When Covid-19 first began to engulf Singapore, some rushed to the supermarkets to stockpile on groceries and essentials, while others hit the keyboards.
As orders surged, online grocers started opening up more slots and ramped up manpower. Businesses in other verticals, such as transportation and logistics, also started taking advantage of this demand and have made forays into the grocery delivery space.
Malaysian airline AirAsia is one such example. The pandemic has been turbulent to the company’s travel business, as leisure travel comes to a screeching halt.
This is why the company has been accelerating its digital transformation from a low-cost airline to a lifestyle platform that offers an online marketplace. Its grocery delivery arm airasia fresh, is just one of its many new businesses to bolster its super app ambition.
It made its debut in home market Malaysia first, before launching in Singapore in July this year. This is part of its continued expansion in Singapore after having successfully launched its food delivery platform, airasia food, in March.
However, with so many contenders here, it would not be easy for it to get a sizeable slice of the online grocery delivery pie. That said, how does airasia fresh stack up against the key players in this space?
A look at what airasia fresh has to offer
airasia fresh promises good value, convenience and on-time delivery. It works together with local and organic farmers, frozen seafood and meat distributors, as well as small businesses to supply customers with the best products.
Its online grocery marketplace offers five different categories: fresh produce, meat and seafood, frozen food, dairy and eggs, and pantry.
airasia fresh also offers Fresh Grocery Packs, which offers the flexibility of selecting fresh groceries such as vegetables, seafood, meat and fruit of your choice for a fixed price. These will be delivered at a time slot of your choice at no additional cost.
You can select the type and size that you prefer for the various Fresh Packs. You can curate your produce from the various categories in each pack, and opt to pick multiple items of one item, or multiple items until the category limit is reached.
airasia fresh works with Teleport, airasia’s logistics arm, to deliver the groceries.
Teleport also delivers for airasia food in Singapore and as of April 2021, it has over 1,350 registered riders and drivers. Teleport will continually hire more to expand the team as AirAsia strives to better meet the growing delivery demands in Singapore.
“The airasia super app is now offering consumers in Singapore a new, exciting alternative to order their groceries at better value, while at the same time, providing support to merchants — especially small businesses in digitising their operations and diversifying their revenue stream,” said Lim Ben Jie, head of e-commerce for airasia super app in a media statement.
“We are committed to delivering the highest standard of customer service including offering same-day delivery for all orders made before 12.00pm and ensuring our customers only get the best quality products all year round. We look forward to serving everyone in Singapore as we continue to grow in this market.”
1. RedMart
- Product range temporarily reduced to prioritise daily essentials including rice, flour, and eggs.
- Delivers islandwide every day.
- Delivery hours from 7am to 11pm. Delivery slots are currently assigned based on availability for your location.
- Free delivery for orders of S$40 and above for LiveUp Members, S$60 and above for non-LiveUp Members. Otherwise, delivery fee of S$3.99 or S$5.99 applies for saver or scheduled deliveries respectively.
2. Amazon Fresh
- To shop at Amazon Fresh, you need to first be an Amazon Prime member.
- Amazon Prime members get to enjoy streamable movies and TV shows for S$2.99/month.
- Free two-hour same-day delivery for orders above S$60. Otherwise, a S$5.99 fee applies.
3. NTUC FairPrice
- Delivers islandwide every day.
- Offers a ‘click & collect’ option for you to pick up your order at the nearest outlet
- Offers same-day delivery. Delivery slots range from two hours to seven working days from checkout (subject to availability).
- Free delivery for orders of S$59 and above. S$3 delivery fee for orders between S$59 and S$79, and S$5 delivery under S$59.
- If you join their FairPrice Digital Club for S$9.99 per month, you’ll enjoy waived service fees on orders over S$100 along with many other member perks.
4. Cold Storage
- Delivers islandwide every day.
- Offers next-day delivery between 9am and 9pm. However, delivery slots are currently assigned based on availability for your location.
