China – Global luxury e-commerce platform Mytheresa has appointed Steven Xu, former head of digital and omnichannel for APAC and the Middle East at British American Tobacco (BAT), to be its new president for China and APAC

In his new role as president, Xu will now be responsible for all Mytheresa consumer-facing activities in China and APAC.

Xu brings a wealth of consumer-centred digital experience to the APAC region. Aside from his BAT, Xu has also held the role of regional head of digital activation at Philip Morris, and vice president of digital marketing and e-commerce for APAC at Ralph Lauren.

Commenting on his appointment, Xu said, “I am thrilled to join Mytheresa to further drive the business in China and APAC. There is huge growth potential in the region as luxury consumers continue to shift online. Mytheresa’s unique multi-brand digital shopping experience will attract many more customers in the future.”

Meanwhile, Michael Kliger, CEO of Mytheresa, commented, “We’re excited to have Steven on board to further continue our successful global expansion and become the number one destination in luxury e-commerce. Having Steven joining shows our clear commitment to the sophisticated Chinese luxury shopper and their demands.”

Gareth Locke, chief growth officer and managing director of Mytheresa, shared that APAC, particularly China, is an important growth market for Mytheresa, and building a local team there is crucial for them to make consumers even more aware of their unique value proposition.

“Steven brings a wealth of digital experience. We are extremely delighted to welcome him as the new President of China and Asia Pacific,” said Locke.

Singapore – Desty, an Indonesian e-commerce startup, has raised a new funding to develop its full stack e-commerce merchant solutions platform. The funding is led by Square Peg, in addition to funds raised from a Pan-Asia investor base last year, including East Ventures, Jungle Ventures, 5Y Capital and other prominent angel investors in the region.

Desty plans to leverage its new funding to further product optimisation, team expansion and user acquisition.

Desty provides a suite of digital tools that helps merchants, from online sellers to F&B establishments to operate their businesses through a unified platform. Over the past year, Desty has enhanced its multiple merchant enablement tools and proprietary tech infrastructure to offer a full stack e-commerce use case across link-in-bio (desty.page), an online store builder (desty.store), a digital ordering menu (desty.menu) and an omnichannel dashboard (desty.omni).

Mulyono Xu, co-founder and CEO at Desty, said, “We are very delighted to have Square Peg supporting us with their extensive experience investing in comparable business models across the globe. Indonesia has a very unique digital economy with notable fragmentation across merchant traffic, sales channels, payments and logistics. We strongly believe that our full stack approach to empowering merchants with our suite of enablement tools will solve their pain points most effectively.”

Meanwhile, Piruze Sabuncu, partner at Square Peg, commented, “We wanted to partner with Desty, not only because of the traction and customer love we’ve seen so far, but also because of the technical and go-to-market talent Mulyono and Bill were able to bring together. Mulyono and Bill are bringing in years of industry expertise and best practices that will help unlock economic opportunities for millions of small businesses in Indonesia and the rest of Southeast Asia.”

He added, “We are excited to partner with the Desty team on its mission to bring merchants online, and help them operate seamlessly across Indonesia’s increasingly crowded e-commerce space.”

Vietnam – Vietnamese MSMEs with B2C e-commerce export value are forecast to grow from US$3.3b in 2021 to US$11.1b by 2026, according to a report by the e-commerce exports program Amazon Global Selling.

The newly released report found that if ‘B2C e-commerce’ were an export category, it could be the fifth-largest export category in Vietnam in five years. It also discovered that 88% of surveyed MSMEs in the country feel that e-commerce is critical for their ability to export, while some of them anticipated greater sales growth prospects overseas with 42% more than in their home country with 11%. 

Moreover, the survey has revealed that key challenges can be narrowed down to three categories, namely barriers in cost, regulation, and information and capabilities.

Meanwhile, more than 80% of surveyed local MSMEs yet admitted that they lack information on relevant regulations overseas, while 85% believe they lack the ability to compete with other sellers globally, and 81% admitted that they are unsure of foreign consumers’ demands and preferences. 

