Shoprite takes on the banking apps with airtime on Sixty60

Shoprite has started selling prepaid airtime, data and digital vouchers through Sixty60, adding the on-demand app to a value-added services business that is already offered through its tills, its Money Market Account and, since August, point-of-sale terminals in spaza shops.

Customers can buy airtime and data for Vodacom, MTN, Telkom, Cell C and Shoprite’s own K’nect mobile network in the app, along with vouchers for Apple’s App Store, Google Play, Uber and PlayStation, the group said in a statement. Purchases are delivered by SMS to the buyer or a recipient, and there is no minimum basket value.

Shoprite said in a statement that it was following its customers. Citing a survey it did not identify, it said 95% of consumers surveyed use airtime and data, and that banking apps are the preferred channel for 61% of airtime and data purchases.

Banks have made their apps the default place to buy prepaid airtime. Sixty60 generated R25.5-billion in sales in FY2026 from 997 stores, according to the group’s 2026 integrated report , which gives Shoprite an app with an engaged user base of its own to sell into.

Airtime is not new territory for Shoprite. It launched K’nect in 2021 as a mobile virtual network operator, an operator that sells mobile service using another network’s infrastructure, running on Cell C’s network at launch. At the end of June it had five standalone K’nect stores.

The integrated report describes the group’s phone rental services, backed by K’nect’s mobile rewards and connectivity benefits, as an “ecosystem enabler” that supports digital banking adoption and increases value-added service usage. This year Shoprite added Pay It Off Phone Rental, a monthly rental product meant to put higher-value smartphones within reach of its customers. Employees get discounted data through K’nect as a staff benefit.

At in-store Money Market counters, customers pay bills, collect government grants, send money and buy airtime, data and prepaid electricity. The report says the re-platformed Money Market service now also supports distribution of value-added services to third-party platforms.

It is becoming a meaningful revenue line. Commissions, earned mostly from financial services and Money Market transactions and value-added services, rose 9.6% to R1.4-billion in FY2026, the largest single item in Shoprite’s alternative revenue.

The informal market is the next step. On 14 August, Shoprite completed the acquisition of 51% of R&A Cellular, whose point-of-sale devices let spaza shops and informal traders sell airtime, data, electricity and other prepaid products and accept card payments. The integrated report says the deal extends the group’s financial services into South Africa’s informal economy. — © 2026 NewsCentral Media