During the first half of its 2024 financial year, the Woolworths group, specializing in fashion, home goods, and groceries, saw a significant surge in online sales. In the fashion, beauty, and home categories, online sales soared by 26.9% over the 26-week period ending on December 24, 2024, contributing 5.4% to the overall South African sales.
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Similarly, online food sales experienced a notable increase of 46.6%, primarily fuelled by the expansion of Woolies’ on-demand delivery service, Dash, which extended its coverage during this period.
Woolies Dash, introduced in December 2020, emerged as a direct competitor to Shoprite Checkers’ Sixty60 and Pick n Pay’s Bottles (now PnP Asap!). Spar also entered the on-demand delivery market with Spar 2U.
Among these services, Sixty60 stands out as South Africa’s most successful on-demand grocery delivery platform, posing as Dash’s main rival. Shoprite’s strategic focus on enhancing stores and product offerings to attract affluent consumers, who align with Woolies’ primary target market, has propelled Sixty60’s growth.
Despite Sixty60’s wider adoption compared to Woolies Dash, the latter recorded commendable growth figures. In the same period, Shoprite’s Sixty60 experienced a remarkable 63.1% year-on-year sales increase.
Overall, Woolworths Group reported a 5.4% rise in turnover and concession sales from continuing operations, amounting to R38.1 billion during the interim period.
However, these figures exclude the impact of the disposal of the upscale clothing brand David Jones. Woolworths clarified that the latest results cannot be directly compared to the previous period due to this disposal.
If we include David Jones’ business from the previous period, turnover and concession sales actually declined by 23.6%. Similarly, profit, including David Jones, decreased by 33.5%, dropping from R2.7 billion.
Excluding David Jones from the calculation, the group’s profit from continuing operations saw a 10.9% decline, falling from R2 billion to R1.8 billion.
