Checkers Sixty60 Launches Pixie: South Africa’s First AI Shopping Assistant

Shoprite Holdings launched Pixie on April 9, 2026, introducing a personalized AI-powered shopping assistant for its Checkers Sixty60 online platform.

Developed entirely in-house by ShopriteX, Pixie is the first Smart AI shopping assistant of its kind introduced by an online retailer in South Africa.

The AI tool is designed to predict the specific purchasing needs of individual customers and determine the timing of those needs to simplify the shopping process.

Data-Driven Personalization

Pixie operates by analyzing and learning from the shopping behaviors of individual users. The system evaluates purchasing habits, restocking patterns, and specific user preferences.

Using this data, the assistant curates product recommendations that align with what a customer requires at any given time, reducing the need for manual searching within the app.

The integration of AI is intended to make the Sixty60 application faster to use and more personalized for its user base.

The Smart Basket Interface

A central component of the update is the introduction of the Smart Basket feature, which utilizes a swipe-based interface for managing items.

Customers can navigate through product options by swiping; a swipe up removes an item from the selection, while a swipe down adds the item to their shopping basket.

This functionality is intended to streamline the process of reordering regularly purchased items. Due to this interface, News24 described the experience as being Like Tinder for groceries.

Targeted Financial Incentives

Pixie also manages the delivery of promotional offers. Rather than assigning discounts randomly, the AI provides personalized deals based on the buying histories of the users.

Shoprite states that these targeted promotions are designed to save customers money and time by ensuring that discounts are relevant to their actual consumption patterns.

Corporate Strategy

Neil Schreuder, the Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer for the Shoprite Group, stated that the launch represents the beginning of utilizing AI to make the consumer shopping experience simpler.

Pixie is like a little friend, assisting each customer quietly in the background, making shopping and saving effortless. Shopping used to be something you did. But now, it’s something Pixie, your personalised shopping assistant, handles for you.

Neil Schreuder, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer for the Shoprite Group

The development of Pixie by ShopriteX indicates a move toward automating the grocery procurement process by shifting the burden of item identification and list management from the consumer to the AI assistant.