Shoprite coming after South Africa’s major banks with new service

• Shoprite and Checkers customers can now purchase airtime, data and digital vouchers, all through Sixty60, and purchases are delivered instantly via SMS to either the sender or recipient, and no minimum basket value is required.
• The new service will include airtime and data from all of South Africa’s major mobile networks, the company said, and these services are already offered by the retail giant in its physical stores, with the expansion being prompted by changing consumer demand, and a report by Electrum found that the VAS industry had a market size of approximately R500 billion.
• The company referenced a report by Electrum, which found that approximately 95% of South Africans purchase either airtime or data, making it the most popular VAS offering, and while other retailers, such as Woolworths, Spar, and Pick n Pay have also entered the grocery delivery business, Shoprite has held on to a large share of the market.