Malaysia’s Latest Buzz: Online Grocer Honestbee Making Its Way In

Despite Malaysia’s stiff competition, the brand is slowly gaining traction

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Honestbee Buzzing Into Malaysia Market

Honestbee, an online grocery concierge and delivery service, has been running trial operations for the past few months in Malaysia. The response had been positive from both partners and customers, and Honestbee officially launched its entry into Malaysia on February 28.

You might have thought that this is the first country Honestbee is expanding into, but since raising US$15 million in Series A funding in 2015, it has been aggressively setting up its services in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia and Japan.

At the moment, Honestbee is only operating in Kuala Lumpur, covering the city centre and nearby suburbs. They might consider expanding into other territories, but have no fixed plans yet.

Honestbee currently has more than 10 outlet partners, including Ben’s Independent Grocer (B.I.G.), farm to table grocer JezRipe., and specialty stores such as Shojikiya, FarEastFlora.com, Cat and The Fiddle, La Juiceria, Wine Connection, GNC and Real Food.
 

Difference And Competition

Perhaps a key difference between Honestbee Singapore and Honestbee Malaysia is their relationship with the local supermarkets.

In Singapore, Honestbee has an active partnership with NTUC Fairprice, a locally-owned supermarket chain. But in Malaysia, the team has chosen to go with Ben’s Independent Grocer (B.I.G.), which although is a homegrown brand, is located only in KL.

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Perhaps this is because of the stiff competition in Malaysia. In Malaysia (or KL specifically) online grocery shopping is not a new phenomenon. There are already existing platforms similar to Honestbee. One of the more popular ones is Pasar Tap Delivery, which is in partnership with local ‘pasars’ like supermarket chain giant Mydin, Lestari Hebat, Noor Daging and many more.

Another platform, Happy Fresh, is in partnership with big supermarket names like TESCO, Jasons Food Hall and AEON BIG.
 

3-Way Be(e)nefit

Still, despite its relatively limited grocery reach, there are a few thousand active customers in Malaysia. Chief Marketing Officer, Pauline Png, is heartened by the response from both customers and local businesses. According to her, Honestbee is about making daily life easier for customers by offering them a convenient platform to shop for their needs.

It’s also not an enemy to businesses, who may initially view them as eating into their rice bowl. In fact, Honestbee is only helping them expand their reach without having to invest heavily in digital marketing or infrastructure. Honestbee provides a ready-to-use platform and they handle the marketing, so brands can focus solely on their core operations.

But beyond the customers and businesses, Honestbee is also proud of the fact they are making social impact as well, with their part-time job model. Honestbee relies on shoppers to get the groceries and items from partner businesses and deliver them to the customers. In Singapore alone, Honestbee has more than 1200 shoppers, known affectionately as Shopper Bee.

We wish Honestbee all the best in the future!