Honestbee, a Singapore-based online grocery and concierge service provider, is boosting its presence in Thailand to capitalise on lucrative online shopping opportunities.
“We are spending millions of US dollars in Thailand this year on increasing our local staff, upgrading our IT infrastructure, and adding marketing activities,” said Bounthay Khammanyvong, country manager of HonestBee Thailand.
He said Thailand is the seventh market in Asia-Pacific for Honestbee since it began operations in 2015, following Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Malaysia. The company is expanding into the Philippines soon, said Mr Bounthay.
Just three months after it started operations in Bangkok this January, transactions at its Thai website ranked third among the seven countries where it has a presence.
Honestbee provides online grocery concierge and delivery service through partnerships with leading supermarkets who have no online retail channel.
Customers choose their products online and place their orders either via its local website — www.honestbee.co.th — or its mobile application through Google Play or the Apple Store. The company’s concierge shoppers then hand-pick their groceries for them.
Honestbee earns a commission from its merchant partners. The company charges customers a flat rate of 30 baht with no minimum purchase requirements.
The company has over 10,000 users in Thailand.
Mr Bounthay said Honestbee’s service does not compete with offline retail stores, instead complementing their offerings to accommodate the shift towards online shopping.
He said the company is focusing on improving the speed of its delivery service to reach customers’ homes in an hour.
Its target customers are millennials, housewives, and multi-generational family households with high purchasing power.