- Free delivery for orders of S$59 and above, or S$7 delivery fee for orders under $59.
5. Giant
- Delivers islandwide every day.
- Offers next-day delivery between 9am and 9pm. However, delivery slots are currently assigned based on availability for your location.
- Free delivery for orders of S$59 and above, or S$7 delivery fee for orders under S$59.
6. Sheng Siong
- Delivers to most areas in Singapore every day.
- Offers same-day delivery for orders placed before 4pm. However, delivery slots are currently assigned based on availability for your location.
- Free delivery for orders of S$100 and above, or S$6 delivery fee for orders under S$100.
7. GrabMart / GrabSupermarket
- Stores like FairPrice Xpress and Cheers are available on GrabMart, depending on what’s around your location. Do note that these are convenience stores, which may not carry produce like rice, meat and vegetables.
- Minimum order depends on merchant.
- Service fees apply, which includes a delivery fee between S$3 and $5 based on dynamic pricing and a platform fee.
- GrabSupermarket on the other hand, is part of a strategic expansion of GrabMart, in partnership with HAO mart.
- GrabSupermarket offers over 10,000 products with next-day delivery (for orders placed before 6pm).
- Free delivery for orders worth S$50 and above. Flat delivery fee of S$4.99 per order applies, with a minimum basket value of S$20.
8. pandamart and pandanow
- Offers on-demand delivery in an average delivery time of 25 minutes.
- Convenience stores like Cheers, FairPrice Xpress and Hao mart are available on pandamart.
- Free delivery and no minimum order value.
- pandanow offers 24-hour on-demand delivery within 20 minutes or less, with a ready stock of groceries that can be dispatched immediately.
- Minimum order depends on the merchant.
- When you sign up as a pandapro subscriber at S$7.99 a month, you’ll enjoy free deliveries for orders above S$15.
9. Deliveroo
- Deliveroo is the only app that delivers from big supermarkets like Giant and Cold Storage
- It also delivers from a few other small grocery outfits like Marks & Spencer and Kuriya Japanese Market
- Delivery fees range between S$5 and S$10
- Delivery lead time is about 25 to 60 minutes for most places
10. Shopee Supermarket
- Shopee launched its grocery arm in April 2021
- It has over 36,000 product offerings that range from curry paste to beer
- Free delivery for orders over S$40. Otherwise, a delivery fee of S$3.99 applies.
- Can use ShopeePay as payment method and earn Shopee Coins
Will airasia fresh conquer the online grocery market?
The above list is clearly not exhaustive, and there are way more players in this market. It’s clear that this space is very competitive and as a relatively new player, airasia fresh needs to do more in order to stand out from others.
It’s not winning in terms of price and speed, and the BIG Points feature is simply not a huge enough incentive to attract users to jump onboard.
If users are reward-oriented, they would probably turn to Grab instead to stack up their GrabReward points. Grab has established itself as a leading super app in Southeast Asia, and many use Grab in their everyday lives — from ordering food, to booking a ride.
While BIG Points can be used to redeem travel (AirAsia activities, RocketMiles, Kaligo, Tune Hotel) or lifestyle (AirAsia Deals, AirAsia food, AirAsia Grocer etc) products, many Singaporeans don’t use AirAsia enough to truly benefit from this ecosystem of offerings.
Another key factor for it to last long in this space is for it to ramp up its marketing efforts. It has been dismal so far (many of my colleagues actually did not even know airasia fresh has launched in Singapore), considering that it has a huge financial war chest to rely on.
The company said it plans to raise up to one billion ringgit (US$238.7 million) through a rights issue, to support its working capital needs as it grows its digital business units.
The digital arm of the low-cost carrier is also reportedly considering listing in the US via a special-purpose acquisition company or SPAC to raise at least US$300 million.
Featured Image Credit: airasia fresh / foodpanda / FairPrice / RedMart
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