FairPrice imposes S$3.99 service fee for online orders, tweaks delivery charge amid surging demand

SINGAPORE – NTUC FairPrice is imposing a service fee of S$3.99 for all online orders from 8pm on Thursday (April 16) in addition to a tweaked two-tiered delivery charge after it ramped up its capacity to make home deliveries by hiring 150 staff in the past two months.

Previously, the delivery charge was S$7 for online orders under S$59 and free for orders of S$59 and above. Now, the delivery charge for orders below S$59 will be S$5 and orders between S$59 and S$79 will be S$3, while those that are S$79 and above will not incur a delivery charge.

By way of example, an online order of S$65 would incur a S$3.99 service charge and a S$3 delivery fee — meaning a total charge of S$6.99 on top of the cost of the goods purchased.

The service fee will partially cover the costs of “processing, picking and packing online grocery orders”, FairPrice said in a media release on Thursday. The fee was initially introduced in early March but was later waived.

FairPrice has invested heavily over the past two months to upgrade its online grocery infrastructure, and hired and trained about 150 staff to become skilled pickers and packers, the release stated.

This resulted in an increase of 25 per cent in the number of delivery slots available for online customers, it added.

FairPrice also intends to further increase its capacity for online orders by nearly one-third.

“In the coming weeks, we will continue to hire more staff and also further increase our online capacity by another 30 per cent by converting a brick-and-mortar FairPrice store into another dedicated fulfilment centre for online orders, among various other activities,” it said.

FairPrice group chief executive officer Seah Kian Peng said that FairPrice continues to invest in its online grocery service “to ensure more families in our community are able to have access to their daily essentials”.

He added: “We adopt a transparent pricing approach — there are no hidden mark-ups on products themselves as our online platform maintains uniform prices with our brick-and-mortar stores.”

The tiered delivery charge will also be implemented “to provide more flexibility for shoppers to vary their basket sizes and optimise savings for their online purchases, making online groceries accessible to more households”, FairPrice said.

FairPrice added that visits to the FairPrice Online website had almost tripled, which has placed heavy demand on its existing online grocery infrastructure.

“Delivery slots are quickly taken up when they are released, leaving many customers with no opportunity to order their daily essentials,” it said.

“To help mitigate this, delivery slots are released throughout the day to offer more opportunities for online customers to place their orders.”

Mr Seah added: “As the Covid-19 situation impacts our lives, it is important also to look out for one another, especially those who may be most affected. We galvanise the community to share in our efforts to do good and play a part for the community.”

The FairPrice Foundation, NTUC FairPrice’s charitable arm, has also pledged to match the service fees for online orders in donations of up to S$500,000 to five organisations – Lee Ah Mooi Old Age Home, Metta Welfare Association, Assisi Hospice, Touch Community Services and Food from the Heart.

“The funds will provide much needed aid to these organisations, which help less fortunate and vulnerable individuals and families, during the escalating Covid-19 situation where donations to support their social work have diminished,” it said.

At Cold Storage, the delivery fee is at S$7 for orders with a value that is less than S$59 and free for orders S$59 and above.

At Sheng Siong’s online supermarket Allforyou, delivery fees are S$6 for orders below S$100 in value and are waived for orders S$100 and above.

At Redmart, those who are not members of its LiveUp programme are charged S$5.99 for orders below the minimum order value of S$60, while deliveries are free for orders above that figure.