Pick n Pay - Afrikan Heroes

Pick n Pay Plans to Accept Bitcoin at Its Till Points

November 2, 2022

Pick n Pay has announced that it will soon allow its consumers to pay for groceries with crypto at 39 stores, and at all stores nationwide within months. Pick n Pay, which has been experimenting with cryptocurrency payments for several years, is expanding its crypto offering, allowing consumers to pay for groceries with crypto at 39 stores nationwide.

It plans to roll out the crypto service to all of its stores in the “coming months”, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

This ground-breaking development in the world of crypto follows the conclusion of a first phase of a new pilot by the retailer that allows customers to pay using cryptocurrency on their smartphones using a “trusted app”.

The transaction is as easy and secure as swiping a debit or credit card. Customers scan a QR code…

“While for many years crypto was something for specialists on their computers, or used by early adopters trying it out, things are changing. The Financial Sector Conduct Authority’s recent announcement paves the way for cryptocurrency as a mainstream method of payment,” the retailer said in the statement.

“Increasingly cryptocurrency is being used by those underserved by traditional banking systems, or by those wanting to pay and exchange money in a cheaper and convenient way. Many companies are responding to this by accepting bitcoin,” it added.

In its latest pilot, Pick n Pay said it tested a payment service technology that allows customers to buy groceries with cryptocurrency at till points with any bitcoin lightning-enabled app, including BlueWallet and Muun. The lightning protocol speeds up transactions on the bitcoin network.

“The transaction is as easy and secure as swiping a debit or credit card. Customers scan a QR code from the app and accept the rand conversion rate on their smartphone at the time of the transaction. The service fee for each transaction is minimal, costing the customer on average 70c, and takes less than 30 seconds.”

The retailer said it ran the pilot in 10 Western Cape stores over the past five months with pre-selected testers. This included Bitcoin Ekasi in Mossel Bay, which pays non-profit organisation The Surfer Kids coaches in bitcoin while simultaneously onboarding township vendors to accept bitcoin as payment. “As the local Pick n Pay store now accepts bitcoin, the coaches and children can spend their earnings more widely and conveniently than before.”

Pick n Pay has now extended the pilot to a further 29 stores for testing with customers, with the intention to roll it out to all stores in the coming months, it said.

The participating stores are:

Langeberg Mall, Mosselbay

Sedgefield

Stellenbosch Central and Stellenbosch Square

Paarl Mall

Willowbridge

Local Big Bay

Table Bay Mall

Cavendish

Kenilworth

Kenilworth Campus

Kenilworth Pam Golding

Seapoint

Waterfront

Mall of Africa

Mall of the North

Mall of the South

Menlyn Mall

Nelspruit

PnP on Nicol

Liberty Midlands Mall

The Pavilion

Tshwane Mall

Beacon Bay

Uitenhage

Bedfordview

Centurion

Fourways Mall

PnP Qualisave Carlton Centre

PnP Qualisave Diepsloot

PnP Qualisave Midrand

PnP Qualisave Rustenburg

PnP Qualisave Commercial Road

PnP Qualisave North Beach

PnP Qualisave The Workshop

PnP Qualisave Goodwood

Hyper Bloemfontein

Hyper Durban North

Hyper Northgate

Hyper Ottery

The retailer first started experimenting with bitcoin five years ago, when it ran a pilot in the staff canteen store at its head office in Cape Town. “It proved the concept, but the available technology at the time was too expensive for shoppers and it took too long to finalise the transaction to make it sustainable,” it said.

“This new technology means we can provide an affordable service for high volume, low-value transactions that will promote financial inclusion in South Africa,” said Pick n Pay group executive for IT, Chris Shortt.

Pick n Pay partnered with Electrum and CryptoConvert for the latest pilot. Electrum’s payment platform connects Cryptoconvert and Pick n Pay, letting customers pay with the bitcoin lightning technology at the till point.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

Pick n Pay Reports Double Online Sales

September 1, 2022

Retail giant, Pick n Pay has announced that its online sales nearly doubled in its most reporting period compared to the same period last year as shoppers warm to buying their groceries on the Internet.

