Grab users can now pay for retail goods using their app; merchants can onboard the service in about a day

Note: This story is breaking and will be updated with further details over the coming hours 

Grab, the Singapore-based ride hailing company, announced today the ability for customers and merchants to buy and sell goods using its GrabPay service.

Starting today, Grab users will be able to visit participating merchants and use QR-code technology to pay for offline items like food.

The announcement is an important milestone in the history of Grab because it marks the transition of the company from a just a ride-hailing service to a full-suite mobile wallet.

As reported by e27 last week, Grab is kicking off the next — and arguably most important — phase of its payment services.

“Over the last 5 years we have become the leading transport player in Southeast Asia. And now the question is what are we doing with that? What are we doing with that consumer base? What are we doing with that trust?” said Grab Co-founder Tan Hooi Ling at a press event.

Tan said her company is rapidly evolving past a ride-hailing service into a full-suite platform for consumers.

In late-August, when Grab launched its P2P payment service, GrabPay Managing Director Jason Thompson mentioned that this merchant payments roll-out was part of the plan. Today is the fruition of that goal.

“The barrier to entry [for adoption] is really low. There is no cost, no physical space is needed,” he said.

For now, the merchants will not have to pay a transaction fee — a decision that was necessary to get merchants on board in a cash-heavy Southeast Asia, Thompson told e27. He added that in the future they will look at strategies for revenue, but this not the focus at the moment.

The goal is to on-board 1,000 merchants by the end of the year.

The post You can now buy goods using Grab appeared first on e27.