Gojek and Grab Strategies to Compete with others during the Pandemic

E-commerce companies such as Shopee and Tokopedia began aggressively selling food and beverage products during the corona pandemic. Gojek and Grab also provide strategies to be able to compete, in terms of food delivery services. Both decacorns have already had the feature for users to shop for daily necessities.

GoFood and GrabFood were previously a mainstay for buying food and drinks from home. When there was a coronavirus pandemic, Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the culinary sector began selling on e-commerce platforms.

Business people sell a-liter of coffee to ready-to-cook food on e-commerce platforms. Even so, VP Corporate Affairs Food Ecosystem of Gojek Rosel Lavina stated, competition in the food-delivery business is a natural thing.

Moreover, the service was indeed increasingly in demand during the Covid-19 pandemic. “Consumers increasingly rely on online platforms or services to meet their daily needs, including culinary,” Rosel said, Thursday (7/23).

Delivery Services for Daily Necessities Become a Trend in the Middle of the Pandemic

Therefore, Gojek provided a ‘ready to cook’ feature in April. The transaction has tripled since it was launched. Decacorn Homeland also launched a message service – delivery of staples and daily necessities.

However, there are more e-commerce services that provide similar services such as Bukalapak, Blibli, Shopee, and Tokopedia. Stall digitalization startup, Wahyoo also launched Langganan.co.id to sell staples.

Grab also launched the ‘ready to cook’ category. “Not only customers, but this category also helps merchant partners adapt,” said GrabFood Head of Marketing of Grab Indonesia’s Hadi Surya Koe. The Singapore-based Decacorn also offers a selection of economical menu packages and various promotions. One of them is a ‘hematlicious’ package.

Just like Gojek, Grab provides daily necessities through GrabMart. “We strive to be keen to find new ways of serving customers and presenting new revenue opportunities for our partners,” he said.

Grab also relies on the end-to-end management of the shipping fleet. In addition, it continues to develop relevant new features in the midst of the pandemic. So far, the company noted GrabFood transactions rose 10% since the adoption of the Large Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB) transition in early July.

Gojek and Grab are Increasingly Serious in Developing the Cloud Kitchen Business

Cloud kitchen is a restaurant service term based on cloud computing. Consumers cannot buy and enjoy food or drinks in restaurants. Products can only be ordered through the apps.

Grab has been developing a cloud kitchen called GrabKitchen since 2018. While Gojek has named its service Dapur Bersama, which was developed at the end of last year. Decacorn from Singapore, Grab is targeting to build 50 GrabKitchen in Jakarta, Bandung, Bali, and Medan until the end of 2019.

In February, they inaugurated five cloud kitchens in Surabaya, East Java. Grab also presents GrabKitchen in Singapore. While Gojek has 27 shared kitchens in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi (Greater Jakarta), Medan and Bandung.

“If all goes well, there should be 100 locations by the end of the year,” said Gojek co-CEO Andre Soelistyo, some time ago (9/7).

Cloud kitchen services are considered efficient and effective in encouraging merchant partner transactions, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. No wonder if Gojek and Grab are getting more serious in developing this business.

In terms of efficiency, Gojek and Grab rely on insights from the data managed to determine the location of the many interested ones. That way, the two decacorns can find a place that has low rental costs, but the potential for buyers is high.

From the transaction side, Andre said that the portion of food delivery services jumped from 20-30% to 70-80% during the Corona pandemic. “So sales with delivery are far more efficient,” he said.