Honestbee and RedMart lead online grocery shopping revolution in Singapore and Asia

Image credit: ornello_pics

Key insights

Here are some of the key insights from our research, and which forms the basis of this article:

• Nielsen survey shows that there is increasing acceptance of online grocery shopping, and this is shaping up to be worth billions of dollars
• Local champions Honestbee and RedMart are leading this revolution in Singapore and expanding to Asia with their distinct business model and venture capital backing
• Feature comparison of local online grocers. Traditional grocers will still have a role to play but online grocers have solid value proposition to stay for the long run

Background

Technology is changing the way in which we work and play around the world. One of the most fundamental changes would be our method of shopping for groceries.

20 years ago, the pre-dominant method of grocery shopping would be to go down to the nearest NTUC Fairprice or Cold Storage. Today this can be done entirely online and this is not happening just in Singapore, but globally too. Besides grocery shopping, this rising ecommerce trend has been extended to other online retailers too, such as Qoo10 and Lazada, for which we have also done a similar comparison analysis here.

We are here to elaborate how this is changing the online grocery shopping scene in Singapore and the region.

Increasing acceptance of online grocery shopping

Young people and Asians are leading the charge towards online grocery shopping. New York based global marketing research firm, Nielsen Corporation did a survey on online grocery shopping in 2014 and it was published in April 2015.

Below are excerpts of their findings for online grocery shopping in the ecommerce universe.

Source: Nielsen

Millennials and Generation Z are leading the charge to purchase groceries online and having them sent to their doorstep. They are also replenishing their regular consumption items through online subscription shopping.

Local champions of online grocery shopping

Feature comparison

Conclusion