An event at Cedele in Singapore advertises a cash free shopping experience for people using GrabPay

At the end of August, Grab launched a system that allowed people to transfer GrabPay credits to one another in what was the first step towards building a full-suite mobile payments wallet.

During the first week of November, Grab is set to trial the next phase — allowing people to buy goods from stores via their GrabPay credits.

An event at Cedele in Singapore’s Star Vista on November 5th is advertising an event by which people can shop at the bakery/cafe and then buy their products with GrabPay credits.

e27 has confirmed the veracity of the event and the plan of using it as a small trial for merchant use of GrabPay. The Facebook post has since been removed.

The event is a big deal because it marks the beginning of GrabPay’s offline payments strategy, which if it takes off would shift Grab from a ride-hailing company to a ‘do everything’ company ala WeChat.

The company said it plans to target cash-first parts of Singapore in the beginning (like hawker centres). The Cedele event does not fit that mold, but this event is a small-scale one-off so not representative of the larger strategy.

Also Read: Grab opens payment option beyond transportation for first time

In August, the Head of GrabPay Jason Thompson hinted the development of more complicated financial products, like accessing capital.

“We want GrabPay everywhere, and we mean everywhere,” he said in August.

A key part of the strategy is using the GrabRewards programme to help build stickiness. So for every dollar spent on GrabPay, people will get a reward point, which then can be used to buy things like ride discounts, a free month of Spotify or Singapore Airline miles.

Also Read: Grab names Toyota as new investor, will share driver data with the automotive MNC

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