Delivery bike battle in South Africa
South Africa’s online on-demand grocery delivery industry continued to record strong growth in 2025, with double-digit increases in order values and volumes for many providers of this service.
The platforms’ growth has also necessitated that they contract thousands more drivers — mostly operating on motorcycles — during the year.
The largest on-demand grocery delivery app is Shoprite’s Sixty60, which delivers from 740 of the retailer’s stores in all nine provinces in the country.
Sixty60 has facilitated over 100 million orders since its debut, and its personal shoppers, also known as pickers, are packing around one million products per day.
Shoprite recently told MyBroadband that the Sixty60 ecosystem had created over 16,009 jobs since launching in November 2019.
They include nearly 9,000 delivery drivers contracted to Shoprite’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Pingo. That is an increase of roughly 29% from the 7,000 it had a year ago.
These drivers primarily operate on motorcycles, but there are also many van drivers to fulfill larger item orders from Checkers Hyper stores.
The combination of drivers and coverage enables an average unscheduled delivery time of about 33 minutes and an average delivery distance of 3.6km.
Shoprite’s biggest rival, Pick n Pay, competes with Sixty60 with its Asap! service. While it still trails Sixty60 on many fronts, it has closed the gap across various metrics in 2025.
Asap’s order volumes and store footprint both grew 40% year-on-year in 2025, thanks to exceptional take-up from store franchisees. The number of stores supporting the service now exceeds 700.
In addition, its motorcycle drivers increased by 120% to around 2,000, while van and car drivers increased by 100% to 500.
The average delivery time for unscheduled orders on the service is currently 52 minutes. While not as fast as Sixty60, it is important to note that Asap does not offer a one-hour delivery promise.
“The fill rate on purchased items stands at 97%, underlining our constant investment and commitment to getting our customers the product they ordered on time and in full,” it said.
Asap app and Pick n Pay Online website upgrades
A major upgrade for Pick n Pay in 2025 was the relaunch of the Asap app in April, featuring integrated Smart Shopper support following a multi-year rebuild that involved complete back-end and front-end redevelopment.
The app has been well received by users, scoring an average of 4.4 out of 5 on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
The retailer also added on-demand ordering on a new website in June. The new app and website increased weekly online orders by 200%.
In addition to operating its own delivery service, Pick n Pay has partnered with Mr D to supplement its on-demand capacity. Mr D contracts with more than 15,000 drivers.
South Africa’s other two major grocery chains — Spar and Woolworths — also offer on-demand delivery services. Spar2U expanded from 525 stores in September 2024 to 636 by September 2025.
Spar South Africa e-commerce head Dax Puttergill said that its on-demand orders increased 153% year-on-year in November 2025.
The service has 754 of its own motorcycle drivers and another 1,500 drivers fulfilling Spar2u orders through its partnership with Uber Eats.
That partnership covered 421 stores by early December 2025 and saw a 136% increase in order volumes year-on-year in November 2025.
Spar2U also deploys larger delivery vehicles selectively at its top-performing and seasonal locations.
“The number of van drivers has remained stable year-on-year, supported by improvements in our multi-
drop delivery capabilities,” Puttergill said.
Woolies Dash also creating jobs
Woolworths did not provide feedback on the performance of Woollies Dash, but its financial results include some details about the service’s growth.
The last time Woolworths reported the number of stores supporting its on-demand service was in early 2025.
At that point, Woolies Dash was available from more than 120 stores. According to the retailer, these stores serve 750 areas.
It has also not shared exactly how many drivers are operating the service, although it has said Woolies Dash supports over 2,200 jobs.
In Woolworths’ latest reported financial period — its half-year ending June 2025 — Woolies Dash turnover grew 41.6%, boosting the proportion of online sales in the retailer’s food category to 6.6%.
South Africa’s newest grocery and general goods retailer, Walmart, also offers an express 60-minute delivery. However, it only launched in November 2025 and is currently available from just two stores.
The table below provides an overview of the scale of the largest on-demand grocery delivery services in South Africa.
These have been ranked by store footprints as drivers on some of the services must also perform take-away delivery and ride-hailing services.
| Service | Drivers | Grocery stores |
|---|---|---|
| Checkers/Shoprite Sixty60 | 9,000 | 740 |
| Pick n Pay Asap! | 2,500 | 700+ |
| Spar2U | 754 | 636 |
| Pick n Pay on-demand on Mr D | 15,000 (shared with restaurants) | 300+ |
| Spar on-demand on Uber Eats | 1,500 | 300 |
| Woolies Dash | Unknown | 120+ |
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