It is no secret that a lot of people have lost their jobs due to the Covid-19 lockdown, However Checkers Sixty60 has become the silver lining as the country continues to fight through effects of the pandemic. The app offers shoppers deliveries in as little as 60 minutes at a standard fee of R35.
After three months of successful beta testing, Sixty60 launched in a few neighbourhoods in the Western Cape and Gauteng in late 2019. Since the beginning of the lockdown, the initiative has created 800 new jobs to meet the increased demand for the grocery delivery service.
“Ever since the lockdown, order volumes have skyrocketed and Checkers rapidly expanded Sixty60 throughout the country to cater for the increased demand. Customers love the control of shopping from their couch, tracking the items as they are picked in-store as well as the delivery of the items in real-time from their phones,” said Neil Schreuder, Chief of Strategy and Innovation for the Shoprite Group.
Online retail may account for under 2% of total retail sales in South Africa, but the Covid-19 pandemic is encouraging consumers to switch to digital shopping and payment alternatives. At the peak of lockdown, Sixty60 had to adjust its delivery time from 60 minutes to same-day, but with an increased complement of employees, including hundreds of extra in-store pickers and drivers, the service has now returned to its original promise.
Checkers Sixty60 has become South Africa’s number two shopping application, with more than 700,000 app downloads thus far. The retail store will now be expanding the service to 25 new areas, including the Eastern Cape and Northern Cape, over the next two months.
