SINGAPORE: With fewer customers at Geylang Serai Market and restaurants cutting back orders by as much as 90 per cent almost immediately after the “circuit breaker” rules kicked in, business slowed so much that Mr Alfred Goh and his father found themselves with more than 100kg of shellfish left unsold one day.
Many in the traditional wet markets have done so with help from the younger, tech-savvy generation in the family. Facebook is usually the first port of call. Apart from creating individual pages to take orders, there is also a Facebook group called the Pasar United –Dabao 2020, which allows stall owners to promote their products and delivery services for free.Tekka Market to venture onlineWay before the virus outbreak, there were wet market stalls that took the leap to go online.
It has, however, opened up additional delivery slots to those who “really require” its services, said Mr Khor. These include families serving quarantine orders or stay-home notices, as well as people who live overseas but want to order for their elderly parents in Singapore. There have been challenges, such as how to take orders more efficiently. Ms Tan started off by accepting orders via WhatsApp until one of her cousins did up an online spreadsheet.
As MarketFresh’s Mr Khor pointed out: “The biggest challenge I feel is not technical, but economical. How do we deliver our produce to customers but still do it at a profit after considering fulfilment and delivery costs?” In Mr Goh’s case, he had tapped local start-up Ezqr at the start before recently moving on to Shopify. To see how he can further develop his father’s business, he is mulling signing up with Grab’s grocery delivery service, GrabMart.
hope so