After global financial services firm UBS came out with a striking projection for ecommerce in Southeast Asia – a fivefold growth to US$35 billion by 2020 from about US$1.1 billion today – startups operating in this space are making sure they won’t miss out.
Malaysia-based iPrice, a site that aggregates a multitude of ecommerce sites in Southeast Asia into a single shopping destination, is upping its game. The startup has raised US$550,000 in seed funding from Asia Venture Group (AVG) to double down on its machine learning algorithms and compete with the likes of Pricepanda and Save22.
Established in October 2014, co-founder Heinrich Wendel says the website aims to create an enjoyable shopping experience by giving consumers not only a visual but intuitive way of discovering products. Whereas other sites in the space are all about comparing prices, he explains that iPrice focuses on narrowing down – through an easy-to-use search and filter interface – the vast volume of products online to suit a user’s preference.
“No matter whether you are looking for a blue and black dress, three-inch high heels, a solid backpack, or a classic Chesterfield sofa, we will show you where you can get the best offer,” he adds.
Shoppers browse through millions of products on the site by categories, brands, models, and colors, among other attributes. All products are automatically linked to special promotions and coupons offered by ecommerce stores.
iPrice is already live in Singapore (iprice.sg), Malaysia (iprice.my), Philippines (iprice.ph), Hong Kong (iprice.hk), Thailand (ipricethailand.com), Indonesia (iprice.co.id), and Vietnam (iprice.vn). It offers more than three million products from over 10,000 local and international brands sourced from different ecommerce stores.
Free online marketing
iPrice has already signed up more than 30 ecommerce stores such as Lazada, Zalora, and Luxola. It sources the products on its site using a combination of data feeds stores provide, its own crawler, and an automated classification system. This model appeals to the stores, especially the smaller ones since they no longer need to build up expertise in online marketing to compete against incumbents.
“We know that online marketing services can support retailers in expanding their reach to new target markets and growing their customer base. Therefore, iPrice works with ecommerce sites in the region, offering them an additional channel to market and advertise their products,” notes Wendel.
iPrice assures its partners of a real revenue opportunity, claiming it only sends highly targeted traffic or online shoppers who have a clear intent to buy.
Since its launch, Wendel says traffic on iPrice has been doubling every month. “We have seen tremendous traction – quarter of a million monthly sessions,” Wendel says. While not all of these sessions are successful leads, the conversion rates are high, according to him.
iPrice gets a commission of between five and 15 percent of every sale. Over the last three months, it has booked a revenue of US$1 million.
International expertise
iPrice largely attributes its initial success to the technology it built and to the help it received from investor AVG. “Through them, we quickly acquired international know-how, expertise, and talent in the fields ranging from technology and online marketing to the business side of things.”
AVG is a hands-on, private internet holding firm that focuses on digital distribution models. Its portfolio includes successful investments like iMoney, Trusted Company, and Happy Fresh.
iPrice plans to use the capital it obtained from the VC for two key things. First, it will improve its site by adding more filters so users can really find what they’re looking for and building out its algorithms. “We’ll try to personalize the experience, wherein based on the behavior of the user on the site, we will make personal recommendations. We want to make sure conversion rates for stores are high.”
Second, Wendel says they’re ramping up their sales team to get more ecommerce stores on board.
A universal checkout system is also in the cards, but he says this may take as long as four years.
Curated content
The ecommerce sector has been partly held back by consumers wary of buying stuff online for fear of getting scammed. iPrice addresses this concern by making sure only trusted stores are featured on its site. “We will follow a similar approach and aggregate information about ecommerce platforms. Are they trusted companies? Are they quick in addressing consumer concerns?”
iPrice goes a step further by incorporating valuable content to help consumers in their purchasing decisions. “We’ll provide editorial content such as tips on how you can find out if a product is fake or real.”
Wendel recognizes that every market is a different culture and perspective in terms of what the community wants. Therefore, it employs local talent in all countries it operates in to learn more about those markets.
“We are targeting all 600 million people across Southeast Asia. Every day a new online store opens, there are hundreds in each country, the potential is huge,” he says.
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