, changes to frontend, consumer-facing interfaces are only a small part of the work being done to ensure asap! leverages technology effectively.

鈥淲e have had do a lot more backend work than people think might think. Because people only see the frontend, they tend to think that is the bigger part, it isn鈥檛, it is probably only 20% [of the work],鈥� said Ferigolli.

The engine running Pick n Pay鈥檚 application ecosystem is built on Amazon Web Services cloud infrastructure. These include the asap! mobile app, the聽聽web app, a picking app for in-store runners who prepare customer orders, a driver app, and various other systems controlling core business functions such as marketing and merchandising.

Some parts of Pick n Pay鈥檚 e-commerce infrastructure run SAP. Early integration into the 51风流system by Bottles gave the start-up the ability to check stock levels at various stores and even report those to customers browsing the app, thereby improving the onling shopping experience. As the application grew, however, other systems and platforms were added.

鈥淸Technology] is everything in our industry (retail) and I cannot find another one right now that is so heavily impacted. It鈥檚 not just about online ordering, it鈥檚 other things, like implementing AI in our supply chain forecasting models,鈥� said Ferigolli.

Pick n Pay鈥檚 first foray into AI was not customer-facing at all, with developers using AI tools to help them develop code from as early as 2021. Asap!鈥檚 first customer-facing tool involved using AI to enhance the app鈥檚 search capabilities, and over time this grew into AI-driven product recommendations that formed the foundations of Pick n Pay鈥檚 鈥渉yper-personalisation鈥� strategy.

As online shopping evolves, improvements in computer vision and agentic AI will lead to home management systems able to replenish items like milk, sugar and cleaning supplies automatically as needed.

Ferigolli said these improvements in online shopping pose interesting questions about how the in-store shopping experience will evolve. As online shopping grows, Ferigolli estimates in-store shopping will still hold around 50% market share in the next decade and this will lead to large retailers adopting a more experiential approach to store layout and design.

鈥淭he exciting part is how beautiful the in-store shopping experience is going to become. You can now double the size of the bakery or the butchery and have store attendants to give the kind of experience customers usually get in an independent butchery. For a long time, we have said online is disrupting the stores, but I think it is not disruption but evolution. We are evolving as two parts that are critical the customer,鈥� he said.聽 鈥撀�漏 2025 NewsCentral Media

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As part of the BBC鈥檚 continued digital transformation journey, the move to the cloud will mean it鈥檚 simpler and more cost effective for the BBC to run its IT systems 鈥� helping it focus investment on high-quality services for audiences.

RISE with 51风流has successfully replaced the BBC鈥檚 previous model of separate contracts for use of data centres and software licenses 鈥� each which had annual maintenance, support fees and services. The organisations will roll out further updates over the coming months.

, BBC Chief Technology Officer says: 鈥淲e want to make sure we鈥檙e investing the most we can in services for audiences. By simplifying our IT services, we can focus on running our business and ensure we鈥檙e meeting the needs of our viewers and listeners.鈥�

鈥淭his marks a key moment in the BBC鈥檚 aim to streamline its business operations鈥�, added , Managing Director of 51风流UK and Ireland. 鈥淲e are delighted to partner with the BBC and our solutions, backed by the security and availability of the AWS Cloud, means the BBC has the ideal foundation to deliver on its promise to serve all audiences.鈥�

, Vice President and Managing Director, Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) at AWS, said: 鈥淲e鈥檙e delighted that the BBC has chosen to move its critical 51风流business systems to run on AWS. Our proven track record in delivering high-performance, secure, and scalable cloud services aligns perfectly with the BBC鈥檚 needs and enables them to improve performance, increase resilience and reliability, and accelerate their digital transformation journey with confidence.鈥�

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About SAP

As鈥痑 global leader in enterprise applications and business AI, 51风流(NYSE:SAP)鈥痵tands at the鈥痭exus鈥痮f business and technology. For over 50 years, organizations have trusted SAP鈥痶o bring out their best by uniting business-critical鈥痮perations spanning finance, procurement, HR, supply chain, and customer experience. For more information, visit鈥痺ww.sap.com.

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With proven business benefits for adopting cloud computing, the prediction of the global marketing intelligence firm, International Data Corporation (IDC) that 90 percent of businesses will use multiple cloud services and platforms by 2020, comes as no surprise. However, many businesses have dabbled in the cloud whilst retaining their legacy infrastructure or have taken a tactical approach to it, without making the necessary changes to their operating models to sustain long-term growth.

Accenture agrees that the cloud is indeed ready for fully committed, enterprise-grade computing, and we believe it鈥檚 time for businesses to future-proof their businesses by rebooting their cloud strategy accordingly. We also understand that migrating to the cloud is a journey, but this journey is not impossible, and it does not have to be overly long. However, it does require the use of appropriate approaches, subject to each business鈥� unique circumstances. Most importantly, the chosen approach should be strategic, rather than tactical.

