MANILA, PHILIPPINES – The growth of food businesses taking their presence online has been undisputed in the last couple of years, with many consumers now heavily reliant on food deliveries to satisfy their cravings. And when it comes to providing holistic support to its partners, Southeast Asia’s everyday superapp Grab is a platform that has been consistent in extending its support.
From making the transition to digitalization easier to providing the proper tools and resources needed, Grab merchant-partners 24 Chicken, PicaBean Coffee House, and Cafe Mary Grace have shown how Grab’s right combination of training, tools, and upskilling opportunities can open the door for businesses to grow and improve.
Reaching customers beyond the screen
For many of Grab’s merchant-partners, the goal of being able to provide welcoming experiences to their customers was not easily attained. Whether it was because of the pandemic, or due to other factors such as the lack of accessibility, the challenge was always present for these merchants to come up with ways to be closer to their audiences.
“We realized that some of our customers are not capable of visiting our physical store,” shared Mario Tan Jr., PicaBean Coffee House Operations Head, adding that their main reach used to be limited to walk-in customers.
With the opportunity to bring their presence online looking promising, they took the leap with Grab, from which they were immediately able to see how their brand became more accessible to a new and bigger audience simply through the app.
“Grab is our best, first partner,” shared Cafe Mary Grace Marketing Director Chiara Dimacali- Hugo. “They have the systems and expertise to go about delivery which was such a guiding hand for us when we took this leap of faith. By onboarding with them, our customers are able to get a hold of their Mary Grace fix without stepping out of the house,” she added.
Grab’s suite of solutions for success
Apart from the greater reach of customers that they’ve since enjoyed, they have also taken advantage of the broad suite of tools, programs, and initiatives that merchant-partners can maximize only with Grab.
For Tan, the importance of data gathering is what led him to try the Grab Merchant Portal, a service of Grab enabling merchants to view data and analytics about their current performance.
“With the Grab Merchant Portal, you can access helpful data that will help you improve your business,” shared Tan, noting that the categories of customer reviews and least popular items have been the most helpful and give insight to how their products can be improved.
As for Cafe Mary Grace, Dimacali-Hugo shared that GrabAds helped them easily manage their presence online to keep themselves at the forefront of their customers’ conscience.
“After a year or so of being with Grab, we explored advertising with the platform. After back and forth discussions with our team, we gave GrabAds a shot,” she shared. Dimacali-Hugo then went on to share how, besides the increased visibility for Mary Grace, employing GrabAds has also allowed the well-loved family business to reach even new audiences with Grab.
But apart from simply gaining more customers, 24 Chicken Marketing Manager Jefferson Uy shared about the marketing and financial savings they’ve gained from maximizing Grab’s Merchant Solutions (GMS).
“With GMS, we’re able to get a bigger audience to avail of our promos, and share the cost of this with Grab at the same time resulting in saved marketing costs. Additionally, the pop-up push button ads also get a lot of attention from customers,” said Uy.
Strengthened goals through Grab’s support
Through these programs, Dimacali-Hugo, Tan, and Uy, have been able to not only maximize their presence online, but achieve the goals that started their businesses in the first place.
In particular, Dimacali-Hugo noted how onboarding with Grab has enabled Cafe Mary Grace to continue bringing comfort and warmth to their customers – the very goal they’ve always aspired to reach ever since starting out in bazaars in the 1990s.
On Cafe Mary Grace’s commitment and how this is strengthened by Grab, Dimacali-Hugo shared, “We hope to remind our customers that despite the new normal, we haven't changed and are still here for them. We’ve always been this way: a welcoming home and sanctuary.”
For 24 Chicken, Uy shared that Grab allowed them to achieve their goal of bringing the quality and authentic Korean fried chicken experience to Filipinos at an affordable price.
“Our journey with Grab has been great. The numerous tools, solutions, and support that Grab has and continues to provide us with has helped us reach customers we thought we could not reach when we were just starting,” said Uy. “We’re looking forward to more fruitful years with Grab because of this.”
As they continue serving consumers with the service and offerings they’re best known for, Grab will just as well remain committed to providing and equipping their community of merchant- partners with the right combination of skills, resources, and the support to keep reaching new leaps and bounds in developing their businesses.
With tools such as GrabAds, Grab Merchant Solutions, and Grab Merchant Portal, Grab ensures that its merchant-partners are well-supported and provided with the means to reach success in the digital world. To know more about the services and features extended by Grab, check out https://www.grab.com/ph/merchant/food/
