Fashion
Grab and Unilever today announced an extensive partnership in Southeast Asia to protect Grab drivers and riders as well as support the livelihoods of small business owners as they weather the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The partnership covers Grab’s Transport, GrabFood, GrabMart, and GrabExpress services. Unilever’s personal and home hygiene brands such as Lifebuoy and Cif will support Grab drivers to deliver safer and more hygienic rides under GrabProtect. By leveraging Grab’s platform and technology, Unilever products will be available for consumers to purchase directly from Unilever’s vast network of retailers in Southeast Asia through GrabFood and GrabMart, thereby also helping small retailers and mom-and-pop shops around the region.
“Unilever is committed to helping protect the lives and the livelihoods of those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. By providing Unilever’s hygiene products such as Lifebuoy and Cif to Grab’s driver-partners, Unilever is helping people get back on the move safely. The partnership will also assist small retailers, many of whom are still without a digital presence, move to an online platform, whilst also giving people more ways to purchase their favorite Unilever products. As a purpose-led organization, we will continue playing our part to support our communities through this crisis,” said Umesh Shah, Chief Executive Officer, Unilever International.
“The pandemic has hit communities hard, particularly small and offline businesses. By partnering with Unilever, we hope to help Southeast Asians adapt and thrive in this new normal – whether by providing cleaner, safer modes of transportation or by connecting them to the growing digital economy. We’re particularly excited about the breadth and depth of the partnership with Unilever, which is a testament to the value of the open ecosystem that we’ve built. We offer an unparalleled combination of consumer reach, data insights, and logistics fleets that partners like Unilever can tap on to grow their footprint in the region,” said Russell Cohen, Group Managing Director – Operations, Grab.
The Grab x Unilever partnership includes:
Grab and Unilever is bringing greater peace of mind to driver-partners and passengers by equipping vehicles in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines with Lifebuoy hand sanitizers and Cif disinfectant sprays, at no cost to driver-partners or passengers.
Grab and Unilever is setting up Unilever Ice Cream virtual stores on the Grab platform which will offer Grab users instant access to their favorite Unilever ice cream brands such as Wall’s, Ben & Jerry’s and Breyers.
Orders will be fulfilled by Unilever retailers located closest to the consumer – the majority of which are offline businesses such as neighborhood mom-and-pop shops and ice-cream carts. The partnership will generate more sales for these businesses, supporting their livelihoods and families. Grab aims to help these businesses further digitalize, by giving them the option to create individual storefronts on the Grab platform in the future.
Over 250 Unilever Ice Cream virtual stores have been established across Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand, with the goal of reaching over 550 stores by end-2020 through upcoming expansion into other Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia.
As social distancing measures continue, Unilever will expand its range of food, household and personal hygiene products available to Grab users and help retailers list their products online through GrabMart – Grab’s on-demand delivery service for daily essentials available across 8 countries in Southeast Asia. The partnership has kicked off in the Philippines and will expand to Indonesia, Singapore, and other Southeast Asian markets by the end of the year.
This will be complemented by GrabAds to help grow demand for Unilever products. Orders will be fulfilled by Unilever retailers, helping them to grow and ensure resilient future-fit income streams. The rich audience data based on real-life behaviors derived from different touchpoints across the Grab platform will offer valuable consumer and category insights to further support their business.
Unilever and Grab will run pilots in Medan and Makassar in Indonesia to leverage the GrabExpress delivery fleet to ship inventory from Unilever’s warehouses to retailers, such as grocery stores and mom-and-pop shops, in response to real-time demand. Grab’s wide and readily available pool of delivery-partners will allow consumers to receive Unilever’s food and hygiene products quickly even during peak periods. At the same time, this creates additional and diversified income opportunities for Grab’s delivery partners.
Launch dates of the partnership vary by market and by Grab service.
