Suren Naidoo Pick n Pay | Image: Supplied Bottles – the on-demand delivery app recently acquired by Pick n Pay (PnP) – has now been integrated into the JSE-listed retail giant’s online offering, which means customers can expect a wider range of products on the app, extended delivery hours, no additional service fee, and expanded coverage for the same-day delivery service. This was confirmed in a statement on Tuesday, with PnP adding that customers would now “only pay the delivery fee of R35” for ordering via the app. The delivery fee is the same as that of the hugely successful Checkers Sixty60 service, launched by Shoprite Group last year.
First published by Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper
Woolworths group CEO Roy Bagattini offered shareholders and customers a frank mea culpa about the retailer’s online shopping offering that flopped during South Africa’s hard Covid-19 lockdown.
“Our e-commerce was fledgling and, to be candid, we were caught a little short during the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Bagattini in September during Woolworths’ 2020 annual results presentation.
A Woolworths internal survey found that 14% of its customers in South Africa started shopping online for the first time during lockdown. But the company’s online shopping – mostly for food – was a nightmare for customers who avoided frequenting the retailer’s brick-and-mortar stores during the first wave of Covid-19 infections. They had to wait days for online orders to be delivered. The unlucky ones waited weeks for new delivery slots to open.
PnP was a forerunner in expanding into online grocery retail in South Africa years ago. However, Checkers Sixty60 has disrupted the local market over the past year with its âdelivery within 60 minutesâ grocery service, stealing a march on competitors including PnP, Woolworths and Massmartâs Game and Makro chains.
In fact, Woolworths also plans to take on its rivals in the booming on-demand food and grocery delivery space, with the group teasing consumers last month in a tweet about the launch of its âWoolies Dashâ service.
Woolworths has been mum about the new service since posting the tweet, but on Wednesday (23 December) confirmed that it would now be piloting Woolies Dash in select locations. Woolworths has a strong online shopping offering, but has historically struggled with same-day deliveries.
âWoolies Dash will see Woolworths become the first and only retailer in South Africa to pioneer and offer store-to-door cold chain within an on-demand service of this kind,â Woolworths said in its statement.
âThis also sets a new benchmark for cold-chain, which includes the latest world class refrigeration technology in a lightweight carrier,â it added.
Branding yet to be revealed
Unsurprisingly, the group did not provide visuals of what the concept looks like just yet, as competition between the trio of Cape Town-based retailers (Shoprite/Checkers, PnP and Woolworths Food) hots up.
Woolworths is known to have one of the most comprehensive fresh food cold-chains in the local market.