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Tag: Redmart

  • Online grocer RedMart eyes at Asian market

    Online grocer RedMart eyes at Asian market

    Singapore-based online grocery organization RedMart is near raising a huge $100 million Series C round to grow its services crosswise over Asia. The new subsidizing is relied upon to shut in the following couple months. The organization was established in November 2011 to convey online and on-demand shopping to Singapore. To date, RedMart has raised over $50 million from investors such as Garena, SoftBank Ventures Korea, Visionnaire Ventures, and Facebook co­founder Eduardo Saverin, with its latest raise a $26.7 million bridge round last year.

    Given the absence of Series C stores in Southeast Asia, this new round might well incorporate institutional and vital investors, however none of the participants were not unveiled at this point. The new financing will go towards growing the organization’s services into new markets in Asia, with Hong Kong liable to be the primary port of call, conceivably took after by Jakarta, Indonesia.

    RedMart CEO Roger Egan has been open about the organization’s craving to expand abroad, yet he and his group are determined that the organization should first lockdown its plan of action in Singapore — a nation of only five million people, but with a grocery market expected to worth around $16 billion every year. RedMart’s technique is to work its own particular logistics and distribution centers, a model that it trusts gives it more control of the client service cycle and will empower it to rapidly wander into different verticals later on.

    While it was apparently the first to pioneer online grocery sales in Southeast Asia, the scene is more focused today with investment supported new companies HonestBee ($15 million) and HappyFresh ($12 million) among a emerging pack of opponents.

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  • RedMart offers 1-hour delivery of orders from food, retail partners

    RedMart offers 1-hour delivery of orders from food, retail partners

    Singapore based online grocery service provider RedMart has launched an on-demand marketplace, RedMart Relay, which will allow customers to order products from participating food and retail partners, in selected parts of Singapore.

    These products, including food, household items, apparel and electronic items will be delivered by “runners” – personal shoppers who go to the participating stores, purchase the products, and deliver directly to the customer, within one hour of ordering. The service will be accessible via a mobile App.

    RedMart’s co-founder and CEO, Roger Egan, told The Business Times that the launch of RedMart Relay was a natural next step for the company following the introduction of RedMart Marketplace, which is for groceries, earlier this year.

    “Whilst groceries will always be the foundation of what we do and remains a core part of our business, our new on-demand marketplace allows us to leverage our extensive delivery network and is all part of our long-term strategy to become an ‘everything store’, delivering a wide range of products to consumers across Singapore within the hour.”

    Mr Egan noted that when the company launched RedMart Marketplace, it partnered with Singapore’s best niche grocers, restaurants and speciality shops to “offer over 25,000 products, the largest product range of any grocer in Singapore”.

    Marketplace products are picked up from partners, consolidated, and delivered along with the regular RedMart grocery order, he said. Customers are clearly appreciating this “one stop shop” and “our marketplace has been growing at 30-40 per cent per month”, Mr Egan said.

    “With RedMart Relay we are now extending this marketplace model to be “on-demand”, where we collect from retail partners or restaurants and deliver directly to our customers within an hour,” he said.

    Mr Egan added that RedMart Relay has two main advantages over other e-commerce companies and marketplaces.

    “First, we have more engaged customers, with more frequent repeat purchases. Our customers buy from us around twice a month and that frequency is increasing. With RedMart Relay, we can now develop an even deeper relationship with our customers and deliver a much wider range of products to them, whenever they want.”

    The other advantage for RedMart Relay, according to him, is its extensive delivery network which is seamlessly integrated into the marketplace.

    “We can offer customers and marketplace partners faster, cheaper delivery than ‘software only’ marketplaces which typically partner with third party couriers. We encourage any retailer who is looking to leverage the e-commerce wave to contact us and see how RedMart Relay can help grow their business.”

    Vikram Rupani, the company president and another co-founder, added that the company was founded with the mission to “save people time for the important things in life”.

    “Our grocery service is delivering on this promise, and now we’re taking it one step further with RedMart Relay – effectively bringing RedMart’s promise of convenience to just about any product, from any store, anywhere in Singapore, he added.

    Initially the RedMart Relay service will be available to customers living in Tiong Bahru, Telok Blangah, Keppel, Sentosa, West Coast, Tanjong Pagar and Marina Bay neighbourhoods.

    The company plans to launch it nationwide by early 2016.

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  • HonestBee triggers Singapore food fight

    HonestBee triggers Singapore food fight

    A new player in Singapore’s online grocery market – honestbee – is set to bring a unique approach and ramp up the competition.

    Jonathan Low, co-founder of the new concept, describes honestbee as “an Instacart-like service which assigns a freelance runner to buy groceries on your behalf from the nearest supermarket”.

    Honestbee is the latest entrant in Singapore’s online grocery battle, and it’s eager to prove it can deliver the goods. Casual observers probably won’t spot many differences between the service and its competitors, which now include RedMart, PurelyFresh, and GoFresh. Even supermarkets like Cold Storage are upping the ante with a revamped online shopping site.

    Indeed, they all seem to work the same way. After entering your postal code, the site tells you what merchants are available in the area. You then select one of its partners – from supermarkets like Cold Storage and Sheng Siong to smaller setups like Pet Lovers Centre and Gastronomia.

    Next comes putting items in your shopping cart, picking a time slot, and checking out. The service waives delivery fees for basket sizes above a certain amount. And, if all goes well – and it usually does – the delivery guy rings your doorbell at the appointed time.

    So far so good. But where honestbee really shines is its promise of delivering groceries to you within an hour, writes Terence Lee on TechInAsia.com.

    “Well, more like two hours, as the case was for me. I made my purchase at 11.30am, and the earliest time slot I could choose was 1pm to 2pm. One-hour ranges are the best anyone can do in Singapore now, though honestbee wants to eventually introduce 30-minute slots.”

    The startup is part of a rising class of “on-demand” services that aims to give you what you want, as soon as you want it. Uber pioneered the idea of using existing resources (idle private vehicles) and summoning them to anyone through an app. Instacart takes the same concept to groceries, and honestbee applies the same model to Singapore.

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