South Africa’s Delivery Landscape: Retailers Race for the Fastest Last-Mile

South Africa’s online on-demand grocery delivery industry continues to experience explosive growth. Major retail networks across the country are recording double-digit increases in both order values and volumes, reflecting a significant, permanent shift in modern consumer behaviour. To keep up with this booming demand, platforms have contracted thousands more drivers — mostly operating motorcycles — throughout the past year.

Rapid Expansion Across the Board

The sheer scale of this sector’s growth is staggering. The country’s top-performing grocery delivery ecosystems have facilitated over 100 million orders to date, with in-store teams packing around one million products daily. Achieving rapid unscheduled delivery times, often averaging under 35 minutes, requires immense operational capacity. To maintain this speed, market leaders have rapidly expanded their dedicated logistics networks, with some dedicated fleets now approaching 10,000 active drivers.

Other major national retailers are aggressively closing the gap, reporting 40% year-on-year growth in order volumes and store footprints. To manage this surge, these retailers are drastically increasing their motorcycle and van fleets, and frequently partnering with massive third-party delivery networks that contract upwards of 15,000 drivers.

Across the board, from premium grocers to massive retail entrants, the trend is undeniable: on-demand orders are surging by over 150% year-on-year in certain retail sectors, forcing businesses to aggressively expand their digital fulfillment capabilities.

The Logistics Complexity Challenge

What these numbers demonstrate is not just incredible revenue growth, but a profound increase in logistical complexity. As retailers attempt to manage thousands of drivers, diverse vehicle types (bikes, vans and cars), tight real-time delivery windows and a fragmented mix of internal fleets and outsourced logistics partners, the need for robust backend technology is paramount.

To flawlessly manage the last mile at this scale, businesses require technology that provides total visibility, dynamically optimises routing and enables proactive management of diverse driver fleets. For retailers, the infrastructure costs and time required to build, scale and maintain this complex technology internally are immense.

Bridging the Gap with Picup

This is where an advanced logistics SaaS platform becomes the ultimate competitive advantage. Managing an elastic, hybrid fleet requires sophisticated software to centralise disparate operational data into a single pane of glass.

With Picup’s tech-enabled delivery platform, businesses do not need to build their own logistics engines from scratch. Picup provides the advanced technology required to control complex delivery dynamics efficiently, enabling retailers to seamlessly integrate their storefronts, utilise data to maximise efficiency and significantly lower their cost per delivery without heavy capital expenditure.

As South Africa’s leading retailers battle for market share and the fastest delivery times, the winner will not necessarily be the one with the most bikes on the road — it will be the business that masters operational complexity with the smartest software.

The battle for the fastest delivery is already happening. Are you equipped to win? Equip your business with the same enterprise-grade software powering the continent’s most efficient supply chains.