What is Honestbee?
If you are in Metro Manila, specifically in the vicinity of Makati, BGC, Mandaluyong, Ortigas or Pasay, you know pretty well how bad traffic is. You will spend lots of time, money, unproductive hours just moving from point a to point b. Stay for while as we share our HonestBee Review (Philippines).
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That is why services offered by Uber, Angkas, Grab, especially Grab Express for deliveries are so famous and widely utilized.
Honestbee Regional Presence
Now, HonestBee, a Singapore-based startup arrives in the Philippines. It is an online concierge for your groceries, laundry, food, beer, and wine!
Honestbee online concierge is currently in operation in Singapore (HQ), HongKong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, and recently here in the Philippines.
Get them delivered to your house or office for a minimal fee.
“The Online Concierge that will surely save you from Gas, Time, Parking Fee & other unnecessary purchases during grocery shopping! May tiga bitbit ka pa ng groceries mo!” — Raffy Pedrajita, Tech Patrol
Buy your groceries from @honestbeesg and u’ll surely save gas, time, parking fees & other unnecessary purchases. #Honestbee #OnlineConcierge pic.twitter.com/CGSf6XE6kF
— SpideyPH1 (@raffypedrajita) June 18, 2017
Start here: Download the Honestbee App
The online concierge will also serve, at the moment, those who has smartphones.
Users of iPhones and other iOS devices such as iPad, iPad Mini, and iPad Pro can download the app from the App Store.
All Android users can also download the app, just like the iOS users, for free.
Honestbee PH Challenges
We asked the country manager during the press conference the challenges about launching the app.
Ms. Crystal Lee Gonzalez identified three challenges and we know that while it is crucial to the concierge operation, it will not hurt the brand so much.
Number 1. Internet. While most of the business districts, especially in Metro Manila is now enjoying the high-speed internet, the issue of consistency is still there. You may have experienced this — you have 4G signal, but you can’t browse anything on your phone. So, slow and inconsistent internet speed is one of the challenges.
Number 2. Users without Credit Card. Low penetration of credit cards is also a challenge. The cashless transaction would have been better with this plastic card. Cash-on-delivery replaces this challenge.
Number 3. Non-Smartphone Users. Shopping is much enjoyed when you use a smartphone. But there are still a great number of users that are non-smartphone users.
How it works: Pano ba mag grocery gamit ang Honestbee?
Once you download the app, you need to setup your profile.
There is no “guest’ shopping allowed because the app would require your delivery address and personal information.
Make sure you use a valid e-mail address. This is quite important because aside from SMS notifications, you will also receive important information here.
You will also use the same e-mail address to log in and use the app.
Also, you have to input your delivery address.
The delivery address is dynamic. You can change this as you wish. It is similar to Grab or Uber experience where you pin your location in the map.
This is the best option offered by Honestbee because if your home address is not yet served by the app, meaning there are no partner grocery store near you, then you can have your items delivered to another address.
During our trial grocery shopping, I used the events place address as my delivery address. And during our second time, we already used our home address. Everything worked fine.
Final receipt of the items you bought is sent to your email address.
The actual shopping
Buying your grocery items, although it is done virtually, it mimics your offline or traditional grocery shopping.
You go by the aisle to pick up the items you need.
The experience on the app is quite similar offline. Here is how it looks.
Can’t find the items you need? You can do what the lazy shopper do… Just like me, search it!
Substitute Item & Special Instructions
Substitute item is chosen in case the desired one is not available or out of stock.
You can leave the “substitute item” blank and let the shopper suggest later on. This happened to me, three items I added in my cart was out of stock. The shopper sent me an SMS showing the substitute items. The shopper also called me to confirm the new items added.
Also, you can add special instructions. This is quite important especially to people with allergies. You can add special instruction about the item you want to buy. This applies to each item.
Check out, pay and wait for your grocery items
When shopping is done, check your cart and double check your items and then finally check out.
In this stage, you will need two things: delivery address and mode of payment.
If you are in your office, you have it delivered to there. There is a space provided where you can change the delivery address.
It is likewise required to input your mobile number. This is how your shopper will contact you in case there are items for replacement.
Finally, you can pay using a credit card (perhaps debit card also like PayMaya). But you can choose to pay COD (Cash On Delivery).
Fees
Using the app is free, but since this is a service offered in exchange for convenience, there are payments that are necessary.
Delivery fee. Currently, HonestBee waives the fee if the total amount of your grocery is more than P1,500.
Concierge fee. Under this service, there is a person who does the shopping for you. For a limited time, the concierge fee is P99 only. After the promotion is over, the fee will revert back to P150.
Schedule the delivery
After checking out there is another step you need to do, that is schedule the delivery of your grocery.
There are time slots in the app from which you choose your desired delivery time.
Take note though that Honestbee may charge you a little amount during peak hours.
We have not experienced this so far.
My promotion: Get P500 off with my voucher!
Here comes the exciting part.
Since Honestbee is just new in the Philippines, and they gave us already a sneak peak, I am giving away P500 worth of voucher.
Download the app now buy your groceries and for a minimum of P2,000 worth of items purchase, you enjoy less P500.
Here’s the voucher: https://honestbee.ph/r/RAFFYP1314
The voucher is valid for 30 days upon activation of your account.
Wait, there’s more: Desktop shopping is also enabled.
Ohh, we haven’t told you that you can do your grocery shopping from your PC!
Because you can also log in at Honestbee.PH (Philippines) and do your thing!
Partner stores
At the moment, the following stores are already an active partner of Honestbee. Solo Meat Group, Fresh Options Meat Shop, G-stuff, FoudSource, AWC, Boozy PH, Chicco, Hummus Elijah, Pamora Farms, Figures of Beans and Incredible India.
For grocery, they have Robinsons Selections for wide variety of grocery items.
Others: Order food and do laundry pick-ups
Grocery shopping may be famous but you can also order your lunch or dinner from Honestbee app.
From the app, click “Services” and then a pop-up menu comes up, then you can choose “Food” to order your lunch.
I was told that food service is quite famous in Taipei. We also tested this service and it was delivered after an hour.
Laundry pick up isn’t enabled yet, but it will be offered soon.
Honestbee Review Philippines
For people living in the urban jungle of Metro Manila. For a couple living in a condo, for anybody who doesn’t like to be bothered with traffic, this app is for you.
Convenient. My sister told me she will no longer carry heavy loads of grocery to her condo. Kuya Delivery Bee will do that for her now.
Savings. You no longer have to pay gasoline, parking fees, and unnecessary purchases during the traditional grocery shopping. When my wife and I do grocery shopping, we would always end up dining afterward. That’s additional cost!
Time is gold. The downtime you spend on grocery shopping can be spent with your kids and family. For a minimal fee, you can delegate the “shopping time” to Honestbee.
#HelpMarawi
Finally, if you like to extend help to our brothers and sisters who are affected by the war in Marawi, you can use Honestbee to help.
They have CSR on-going called #HelpMarawi.
You can spend P600 or P2,000 for a grocery pack to be delivered in Marawi.
The P600 pack is good for 3 pax while the P2,000 is good for 10 pax.
The #HelpMarawi grocery items include canned goods, water, instant noodles, medicine, vitamins, toiletries, and diapers.
Honestbee has partnered with TALA Foundation for this CSR while the Philippine Navy is the one that will deliver to goods to our affected brothers and sisters in Marawi.
For donations outside Metro Manila, you can contact Honestbee Philippines Head Office at the BGC Corporate Center, Taguig, Metro Manila.
Author’s note: This is not a paid post. This is based on the author’s actual experience in using the app.
