Tie-up brings the largest health and beauty assortment from over 2,200 Watsons stores to customers’ doorsteps via Grab in six Southeast Asian markets
AS Watson Group, the world’s largest international health and beauty retailer, and Grab, Southeast Asia’s leading super app, today announced the largest O+O (Offline plus Online/ O plus O) health and beauty partnership in Southeast Asia, spanning across six Southeast Asian markets involving over 2,200 Watsons stores. O+O is the new standard for retail, which always involves offline plus online. The traditional O2O model (online to offline or offline to online) from the past generation drove customers from one channel to another, however O+O is totally different. It is more about creating an integrated experience to better serve customers’ needs, that enables them to shop across any channel, anytime, anywhere.
Grab and AS Watson Group will collaborate across multiple services starting with GrabExpress, GrabMart and GrabPay to significantly expand Watsons’ online reach in Southeast Asia. The new partnership means that customers will be able to conveniently access their favourite health and beauty products from an extensive network of Watsons stores via Grab in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines.
Tech-Enabled Seamless O+O Shopping Experience
Customers today have become more health-conscious, yet social distancing and movement restriction measures have created barriers for the general public to access health products and essential items from drugstores. This partnership between Southeast Asia’s largest health and beauty retailer and the leading super app will help millions of consumers get what they need online, without having to leave their homes. Watsons’ extensive physical store network penetration plays an important role in the customer journey, coupled with Grab’s large on-demand delivery fleet forms a critical foundation for making express delivery possible.
This partnership will offer a seamless O+O shopping experience as well as faster and more reliable delivery services to customers. It will also drive more sales to health and beauty brands available on Watsons eCommerce channels such as the Watsons mobile apps and its presence on GrabMart. This will enable both companies to capture opportunities arising from a booming health business in the wake of the pandemic.
Watsons’ eCommerce business saw strong growth with orders and sales doubling in 2020 compared to the year before. Grab’s user penetration will further fuel this growth through improved accessibility of Watsons’ products and more delightful customer experiences.
Freda Ng, Chief Digital Officer of Watsons International, said, “COVID-19 accelerated the growth of eCommerce and our customers expect their purchases to be delivered fast. With our unparalleled network of 2,200 stores in Southeast Asia which is a core touch point for customers and key to enabling fast deliveries, Grab is the ideal partner to complete the purchase journey. This O+O partnership provides added convenience to our customers who can now shop for over 62,000 health and beauty products, either from the Watsons App or on GrabMart, and have them delivered to their doorsteps in under 2 hours.”
Shawn Heng, Managing Director, Regional Business Development of Grab, added, “Grab’s open platform enables companies to scale by easily plugging into our ecosystem and leveraging our unique Offline plus Online capabilities to grow together with us in this region. Our partnership with AS Watsons Group brings one of the world’s most trusted and well-loved health and beauty retailers onto our platform, giving customers a more convenient way to shop and pay for their favourite daily health and beauty products at home and in-store.”
The Watsons X Grab partnership is rolling out in phases across the region and includes:
- Expedited delivery through GrabExpress: Grab will serve as Watsons’ last-mile express delivery partner in Southeast Asia through GrabExpress integration. By tapping into Grab’s large and scalable on-demand parcel delivery fleet, Watsons customers will be able to receive their purchases made through the Watsons website and mobile app within hours instead of days.
- eCommerce expansion through GrabMart: The partnership will bring up to 2,200 Watsons stores in six Southeast Asian markets onto GrabMart, making Watsons the largest health and beauty retailer to be on the platform. Customers in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia can now shop the full Watsons’ online catalogue on GrabMart, with other markets to follow, and have their orders delivered instantly to their doors.
- Convenient cashless payment through GrabPay: Watsons will soon accept GrabPay cashless payment option in its Southeast Asia stores and integrate the region’s most popular digital wallet into its Watsons mobile app to further improve the shopping experience for customers. Customers will receive GrabRewards points for all Watsons transactions made through GrabPay.
