Targeting the SME Market, Grab Merchant Strategy to Win the Competition

Grab on-demand service provider launches business-to-business market services through its new platform, Grab Merchant on Monday (8/6). This B2B service aims to help small and medium businesses in Southeast Asia to be able to manage their businesses more integrated online.

The Singapore-based on-demand service company said SMEs could obtain supplies and manage advertisements through the B2B service. Grab also hopes to launch financial services for merchants in the coming months through GrabPay’s financial services.

Noted, there are around 78,000 new traders who have registered with Grab Merchant when the company launched the service in all of its markets, including Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines.

Food and beverage merchants who previously used the GrabFood merchant application were transferred to the Grab Merchant application. This step consolidates the food and beverage business that is in Grab Food, groceries at GrabMart, and payments without cash.

Grab Co-Founder Hooi Ling Tan said the corona pandemic has accelerated the changes that occur in the digital business. The company also sees its dependence on online services growing exponentially almost overnight because of this pandemic.

“We hope that Grab Merchant can help small businesses navigate this new normal life. We will utilize our technology and reach out to find new ways of doing business that can inclusively support everyone,” Tan was quoted as saying by DealStreetAsia, Monday (8/6 ).

Grab Competes with New Startups in the B2B Field for SMEs in Indonesia

Grab Managing Director of Operations Russell Cohen said, more than half of the company’s total sales value came from areas not related to transportation, mainly covering food and food delivery.

However, he did not share details about Grab’s growth projections or how this disruption between transportation and non-transportation businesses will develop in the coming months.

The launch of Grab Merchant also places this Southeast Asian decacorn in direct competition with a number of small startups, such as GudangAda and Ralali who are also working on the B2B market for SMEs and stalls in Indonesia.

In addition, Indonesian unicorn e-commerce such as Tokopedia and Bukalapak also provide similar services that directly serve SMEs, including enabling them to create digital storefronts and qualify for financial services.

Research results released by ABI Research show that Grab leads the online transportation market in Indonesia and Vietnam, with market shares of 64% and 74% respectively. Gojek as the main competitor of Grab only has a market share of 35.3% in Indonesia and 10.3% in Vietnam as shown in the database below.

Grab and Gojek have Started to Open Their Online Transportation Services

Gojek and Grab again provide online motorcycle taxi services or transport passengers with two-wheeled vehicles in Jakarta starting today. Even so, this service is not available at 66 RT (RW).

GoRide and GrabBike services can again be accessed, in line with the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government (Pemprov) policy which implements a transitional Large-Scale Social Limitation (PSBB). Online motorcycle taxi drivers can carry passengers starting today and will be reviewed for a week.

Even so, GoRide and GrabBike services cannot be used in 66 RWs that are included in the corona pandemic red zone. Grab also applies health protocols to the service. These include checking the driver’s body temperature before working and operating, through the online health declaration from Grab.

Partners are also required to wash their hands regularly, cover mouth or nose when sneezing and coughing. Grab will also launch the latest features in its application, which are the online health and hygiene declaration form feature and the selfie photomask feature at the end of June.

Grab has formed a GrabCar Protect and GrabBike Protect fleet that is equipped with plastic partitions as a separator to minimize contact between passengers and driver-partners.