KUALA LUMPUR, April 22 — Grab will add five more markets across Selangor to its ‘Pasar by GrabMart’ service in its endeavour to empower and ensure that small traditional businesses and micro-entrepreneurs will not be left behind as the country transitions to a digitised nation.

The initiative, effective April 24, follows the positive feedback on Pasar by GrabMart, which allows customers to buy fresh produce, spices, poultry, seafood and meat directly from the TTDI Market in the comfort of their home.

"We saw very encouraging results from our measures to protect our merchants, drivers and delivery partners’ livelihood during this financially turbulent time,” said Grab Malaysia country head Sean Goh in a statement.

Grab’s Ramadan partnership with local governments and organisations will also give it a larger stage to accelerate its support for small traditional businesses and micro-entrepreneurs.

"We hope to help them, not only to serve the millions of Grab users, but also to leverage on our platform to serve their regular customers conveniently and efficiently,” said Goh.

Among others, the company has been actively supporting restaurants with immediate cash flow through its zero-interest, ‘Deferred Commissions’ programme.

It further introduced zero-commissions for self-pickup orders and absorbs all related transaction costs for orders received via social channels with a GrabPay payment option.

Goh said almost 8,000 merchants have benefited from Grab’s programmes.

The company also mobilised more than 100,000 GrabCar drivers not only to support the increase in demand for delivery services but also to ensure that the latter continue to have an income throughout the Movement Control Order (MCO) period which has greatly impacted the e-hailing business.

Whilst reducing merchants’ commissions alone may be considered a temporary fix, Goh explained that the majority of commissions actually go to the delivery network as income.

"Considering the circumstances of Covid-19 and MCO, it was imperative for us to adapt and innovate to establish a sustainable economic ecosystem.

"Hence, we decided to focus on helping our community of merchants thrive by growing their demand, and in doing so, create income for thousands of delivery partners,” he added.

Meanwhile, Grab’s Small-Biz Relief programme and ‘Local Heroes’ campaign have produced encouraging results, with 30 per cent more small, independent restaurants and hawkers embracing the online food delivery concept, and an increase of 25 per cent in sales or orders. — Bernama