By Sean Goh
IN the last ten months, Malaysian businesses have faced unprecedented challenges amid the COVID-19 pandemic. As we move to another phase of restricted movements, supporting our merchant community has never been more important.
As a homegrown company, we remain committed to safeguarding the livelihoods of our ecosystem of partners – drivers, delivery partners, merchants and community alike. With the new SOPs for businesses and eateries, we are initiating several support measures to help our merchant partners cope especially with the loss of dine-in customers, while ensuring the community still can access their daily needs safely, conveniently and affordably.
Reduction in commission ceiling by up to 5%
Since the MCO last year, we have permanently reduced the maximum commissions charged to any merchant partner. As our platform’s efficiency improves, we aim to continue to help merchants earn more. In addition, in response to the current MCO, Grab is now reducing commission ceiling further by up to 5% for all Food and Mart merchants nationwide for four full weeks, from Jan 13 till Feb 10, 2021
Zero commissions for self pick-up orders
To continue supporting our restaurant partners, effective Jan 13 to Feb 10, 2021, Grab will absorb all costs for self pick-up orders made via the Grab App and temporarily reduce commission to zero percent if customers choose to pick up their orders themselves. We hope that self pick-up will enable contactless pre-ordering and cashless takeouts to help avoid waiting and crowding.
Support your ‘Local Heroes’
We are delighted to bring back our ‘Local Heroes’ campaign to provide free visibility, awareness and promotions across various marketing and digital channels to support our neighbourhood businesses, including our local food courts, pasars and small business owners. Last year, participating merchants in ‘Grab ❤ Local Heroes’ saw an increase in sales of up to 43%.
We hope that, once again, this will help generate awareness for our local heroes in this difficult time. Additionally, with our revamped GrabMerchant platform, merchants will also have more autonomy to manage their online store especially if they are running out of supplies or are unable to cope with the orders. Moreover, our partners can also leverage social media channels to promote their products and services with a self-generated personalised link to their store via their GrabMerchant app.
In parallel, as more customers will be reliant on delivery services, we have various efforts to provide greater convenient and affordable access to their daily needs, while helping them save on expenses:
Delivery fee as low as 50 sen
In line with our continuous efforts to support our small independent and SME merchants, we have reduced the delivery fees for selected nearby Food and Mart merchants to as low as 50 sen. They truly need our love at this time, and as Malaysians, we hope we will not hold back.
Mix & Match food court favourites
Our efforts last year to digitalise small traditional businesses, now see us having over 100 food courts with almost 1000 hawker stalls. Customers can continue to enjoy their nasi lemak, char kuey teow, kopi ais or other food court delights and ‘Mix & Match’ from different stalls while paying only one delivery fee.
Unlimited free delivery for signature favourites
From now till Jan 22, 2021, customers can use the promo code FREEDEL to enjoy a variety of cuisines from their favourite ‘Signature’ restaurants, with unlimited free deliveries.
Exclusive MCO-edition GrabRewards
For more savings, from Jan 15 to Jan 17, GrabRewards is offering 40% points back for any Food, Mart or Express vouchers redeemed
We urge our customers to either schedule their orders or order their food and essential needs early to avoid disappointment, and to always adopt contactless and cashless deliveries as we stay home and stay safe to flatten the curve. – Jan 14, 2021
Sean Goh is the managing director of Grab Malaysia.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
