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IOL News
26-05-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Pick n Play: Retail giant unveils sizzling new App to swipe back market share
South Africa's second-largest retailer, Pick n Pay, has reached its most significant milestone yet as it continues to try grab market share from rivals Shoprite and Woolworths. South Africa's second-largest retailer, Pick n Pay, has reached its most significant milestone yet as it continues to try grab market share from rivals Shoprite and Woolworths. The loss-making company is in the midst of a turnaround strategy, which targets operational and financial recovery. In releasing its results for the 53 weeks to March 2, it said that its headline loss – a key metric for analysts – improved from minus 172.3c to negative 61.54c. As part of its digital focus, it has launched a new app that pulls together its on-demand delivery service asap!, Smart Shopper loyalty programme, and value-added services into a single, next-generation platform. 'This new app is the biggest moment for Pick n Pay Online since we launched asap! in 2020' said Enrico Ferigolli, retail executive of Online at Pick n Pay on Monday, noting that this is the culmination of a four-year journey. 'Pick n Pay remains focused on innovation, adaptability and income diversification through its popular Smart Shopper programme, growing Retail Media capability, and omnichannel platforms, while expanding value-added services revenue,' it said in a statement to investors on Monday morning. Pick n Pay's new app – 'Pick n Pay asap! and Smart Shopper' – works off an AI platform and has a new user experience that targets making consumers' lives easier when they shop, save through Smart Shopper, and get their groceries delivered. These improvements are expected to drive strong growth in the coming year. The integration of AI means that it will learn from customers' shopping behaviour, offering smarter product suggestions and streamlining the browsing experience. 'Our AI helps customers find what they need faster or discover products they'll love,' said Ferigolli. The original asap! app will remain live until the end of September 2025, before the new app becomes the primary one. Despite making a loss, at Group level, with Pick n Pay as a segment yet to return to profitability, it noted in its annual results that its Pick n Pay's Online business, primarily asap! and PnP groceries on the Mr D app, continues to perform 'strongly'. Online retail sales for the 53 weeks to March 2 grew 48.7% year-on-year, with on-demand growing at 60%. 'Thanks to scale gains, the Online business is now profitable on a fully costed basis,' it said. In a statement to shareholders, the group said that 'while much has been achieved, the challenge to return Pick n Pay to a profitable and future-fit business remains very real'. It added that 'the path back to break even, profitability and ultimately long-term sustainable success is clear; and will be executed on in a considered and methodical manner'. CEO Sean Summers, brought out of retirement to fix the entity, said 'we have started to give much-needed attention to our core Pick n Pay supermarkets and we are pleased to see the early results in reporting positive like-for-like sales growth, notwithstanding the sustained pace of new store openings by our competitors in a restrained and competitive market'. However, getting its Pick n Pay unit right will take longer than expected as it's focusing on building 'retail muscle memory for long-term success'. It now expects this segment will reach breakeven in the 2028 financial year. Summers' contract has been extended to the end of the 2028 financial year. Its new app offers a basket limit of 45 items, access to over 35,000 products, and has grown to 600 locations across South Africa. In addition to the new app, – its online shopping portal – will relaunch with the asap! on-demand service rolling out from June, with streamlined logistics allowing the company to lower the delivery fee to just R35. 'This is just the beginning. In the coming months, we'll introduce even more exciting features to make shopping Pick n Pay easier and launch features to resolve customer queries faster, improving the overall delivery experience,' said Ferigolli. New features on the app, built for iOS and Android, include being able to select their preferred store, load multiple payment cards, place multiple orders at once, schedule deliveries outside of the standard one-hour window, and track orders. Customers can now earn and spend Smart Shopper points with every order, and soon, they'll be able to redeem personalised discounts and Club benefits. IOL
IOL News
26-05-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Pick n Pay launches new app, retailer's biggest milestone since launch of on-demand
