BRACKENFELL-BASED supermarket giant Shoprite Holdings registered a R4.5 billion “profitable” market share gain in the 53 weeks to end July.
This was claimed in the group’s latest investment presentation, which also quoted research group NeilsenIQ’s estimate that Shoprite supermarket brands – which include Checkers and USave – registered 28 months of uninterrupted market share gains.
NeilsenIQ estimated Shoprite’s South African market share gain at 0.94% in the trading period – a commendable achievement in an increasingly competitive market with rivals Pick n Pay, Spar and Woolworths all upping their respective gains.
The most impressive gain was seen in the LiquorShop brand, which managed a 2.5% market share advance.
Shoprite’s core South African supermarkets segment posted a strong 17% in trading profits to R9.4bn – showing an outstanding margin of 7%.
A key to future trading successes will no doubt be online innovation, and Shoprite will be buoyed by the strong performance from Checkers Sixty60 1 hour grocery delivery app.
Checkers saw 1.5m app downloads in the trading period with 1.5m of the orders delivered in less than 30 minutes. Sixty60 1 is now live in 233 sites, offering a choice of 17 000 products at in-store pricing.
Pieter Engelbrecht, the CEO of Shoprite, said there was no doubt that the digitally led future was already a day-to-day reality for Shoprite. “However, from an IT perspective, with the adoption of our single system of record a few years ago, the team has become increasingly collaborative and innovative. This way of working influences our daily decisions across the business and plays an increasing role in our ongoing success.”
Engelbrecht said this was evidenced by the growth in our supermarkets sales and gross margin and Shoprite’s ongoing market share gains.
“In addition to transforming how we operate, our IT re-platforming has facilitated and fast-tracked our transformation as part of our digital and data-led future strategy.”
He said the group had recently unveiled ShopriteX, a digital tech hub which blends data science, technology and digital talent to save customers time and money through innovation. “ShopriteX will use our rich customer data to create a ‘Smarter Shoprite’ and ultimately fuse the best of digital with our physical and operational strength across the continent.”
Of course, rival retailers are not sitting on their hands. Pick n Pay also wasted little time on capitalising on an explosion in demand for online grocery shopping during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns.
Pick n Pay reported that its online division responded very quickly and effectively, doubling its scheduled deliveries and working to launch a quick and responsive on-demand food and grocery app through Bottles.
Pick n Pay has subsequently acquired the Bottles business, and is now integrating various online channels under the banner of picknpay.com.
Woolworths recently reported its online sales had grown by 117.9% and comprised 2.3% of the group’s food sales.
The group now has an expanded Click-and-Collect offering and on-demand delivery service through Woolies Dash.1
