Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – E-commerce technology company iPrice has announced the launch of iPrice.au, providing Australian consumers with the same proprietary online shopping experience it’s been offering Asian shoppers for the past 8 years.

With the launch of iPrice.au, iPrice stands apart in the Australian market with its unique ability to compare and curate offers at the same scale it employs in Southeast Asia, a region where it continues to help over 130 million shoppers each year to save money online.

The new iprice.au website builds on past successes with a blended approach, adding human curation on top of its proven technology platform. With large teams of category experts constantly reviewing the catalogue, they are able to quickly intervene where offers might be too-good-to-be-true. This method ensures that Price users see the best offers available at the time of their search.

The Australian launch of iPrice.au marks the first significant expansion beyond Southeast Asia, setting the stage for future growth in the region, responding to a growing demand to streamline the online shopping experience for Australian consumers by offering a more effective way to save money.

Talking about the expansion, Karl Loo, SVP of business development & internationalisation at iPrice, said, “As inflationary pressures make shoppers more cautious about spending, we are pleased to provide the convenience of Southeast Asia’s largest price comparison platform to Australia, to help Australians get more bang for their buck when shopping online.”

Meanwhile, Heinrich Wendel, co-founder and CEO of iPrice, commented, “Our mission has always been to help consumers save money, it’s great to see how our technology developed for hundreds of millions of consumers in SEA has the potential to carry forward to new markets like Australia.”

Jakarta, Indonesia – Local e-commerce giant Bukalapak has announced that it is acquiring a majority stake in Malaysian price comparison platform iPrice, giving the latter the opportunity to accelerate its growth by leveraging the synergies between the two groups.

iPrice will continue to operate as an independent entity, maintaining its neutral position towards users, and working with a broad set of merchants and sellers.

Amidst a cooling fundraising market of last year, iPrice’s investors–including Itochu and Naver–have welcomed the deal. It should be recalled that iPrice was forced to scale back on several aspects of its business and downsize the team substantially as it transformed to explore new ways to grow the businesses cost-effectively.

The new investment by Bukalapak is part of the company’s objective to shift its focus from competing head-to-head with other marketplaces, to building or acquiring niche marketplaces and accelerating their growth.

Heinrich Wendel, co-founder of iPrice, said, “We are excited to join forces with Bukalapak and benefit from the group’s synergies. This partnership will allow us to expand our services to help even more users save money across new verticals, like Gaming, and geographies, like Australia.”

Meanwhile, Willix Halim, CEO of Bukalapak, commented, “I’ve known David and the team for years and have always been excited about their work, then recently the opportunity emerged to work together more closely. With Bukalapak’s extensive expertise in e-commerce and iPrice’s loyal user base and proprietary technology, we are confident that we can unlock the platform’s full potential.”

Singapore – To simply answer the question – Singaporean parents need about S$1,600 to cover a baby’s basic supplies and items, revealed a study by e-commerce aggregator iPrice.

Based on iPrice’s data from thousands of sellers and merchants on its website, the e-commerce aggregator recorded the median prices of selected essential items for a baby’s first year.

The one-off purchases such as baby car seats, strollers, five toys, cribs, step stools, and many more, are all amounting to about S$1,557, while the median prices of items that need to be bought on a regular basis such as diapers, wipes, and milk formula cost about S$43, which when summed up leads to the said estimated budget.

The study notes that the amount only covers basic items and has not included other items such as bath products, cleaning accessories, clothing, feeding items, and baby décor, or even bigger non-item necessities such as healthcare, which all account for overall baby care.

The analysis further remarked that since the prices are only estimated ones, there could be cheaper alternatives, and hence, a cheaper necessary budget.

The study measured the estimated expenditure against the country’s minimum wage to find out how capable parents can provide for baby care. Things are looking up for Singaporean parents since the country records the highest minimum wage in the region with S$1,400, a recent increase announced by its government.

However, this may take a while for parents to save up in other countries such as Malaysia where the minimum wage is just S$387, indicating that the expense of basic baby items would take up about half a minimum wage earner’s salary in the country for 8 months.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – It should be noted by now that Southeast Asia’s e-commerce landscape has been on a steady growth, indicating how the pandemic has vastly contributed to the accelerated digital adoption and the expansion of the industry in the region.

The latest data from e-commerce aggregator iprice analyzed the performance of the top e-commerce companies in Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam to determine which e-commerce sites are holding the most of the market share in the said markets, and which of them have been successful in drawing social engagement.

According to their data for Q3, Singapore-based e-commerce platform Shopee takes the lead across these three markets. In Malaysia, the site gets around 57.5 million monthly visits, while 61.2 million monthly visits for Thailand, with 77.8 million monthly visits in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Lazada takes second in the Malaysia and Thailand market, each having 14.2 million and 37.9 million monthly visits respectively. Vietnam, on the other hand, has its own e-commerce platform Thegioididong.com taking second, with 50.9 million monthly visits.

