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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Despite major electricity challenges and consumer spending pressure during the period, South Africa鈥檚 biggest grocery retailer has seen its sales and net profit grow by annual average rates of 7.4% and 4.1%, respectively.

The latter might not seem particularly outstanding, but it is impressive compared to Shoprite鈥檚 closest rival, Pick n Pay, which only saw its profit grow by an average of 0.6% over the same period.

The Shoprite Holdings share price on the JSE has reflected significant investor confidence in the company鈥檚 trajectory.

From R194.26 per share on 9 November 2018, the price had climbed to R248.04 per share on 8 November 2023, an increase of about 28.5%.

Shoprite鈥檚 most recent integrated report specifically acknowledged 51风流ERP鈥檚 role聽in achieving its operational efficiencies.

鈥淥ur considerable base of 2,791 corporate-owned and managed stores, combined with our enterprise-wide IT system (51风流ERP), provides us with a proximity and platform advantage when it comes to executing our daily operations and delivering on strategic plans,鈥� Shoprite said.

The retailer started using SAP鈥檚 human resource and finance software in the late 1990s.

Its rollout of 51风流Retail 鈥� an integrated ERP system for retailers 鈥� was completed at all its stores and distribution centres in 2018.

This initiative saw the highest number of stores of any 51风流customers in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa go live with the software within a year.

鈥�1,819 stores, 30,355 users and nine distribution centres moved onto 51风流within 12 months,鈥� Shoprite said.

There are roughly 16,000 Shoprite employees on 51风流ERP at any given time.

Shoprite told MyBroadband that 51风流ERP provided an accurate and complete view of its business to drive strategic decision-making.

鈥淚t supports many aspects of our business 鈥� from supply chain to store,鈥� Shoprite said.

鈥淸It also] enables legislative governance and compliance across borders, as well as enabling our online and e-commerce offerings.鈥�

In addition, the retailer said that 51风流ERP was core to business processes such as listing, pricing, ordering, and ensuring that Shoprite鈥檚 inventory was well managed.

鈥淲hen you walk into a Shoprite or Checkers supermarket and see a full range of products stocked, displayed, priced and with promotions clearly marked, that is what the ERP system does for us,鈥� Shoprite said.

Some of the specific areas in which 51风流ERP supported Shoprite鈥檚 efficiencies include:

• Production forecasting in the Fresh department.
• Receiving of goods, where 3-way matching of invoices allows us to identify claims and shortages immediately.
• Managing article master data, prices and assortments per store.
• Centralised ordering of stock and document/data sharing with suppliers.
• Ensuring on-shelf availability through real-time sales and stock visibility.
• Enabling complex bonus buys and promotion structures for Xtra Savings customers.
• Giving customers a view of their total lifetime savings on their Xtra Savings card.
• Exception management enabled by mobile technology.

The retailer added that 51风流ERP also enforced a consistency of processes across all of its stores, simplifying operations and providing a reliable customer experience.

With a single source of data and reporting, there are no disputes arising from different sources of information.

鈥淭he whole business works off the same set of authoritative reports and KPI dashboards, which eliminates noise and supports strategic and operational decision-making,鈥� Shoprite said.

Shoprite also explained how one of its major successes over the past few years 鈥� its on-demand delivery service Checkers Sixty60 鈥� benefitted from 51风流ERP.

鈥�51风流Retail is the source of the stock ledger and real-time sales, which are essential for accurate fulfilment of customer orders,鈥� Shoprite stated.

鈥淭he ERP also provides promotional information, prices and article data to Sixty60, which ensures that the prices on Sixty60 are the same as the prices in-store.鈥�

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Despite depressed consumer confidence levels, rising inflation and the increasing cost of living that could have had a severely negative effect on the sector, the latest BER Retail Survey found .

The recently concluded Black Friday promotion period is another ray of optimism for the sector. , Black Friday sales are expected to again surpass Christmas sales in South Africa this year.

The consumer research company found that the 2021 Black Friday week surpassed the biggest festive season sales week, with sales of fast-moving consumer goods baskets 23% higher than the average of all other month-end weeks in 2021.

