Grab Collaborates with Qasir to Provide Digital Cashier for MSMEs

An on-demand service provider company, Grab, collaborated with startup Qasir to provide a digital cashier or point of sales (POS) system. Its competitor, Gojek, launched a similar service first through Moka. This collaboration allows business actors, especially in the culinary industry, to record transactions automatically through the Qasir system.

“We provide business cooperation package services with GrabFood. Entrepreneurs can immediately store their GrabFood transaction data in the Qasir POS system,” said Qasir CEO Michael Williem, quoted in a press release, Tuesday (22/9).

He conveyed that about half of Qasir’s business partners are engaged in the culinary sector. Michael is optimistic that this cooperation can help sellers to expand the market. Indirectly, this is an opportunity for Qasir to attract more culinary entrepreneurs.

Michael said that most of Qasir’s micro-entrepreneurs have limited digital product literacy. On the one hand, Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have been hit by the corona pandemic. Therefore, the company focuses on providing education through several features.

“F&B merchants themselves represent around 50% of Qasir’s merchant base. Establishing a partnership with Grab, which has an extensive network, will help our business partners target a larger customer base. This also increases our opportunities to acquire F&B merchants,” said Michael in his statement.

Qasir Launches a Website Usaha Service

The increase in the number of victims of the pandemic and restrictions on social mobilization in various regions, in fact, also had an impact on the economy of MSMEs, including Qasir businessmen. Qasir offers Website Usaha (business website service) services aimed at users to market their products through the website.

The fee charged is a subscription fee of less than IDR 200,000 per year. Users only need to enter business data, while the product catalog is synchronized automatically from the Qasir application.

Its features are adapted to the type and phase of business. “Since the Covid-19 pandemic, digital platforms, which were previously considered as alternative tools for daily life, have turned into an important necessity,” said Michael.

“One of the benefits most felt by merchants is that they can more easily promote their products online and make multi-channel transactions so that they can experience a seamless online selling experience and ultimately have an impact on increased sales of merchants themselves,” he added.

Previously, Gojek had Acquired a Similar Startup; Moka

Meanwhile, Grab’s competitor, Gojek, acquired POS startup, Moka earlier this year. This startup company remains an independent entity integrated into the Gojek merchant ecosystem. However, the country’s decacorn did not mention the acquisition value.

Meanwhile, a Bloomberg source said that the value was US$ 130 million or around IDR 2.02 trillion. This corporate action led to Gojek and Moka to provide integrated solutions for business partners. The solution consists of payment, food delivery and POS systems, thus supporting the growth and digitization of MSMEs.

Gojek co-CEO Andre Soelistyo said the cooperation could accelerate the digitization of MSMEs. “We are taking one step further to work with the Moka team to provide solutions from upstream to downstream, which provide opportunities for more businesses to migrate online,” he said, last April (30/4).

Moreover, MSMEs are now affected by the coronavirus pandemic. “We see that online businesses have better resilience than offline, which really depends on the physical arrival of consumers,” said Andre.

Since the pandemic, digital platforms that were only considered as alternative tools for doing many things in everyday life have turned into an important necessity. As of last July, the government recorded that there were around one million MSMEs joining the digital ecosystem during the pandemic. This means that the number has almost reached the target of 10 million businesses by the end of the year.