By: Myles Illidge - MyBroadband

Massmart is making a big e-commerce push, and it has offered an on-demand delivery service through the OneCart platform, which it owns, for a few years.

The company says the platform has seen impressive growth in 2024, recording a sales increase of more than 200% during the first half of the year.

The platform offers approximately 75,000 products from Makro, Game, and Builders, available for delivery within 60 minutes.

It recently announced plans to convert some of its Game stores in malls to small-format Marko stores to expand its distribution footprint.

36ONE Asset Management supports the move, and portfolio manager Evan Walker said it would help it compete with Takealot, Amazon, Temu, and Shein.

He also acknowledged the success of Checkers Sixty60 in South Africa.

“Makro has to match that on the retail component,” he added.

Following Walker’s comments, MyBroadband asked Massmart if it had any plans to launch an on-demand delivery service.

“Massmart already has on-demand capabilities through the OneCart App, which, we own,” said Massmart.

“Not only does OneCart have the ability to deliver South Africa’s cheapest grocery basket from Makro, it also provides on-demand access to products including laptops, cellphones, inverters and liquor.”

The OneCart platform also offers on-demand delivery from stores now owned by Massmart. With these included, its catalogue spans more than 150,000 products.

Massmart said OneCart is the largest assortment among on-demand grocery competitors today.

“OneCart has continued to show strong growths in 2024, recording a sales increase of over 200% in the first half of this year, while tripling the number of stores available on the platform,” it added.

The company recently told MyBroadband that the project to convert four Game stores in malls to small-format Marko stores was “making good progress”.

It added that some partners will be invited to preview the stores before they open.

Massmart has yet to reveal the location of its pilot stores, but they will be transformed into small concept 3,000m2 Makro stores.

In April 2024, Massmart corporate affairs Brian Leroni said the plan is critical to Makro’s omnichannel strategy.

This includes Massmart’s increased investment in its e-commerce platform and expanding Makro’s footprint.

“We have therefore developed a cost-effective small store design that is intended to be easy to roll out at speed,” said Leroni.

The company wants to expand the accessibility of its Makro stores to a broader market.

“They will be situated in the Game store site but the stores will be merchandised and branded as a small concept 3,000-square-meter Makro store,” said Leroni.

“We would like to emphasise that our objective is to make Makro stores more accessible to a wider market through a small, mall-based Makro store concept.”

He also said the move likely wouldn’t result in job losses but create new career opportunities.

Leroni said the plan was at an advanced stage of development and had already been tested with focus groups.

He added that it has received strong expressions of support from its staff, customers, suppliers, and landlords.

“We are now involved in the practicality of rolling out the test stores and anticipate completion early in the second half of the year,” said Leroni.

Walker said the plan isn’t new; it first came up roughly ten years ago and added that it will likely prove beneficial for Massmart.

“The combined Makro and Game store turnover have a lot more critical mass from a marketing and pricing perspective,” he said.

However, he noted that it will only compete with Takealot, Amazon, Temu, and Shein through competitive pricing.

The performance of Massmart’s Game stores has been declining for several years, and if the pilot project is successful, converting them to Makro stores can help it make the most of these assets.

In 2023, the company announced plans to close or sell thirteen of its underperforming Game stores, and eight were set to close shortly after the announcement.

The eight stores identified for closure ran clearance sales before closing shop.

Massmart said two of its five remaining doomed Game stores never reopened after the riots in KwaZulu-Natal in July 2021.

This left three stores still set to close. Massmart’s most recent feedback revealed that it hadn’t initiated closure procedures for these stores yet.