Grab launches merchant program for MSMEs

Southeast Asia’s leading every day app Grab is rolling out a program to help micro and small enterprises leverage digital technology and grow online to adapt to changes brought about by the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 pandemic.

During the Grab Conversations webinar, GrabFood Philippines country head EJ dela Vega said the Small Business Booster Program aims to help in the digitalization of small businesses.

Under the program, Grab will launch GrabMerchant, an all-in-one, self-serve merchant platform for business owners to help grow their online customer base and optimize their operations, while keeping costs in check.

Through GrabMerchant which will be replacing GrabFood, merchants can see their sales, operations, customer profile and purchasing habits, and the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns through an insights tool.

GrabMerchant also provides an ad creation tool to allow merchant-partners to build their own food banner and food search ads, as well as track the ad performance.

Dela Vega said GrabMerchant would be rolled out in the country in the coming months.

Based on a survey conducted by Grab, 76 percent of merchant partners want more support in increasing their online visibility, and 56 percent want tools to help them innovate and insights to grow their business.

Another component of the Small Business Booster Program is the Offline to Online Merchant Support Program which involves providing a landing page on Grab.com where offline businesses can connect with Grab’s store-builder partners to set up their online stores, integrated with GrabPay checkout for e-payments.

This is being made available as 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 during the lockdown imposed to contain the spread of the virus.

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 receIt commits to support over 1,000 Filipino homegrown merchants by shouldering the costs of producing marketing materials within the app for a five-week period starting next month to help improve their discoverability across Grab’s customer base.

Merchant-partners who place an ad on GrabFood’s homepage see up to 300 percent return on ad expenditures on average.

Grab Philippines president Brian Cu said the app is extending support to these businesses as merchant partners particularly on GrabFood, are an integral part of the platform.

“As many Filipinos rely on digital-based services, our aim at Grab is to provide meaningful support most especially to small businesses, and bridge the gap on the ever-widening digital divide that these MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) have been facing,” he said.

“With small independent businesses being the backbone of our economy, Grab hopes that by supporting initiatives such as the Department of Agriculture’s Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita, and the Department of Tourism’s Philippine Harvest Initiative – both aimed at supporting farmers and agripreneurs through market access and delivery services, as well as the Department of Trade and Industry’s MSME Reboot Program to aid and further develop our micro- and small businesses; and introducing programs such as the Madiskarteng Boss Club – geared at growing the vibrant social selling community through access to discounts, rebates, loans, placements, and learning opportunities, we get to help grow small businesses in the country to help rejuvenate our economy,” he added.

Almost 12,000 merchants joined the Grab platform in the Philippines from March to June.

Small businesses also saw at least 57 percent growth in online revenue through Grab during this period.