The retail group said that in the 18 weeks ended 3 July 2022, total online sales, which include scheduled delivery, click and collect and its asap! on-demand online service, grew by 97.3%. It didn’t provide a gross value for the sales.

“Progress towards our goal of a step-change increase in online sales continues. The launch of a dedicated Pick n Pay food and grocery offer on the Mr D App is on track. The initial launch will be in a limited number of stores in August, with national coverage targeted by the end of February 2023,” it said in a statement to shareholders.

Much of the strong growth in online sales likely came from Pick n Pay asap!, which grew its sales by 300% in the year ended February 2022.

Delivery apps like Pick n Pay asap! and Shoprite Group’s Checkers Sixty60 have enjoyed strong growth since the Covid-19 hard lockdown in 2020 forced many consumers to consider online shopping for the first time, or to ramp up their online spending.

Pick n Pay earlier this year made “significant enhancements” to its mobile app and its in-store picking interface to simplify the user experience. This included improved navigation, ordering and checkout.

In May, Pick n Pay and Naspers-owned Takealot Group announced that they had signed a commercial services agreement that would allow customers to buy Pick n Pay food, groceries and liquor on a new platform on Takealot’s Mr D app.

“Pick n Pay will bring its tremendous expertise in running fresh food and grocery, its nationwide store network, and its leading Smart Shopper loyalty programme. The Takealot Group will bring its proven ability to satisfy online, its technical expertise, and its unrivalled delivery network,” the companies said in a joint statement at the time.

Pick n Pay CEO Pieter Boone said in the joint statement, in a clear challenge to Shoprite Group’s market-leading Checkers Sixty60 app: “There is huge potential for omnichannel retail in this country. Through this agreement with Takealot, we intend to regain market leadership in online grocery, and to do so in a sustainable and profitable way. We plan to increase our online revenue eight-fold by the 2026 financial year.”

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

Pick n Pay Partners With Takealot in Online Shopping Push

May 18, 2022

One of South Africa’s largest groceries retails outlet Pick n Pay is partnering with Takealot Group, a subsidiary of Naspers in a commercial services agreement that will allow customers to buy Pick n Pay food, groceries and liquor on a new platform on Takealot’s Mr D app.

“Pick n Pay will bring its tremendous expertise in running fresh food and grocery, its nationwide store network, and its leading Smart Shopper loyalty programme. The Takealot Group will bring its proven ability to satisfy online customers, its technical expertise, and its unrivalled delivery network,” the companies said in a joint statement.

The companies explained that under the agreement, when a customer opens the Mr D app, they will be offered a choice either to “buy groceries” or “buy food from restaurants”.

The Pick n Pay Smart Shopper loyalty programme will be embedded in the Mr D app. By clicking on “buy groceries”, customers will enter a dedicated Pick n Pay “food and grocery experience”.

“Customers will be able to browse and select the items they want to buy, and conveniently create their baskets. Once the order is submitted and paid, Pick n Pay will pick and pack the order from the closest Pick n Pay store. It will then be collected by a member of the Takealot delivery fleet and delivered to the customer.”

The Pick n Pay Smart Shopper loyalty programme will be embedded in the Mr D app so that customers will be able to earn points when buying Pick n Pay groceries on the Mr D app.

Pick n Pay CEO Pieter Boone said in the joint statement in a clear challenge to Shoprite Group’s market-leading Checkers Sixty60 app: “There is huge potential for omnichannel retail in this country. Through this agreement with Takealot, we intend to regain market leadership in online grocery, and to do so in a sustainable and profitable way. We plan to increase our online revenue eight-fold by the 2026 financial year.”

The companies plan to launch the service on a trial basis in the in Cape Town in August and to roll it out rapidly across the country so that it’s available nationwide by February next year.

The agreement between the companies comes as South Africans increasingly turn to e-commerce and on-demand shopping apps like Pick n Pay’s asap! and Checkers Sixty60.

Pick n Pay earlier revealed that Pick n Pay asap! grew its sales by 300% in the year to February 2022.

