More Ideas for Grab - Esther Phang

This post was written during the Circuit Breaker.

As many would agree that Grab is one of the household names in Asia. For today's post, we are focusing on the Singapore context.

As of 15 April 2020, these are the services that are available in Singapore. Hitch services have been suspended at the moment. Hitch service is one of the many services which I used quite frequently on Grab. I like to use that function to travel to and fro the airport. Based on my observation, Singapore has more services available on Grab as compared to other countries.

In Singapore, we have the following services.

1. Grab Food

It's a food delivery services.

2. Grab Mart

There is nothing much available here. Mainly products from Cheers, Shell and some other F&B shops.

3. Grab Delivery

You can delivery documents and parcel.

4. Transport

You can book a taxi, private hire and even coaches!

5. Insurance

This is personal accident insurance for your rides. It's currently $0.30 per ride. This is really useful for those who do not have insurance. This is pretty affordable, given that it's charged on a per-ride basis.

6. Gift Cards

Purchase a gift card and give it to your friends.

7. Tickets

You can purchase Cathay movie tickets for just $10 per ticket. It's quite affordable as compared to some cinemas. I had purchased the movie tickets via Grab for a couple of times, and it works. It's very easy to use as well.

8. Hotels

You can book hotels via Grab. You can choose to book hotels from either Agoda or Bookings.com.

There is a GrabPay function as well, and it includes GrabPay Card! You can use the app to make payment at selected merchants, so long as they have the GrabPay services. GrabPay Card is similar to a debit card. When you use the GrabPay Card, the expenses would be deducted from the Grab Wallet. So, if you do not have any credit in your Grab Wallet, you can't use the card at all. You have the option to apply for a physical Grab card too. Given current technology, you can make contactless payment via Google Pay, Samsung Pay and Apple Pay. You do not need the card. Now, the great news is you can earn more points too! You can use the points to redeem rewards or discount vouchers.

Now, here are my suggestions for Grab to consider.

Grab Groceries

Currently, we have Grab Mart where you can grab snacks and alcohol. However, it would be nice to team up with larger brands or maybe local mama shops. The concept is very similar to Grab Food. Instead of buying a meal, you are buying your groceries like vegetables, detergent and other essential items from supermarket and shops around your area. This is very much inspired during the circuit breaker timing, as there are still many people who went out to buy their groceries every other day. This may provide more convenience to people who are working from home and this will also reduce the crowd at certain groceries shops.

However, there are potential challenges that Grab would face. Grab has to compete with Lazada, NTUC Fairprice and etc. Local mama shops owners may not be tech-savvy, hence they may not accept Grab too. Users would want to get fresh products, so quality assurance would be another potential issue. This would be a challenge for Grab as they would need to teach the ground staff who are picking up the items. The ground staff need to know the individual products, and may have to check if the vegetables and food are fresh.

Grab Laundry

The other idea that I have is a laundry service. This is based on my personal experience. Upon returning from a winter holiday, naturally, I will have a lot of winter clothing to dry wash. It can be quite inconvenient to carry a luggage worth of winter clothing to the laundry place. Of course, I am lazy. It would be nice to have such services available, where the total cost of delivery and washing services would be displayed in the app. Moreover, it's way easier to arrange for delivery - to send and receive the laundry.

However, this is a really niche market. There is a direct competition with the laundry services, including those self-service laundry services, which is relatively cheap.

These are the 2 possible services which Grab could look into. I think the “groceries” option is more feasible than the laundry services as most Singaporean would prefer to do their laundry themselves. Grab Groceries can help smaller business entities, and this would allow us to have more options as well.

Grab, feel free to use these ideas for your brainstorming. I am more than happy if you want to seek opinions from me or help you test out your products.