GrabKios Aims to Add 1 Million MSME Partners
Jakarta. Ride-hailing company Grab expects to add one million new partners made up of micro, small and medium enterprises, or MSMEs, and individual enterprises by the end of 2021 through its GrabKios application, an online platform that provides access to traditional shops.
The target is part of the company's GrabForGood 2025 campaign, GrabKios head Agung Nugroho said in Jakarta on Thursday.
According to the "Grab Social Impact Report 2018-2019," 2.8 million shop owners and individual entrepreneurs from 505 districts and municipalities across Indonesia have registered with GrabKios by the end of last year.
GrabKios has devised three strategies to reach its 2025 target: reduce partners' costs, provide access to capital and financial services and expand the range of its products and services, according to Agung.
He said the GrabKios app has a wholesale business line that provides various kinds of goods at competitive prices to reduce costs. It also offers a one-day free delivery service with a cash-on-delivery payment option.
"Our partners usually have to shut up shops when they have to stock up on goods. They often have to buy goods from more than one supplier. With GrabKios, they can order all the goods using just the one app," Agung said.
Starting this year, GrabKios also supplies fresh products such as vegetables, fruits, chickens and eggs sourced from farmer-organized online marketplace Tanihub to its partners and also to merchants on GrabFood, Grab's food delivery app.
GrabKios also plans to offer its own capital and financial services this year.
"We want to keep innovating our financial services as part of our contribution to improve financial inclusion in Indonesia," Agung said.
GrabKios is also going to launch a micro-insurance product for its partners next month. Agung said the insurance will provide cover for damages caused by natural disasters.
MSMEs can also use the app to apply for capital loans from trusted fin-tech companies, banks and non-bank financial institutions.
Payment on GrabKios can soon be made using a digital payment system that uses the Bank Indonesia-approved QR code system, QRIS (Quick Response Indonesia Standard).
Agung said one of GrabKios' aims is to help traditional shop owners embrace e-commerce and support the government in reaching its ambition to make Indonesia's digital economy the biggest in Southeast Asia.
A GrabKios team is available to train shop-owners to use the app and run their e-commerce business.
"Our sales people will give on-the-spot training on how to do transactions, how to top up your balance and how to find promo deals on the application. We also have a module on our app that guides users on what to do in the first week, second week, third week and so on. We can also arrange gatherings [for our users] but on-the-spot training or digital training is easier," Agung said.
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