Pick n Pay pilots Takealot pickup point in Cape Town

Grocery, home and clothing retailer Pick n Pay has further tightened its relationship with online-only retailer Takealot by housing a new pickup counter at Pick n Pay’s Table Bay Mall store in Cape Town for the Naspers-owned e-commerce company.

The project which officially launched in mid-December 2022 at the store has potential to be further rolled out at the JSE-listed retail giant’s wide network of stores – more than 2 000 – should it prove viable.

In the immediate future, Pick n Pay says it is keen to roll out the offering to more of its stores in the coming weeks.

“We aim to run the pilot for three months to gauge the value it provides customers, but the results after two weeks are already very promising,” says the retailer’s head of general merchandise in omnichannel operations, Ansgar Pabst.

This new venture – if rolled out across the country – will mean that Takealot customers will be able to pick up their Takealot orders (except for very large appliances) from Pick n Pay stores. On the other hand, Pick n Pay will benefit from increased footfall to its stores.

Convenience

The retailer says collections at the Takealot pickup counter will be open in line with the operating times of the store and customers will be able to schedule pick-ups to their convenience.

“We are thrilled to be piloting our first Takealot Pickup Point in Pick n Pay,” says Takealot.com CEO Frederik Zietsman.

“We see it as a great way to create more convenience for our shoppers by offering them a hassle-free, fast way to pick up their Takealot orders while shopping for groceries in Pick n Pay,” he adds.

Read: How Pick n Pay wants to win

“We always engage with our customers so that our stores and services adapt to changing online retail trends,” says Pabst.

“As customers increasingly shop online, we experiment with new options to make it as easy and convenient for them to get the products they want, when they want, with as much ease as possible.”

A long-term marriage

Pick n Pay seems to have found a growth partner in the Takealot Group and the parties seem motivated to extend the partnership.

In October 2022, the two giants announced a commercial services agreement. At the time, all that was mentioned was that Pick n Pay customers would be able to order groceries – at the same price as in store – on the Mr Delivery (Mr D) app.

Mr D is Takealot’s on-demand food delivery service which is in tight competition with UberEats – an arm of Uber.

Less than three months since the launch of this offering, according to Pick n Pay, the on-demand grocery and liquor shopping experience via the Mr D app has grown to over 300 of the retailers stores across the country.

This is noteworthy growth that will help the retailer catch up with Shoprite’s Checkers on-demand offering Sixty60 which has undoubtedly been the frontrunner in the space since the Covid pandemic necessitated the presence of on-demand food delivery in 2020.

Read:
Online retail sales pass the R50bn mark: study
PnP and Woolies intensify on-demand delivery battle
Pick n Pay branches out to homeware

Apart from the announcement of its partnership with the Takealot Group, in 2022 the retailer also announced its plans to enter the highly saturated homeware store market, starting off its offering online.

Here, Pick n Pay will join several other retailers like the Mr Price Group – which owns Mr Price Home and Yuppiechef; The Foschini Group – which owns @home, Coricraft and Volpes; as well as relatively new kid on the homeware block, Pepkor which owns budget friendly store Pep Home.

Other retailers like H&M have also branched out into the homeware market, including sections in its clothing stores across the country and only launched its first format store under the name in Sandton City in October 2022.