Daily Briefing: Electronics sector is 'on steroids'; Singaporean food and delivery service launches in Bangkok

And here's why merchants should start to go cashless.

From Tech in Asia:

Singapore-based online food and shopping delivery company Honestbee announced the launch of its logistics service, Honestbee Goodship, in Bangkok today.

In Thailand, Goodship – which is already available in Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, and the Philippines – will initially focus on “last-mile” same-day or next-day ecommerce deliveries. It eventually aims to provide on-demand delivery in under an hour.

Honestbee said that Goodship – which it has been trialling in the Thai capital for several months – has already surpassed its food and grocery services in volume. It’s targeting 50,000-plus orders per day during the next 12 months.

Read more here. 

From Money Smart via Yahoo!:

A lot has been said about how retail businesses are feeling the heat from online competition since Singaporeans now prefer to sit at home and order something online than brave crowds and long queues to buy something in a brick and mortar shop.

How many times have you wanted to buy something at the supermarket during lunchtime but got turned off by the sheer number of people standing in line?

If 100% cashless payments can speed up the purchasing process and reduce queuing time, this can only be a good thing for brick and mortar retail businesses and F&B outlets.

What’s more, as cashless payments tend to be less labour intensive, service staff can be deployed to actually make the customer experience more pleasant.

Read more here. 

From The Motley Fool:

According to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), worldwide sales of semiconductors have surged 24% year-on-year in July 2017, reaching US$33.6 billion. On a month-on-month basis, the sales rose 3.1%.

In the Asia Pacific/All Other region, sales went up by 20.5%.

Over in Singapore, the electronics sector is on steroids. In August, the sector recorded a purchasing managers’ index (PMI) reading of 53.2, the highest since November 2010.

Read more here.