“These top sites have been [leveraging people] who are actively purchasing items online during the pandemic. They have significantly focused on diversifying their features and marketing campaigns to engage tech-savvy consumers, which consequently increased both their sales and traffic,” noted iPrice.

Meanwhile, the data also noted that local sites rank in the top three. PGMall (Malaysia), Central Online (Thailand), and Tiki (Vietnam) have done quite well in establishing themselves in their respective markets.

According to the report, the cross-country collaboration between PGMall and JD Worldwide, for instance, has encouraged local sellers to offer unique local brands to the Chinese market. With access to China’s extensive market, PGMall’s platform has become one of the most prominent domestic online businesses in Malaysia. 

Meanwhile, Tiki, which holds 13% of Vietnam’s e-commerce market share. They signed an exclusive partnership with insurance company AIA Vietnam for 10 years. Due to this, policyholders may manage their insurance accounts and seek health insurance solutions and claims through the Tiki website.

In terms of engagement with e-commerce brands on social media, Malaysians engage the most with e-commerce-related posts accounting for 44% of the total social engagements, followed byVietnamese users with 36% of the engagements while Thai users accounted for 20%.

“As these e-commerce platforms continue to pursue strategic partnerships, promotions, and social engagements, the future of Southeast Asia’s e-commerce industry is looking bright,” the company concluded.

Manila, Philippines – With pets being a new way for people to cope up during long lockdowns, the love for furry friends by Filipinos accounts for 53% of the total online searches related to pets in the Southeast Asian region, accounting to 7m Google searches and the highest in the region, new data from e-commerce aggregator iPrice shows.

In 2021, Google searches for pets will total roughly 12.9 million, up 88 percent from the same period in 2019.

Filipinos’ searches for pets from January to September 2021 have increased by 118% compared to the same time period in 2019. This makes it the highest increase in the region, along with Malaysians.

On other markets, Vietnam has the lowest increase (34%) despite their abundant Google searches for pets, rising only by over a third of 2019 numbers this year. Meanwhile, Singapore’s interest for pets was highest in 2020, and slightly decreased by 7% in 2021.

Data regarding demand for pet supplies showed that the Google impressions on their category for pet supplies have increased by 158% across all their six platforms in Southeast Asia. The period of January to October 2021 was compared with the same period of the previous year. 

Impressions based from iPrice Philippines’ pet supplies database have more than doubled, from over 400k the previous year to over a million this year. The rise in pet adoptions and purchases is evidently good for pet stores.

Meanwhile, iPrice’s platform in Thailand leads with the highest increase of impressions on pet supplies, around 4.5x more than the previous year; followed by their Malaysia platform, increasing by nearly 3.5x more. Meanwhile, iPrice’s Vietnam platform comes in third, with a 220% increase in impressions on pet supplies. It more than tripled from last year’s numbers.

And in regards to whether cats or dogs are the most-beloved pets, data showed that Southeast Asians’ interest in dogs is over 5x more than their interest in cats. The same comparison is consistently seen in the Philippines; Filipinos searches for dogs, whether for sale or adoption, are 460% more than their searches for cats.

Singapore – As 11.11 sales consistently draws record numbers, this year’s sale event is likely to be bigger than ever. This means come event day, there will be a list of offers from countless sellers, many with additional coupon discounts. 

To accommodate online user demand for these online deals, e-commerce aggregator iPrice has launched its ‘Price Checker’ service to help shoppers find the lowest prices on 11.11. This will be launched across six countries namely Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

With the iPrice Price Checker, shoppers are notified which seller provides the best discount for their favorite products. In addition, the service aims to save shoppers the time and trouble to track prices across multiple e-commerce sites and sellers. 

To use the service, online users must click the ‘Buy on 11.11’ button on the ‘Price Comparison Page’ option on iPrice’s site. The user will then be sent an email on the 11th of November about the item’s price drop. 

Through the feature, the user is able to make the purchase right away by clicking a link to the product in the email. Consumers can subscribe to any number of product prices they want to track. 

“We continue to bring a greater level of trust, convenience, and transparency with everything we do. The iPrice Price Checker fulfils our mission to help shoppers save money through a convenient shopping experience. We will notify them on 11.11 about the lowest price of any item they choose among tens of thousands of products across the region,” said Heinrich Wendel, chief product officer at iPrice.

According to iPrice, shoppers can expect more new features in the coming months.

Singapore – As more and more e-commerce brands in Southeast Asia ramping up their presence through frequent platform deals such as the recent ‘9.9 Sales’, these brands in the region are highly incentivized with the use of influencers for their sales campaigns, hence pushing the e-commerce industry in the region to a steadfast growth, latest insights from e-commerce aggregator iPrice shows.

