Sixty60 now drives more than a third of Shoprite's growth - Neil Schreuder — Shoprite’s Neil Schreuder

Sixty60 grew sales 34.5% to R25.5-billion in the year to 28 June, according to a voluntary operational update Shoprite Holdings published on Wednesday morning – and on TechCentral’s calculations the delivery platform accounted for more than a third of everything the group grew.

Shoprite added R18.1-billion in merchandise sales from continuing operations over the year, taking the total to about R270.8-billion, up 7.2%. Sixty60 turned over R18.9-billion in the prior financial year, so the platform contributed roughly R6.6-billion of new sales on its own – about 36% of group growth.

Supermarkets RSA, which contributes 84.5% of group sales, added R15.2-billion for the year. Sixty60 sits inside that segment, and its R6.6-billion increase represents about 43% of it. Put differently, the app generated close to half the growth in Shoprite’s South African supermarket business.

Sixty60 is now equivalent to roughly 11% of Supermarkets RSA sales and about 9.4% of group turnover. A year ago it was 7.5% of the group.

The headline growth rate has come off: Sixty60 grew 47.7% in FY2025 and 34.5% this year. That is a base effect rather than a stall. The platform grew 34.6% in the first half, turning over R11.9-billion, which implies about R13.6-billion in the second half and a second-half growth rate of roughly 35%. The pace held all year.

For comparison, Woolworths reported Woolies Dash sales up 23% over the comparable half.

Pixie AI

Shoprite is not standing still. Earlier on Wednesday, TechCentral reported that Sixty60 has launched Smart Chat, giving Pixie — the Sixty60 AI shopping assistant that innovation arm ShopriteX built in-house — the ability to take text, voice and images, and closing the one capability gap between it and Pick n Pay’s Penny.

Chief strategy and innovation officer Neil Schreuder called the upgrade a “24/7 personal shopping butler”. Smart Chat rolls out in phases to Xtra Savings Plus subscribers over the coming weeks.

What Shoprite has not said is what any of it is worth. The group has disclosed that customers added more than four million products to baskets through Pixie since its April launch. It has published nothing on what the assistant has done to basket size, order frequency or conversion, the measures that would show whether AI is driving the R6.6-billion Sixty60 added this year or simply riding it.

The rest of the update

Adjacent businesses – the newer store formats built alongside the core supermarkets – grew sales 57.4%, down from 70.9% at the half-year mark. Petshop Science added 41 net stores to reach 185, Uniq Clothing by Checkers added 13 to reach 43, and Checkers Outdoor added three to reach 31. Little Me closed three standalone stores, ending with eight, as the group moves the brand inside Checkers Hyper.

Supermarkets RSA opened a net 262 stores to total 2 839, and grew like-for-like sales 2%. Internal selling price inflation measured 0.8% against Stats SA food and non-alcoholic beverage inflation of 3.9%, with Shoprite and Usave both in deflation at -0.1% and -0.6%, respectively. Checkers and Checkers Hyper grew 10%; Shoprite and Usave 4.3%.

Read: Checkers answers Pick n Pay in the grocery AI race

Supermarkets non-RSA sales rose 11% in rand but 7.1% in constant currency. Other operating segments, which include Computicket, Red Star and the franchise and pharmacy businesses, grew 3%, held back by the closure of 51 OK Franchise stores after a franchise agreement was mutually terminated.

Shoprite guided headline earnings per share from continuing operations of between 1 498.4c and 1 566.6c, an increase of 9.7% to 14.7% on the restated prior year. There were no share repurchases during the period. Full results are due on 1 September. — © 2026 NewsCentral Media