Retail Asia 2018 RA AUG2018_Online | Page 14

NEWS Grab links with HappyFresh to launch grocery delivery service GrabFresh TECHNOLOGY company Grab last month introduced GrabPlatform, as part of its open platform strategy to build South-east Asia’s first “everyday superapp”. Grab will add more highly-used everyday services to the Grab app together with partners, who can use GrabPlatform to integrate their services with Grab. Partners can expand more efficiently across South-east Asia by leveraging Grab’s user base and the region’s largest distribution channels through GrabPlatform, a suite of application programming interface, (APIs) that enables partners to access components of Grab’s technology such as logistics and payments. “GrabPlatform amplifies economic value for all of South-east Asia — even more than what we could ever create by ourselves,” said Anthony Tan, group CEO and co-founder, Grab. The Singapore-based company also announced its latest service, GrabFresh, an on-demand grocery delivery service. Available in the Grab app, GrabFresh is a GrabPlatform partner integration with grocery delivery provider HappyFresh. As fresh produce and frozen products are common items purchased, the company said GrabExpress drivers and delivery partners can send the groceries to their doorsteps within an hour or at a pre- arranged and convenient time. GrabFresh offers a selection of over 100,000 grocery products from more than 50 large supermarket chains and specialty grocery chains. There are also trained personal shoppers who know how to pick the right items, such as fresh produce, and can respond to specific instructions. In fact, customers can reject items that are not satisfactory at the door. “Grocery delivery is a huge opportunity in South-east Asia. From our research, 70% of grocery delivery app users shop at least once per week and they like to shop from the stores that they are familiar with. What they want is for their preferred items to be available and ready, when they want it. GrabFresh already has the widest selection of products compared to other grocery delivery services,” said Guillem Segarra, CEO of HappyFresh. He added that Grab’s large number of couriers allows HappyFresh to add more delivery slots and improve delivery time. “We can also scale and internationalise efficiently. This enables us to focus on our strengths, which is delivery of the best possible customer experience through highly-trained personal shoppers,” he added. GrabFresh has been available as a beta service in