Grab launches new programme to support small businesses to overcome difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic. — Photo Courtesy Grab Vietnam
Grab recently launched its Small Business Booster Programme that helps small businesses in Southeast Asia adapt to the new normal during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The programme includes tools and initiatives to make it easier for offline businesses to make the shift online. It also helps those already on the Grab platform to expand their visibility and adapt their operations to an increasingly digital-reliant world.
The programme extends Grab’s long-term commitment to digitalise traditional and small businesses and ensure they are included in the growing digital economy.
Grab will further announce partnerships with governments across Southeast Asia to connect farmers and other rural entrepreneurs to the digital economy.
“COVID-19 has accelerated change. We have seen dependency on online services grow exponentially almost overnight. This is spurring innovation in Southeast Asia, but there is also the risk that it will widen the digital divide. Small businesses make up the backbone of Southeast Asia’s economy, but the vast majority are offline. They will need to embrace technology and digitalise or risk falling further behind.
It’s a new business model for them. Through our Small Business Booster Programme we hope to help small businesses navigate this new normal. We will draw on our technology and reach to find new ways of doing business that can inclusively support everyone,” said Hooi Ling Tan, co-founder of Grab.
The Small Business Booster Programme aims to facilitate digitalisation either by giving businesses a digital shopfront on the Grab platform or through e-payments integration.
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digitalisation, and Grab has been actively working with local governments across Southeast Asia to ensure that traditional ecosystems are not left behind. This includes initiatives in Indonesia and Malaysia to bring wet market and Ramadan Bazaar sellers on to the Grab platform.
Between March and April, Grab committed over US$40 million to partner relief efforts and rolled out over 100 initiatives to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on drivers and delivery-partners, frontliners and communities.
Between March and April, over 78,000 merchants were onboarded to the Grab platform. Small businesses saw a 21 per cent increase in online revenue through Grab during this period. Grab also created earning opportunities for over 115,000 individuals who signed up as driver or delivery-partners during the period.
“COVID-19 will require exceptional effort from all levels of society, working together, to overcome. Scientists are working on a vaccine. Policymakers are finding ways to bolster their countries’ economies. Everyday folk are helping to flatten the curve by practicing social distancing. Private companies like Grab are using our platform and tech to find ways for even the smallest micro-entrepreneur or business to continue sustaining their livelihoods in these challenging times. The future is uncertain, but Southeast Asia is a community that knows how to face adversity and thrive,” added Tan. — VNS