Alibaba’s Lazada Briefly Stops New Singapore Grocery Orders

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Singapore’s government urged residents to consider ordering their groceries online rather than going to the shops. That just became tougher.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Lazada Group SA is temporarily suspending new grocery orders in Singapore after strict physical distancing measures and rising coronavirus cases triggered a surge in orders.

RedMart, Lazada’s online grocer unit, will not take new orders until it resumes on April 4, the company said in a notice to customers on Thursday. RedMart will use this time to make changes to the range of products available and prioritize daily essentials such as rice, flour and eggs, it said, adding that it will fulfill existing orders.

Lazada’s RedMart and other grocery delivery services such as Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Now have been kept busy amid harrowing economic times in Singapore. These companies have been trying to cope with surging demand as about 5.7 million people in the densely populated island increasingly turn to online grocery shopping, part of Singapore’s S$7.5 billion ($5.2 billion) grocery market estimated by Euromonitor.

“These companies now have to deal with a new situation where demand for essential items outpaces operational capacities,” said Yinglan Tan, founding managing partner of Insignia Ventures. “Players that manage shorter supply chain may be more equipped to handle the stress.”

While the number of coronavirus cases has mounted to 1,000, the city-state has refrained from ordering a full lockdown of daily life and business, preferring to implement an ever-more-stringent set of rules and guidelines to restrain activity and curb the spread. Among the new cases was an employee working at a branch of a local supermarket chain NTUC FairPrice.

And while lockdowns in neighboring Malaysia may have disrupted food supply into Singapore, government officials have assured the nation it won’t run out of food or basic necessities.

NTUC FairPrice on March 27 imposed online purchase limits on items such as rice, instant noodles, vegetables and cooking oil.

Read more: Singapore Grocery Delivery Demand Surges Amid Virus Curbs: Chart

Singapore’s government advised the public on its official WhatsApp channel to order groceries online instead of venturing out, while also pushing more companies to make staff work from home. To help address a shortage of delivery slots, taxi and ride-hailing drivers are now allowed to make food and grocery deliveries.

Separately, the city-state said Thursday it’ll support 90% of the cost for local retailers going online in order to help them diversify their sales channels beyond traditional brick-and-mortar.

(Adds FairPrice online purchase measures in 8th paragraph.)

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