Gijae Seong, Amazon Global Selling’s head for Vietnam, noted, “Local businesses of any size can benefit from the report on Vietnam e-commerce export trends to update about export potential, the perspective of local MSMEs, and best practices to achieve that potential.”

Mumbai, India – Peer Connexions, a B2B e-commerce platform, has launched in India. The platform, which is already operating in markets Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and Sri Lanka, marks its entry into India through launch partner, Tech Data, the global distributor and solutions aggregator for the IT ecosystem. 

Among the capabilities that the new e-commerce provides are detailed technical, commercial information and product catalogues, pricing and inventory status, and the ability to register and transact on a common platform. And just like any e-commerce platform, Peer Connexions will be offering a wide range of promotions and special price offers and also loyalty benefits. 

“E-commerce has transformed the way we work and conduct business in India. As part of Tech Data’s global digital transformation, this platform is a key go-to-market initiative to better support our channel fraternity,” said Sundaresan Kanappan, country GM for Tech Data India. 

Jaishankar Krishnan, co-founder of Peer Connexions, commented, “We are excited to announce the launch of our B2B collaboration platform in India. The platform aims to digitally transform the way distribution channels engage with each other and increase transparency and ease of doing business for brands, distributors and reseller partners. Peer Connexions is proud to have the support of Tech Data as one of our launch partners, and is in the process of adding more partners and brands on the platform over the next few months.”

“We are confident that with the wide range of features and services available on the platform, it will quickly become the preferred platform for doing business for all channel partners.”

Singapore – Integrated end-to-end e-commerce practice ADA has acquired the e-commerce unit of Singapore Post (SingPost), including the unit’s assets and staff, and will further strengthen ADA‘s e-commerce capabilities in technology and enablement in Asia-Pacific.

They are offering clients fully integrated services in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam, and South Korea. Through this acquisition, ADA will seek to deepen its strategic partnership with the SingPost Group in distribution and logistics across Asia.

Srinivas Gattamneni, chief executive officer at ADA, said, “I am thrilled to expand our e-commerce family – ADA is now over 1,000 strong across 10 markets, comprised of e-commerce practitioners, data and digital specialists, industry experts, and management consultants.” 

He added, “The addition of SingPost’s e-commerce arm marks a milestone in ADA’s e-commerce practice expansion plans as we ramp up our end-to-end e-commerce solutions with enhanced e-commerce technology expertise and services, complementing it with our deeply integrated services of combining media, creative, and analytics.”

Meanwhile, Koh Jin Kiat, senior vice president for customer engagement and commercial at SingPost, commented “E-commerce has a high level of penetration in Southeast Asia today, and this proportion will only grow from here.” 

He added, “This deal is only the start of a strategic partnership with ADA, and we look forward to complementing their business with our wide suite of e-commerce logistics solutions within the Asia Pacific region, making it a win-win for both firms as our clients will get to scale up their operations with ADA’s integrated offerings.”

Jakarta, Indonesia – Buoyed by the upward trend of e-commerce shopping and the tendency of Gen-Z consumers to favour relatable products, local beauty products are now able to compete and even surpass global brands. The top performers amongst these local brands are MS Glow and Scarlett, according to new data from Insignia’s e-commerce intelligent platform MarketHac.

During the first quarter of 2022, MS Glow has led the market with a share of 8.2%. Despite lower sales compared to 12.6% at the end of 2021, MS Glow was still at the top of the skincare category, followed by Scarlett and Somethinc, which remained strong at 2nd and 3rd places respectively since December 2021.

Meanwhile, an unexpected milestone was set by a local brand, more specifically in the eye makeup category. Viva, a brand with a long history in the beauty industry, broke into the top three most favoured eye makeup products, competing strongly with the second-ranked Wardah. In the lip colour category, local brand Implora managed to win the second-biggest market share of 15.5%, followed by Wardah with 10.4%, in March 2022. Interestingly, Hanasui, another local brand, went skyrocketing and caught up with Wardah, seizing 10.4% of the market share in the same month.

At the end of the first quarter of 2022, Scarlett dominated the market share of body care products with 42.1%, followed by Vaseline with 16.9%, and Nivea with 6.2%. With body lotion as its champion product, Scarlett was far ahead of the other brands.

Richard Ho, Insignia’s director, shared that local brands have been dominating the market share of beauty products across several categories, most notably in the skincare and body care categories.

“We see that local brands have been gaining more interest and trust. With the emergence of new local brands, the beauty products market becomes increasingly attractive and competitive,” said Ho.

Singapore – Fintech firm MatchMove has acquired Singapore-based e-commerce startup Shopmatic for US$200m. The combined company will enable MatchMove to provide its banking-as-a-service capabilities to Shopmatic’s ecosystem of over a million e-commerce SME customers.

This deal is the first in a series of planned acquisitions for MatchMove to create an end-to-end service for companies in Southeast Asia aiming to digitalise their offerings. MatchMove has grown its presence rapidly across Southeast Asia in recent times and has customers across Singapore, India, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam.

MatchMove’s platform provides customisable, fast, secure and regulated embedded financial services, such as banking-in-an-app, powered by APIs, to help enterprise firms offer richer services to their SME customers. Meanwhile, Shopmatic offers small businesses an e-commerce presence, complete with chat, social media, a webstore and automated access to the world’s largest e-marketplaces.

The combined entity will operate under the MatchMove Group name, while retaining their individual customer-facing brands for the immediate period. Shopmatic CEO Anurag Avula, will continue to lead the Shopmatic business while Shailesh Naik, CEO at MatchMove, will helm the Singapore-headquartered group as it seeks to add further complementary acquisitions to its stable of SaaS infrastructure solutions.

Naik said, “Shopmatic has built an amazing business and team with proven ecommerce tools which support SMEs to trade online. The acquisition provides a large user base to deploy our financial services, reaching a huge sector of the economy at scale. Enterprise customers can now completely digitalise their supply chains – providing services like supply chain lending and vendor payments through a single platform to Shopmatic’s ecosystem of SME customers.”

Meanwhile, Avula commented, “We are building a scalable, business-friendly platform-as-a-service with intelligent tools and data, so every business has the ability to create amazing products to address their markets and while addressing the challenges of moving digital money securely.”

He added, “MatchMove plans to provide modular services, so customers can select and tailor the digital services they need to deliver their commercial objectives. In addition to their existing e-commerce services, Shopmatic merchants will now be able to access embedded banking-as-a-service through MatchMove, enabling their buyers to make and collect payments seamlessly and at a lower cost.”

Singapore – Digital commerce enabler in SEA, Synagie, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Singapore Management University (SMU), aimed at co-developing digital education and training programmes. 

The programmes are specially designed to address the specific talent and skills shortages faced by the technology and e-commerce sector in the region. It seeks to upskill over 3,000 sector professionals by 2025. 

More than 60 SMU-certified programmes across seven areas of focus will be co-developed by SMU Academy (SMUA), the professional training arm of SMU and Synagie Commerce Academy (SCA). These include personal development, customer business development, channel development management, marketing and creative services, and supply chain operations, as well as customer engagement solutions, and business analytics solutions.

Complemented by SMUA’s highly interactive, collaborative, and project-based approach to learning, the modules delivered at SMUA will be taught by leading e-commerce and tech experts with industry experience. The programmes will be launched progressively in the latter part of this year. Participants, who will successfully complete the programme, will receive a certificate jointly issued by SMU and SCA.

Jack Lim, Singapore Management University Academy’s executive director, shared that the partnership with Synagie signifies their commitment to deepening collaboration and engagement with the industry to create practical learning programmes for adult learners who are looking to upskill and reskill. 

“Drawing from the proven andragogy expertise of SMU Academy and industry knowledge from Synagie, these programmes will serve to better equip the workforce with in-demand digital skills, eCommerce experience and bridge talent and skill gaps in this era of disruption,” said Lim.

Meanwhile, Olive Tai, Synagie’s managing director and co-founder, believes that to truly maintain their position as global leaders of the e-commerce sector, SEA’s e-commerce and tech players must come together to inspire and build the next generation of talent. 

“Synagie’s partnership with SMU marks significant milestones for two of the company’s stategic schemes – Synagie Commerce Academy (SCA) and Synagie Partner and Network (SPAN) – roadmapped to propel and future proof the Company position as Digitial Commerce’s leader and change agent for good,” said Tai.

Shah Alam, Malaysia — Razer Merchant Services (RMS), the B2B arm of Razer Fintech, has joined hands with Discover Global Network, the payment brand of Discover Financial Services, as the first acquirer to enable Discover Global Network card acceptance at online merchants in Malaysia.

Through this partnership, RMS is setting the stones for its future goal of enabling 2000 e-commerce merchants in Malaysia to accept Diners Club International, Discover, and other affiliate network cards for online transactions by next year -2023.

RMS is taking calculated steps to ensure a potential lead in the future, as according to a report; e-commerce payments in Malaysia is estimated to increase at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 18.3% from RM28.5b, or $7.1b in 2021, to RM55.7b, or $13.8b in 2025.

By enabling the card scheme, local merchants would access a significant global customer segment with a diversified payment acceptance as the e-commerce industry continues to experience increased growth.

This collaboration offers a strategic advantage for RMS merchants to tap into the billion-dollar market with Discover Global Network and reach more than 280 million cardholders worldwide.

Lee Li Meng, CEO of Razer Fintech, said, “This partnership cements RMS’ continued leadership in enabling a plethora of comprehensive payment channels for our online merchants, thus, providing diverse payment options for their customers.”

Meng added, “RMS merchants can further expand their business reach by casting a wider net in the regional and global market as we look to replicate our offerings with Diners Club International and Discover across Southeast Asia.”

Meanwhile, Jonathon Gould, regional managing director for global acceptance of Discover APAC, shared, “This partnership between Razer Merchant Services and Discover is pivotal in expanding the Malaysian e-commerce market to our global partners. We are committed to continuously providing great benefits and convenience to our cardholders around the world by offering options to make online payments more seamless across borders.”

Sydney, Australia Travel and leisure e-commerce platform Klook, reveals its latest data on the bookings they received since the start of 2022 which makes Victoria the number one destination for inbound tourists representing over 48% of bookings.

Klook data shows that Victoria is the number one destination for inbound tourists, representing over 48% of bookings while New South Wales and Queensland trail at 20% and 16% respectively. New South Wales has been toppled by Victoria as the most popular Australian state for overseas travellers to visit. 

Co-founder and COO, Eric Gnock Fah at Klook heads to Sydney for the Australian Tourism Exchange to share the news. 

According to their data, Melbourne is the top choice for Singaporeans. This renewed interest in Victoria has been driven by Singapore, which has been leading the way for the rebound of international travel to Australia. Tourism Australia research has shown that Singapore flight bookings are up 207% against the same period in 2019.1 79% of activities and experiences booked on Klook from overseas customers since the start of 2022 have been from Singapore, with growing interest from Malaysia and Thailand.

These travellers from Southeast Asia are booking more tours and activities over attractions, revealing that they desire nature and wellness over urban hotspots. Some of the most popular experiences booked are the Great Ocean Road tour, Yarra Valley tour, Phillip Island Nature Parks Penquin Parade and Blue Mountains Scenic World reflecting how they have been craving for a taste of Australian culture and its beautiful nature.

Fah will be touching down in Australia for the first time since 2019 to attend the Australian Tourism Exchange as part of Klook’s ongoing efforts to support Australia’s cross-border travel recovery and bolster the reinvigoration of Australia as a leading travel destination in the Asia Pacific.