Shoprite Holdings has raised its earnings outlook as strong growth in its digital retail business gives Africa’s largest supermarket group an important source of momentum at a time when consumers remain under pressure.
The South African retailer’s Checkers Sixty60 on-demand delivery platform has become one of the company’s fastest-growing businesses, with sales increasing 34.6% during the latest reporting period. The performance is helping Shoprite offset some of the challenges facing traditional grocery retail and demonstrates how quickly online shopping is becoming part of the African retail landscape.
The development is particularly notable because Shoprite has spent years building an enormous physical-store network. Its latest results suggest that the company is increasingly combining that physical footprint with digital ordering and last-mile delivery rather than treating e-commerce as a separate business.
Sixty60 Is Becoming a Major Growth Driver
Checkers Sixty60 allows customers to order groceries and other products through a mobile application and receive them at home.
The platform’s sales growth of 34.6% demonstrates that consumers are increasingly comfortable shifting everyday purchases online. Earlier reporting showed even stronger growth, with Sixty60 sales previously increasing by 58.1%, underlining the rapid expansion of the service.
The significance of Sixty60 goes beyond the headline sales number.
Online grocery is difficult to operate profitably because delivery costs, picking orders and maintaining fast fulfilment can quickly eat into margins.
Shoprite’s advantage is its huge network of stores.
Instead of building an entirely separate warehouse network, the company can use existing Checkers locations as fulfilment points, allowing products to be picked closer to customers.
That gives Sixty60 an important structural advantage as order volumes increase.
Physical Stores Are Becoming Digital Infrastructure
Shoprite’s traditional stores are no longer simply places where customers walk in and buy groceries.
They can also function as miniature fulfilment centres for online orders.
This model allows the company to use inventory that is already positioned close to consumers.
The economics become more attractive as order density rises.
If more customers in the same geographic area place orders, delivery routes can become more efficient and the fixed costs associated with technology and logistics can be spread across a larger number of transactions.
That could help explain why Shoprite has been able to scale Sixty60 so rapidly.
The company is also integrating Sixty60 with its broader logistics operations, including Pingo, to create a more connected last-mile delivery network.
Earnings Guidance Has Been Raised
The digital growth comes alongside stronger overall operating performance.
Shoprite’s trading profit increased 5.9% to about 7.7 billion rand during the period discussed in its latest results. The company subsequently raised its earnings guidance, reflecting greater confidence in the underlying business.
That is important because rapid e-commerce growth would not mean much if it were simply producing revenue without improving profitability.
The challenge for Shoprite is therefore to turn digital scale into sustainable earnings.
So far, the numbers suggest that the company is moving in that direction.
Africa’s Grocery Market Is Changing
Shoprite operates in a market where physical grocery stores remain dominant.
That makes the growth of Sixty60 particularly interesting.
In developed markets, online grocery has been expanding for years, but African retailers face different challenges, including infrastructure limitations, delivery costs and differences in consumer purchasing behavior.
Shoprite’s model attempts to solve some of those problems by combining an established store network with digital ordering.
Instead of asking customers to completely abandon physical shopping, the company gives them another way to access the same products.
That hybrid approach could prove more practical than attempting to replicate the large centralized fulfilment warehouses used by some international e-commerce businesses.
Consumer Pressure Remains a Risk
The earnings upgrade should not be interpreted as evidence that the entire South African consumer market is strong.
Households continue to face economic pressure, and consumers remain sensitive to food prices.
Shoprite has historically benefited from operating across different customer segments, from value-focused Shoprite stores to the more premium Checkers brand.
That diversification gives the company some protection when consumers trade down.
But it also means management has to balance pricing, promotions and margins carefully.
The retailer cannot simply raise prices to protect profitability without risking market share.
Sixty60 Could Change Retail Economics
The bigger opportunity lies in the possibility that Sixty60 becomes more than a convenient delivery service.
If the platform continues to attract customers, Shoprite can collect valuable information about purchasing patterns, product preferences and shopping frequency.
That information can potentially improve inventory management and targeted promotions.
Digital ordering also creates more opportunities to cross-sell products.
A customer who routinely orders groceries through the app can potentially be exposed to other categories, including household goods, liquor, clothing and specialty products.
The more categories that move onto the platform, the more valuable the digital ecosystem becomes.
Scale Is Shoprite’s Biggest Advantage
Shoprite’s size gives it an advantage that smaller online grocery companies may struggle to replicate.
The group operates thousands of stores across its markets and has an enormous existing customer base.
That means it does not need to build demand from scratch.
It can convert existing shoppers into online customers.
This is particularly valuable because acquiring new digital customers can be expensive.
A retailer that already has strong brand recognition can potentially move customers from physical stores to digital channels at a much lower cost.
But E-Commerce Is Not Automatically More Profitable
There is an important weakness in the bullish story.
Rapid online sales growth does not necessarily equal rapid profit growth.
Delivery remains expensive.
Customers expect convenience, quick delivery and competitive pricing, while retailers must pay workers to pick and pack orders and compensate drivers for last-mile delivery.
The economics can become difficult if order values are too small or delivery routes are inefficient.
Shoprite therefore needs Sixty60 to achieve sufficient scale and order density.
Its existing store network helps, but it does not eliminate the challenge.
The Competition Will Increase
Other retailers are watching the growth of digital grocery closely.
As online demand increases, competitors will have stronger incentives to improve their own applications, delivery networks and digital promotions.
That could eventually make customer acquisition more expensive.
Shoprite’s advantage today could therefore narrow if rivals successfully replicate its model.
The company’s response is likely to depend on continuing to invest in technology and logistics while maintaining competitive prices.
A Broader Digital Transformation
The rise of Sixty60 reflects a larger transformation taking place across African retail.
Mobile payments, smartphones and increasingly reliable delivery networks are making digital commerce easier to operate.
Retailers that once relied almost entirely on physical locations are now building digital channels alongside them.
Shoprite’s experience suggests that the winning model may not be pure e-commerce.
Instead, the strongest retailers could be those that combine physical scale, digital ordering, data and efficient logistics.
That approach allows companies to use their existing infrastructure rather than attempting to recreate an online business from the ground up.
Investors Still Have Reasons to Be Cautious
Shoprite’s operational performance has improved, but the company’s share price has faced significant pressure during 2026.
One recent report indicated that shares had fallen roughly 37% since the beginning of the year, even as the underlying business continued to produce growth.
That disconnect suggests investors remain concerned about the broader economic environment and the sustainability of consumer spending.
It also means the market may be demanding more evidence that Shoprite’s investments in digital commerce can translate into durable earnings growth.
What Happens Next
The immediate focus will be whether Sixty60 can maintain growth while improving its contribution to profitability.
A 34.6% increase in sales is impressive, but the more important question is what happens to margins as the business gets larger.
If Shoprite can continue growing online orders while keeping delivery and fulfilment costs under control, Sixty60 could become an increasingly important component of the group’s earnings.
That would give the retailer a powerful combination: thousands of physical stores supporting a rapidly expanding digital platform.
For now, Shoprite’s earnings upgrade suggests management believes that combination is working.
The company is effectively turning its biggest traditional advantage — its enormous store network — into an advantage in the digital economy.
The broader lesson is that Africa’s e-commerce revolution may not be about replacing physical retail.
It may instead be about making physical retail smarter, faster and more connected to consumers through digital platforms.
Sixty60’s continued growth gives Shoprite an early lead in that transition, but maintaining it will require more than rapid sales growth. The company must prove that convenience, scale and technology can ultimately translate into sustainable profits.
