Grab, a leading superapp in Southeast Asia, announced an expansion of its grocery delivery service across Southeast Asia, welcoming major supermarket and convenience store chains onto GrabMart, its everyday goods delivery service. The company also unveiled a new “Shopper” solution to support its growing retail partnerships in the region.
Online grocery shopping is taking off in Southeast Asia. According to research by Facebook and Bain, it is the fastest-growing segment in 2021 with a majority of consumers planning to either maintain or increase their at-home online spending on groceries. This segment is also projected by Euromonitor International to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 24% over the next five years, reaching USD11.9 billion in size by 2025.
“Eighty-five percent of our GrabMart users in Q22021 came from GrabFood. This goes to show that our superapp offering is particularly attractive to Southeast Asia’s mobile-first consumers who value the ease of accessing multiple everyday services, from on-demand mobility, to food delivery and grocery shopping, in one app. We are excited to welcome some of the largest grocery retailers in Southeast Asia onto our platform. Together, we can ride on the rising instant delivery trend and provide consumers greater variety and convenience through GrabMart,” said Demi Yu, regional head of deliveries, Grab.
Major retail chains now on GrabMart
New partners joining GrabMart include Indomaret in Indonesia, a convenience store chain with over 15,000 stores; Big C in Thailand, a hypermarket chain with over 1,000 outlets; Lotus’s Malaysia (formerly known as Tesco Malaysia) with over 62 locations; S&R supermarket in the Philippines best known for their attractive members-only discounts; and Mega Market in Vietnam, a leading wholesaler and distributor of grocery products. Consumers will be able to shop from these stores, have their orders delivered instantly to their doors or at their preferred time, and earn Ovo Rewards and GrabRewards points for their purchases.
With a growing number of supermarket partnerships across the region, Grab plans to trial “Shopper”, a shopping assistant solution, in selected supermarkets this year. Built into the Grab Driver superapp, “Shopper” is a digital shopping list that enables retail staff to easily pick and pack consumers’ grocery orders as they move through shopping aisles. Retail staff can notify consumers in real-time if items are sold out, suggest potential replacement options, and send photos of the items through the in-app GrabChat feature. Any changes to consumers’ original orders will be clearly reflected in the Grab user app for transparency.
“As online grocery shopping gains popularity, we are seeing consumers placing larger grocery orders on GrabMart. Our new shopping assistant solution will meaningfully improve the experience for both our retail partners and consumers. This is one of the many enhancements we are working on to support this rapidly-growing business,” added Yu.
GrabMart is currently available across all of Grab’s eight operating markets. GrabMart is a one-stop marketplace for grocery and essentials shopping, with instant, next-day, and scheduled delivery options to meet consumers’ varying needs and budget preferences. GrabMart also operates its own online supermarket brand, GrabSupermarket in Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines.