Rise in SEA online shoppers fuelling growth of e-grocery platform HappyFresh

Over the past year and a half, the e-Commerce, e-grocery and delivery scenes have been seeing extraordinary growth as a result of the Covid-19 lockdowns. 

One happy e-tailer, Happy Fresh, has been reaping the benefits of the increased growth of online users, with thousands of families turning to the platform for their e-grocery needs.

According to HappyFresh, traffic in 2020 had grown by factors of 10-20 times across the three countries it operates in — Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.

Last week, it successfully raised US$ 65 million in a Series D, led by Naver Financial Corporation and Gafina B.V., followed by STIC, LB, and Mirae Asset Indonesia and Singapore. According to their release, the round exceeded initial targets, due to significant demand from new and existing investors.

“We see a big shift in customers’ behavior; retention and frequency rates have significantly increased while the overall basket size has been consistently growing. We attribute this to a major shift in the share of wallet from offline to online, which is here to stay”, shared Guillem Segarra, CEO of, HappyFresh.

“We have been on a mission for the past 6 years to provide freshly handpicked groceries of the highest quality to our customers. Especially over the past years, all our efforts have been put into being there for all the families that have trusted us to bring your groceries to your doorstep safely”, he added.

The rise of e-grocery shopping

Southeast Asia’s online economy has hit an inflection point, powered by rapid adoption and fundamental shifts in consumer behavior.

With a corresponding retail market size of US$350 billion, the online grocery retail segment in Southeast Asia presents a sizeable and growing market opportunity for players.

E-grocery is rising rapidly across Asia, particularly Southeast Asia. This shift can be attributed to younger populations in urban regions with higher incomes and expenditures, which have driven early adoption in the past year.

The extended lockdowns have also massively accelerated the overall penetration of digital grocery platforms like HappyFresh.

Started in 2014, HappyFresh was the first grocery delivery service to launch in Southeast Asia that promised grocery delivery in one hour. 

Today, however, that goal has shifted towards a pick-your-delivery-slot service, where customers can select and pay for their groceries and choose a timeslot within the week to get it delivered.

When asked about what the funds will be focused on, Segarra said, “We have been extremely busy scaling up our operations across the different markets while maintaining our quality and safety standards.”

According to the company, it has increased its fleet by thousands during the past months in order to fulfill the increase in demand.

However, checks by Tech Wire Asia have found that in certain places such as Shah Alam in Malaysia, it would be entirely impossible to reserve any delivery slot within a week on the platform.

Nevertheless, Segarra added that the company would be enhancing its existing operating model together with existing partnerships with supermarket retailers across the region.

“This will unlock additional operational efficiency, higher service levels, and quality controls to improve customer experience further. We want our customers to get all the groceries they need at the freshest condition and at an even faster speed, ensuring an effortless online grocery shopping experience.” Segarra added.

The team has also put in place plans to improve service offerings such as more payment methods, better user experience, and assortment, bringing HappyFresh’s service to more families in each country across the region.

HappyFresh plans to further expand into more areas in Malaysia, including Putrajaya, Cyberjaya, Rawang, Butterworth, Kedah, Kelantan, Negeri Sembilan, and areas within East Malaysia. 

In terms of higher service quality, HappyFresh has extended their payment assortment to DuitNow for the ease of doorstep payments, adding to the variety of existing cashless payment methods available, including credit & debit card payments, bank transfers, and e-wallet options such as GrabPay and Boost. 

“Moreover, no minimum spend initiatives for repeat customers and express services will be introduced in the coming months.” said Hu Hun Hui, Managing Director of HappyFresh Malaysia.

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