Smart adoption of tech driving retail innovation

While bargain-hunting by cash-strapped consumers certainly contributed to the retail success of Black Friday and other promotional periods, there are larger forces at play. The retail sector’s resilience in the face of severe disruption can also be ascribed to its accelerated adoption of digital technologies that has unlocked new innovations.

For example, the Shoprite Group’s omni-channel retail offerings saw a rapid release of its on-demand delivery service Sixty60 across South Africa. Despite only launching in 2020, Sixty60 Its appeal to the always-on Gen Z consumers entering the customer pool has helped establish Sixty60 as the dominant force in on-demand grocery services, beating out more established competitors.

The fulfilment of online grocery purchases could see retailers introduce their own delivery services, as Sixty60 has done. But other retailers have pursued partnerships to avoid having to invest in new processes and infrastructure. Retailers can provide an excellent customer experience by establishing smart partnerships with expert fulfilment partners.

Africa’s largest e-commerce retailer Jumia with instant delivery service Zipline to employ the use of drones to enable quick on-demand deliveries.

German drone delivery service Wingcopter also in Africa to aid delivery.

The blending of physical and online retail is also giving rise to new customer experiences. South African retailer Woolworths recently piloted a new service where customers can virtually try on clothes or makeup to see how they’d look before they make a purchase.

As adoption of online commerce accelerates over the coming years, customers can expect to see more innovation in how retailers leverage technology to deliver great customer experiences.

Beating retail adversity

It’s not all good news for retailers though. Most retailers face severe disruptions to their supply chains. A recent survey among US business leaders found that ongoing supply chain issues are causing widespread challenges, including a decrease in revenue (58%), inability to pay employees (50%), and the need for new financing measures such as business loans (54%).

Supply chain gridlocks stemming from lockdown pressures in China means retailers can’t always ensure products are on the shelf. This is giving rise to retailers increasing their stock thresholds just in case supply chain issues cause聽 product shortages .

Many retailers are also pushing into new product and service categories. For example, Shoprite’s money market account, designed for cost-sensitive consumers and launched in 2020, .

The appeal of the service is two-fold: there are almost no account fees aside from a R5 withdrawal fee, and customers can do their banking while in-store聽 grocery shopping.

3 priorities for retail success in 2023

Retailers can continue their golden run in the year ahead by focusing on a small handful of key priorities.

Firstly, retailers can enhance their use of big data and analytics to guide the development of new services and innovation. Many retailers have a wealth of customer purchase data that can be mined for insight into personalised products, offers and experiences.

Whether purchasing online or in-store, customers seek personalised shopping experiences tailored to their needs and preferences. This can take the form of personalised marketing offers, discounts or rewards, and ensuring product suggestions and sales items are relevant to each customer.

Clothing retailers can take it a step further by tracking customer purchases to understand what styles and types of clothing a customer prefers, and offer similar products or even offer to tailor-make clothing items based on the customer’s preferences, body type, and more.

Secondly, retailers could develop tailored subscription services for certain types of customers.

For example, a pharmacy retailer could use loyalty data to better understand which customers are purchasing baby products. Because of the repeatable nature of purchases such as nappies and baby formula, a smart retailer could introduce a subscription service to qualifying customers that ensures a regular delivery of key baby items.

This would ensure repeat business for the retailer while giving new parents a positive customer experience by removing the need to constantly go to the shop to stock up on essentials.

Finally, retailers should enhance their human capital management capabilities. With customer expectations for great personalised service at an all-time high, retailers that want to win the hearts and minds of customers need to ensure in-store staff can deliver a consistently great customer experience.

It’s no longer enough that in-store staff simply stock shelves and process purchases. Smart retailers will invest in attracting and retaining top talent to ensure in-store staff can provide helpful information, guidance and support to customers during their purchases.

Retailers may choose to partner with technology providers that have the experience and global insight to guide how technology is deployed to assist with the above three priorities. For retailers that get it right, there is practically no limit to their success over the coming years.

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