SINGAPORE – Singapore-based ride-hailing and food-delivery app developer Grab Holdings opened its first physical merchant centre here on Wednesday.
The facility, at the firm’s headquarters in one-north, offers business consultation services and on-demand operational help to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to spur their growth in the digital economy.
The Grab Merchant Centre started as a merchant registration counter in April 2020 to help such firms sign up and activate their Grab accounts during the pandemic. Merchants received help online and could also make appointments for face-to-face consultations, although there was no physical centre as yet.
The services have benefited close to 600 unique brands between July 2021 and October 2023.
One of the services is one-to-one business reviews for merchants. Businesses are offered consultation with trained account managers to help identify areas where they can improve their performance.
Account managers will also help merchants work out growth plans based on their goals.
The Grab Merchant Centre also offers a concierge service for firms facing manpower shortages. Merchants can tap a subscription-based hotline for operational assistance with their online stores. That might include helping update store menus, setting up promotions or troubleshooting device issues.
There will also be events that allow firms to network, upskill, learn about Grab’s products and services and contribute to product development through focus group discussions and user testing.
While a fee is charged for services such as one-to-one business reviews and concierge help, other benefits like networking events and upskilling workshops are free.
The firm also released a new trends report, which showed that dine-in transactions and self pick-up orders contributed 4.5 times more to Grab’s total order volume in the 12 months to July 2023, compared with the same period in 2021, the most relevant year for comparison.
“As delivery platforms like Grab become a bigger part of consumers’ lives, they realised that it is more convenient to transact their takeaway orders through the app,” said Mr Tay Chuen Jein, head of deliveries for Grab Singapore.
The pandemic was also a catalyst for Grab’s growth and this consumer behaviour has stayed post-pandemic, he said.
The report, which polled 1,076 active Grab users here in August, also noted that 43 per cent of Singapore consumers polled used food-delivery apps to discover new restaurants and stores, compared with 38 per cent who used Google and 34 per cent on Facebook.
“Consumers are now spending more, and are also more concerned about getting value for their money. As consumer behaviour is changing, it is important for us to keep track of that,” said Mr Tay.