The new app launched, designed for scale, integrates Pick n Pay asap!, Smart Shopper and value-added services into one app. Image: Supplied. Pick n Pay on Monday said it launched a powerful new app that brings together its on-demand delivery service asap!, Smart Shopper loyalty programme, and value-added services into a single, next-generation platform. The retailer said it is its most significant digital milestone since launching asap!. "The asap! back-end and front-end technology has been completely re-platformed over the past 18 months, resulting in the new 'Pick n Pay asap! and Smart Shopper' app. It features enhanced performance, AI-driven functionality, and a redesigned user experience that makes it easier for customers to shop, save, and receive groceries. These improvements are expected to drive strong growth in the coming year," Pick n Pay said. AI-powered performance, redesigned user experience, and expanded features aim to drive growth and elevate the shopping experience. Image: Supplied. The new app is in Beta until the end of September 2025, with new features and improvements being added every week. Pick n Pay added that its online business, primarily asap! and PnP groceries on the Mr D app, continues to perform strongly. "Online retail sales for the 53 weeks ending 2 March 2025 (FY25) grew 48.7% year-on-year, with on-demand growing at 60%. Thanks to scale gains, the Online business is now profitable on a fully costed basis," the retailer said. The new Pick n Pay asap! app offers a basket limit of 45 items, access to over 35,000 products, and has grown to 600 locations across South Africa. Growth in new and active customers continues, and average order values are rising as more customers shop for full-basket essentials, not just top-up items. While early growth was driven mainly by company-owned stores, the platform is now seeing significant adoption by franchisees, with triple-digit sales growth in FY25. 'This new app is the biggest moment for Pick n Pay Online since we launched asap! in 2020, a move that grew online sales more than elevenfold in under five years. It's the culmination of a four-year journey that began with the rapid rollout of on-demand grocery deliveries during the pandemic. Now, we've brought our online services into one seamless platform, a major step to accelerate growth and elevate the customer experience,' Enrico Ferigolli, Retail Executive: Online at Pick n Pay said. AI-powered performance, redesigned user experience, and expanded features aim to drive growth and elevate the shopping experience Image: Supplied. The app launch aligns with Pick n Pay's new strategic direction under CEO Sean Summers, which includes a renewed focus on online retail. 'The broader business has undergone significant transformation, and online has been no exception. We were given the green light to make bold changes, many long overdue, and we've completely restructured store operations and logistics to support our online growth,' Ferigolli further said. 'Just three months ago, up to 40% of our fleet was made up of cars. Today, 87% of our deliveries are done via motorbike. This boosts efficiency and speed and gives our brand greater visibility on the road. We are also reporting ongoing improvements in key operational metrics, including picking and delivery time. In just the first 11 weeks of FY26, we reduced our average delivery time by a remarkable 24%. This improvement has been made possible by the support and trust to make the overdue operational shifts needed to lay the foundation for scalable growth.' Built using modern technologies that are fully optimised for iOS and Android, the new app is designed to scale and evolve. 'We've created a future-proof platform that allows us to add features and improve services quickly for a much better user experience.' New features now available for asap! customers in the app include being able to select their preferred store, load multiple payment cards, place multiple orders at once, schedule deliveries outside of the standard one-hour window, and track orders. A new pre-authorisation payment system also means customers are only charged for delivered items, eliminating the need for a wallet or refunds. 'This is just the beginning. In the coming months, we'll introduce even more exciting features to make shopping Pick n Pay easier and launch features to resolve customer queries faster, improving the overall delivery experience." The app also uses best-in-class AI search that learns a customer's shopping behaviour, offering smarter product suggestions and streamlining the browsing experience. 'Our AI helps customers find what they need faster or discover products they'll love. For example, if a customer is browsing specials, we'll prioritise the deals they're most likely to purchase based on their past purchases,' Ferigolli said. The integration of Smart Shopper into the app also improves ease of use. For example, new asap! users will see their 'Buy Again' section pre-populated with their past purchases, even if the customer had not previously shopped asap!. Customers can now earn and spend Smart Shopper points with every order, and soon, they'll be able to redeem personalised discounts and Club benefits. The Smart Shopper section of the app lets customers sign up digitally, update their profile, and easily track their points and rewards. Meanwhile, the new 'Services' section allows customers to pay bills and purchase airtime or data, with more convenient features coming soon. To further strengthen its online offering, Pick n Pay's website ( will also relaunch with the asap! on-demand service rolling out from 1 June 2025. 'Millions of customers still browse catalogues and promotions on desktop, so the opportunity to convert that interest into online purchases is huge. These customers can now access the same fast delivery as our asap! customers without the use of the app. Website orders from 1 June 2025 will be picked from 600 asap! locations compared to the previous 47 stores allocated to orders, which allows us to lower the delivery fee to just R35,' Ferigolli added. With its upgraded logistics, fully dedicated picking team, streamlined customer experience, and fully integrated services, Pick n Pay is confident that the Online business is ready for its next growth stage. 'We now have all the pieces in place. Our latest upgrades enhance the customer experience and improve our efficiency and scalability. We're positioned to grow faster than ever,' Ferigolli said. BUSINESS REPORT Visit:
