Digital Support for Hawkers groups to be set up at 30 hawker centres, to help hawkers adopt technology and generate consumer demand through community group buys. Common Acquirer model makes it easy for hawkers to take orders across multiple ordering services.
JOINT NEWS RELEASE BETWEEN NEA AND IMDA
Singapore, 23 September 2021 – Hawkers will get further targeted support to help them benefit from going online, with new initiatives by the SG Together Alliance for Action (AfA) – Online Ordering for Hawkers.
2 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.
3 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
4 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 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
5 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 opportunities. 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).
6 The DSH group will strengthen hawker centres’ digital presence. 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
7 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.
8 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 transactions and payments to hawkers, with same-day payments and no commissions charged to hawkers. Consumers can access a wider selection of hawker stalls through their preferred online ordering platforms.
9 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.
10 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
11 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.
Related Resources:
Annex A: Synopsis of the Digital Support Guide for Hawkers
Annex B: List of 30 Hawker Centres Expressed Interest to Setup DSH groups and 14 Hawker Centres that will Pilot the Common Acquirer model
Annex C: Quotes from Co-leads Helming the Three Workstreams
Annex D: Infographic on the Cost Components of E-Ordering and Food Delivery Services
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ANNEX A
Synopsis of the Digital Support Guide for Hawkers
In an increasingly digital future, there is a need to ensure our hawkers are ready and well supported by the community to embrace the opportunities offered by technology as a potential revenue stream for their business.
This guide advocates the identification of a Digital Hawker Champion (DHC) and formation of a Digital Support for Hawkers (DSH) group comprising passionate and digitally savvy individuals serving in the grassroots or hawkers to drive this initiative.
- Specifically, the DHC should be someone who is passionate about the digital opportunities for the hawker trade, willing to lead the DSH group to help hawkers to (1) build and sustain a digital presence (e.g. Facebook (FB) page, subscribe to online ordering services, adopt basic digital tools such as e-payment and more in the future) and (2) leverage digital tools to increase business opportunities for hawkers.
- The DSH group should comprise grassroot volunteers and hawkers who are equally passionate and willing to support and journey with the hawkers, especially those who are digitally less savvy to embrace the opportunities offered by digital. This could include, and not limited to, (1) hand-holding senior and less digitally savvy hawkers to navigate the simple digital tools such as online ordering apps, (2) organise bundle menus so that every hawkers can participate meaningfully through Group Buys (GB) to increase demand for their food, and (3) provide peer support.
The above structure draws upon the strength of the kampung spirit of our community and grassroot organisations to sustain this initiative.
For a start, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and dining-in restrictions, this guide advocates the creation of a baseline proposal comprising three elements as shown in Diagram below.
Diagram: Baseline proposal for the immediate term
- Set-up FB page, or its equivalent, for the hawker centre aims to provide a low cost platform to increase online discoverability to engage and raise awareness of the consumers. This will be a centre centric website where residents and consumers nearby would be able to be notified of news, events, food stalls, food reviews and even promotions that the hawkers may want to communicate from time to time. This will be a one-stop site where all things related to the centre could be effectively communicated to the targeted segment who are interested to the offerings in the particular hawker centre.
- Beyond the benefits of online ordering services, dining-in and takeaways, GB/ Bulk order meals is another revenue stream that our hawkers can leverage for their business. This is a centre-based GB where bundle orders could be curated to offer a set-meal comprising a main dish, dessert and drinks. This would allow hawkers selling small ticket items such as dessert and drinks to participate meaningfully online to increase their revenue especially during the pandemic restrictions.
- Finally, engaging corporate offices nearby to generate demand for hawker food in the immediate vicinity would provide the necessary support for our hawkers during the pandemic.
This guide also highlights the possibility to draw upon the support from corporates under the Digital for Life movement, who would be keen to volunteer their time to share their digital expertise and skills, by adopting a hawker centre as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility effort. In support of the DHC/ DSH efforts, the support could range from, but not limited to the following: (1) help the centre create a FB page, (2) guide hawkers on how to create engaging FB posts, (3) develop the interface to facilitate GBs via FB page, (4) organise digital literacy workshop and (5) work with corporate offices nearby to generate demand.
To kick-start and support the initiative, Digital Ambassadors from the SG Digital Office would support for a period of three months to help coordinate the different resources comprehensively to achieve the desired outcome above.
The successful establishment of the baseline proposal would position the hawkers to expand and innovate against the backdrop of the prevailing business environment. The network of support from the DSH groups would also ensure our hawkers are able to adopt other digital tools that would be developed for the industry in the future.
