Grab unveils digitalisation programme for small businesses

It aims to help firms adopt e-payment solutions and expound in its marketing initiatives.

Grab has launched its Small Business Booster Programme, which includes tools and initiatives to make it easier for offline businesses to make the shift online, a press release revealed. The programme also aims to help those already on the Grab platform to expand their visibility and adapt their operations digitally.

Specifically, the programme claims to facilitate the digitalisation of small businesses either by giving them a digital shopfront on the Grab platform or through e-payments integration.

It contains GrabMerchant, an all-in-one, self-serve merchant platform for business owners to help grow their online customer base, optimise their operations, whilst keeping costs in check.

Food businesses can build an online store, set up cashless payment options, and operate on Grab in 24 hours. It also has an Insights tool for merchants to view their sales, their operations, their customers’ purchasing habits, and the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns. The app will roll out progressively in Singapore from mid-June, followed by the web portal from July.

Meanwhile, its Offline to Online (O2O) Merchant Support Programme will allow offline businesses to go online via partnerships with e-commerce solution providers that allow for easy set up of online stores with GrabPay integration. This is slated to roll out in Singapore, with Shopmatic and other partners as a start, followed by Malaysia and the Philippines in the coming weeks.

Another feature they will introduce is Merchant Discovery, aiming to increase discoverability for businesses and drive more foot traffic to their physical stores, as Singapore moves out of the circuit breaker period. From early Q3, Grab users will be able to view merchants near them through the ‘Nearby Merchants’ widget on the Grab app.

Grab will further roll out additional customer loyalty plans for merchant-partners in Q3.

Lastly, the firm’s Homegrown Heroes initiative will see Grab creating personalised ads for approximately 6,000 local businesses in 28 cities across 8 countries, and feature them on the most prominent spaces within the app for a five-week period starting in July. They pledged to cover all costs and resources required to produce these marketing materials across Southeast Asia. The initiative is estimated to hit $48.69m (US$35m).