While there may be some lingering questions and allegations about the Grab-Uber merger in the air—with local ride-hailing service Ryde recently coming out to agree that the acquisition had indeed infringed competition laws here—tech giant Grab is advancing unabated with today’s (Jul 10) announcement at a press conference their foray into the largest category of household expenditure through their new on-demand grocery delivery service, GrabFresh.
Photo credit: Screenshot of Grab’s new app interface walkthrough video
In line with becoming Southeast Asia’s first everyday superapp, they’ve partnered with HappyFresh, a company that claims to be Southeast Asia’s #1 grocery delivery provider—despite only being in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand—to provide the service. Promising to deliver fresh produce, frozen products and a whole variety of groceries within the hour or at a pre-arranged time, GrabFresh will be going head-on to disrupt the market to compete with other grocery delivery services we’re already familiar with, like Honestbee and RedMart. The service will be rolling out as a beta service in Jakarta starting this month and in Malaysia and Thailand by year-end. A GrabFresh spokesperson said that plans to launch in Singapore are still underway and that there is currently no live date confirmed.
We don’t know how much it’ll cost to use their service yet, but on the Indonesian version of the app, there will be a minimum spend of Rp15,000 (about S$1.50) for every purchase, and a service charge of Rp20,000 (about S$1.90), which covers both delivery and service charges. Similar to Honestbee, there will be dedicated shoppers stationed at supermarkets who will help to pick out items you’ve picked; and in the event where items are out of stock, they will liaise with you on alternative solutions, which is where the service fee comes in. For Jakarta, Grab promises a wide selection of 100,000 grocery items from more than 50 large supermarket chains and specialty grocery chains.
Photo credit: Screenshot of Grab’s new app interface walkthrough video
Another huge change you can expect from today (Jul 10) for Apple users and from Jul 18 for Android users, is a completely new interface. For years, Singaporeans have known Grab to be a ride-hailing service, which is why you’ll immediately see the booking interface the moment you open the app. The fresh look will move towards a more holistic experience, where you’ll have access to a slew of Grab’s services on the home screen, including your Wallet, Rewards, Transport, Food Delivery, Shuttle service and in the future, GrabFresh (it just means it’ll take one extra layer to book a car).
Also included on the new interface is a news feed with localized, useful and informative content ranging from news, reviews and entertainment to recommendations of nearby restaurants and malls, curated short films by local producers and games. There’ll also be a segment that will be contextualized for specific occasions, for example, during the World Cup season, where you can actually see scores for the semis, news on the latest qualifying teams, or even prayer times during Ramadan.
