Under the Hawkers Go Digital initiative, digital support for Hawker's groups is set up at 30 hawker centres to help hawkers adopt technology, such as digital payment, and generate consumer demand through community group buys. The common Acquirer model makes it easy for hawkers to take orders across multiple ordering services.
SINGAPORE – 23 SEP 2021
Hawkers will get further targeted support to help them benefit from going online with new digital solutions by the SG Together Alliance for Action (AfA) – Online Ordering for Hawkers.
AfA was formed on 17 June 2021 to galvanise efforts to support hawkers expanding their options to reach customers digitally. The National Environment Agency (NEA) and SG Digital Office (SDO) launched an awareness and education campaign to help stallholders (across 113 hawker centres managed by NEA and its appointed managing agents) understand how to supplement physical transactions with online ordering options. Between June and September, SDO Digital Ambassadors engaged 5,500 hawkers. Industry partners supported by offering incentives, such as one-time discounts to help hawkers subscribe to online ordering platforms, with some lowering their base commissions.
Through these efforts, more hawker stalls are offering online ordering as an option to reach more customers, including 660 hawker stalls that signed up for the first time. This has raised the percentage of hawker stalls onboard online ordering platforms, from 34% at the start of the campaign to 47% today. In addition, 330 hawkers who were existing users of online ordering services signed up to more services.
Benefits beyond hawkers
Over the past three months, AfA members have worked together to develop initiatives to address various challenges faced by hawkers. This includes supporting less digitally savvy hawkers, providing more options for hawkers to onboard online platforms and digital solutions, and developing more sustainable business models for online ordering. Initiatives will be rolled out in the coming months.
Sustaining support for our hawkers in a digital future
NEA is developing a set of best practices, to be compiled into a step-by-step Digital Support Guide for Hawkers by end-2021. Hawkers’ Associations and Grassroots organisations can use this to better support hawkers in embracing digitalisation opportunities (see Annex A for Synopsis of the Digital Support Guide for Hawkers). One recommendation is to set up a Digital Support for Hawkers (DSH) group, comprising passionate individuals from the community or hawkers, to support local hawker centres. The DSH group will provide peer support to help less digitally savvy hawkers embrace digital solutions. So far, 30 hawker centres have expressed interest in piloting this initiative from October to December 2021 (see Annex B for the List of Hawker Centres).
The DSH group will strengthen hawker centres’ digital presence by helping them go digital. This includes creating a Facebook page for each centre, facilitating community group buys through the Facebook page, and organising tie-ups with organisations to make bulk meal orders. An SDO Digital Ambassador will be assigned to each hawker centre to coordinate the effort and launch the centre-centric initiative, with the support of corporate and community volunteers. DBS kickstarted the “Adopt-a-Hawker Centre” initiative earlier this month, and other like-minded organisations such as the Rotary Club of Singapore, RSVP Singapore The Organisation of Senior Volunteers, and the Singapore University of Social Sciences are also coming onboard to support different hawker centres. These organisations stepped forward to “adopt” and support individual hawker centres, contributing to driving demand for hawker food through bulk buys, digital content creation, menu curation, and photography techniques. Training opportunities relating to digitalisation will be made accessible to hawkers via hands-on experience.
Making online ordering simpler for hawkers
Online ordering platforms (Deliveroo, FoodPanda, Grab and WhyQ) will explore a Common Acquirer model at 14 hawker centres by end-2021. Under this pilot, WhyQ will be the Common Acquirer for hawkers, while consumers can continue to order through their preferred online ordering platforms.
Hawkers will have easy access to all customers of participating online ordering platforms, and will enjoy the convenience of an integrated interface to receive and manage orders from all platforms. Orders will be received either through a single device, or via on-site Hawker Captains at each hawker centre to place and coordinate orders. WhyQ will manage digital transactions and payments to hawkers, with same-day digital payments and no commissions charged to hawkers. Consumers can access a wider selection of hawker stalls through their preferred online ordering platforms.
In addition, some members of the Alliance for Action (Deliveroo, FoodPanda and Grab) will further improve their commercial offerings through tiered commissions rate options for their acquired hawkers by year-end.
Hawkers will thus be supported to expand their digital presence and offerings, while consumers will have access to more information about their favourite hawker and hawker centre’s offerings and more food options. As more hawkers participate in online food delivery, platforms and delivery companies will experience more and higher value transactions, and hawkers will improve their businesses.
Support from the community matters
Beyond the work of AfA, everyone has a part to play in safeguarding Singapore’s Hawker Culture in Singapore. To help hawkers tide over this challenging period, the Alliance encourages members of the public to continue supporting hawkers through e-ordering, food delivery or take-out. Together, we can contribute to the sustainability and vibrancy of Singapore’s Hawker Culture.
Resources:
Annex A: Synopsis of the Digital Support Guide for Hawkers (100.69KB)
Annex C: Quotes from Co-leads Helming the Three Workstreams (121.41KB)
Annex D: Infographic on the Cost Components of E-Ordering and Food Delivery Services (643.87KB)
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