Contents

Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Honestbee’s workflow...........................................................................................................................3
The use of information technology........................................................................................................4
The habitat............................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................6
APPENDIX..............................................................................................................................................7

1
Introduction

Honestbee was a launched in Singapore on 23 July 2015 and launched in Hong Kong, Taiwan,
Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangkok, Philippines and Japan. The company was founded by
Singaporeans Joel Sng, Isaac Tay, and Jonathan Low and had backing from venture capital companies
in Asia and the United States.

It was an online grocery and food delivery service as its core business, a concierge service,
and also a parcel delivery service for its B2B clients. The company provides personal shoppers that
pick products for its clients. Consumers utilized the company's mobile app or website to interface
with the company, and the store pickers and retail stores also utilized the mobile app. In Singapore,
Honestbee also provided laundry collection services.

Moving on, in 2018, Honestbee launched an online and offline grocery store in Singapore
called Habitat, which aimed for "more human engagement" for shoppers. Since 10 Feb 2020, the
company closed Habitat due to reduced footfall on account of the COVID-19 pandemic. As of 9 Mar
2020, Habitat remained closed and the company considered a permanent closure of Habitat due to
heavy overhead costs.

Starting mid-April 2019, the company started facing speculation of lacking operational funds
and have since stopped their service in the Philippine market. In May 2019, it stopped the food
delivery and laundry services in Singapore.

In 2018 to 2019, co-founders Isaac Tay and Jonathan Low left the company.

Mr Sng was replaced as CEO by Mr Brian Koo, who had said that he would be working with
the executive team to conduct an in-depth review of the business and to "align our strategic
interests across our various geographies and verticals".

In April 2020, Honestbee creditor Benjamin Lim applied to wind up the company. The
company was subsequently issued a winding up order in July 2020 and dissolved shortly after; the
site formerly occupied by habitat, described as their "crowning jewel", is currently leased out and
used by RedMart.

2
Honestbee’s workflow

Delivering the goods for busybees - household essentials may just be one click away.
Honestbee is Asia’s first concierge grocery delivery service which brings together a selection of
grocery stores and supermarkets in one central online platform from which consumers can pick their
choice of products. Once the groceries are ordered, trained shoppers called “shopper bees” will
handpick the items and deliver them to the consumer’s doorstep within the same day via the
delivery team consist of full-timers and sub-cons. That way, the start-up fills a need in the market for
time-strapped executives who are too tied up to head down to stores to do their own shopping. But
what sets Honestbee apart is not just its business proposition. More significantly, it also serves as a
social enterprise that provides flexible work opportunities for the community.

As a social impact business, focusing on creating sustainable jobs first. They are dedicated to
creating economic opportunities for our shoppers – offering people with unconventional schedules,
such as students or stay-at-home mothers, good jobs through flexible hours and fair pay.

As an on-demand business, added value to traditional retailers by bringing them sales, and
to customers by bringing convenience. A one-stop grocery store which allows customers to buy from
over 10 different stores with one single check-out. At the same time, the platform helps these SME
businesses increase sales and be more profitable by bringing them online immediately.

With trained and dedicated concierge shoppers and speedy delivery bees, as well as the
ability to help other businesses are our unique advantages that allow us to ship fresh products
among other things.

The biggest challenge faced is recruiting the right talent to meet the growing needs of
customers and the business. Hiring and talent retention are one of the challenges many start-ups
face. This is because Singapore is a small market, and the skill sets we need are not readily available.

3
The use of information technology

At the heart of Honestbee is technology, and technology is scalable. This facilitates their
expansion to the other parts of Asia where there is a demand for their service. It is also important to
venture out of Singapore where the market sizes are bigger.

The goal of a successful IT system is ultimately to help coordinate decisions and actions
across the supply chain to run as one rather than as disparate silos.

Cloud-based solutions support geographically dispersed entities thus, Increased availability

Real-time information offers some supply chains an opportunity to better match demand to
supply using differential pricing.

Opportunity to use existing assets to make supply chains more effective, as mobile
technology and social media are used to connect the existing asset to the supply chain task at hand.

Risk of IT in a supply chain are: -Installing new systems, Revised business processes
Integration, Problems can shut down the business, Software glitches, Power outages, Viruses,
Develop mitigating strategies, Install new IT systems in an incremental fashion, Run duplicate
systems to make sure the new system is performing well, Implement only the level of complexity
that is needed.

4
The habitat

Most High-Tech Supermarket in Singapore with Robots and Phone Checkout

Before you can enter the supermarket, you have to download Honestbee’s app. On the app, you will
be given a personalised QR code called “bee pass” to scan at the gantries to enter the store.

“Scan & Go” checkout with the Honestbee app

While you can’t just walk out of the supermarket like a swag daddy, what Habitat offers is pretty
close. For those purchasing 10 items or less, just scan each item’s barcode using the Honestbee app,
and that’s it! You can safely put the item in your bag and walk straight out. Your items will be paid
using beePay, Honestbee’s version of a digital wallet.

Be careful to scan everything though. If you miss something out, alarms will sound when you leave
the premise.

AutoCheckout booths

You won’t find cashiers at Habitat. Everything is automated, so all you need to do is push your
shopping cart into a booth, scan your bee pass, and watch it enter the supermarket version of
Narnia.

A receipt will be sent to your email, and you’ll get a notification when your groceries can be picked
up at the collection point. It’ll take less than 10 minutes for your stuff to be packed.

RoboCollect stations

The collection point is not a typical counter where a friendly staff member will pass you your bags.
Instead, you’ll find many robots standing together, awaiting your arrival. Once you scan your bee
pass, one of them will slide straight to you with your goods.

5
Conclusion

The Good

Honestbee was a pioneer by introducing e-commerce marketing in Singapore by integrating:

-Information technology available throughout the supply chain facilitates decision making that takes
into account all stages of the supply chain for better supply chain performance.

-Information is used when making decisions for Facility, Inventory, Transportation, Sourcing, Pricing
and revenue management in organisations.

-Transactional Management Foundation enables integration across the three macro processes (CRM,
ISCM, SRM) for improved decision making.

-The growth of IT drives evolution in supply chain and organisations, however mitigation plans must
be put in place to reduce associated risks

The Bad

Honestbee tried to monopolized the market too fast. Being ambitious investing and growing without
experience employees overseeing the operations needs throughout Asia. Thus, resources are wasted
and seeing the downfall of Honestbee.

6
APPENDIX
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https://www.asiaone.com/singapore/honestbee-faces-6m-demands-owes-least-289m-court-
documents

https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/keywords/honestbee

https://www.facebook.com/habitatbyhonestbee/

https://www.honestbee.tw/en/