The retail group’s annual financial statements for the 52 weeks ended 27 February 2022 said that the relaunched app – previously known as Bottles – has enjoyed robust growth since its repositioning and rebranding. Pick n Pay did not disclose the revenue from asap! or even its percentage contribution to the group’s 2022 sales.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

Pick n Pay Partners MTN, Launches South Africa’s Newest MVNO

November 22, 2020

Leading retail chain, Pick n Pay has officially launched PnP Mobile – South Africa’s newest Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO). The service will use MTN’s mobile network infrastructure to offer customers prepaid, SIM-based access to services including airtime, data, and SMS. Smart Shoppers will earn data rewards in addition to loyalty points when shopping at any Pick n Pay store countrywide – including Express, Clothing and Liquor stores. They will also be able to earn up to 2.5GB in free data rewards each month.

Richard van Rensburg, Chief Technology and Services Officer at Pick n Pay

Sources say that for every R10 spent in-store, customers will instantly earn 5MB in data. To qualify for this reward, customers will need to link their Smart Shopper card and top up their PnP Mobile SIM card with at least R50 over a 30-day period. Customers will be able to register their new SIM card without any paperwork and within minutes through Pick n Pay’s new paperless RICA facility, expected to launch in 500 selected stores later this year.

“Mobile technology is core to South Africans’ way of life and an essential part of the monthly grocery shop. Our country has a very high mobile phone penetration, but data costs have been a barrier. We believe expanding our services to enter the mobile market will benefit millions of our customers,” says Richard van Rensburg, Chief Technology and Services Officer at Pick n Pay.

“This is an outstanding innovation for our customers, and we’re very excited about the extra benefits they will earn. Innovation has been absolutely central to creating South Africa’s favourite loyalty programme and this new Smart Shopper innovation means that customers walk out our stores with affordable groceries, points on their card and now free data on their PnP Mobile SIM card.”

“Our pricing will be simple, transparent and competitive with other providers plus we’ll be offering substantial free data rewards just by shopping in our stores,” adds van Rensburg.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

Pick n Pay acquires South African Delivery Startup Bottles

October 22, 2020

South African major retailer Pick n Pay has concluded an agreement to purchase on-demand delivery startup Bottles. This decision according to analysts might have been informed by the exponential growth and positive market results from Bottles in the last two years. It could be recalled that following the prohibition on the sale of alcohol in South Africa in March, Bottles repurposed its app within four days, emerging with a new offering to deliver on-demand grocery essentials to customers.

Pick n Pay chief executive officer (CEO) Richard Brasher

Since then, the app has achieved more than 700,000 downloads, with more than 350,000 registered users. The service offers over 7,000 products at store prices, with an average delivery time of 90 minutes. Bottles first partnered Pick n Pay in 2018, and have now been acquired by the retailer. The acquisition is expected to be completed by November, with Bottles founding members Enrico Ferigolli and Vincent Viviers, and key managers and staff, moving across to Pick n Pay.

The move will enable the retailer to build on the success it has achieved in partnership with Bottles in recent months, and further strengthen its online grocery business. “The past seven months have seen a surge in demand for online groceries in South Africa. Together with our franchise partners, we have responded by expanding the number of stores which deliver or offer click and collect services. Our sales growth has more than doubled, and we have seen a 200 per cent increase in active customers,” Pick n Pay chief executive officer (CEO) Richard Brasher said.

“In partnership with Bottles, we were able to introduce an on-demand grocery delivery service less than a week after the start of the lockdown. The Grocery Essentials offer has been hugely popular with customers, building on Bottles’s achievement as the best-rated app by customers in the sector.” Pick n Pay is, therefore, “delighted” to be acquiring Bottles.“It will enable us to build on the tremendous momentum we have achieved by integrating the Bottles business into our existing online offer, and applying Bottles’s agility, innovation and marketing flair across our platform,” Brasher said.

“Our aim is to have a business which customers can access anytime, anywhere and from any place. We already have two large online depots, and a home-delivery and click-and-collect network comprising over 150 stores. Bringing Bottles into Pick n Pay will give us another edge, and enable us to offer more services and more flexibility to customers in this rapidly growing area.”

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry