Checkers and Shoprite customers can now buy airtime, data and digital vouchers through the Sixty60 app. Purchases are delivered instantly by SMS to the buyer or to someone else, and there is no minimum basket value. The service covers Vodacom, MTN, Telkom, Cell C and Shoprite's own K'nect network, along with vouchers for the App Store and iTunes, Google Play, Uber and PlayStation.
The new tab is rolling out to all users over the coming days.
Insights on Sixty60 airtime and data
Checkers points to research from payments company Electrum showing airtime and data are the most popular value-added services South Africans buy. Many of those purchases still happen in person, but digital channels are growing, and banking apps are now the preferred channel for 61% of airtime and data purchases.
Checkers says adding them to Sixty60 lets customers buy airtime and data alongside their everyday shopping on a platform they already use. It is the second new category for Sixty60 in a week, after it started selling prebuilt gaming PCs.
It also adds to Shoprite's existing reach in this market. The group already runs its own mobile network, K'nect, and recently took a majority stake in R&A Cellular, which sells airtime, electricity and data through more than 15,000 terminals in spaza shops.
What others are saying about Sixty60 airtime and data
Hypertext's Robin-Leigh Chetty reported the launch from a Checkers release. Electrum's report on value-added services describes the growing contest between physical and digital channels for these everyday purchases.
A small purchase that brings people back
Airtime earns very little per sale, so this is not about margin. It is about frequency. People buy airtime and data far more often than they do a big grocery shop, and today most of them do it in their banking app. Every top-up Sixty60 wins is another reason to open the app between shops. Put it together with K'nect and the R&A Cellular stake and Shoprite now sells airtime through its own network, through spaza shop tills and through its delivery app, which covers most of the ways South Africans buy it.
That puts it in direct competition with the banks for the same habit, including Capitec, which already sells airtime and runs its own mobile service. The aim is the same on both sides: become the app people open most.
You might also like our piece on Shoprite buying Vida e Caffè and R&A Cellular, the 300 million SIMs registered here each year, and how SA online retail reached a tenth of all retail turnover.
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