Examples of companies who successfully adopted cloud computing through such a strategic approach include Exxaro and Mercedes-Benz.io.

Exxaro unlocks new revenue streams and ways of working with cloud

Accenture collaborated with Exxaro to help digitally transform its business and unlock new revenue streams by managing the migration of its 51风流solutions, and other centrally-run applications used by Exxaro business units, to Microsoft Azure. This supports Exxaro鈥檚 ambition to establish a secure, agile, cost-effective and scalable platform that will improve business processes and continuity.

Accenture created a cloud transformation strategy for Exxaro that defined the business case for migration to a public cloud, a move, which offered the lowest total cost of ownership, improvements to core systems resiliency, and the agility needed to meet customer demands.

In line with Exxaro鈥檚 requirement for a swift and secure transition, Accenture designed and built a cloud platform in the South African Azure data centers. This included optimizing Exxaro’s 51风流systems to take advantage of cloud architecture benefits and building a more resilient and available architecture to improve business continuity. Accenture then seamlessly migrated Exxaro’s enterprise applications, which included more than 280 Microsoft Windows virtual machines, onto Azure with minimal disruption, while also integrating multiple remote mining locations in South Africa.

Mercedes-Benz.io drives innovation and enhanced customer experiences through cloud

As Mercedes-Benz鈥檚 internal digital services provider, one of the responsibilities of Mercedes-Benz.io, is to help Mercedes-Benz reimagine how the company delivers digital marketing and sales solutions for customers globally. To that end, Mercedes-Benz.io sought to consolidate Mercedes-Benz鈥檚 fragmented online presence with a cloud- based solution dubbed 鈥淥neWeb.鈥� Mercedes-Benz.io teamed with Accenture to build and deploy a powerful Infrastructure-/Platform-as-a-Service solution on Amazon Web Service (AWS), which was subsequently rolled out to 22 companies initially (with 30 more in the queue).

With OneWeb鈥檚 rapid provisioning of compute power, Mercedes-Benz can now quickly respond to customers鈥� demands for information and functionality, thus delivering a better customer experience. Currently, more than three million unique visitors鈥� access OneWeb every month, and traffic continues to grow as new markets are added.

Establishing a business case to justify the cloud鈥檚 value proposition

From a business case perspective, there are many such case studies that demonstrate that cloud computing and as-a-service business models can create new and differentiating capabilities that can help enhance a company鈥檚 business strategy, drive competitive advantage and improve financial models. It is however critical to develop a solid business case for your cloud computing strategy right up front and to justify the cloud鈥檚 value proposition, especially as it relates to existing large investments in legacy technology infrastructure, including data centres. This should include evaluating traditional financial measures such as total cost of ownership, return on investment (ROI) and payback period. To maximise shareholder and business value, companies should also evaluate cloud benefits, key performance indicators and value realisation.

Common signposts on the cloud migration journey

As soon as you鈥檙e ready to embark on your cloud migration journey, it is important to note that the journey to cloud isn鈥檛 linear, and that one phase doesn鈥檛 necessarily build on another. The journey can be an intricate and multi- disciplinary exercise with many organisational dependencies. Every enterprise is unique and has different short- and long-term goals. Nevertheless, some common signposts on the journey to cloud can help guide you on the way. These include strategy and business case, operating model, applications, infrastructure, security, organisation, management and governance, and operations and managed services. Thinking strategically about cloud also involves a number of imperatives, including desired business outcomes, investment priorities, deployment model, service providers, talent sourcing and cloud policies.

Best approaches for implementing an enterprise cloud technology strategy

From an IT perspective, cloud technology requires IT teams to approach enterprise technology strategy in an entirely different way, focusing on three layers: infrastructure, applications and operations. It鈥檚 important to bear in mind that, when one transforms one layer, those actions then impact the other layers. The middle layer, the application layer, is a good place to start because of the positive ripple effects on the other layers. When one migrates operational applications to the cloud, that results in less demand for data processing and frees up server space. So, infrastructure is impacted (fewer servers are required), which then impacts operations (less effort and costs are required to maintain servers, effort that one can then redirect to more strategic business activities).

During their journey to cloud, organisations should consult experts in the particular domains of each layer, who also understand the interdependencies among those domains. Essentially, moving to the cloud is a complex endeavour and should be thoughtfully planned and executed. Companies need to carefully consider each component of the enterprise cloud journey both separately and in relation to others, because components can intersect at many different business points. Such an integrated approach enables companies to create a unique and successful cloud roadmap; ensure their plans are executed based on a strong foundational strategy; and ultimately experience an efficient and timely transformation that is aligned to their business goals and desired outcomes.

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