ANNEX B
List of 30 Hawker Centres Interested in Setting Up DSH Groups
1. ABC Brickworks Market & Food Centre
2. Alexandra Village Food Centre
3. Amoy Street Food Centre
4. Blk 160/162 Ang Mo Kio Ave 4
5. Blk 724 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 6
6. Blk 216 Bedok North Street 1
7. Blk 221A/B Boon Lay Place Market and Food Village
8. Bukit Panjang Hawker Centre & Market (SEHC)
9. Blk 2 & 3 Changi Village Road
10. Chinatown Market
11. Chong Pang Market & Food Centre
12. Ci Yuan Hawker Centre (SEHC)
13. Blk 448 Clementi 448 Ave 3
14. Blk 1A/2A/3A Commonwealth Drive
15. Blk 20 Ghim Moh Road
16. Golden Mile Food Centre
17. Hawker Centre @ Our Tampines Hub (SEHC)
18. Kampung Admiralty (SEHC)
19. Blk 20/21 Marsiling Lane
20. Blk 159 Mei Chin Road
21. Blk 208B New Upper Changi Road
22. Blk 51 Old Airport Road
23. Pasir Ris Central Hawker Centre (SEHC)
24. Blk 320 Shunfu Road
25. Blk 6 Tanjong Pagar Plaza
26. Tiong Bahru Market
27. Blk 75 Toa Payoh Lorong 5
28. Blk 90 Whampoa Drive
29. Blk 91/92 Whampoa Drive
30. Yishun Park Hawker Centre (SEHC)
14 Hawker Centres to Pilot Common Acquirer Model
1. ABC Brickworks Market & Food Centre
2. Adam Food Centre
3. Amoy Street Food Centre
4. Blk 115 Bukit Merah View
5. Blk 16 Bedok South Road
6. Bukit Timah Market
7. Chinatown Market
8. Chomp Chomp Food Centre
9. Blk 448 Clementi Ave 3
10. Golden Mile Food Centre
11. Marsiling Mall Hawker Centre
12. Blk 85 Redhill Lane
13. Taman Jurong Market & Food Centre
14. Zion Riverside Food Centre
ANNEX C
Quotes from Co-leads Helming Three Workstreams
Co-lead from Workstream 1 - Supporting Our Hawkers to Adopt Online Ordering Services
“It is important for hawkers to keep up with digitalisation especially during this period where dining-in is restricted. As a hawker myself, I understand the hesitation fellow hawkers have when it comes to tapping on digital platforms as not all of us are digitally-savvy. This workstream brings hawkers together to create a support system where they can exchange ideas and stay updated on the various digital initiatives available. I am excited to co-lead this to instil more confidence and provide assistance to hawkers who want go digital.”
Mr Anthony Low, Chairman of the Hawker Division at The Federation of Merchants' Associations Singapore (FMAS)
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Co-lead from Workstream 2 - Developing a Sustainable Business Model
"We are grateful for the workgroup’s ideas on how we can keep costs low for hawkers while still sustainably serving the needs of our consumers and delivery-partners. Through the AfA, we have partnered with IMDA to onboard more hawkers at a subsidised commission rate and discounted onboarding fees. We will also launch a new scheme for NEA hawkers on our platform where we will reduce commissions on large orders. This will allow us to expand the impact of our Hawker Centre 2.0 programme, which has helped our 50 participating hawker centres benefit from larger orders via a ‘mix-and-match’ model.”
Ms Chay Pui San, Director of Public Affairs and Policy, Grab Singapore
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“The goal at WhyQ from the very beginning has always been to empower hawkers with zero commissions and a hawker-first business model. As a result, we are able to partner with older and younger generation hawkers, less digitally-savvy and tech savvy hawkers. We have relationships with over 2,500 hawkers across 70+ hawker centres. We always have, and will continue to, charge hawkers zero commissions, zero onboarding fees, and pay them daily.
The Alliance for Action has been a timely and important initiative by the government, and we are grateful to have this opportunity to collaborate with key stakeholders, with the common goal of supporting our hawker heroes. Thanks to this alliance, we will be able to use our resources more efficiently, and work together with industry partners to connect our hawker heroes with millions of Singaporeans affordably and sustainably.”
Mr Varun Saraf, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder of WhyQ
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Co-leads from Workstream 3 - Activating Demand Amongst Consumers
“I believe that there are a lot of opportunities out there for hawkers, beyond the Hawker Centre setting. An example is getting hawkers on board digital platforms and establishing community networks where people can come together and support hawker stalls. Through this workstream, we are exploring ways to boost the business of hawkers by creating opportunities for the public to patronise their favourite hawker stalls.”
Mr Joe Sng, Associate Director of Fei Siong Group
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“The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly created a new set of challenges for hawkers, especially for those who depend solely on walk-in business and are based in the Central Business district. Some hawkers, including myself, who have adjusted our way of business and are currently tapping on digital platforms, have seen great improvement to our businesses. Having experienced the benefits of going digital, I wish to encourage my fellow hawkers to also take advantage of the digital platforms available. As such, through this workstream, we want to incentivise more hawkers to consider online ordering and food delivery as part of their business model.”
Mr Lim Gek Meng, Chairman of the Chinatown Complex Hawkers’ Association
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ANNEX D
Infographic on Cost Components of E-Ordering and Food Delivery Services
