Grab has announced its Small Business Booster Program aimed at helping small businesses adapt to the new reality due to COVID-19. It includes tools and initiatives to make it easier for offline businesses to make the shift online and helps those already on the Grab platform to expand their visibility and adapt their operations to an increasingly digital-reliant world.
In the Philippines, Grab has kickstarted its digitalization initiatives with a partnership with the Department of Agriculture (DA) for the eKadiwa Program as well as with the Department of Tourism for the Philippine Harvest Initiative, both initiatives aimed at connecting farmers and other rural agripreneurs to take advantage of the digital economy to reach consumers directly. Likewise, Grab has been an active supporter of the Department of Trade and Industries’ MSME Reboot Program which aims to provide digitalization support and solutions for MSMEs especially during the time of pandemic.
The Small Business Booster Program aims to facilitate the digitalization of small businesses by giving them a digital shopfront on the Grab platform or through e-payments integration. It is relevant now that over 78,000 new merchant-partners were onboarded in the Grab app across Southeast Asia – since the onset of the pandemic, as a way of sustaining livelihood through independent means. The program seeks to address their needs in these areas.
Key components of the program include:
GrabMerchant – https://www.grab.com/ph/merchant/food/
An all-in-one, self-serve merchant platform for business owners to help grow their online customer base, optimize their operations, while keeping costs in check. Available to existing Grab merchant-partners as an app and a web portal, it will roll out progressively from June 2020, followed by the web portal by end-August 2020.
Key features include: Insights: The enterprise-grade Insights tool gives merchants a view into their sales, their operations, their customer profile and purchasing habits, and the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns. An ads creation tool that empowers merchant-partners to build their own food banner and food search ads, and tracks the ad performance.
Offline to Online (O2O) Merchant Support Program – grb.to/grabpaylink.
Via a landing page on Grab.com, offline businesses can connect with Grab’s store-builder partners to set up their online stores, integrated with GrabPay Checkout for e-payments.
This builds on an earlier program by Grab which empowers social selling for small businesses. During COVID-19, many merchants in the Philippines turned to social media and instant messaging platforms to sell their products but lacked an easy way to receive payments. Grab’s Remote GrabPay Link solution gives merchants a URL that they can send to customers to make a direct payment from their GrabPay Wallet, with the merchants receiving the payment instantly.
Homegrown Heroes Initiative
On average, merchant-partners who place an ad on GrabFood’s homepage see up to 300% return on ad spend. The “Homegrown Heroes” initiative will see Grab creating personalised ads for over 1,000 small GrabFood and GrabExpress merchant-partners in the Philippines, featuring them on the most prominent spaces within the app for a 5-week period starting in July. Grab will cover the cost and resources required to produce these marketing materials.
Partnering with the government to connect rural entrepreneurs to the digital economy
Grab has been actively working with local governments across Southeast Asia to ensure that traditional ecosystems are not left behind.
In partnership with the Department of Agriculture for the Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita Program as well as the Department of Tourism’s Philippine Harvest Initiative. By leveraging on Grab’s tech leadership, innovation, and expansive delivery network, supporting these government initiatives will not only help in securing food for those who are staying at home to flatten the curve, but will also help in expanding livelihood opportunities to Filipino farmers across the country.
Grab for Good: At least 3.6M Filipinos have been protected and supported from the pandemic through GrabBayanihan
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic impacting the Philippines most especially its highly urbanized areas, Grab Philippines was able to quickly launch its GrabBayanihan COVID-19 Community Response Program, wherein it focused on these key priorities:
- Protecting and Supporting the lives and livelihoods of Grab’s driver-partners;
- Actively protecting those who are vulnerable and serving on the frontlines;
- Supporting those who are helping flatten the curve by staying at home; and
- Helping small businesses and entrepreneurs grow amidst an embattled economy
Between March and June 2020, the GrabBayanihan Program was able to protect and support at least 3.6 million Filipinos from the adverse effects of the pandemic.
Learn more about Grab’s Social Impact across Southeast Asia by visiting: https://www.grab.com/ph/grab-for-good/