Comparing the latest ambassadors of Lazada and Shopee namely K-pop actor Hyun Bin and international kung fu actor Jackie Chan respectively, the report showed that the senior global star received higher engagement for articles published regarding the collaboration. Jackie Chan’s presence in Shopee’s latest campaign garnered 59 articles published, compared to the 53 articles garnered by Hyun Bin’s Lazada campaign.

Despite that, Hyun Bin’s campaign garnered more engagement in social media, receiving 79% of ‘love’ reactions, 19% of ‘haha’ reactions, and 2% of ‘wow’ reactions. Meanwhile, the study found that Jackie Chan’s campaign garnered 62% of ‘love’ reactions, 21% ‘haha’ reactions, and 17% of ‘wow’ reactions on social media.

“It’s clear to see that influencers play an important role in driving excitement for the upcoming sales period. Thus, key e-commerce companies have enough incentive to involve influencers in their campaigns,” said iPrice. 

Meanwhile, overall web visits among e-commerce platforms across the region have increased by 31% this year from January to June compared to the same time frame last year. By average, overall web visits from the aforementioned period this year clocked in 4 million web visits.

The Philippines experienced the most surge by 73%, followed by Indonesia (41%), Malaysia (34%), Singapore (10%), Thailand (9%), and Vietnam (7%).

Specifically, the top two Singapore-based companies, Shopee and Lazada, experienced an increase of web visits by 56% and 10% in 1H 2021 compared to the same period last year.

In terms of consumer behavior, given the uncertain COVID infection rates, consumers will continue to stay at home, and consequently forego holiday travels and family get-togethers. With that given, it is expected that there will be more opportunities for online shopping. iPrice foresees that Southeast Asian consumers would probably spend an average of US$40 on e-commerce by the end of the year.

Furthermore, the insights found out that there was an increase of 26% in average consumer spending in 2020, when consumers spent about US$32 per e-commerce transaction.

“Most purchases will be directed towards the categories of sports and outdoor, home improvements, and electronics. Lastly, even if consumer spending won’t increase as predicted, online retailers can still expect far more online web visits to their platforms this year,” the company concluded.

For the month of July, the Southeast Asia region once again snitches the spotlight with stories ranging from K-pop research, a fast-food chain’s case study, to an app that aims to cater to a country’s long-standing culture in trading. 

This period, we see a very interesting study that has put an official percentage of how much a brand can benefit from web searches upon roping in K-pop group BTS as an endorser. Food delivery is also a highlight this month, with a leading food delivery platform in Asia launching a new offer, and a fast-food brand in Malaysia releasing its case study on a successful 2020 campaign that helped save its delivery business in the face of home cooking-loving consumers. 

In the Philippines, we see a live-streaming platform unveiling an ex-Gojek exec as one of its new heads, and from the same country as well as a top story on a commerce enabler that aims to bring digitization to a traditional type of minimart that has been around in the country for years. 

With rankings based on Google Analytics for the period of 16th June to 15th July, here are the brands that had you turning with a second look.

Top 5: BTS ambassadorships can boost brand searches by up to 50%, iPrice study shows

Celebrities have undoubtedly been the primary faces of brands, and the new wave of K-pop groups and personalities have just turned to be the novel key to impactfully lift their awareness among consumers. In particular, global superstars BTS; In their multiple stints as global and regional ambassadors, it is no wonder how the latest data from e-commerce aggregator iPrice shows the sheer impact BTS can have on brands when tapping the group as their brand ambassadors.

According to their data, search results for brands can jump up to 50% after signing on BTS as their ambassador, which has long been evident across brands three years ago when the prominence of K-pop brand ambassadors started to materialize.

Speaking to MARKETECH APAC, Isabelle Romualdez, senior content marketing executive at iPrice stated that such affiliation can drive up web traffic of the websites of these brands, which can eventually help drive up their sales online. 

She also added that ‘BTS’ influence is so strong that they create a lot of ‘noise’ on social media.’

Citing the campaign for global fast-food chain McDonald’s, for instance, she notes that in Vietnam, the fast-food chain was able to sell 10,000 BTS Meals in one day, and that in the Philippines, they were able to sell 3.5 million pieces of chicken nuggets on the day of the launch.

The best possible outcome for brands which I think is also how BTS affects them is that their partnership [with them] can increase their sales. BTS fans are really devoted, they really spend on their merch. They spend around US$1,400 for their merch, tickets, and other things. And so for them to line up and spend for a special meal or product, it’s really no big deal for them.

Asked about what smaller brands can do who might not be able to afford to partner K-pop personalities, she states this:

“One of the challenges for these smaller brands is that they can’t afford big brand ambassadors, so they have this responsibility to be creative with their campaigns but they can still achieve as much success if they create creative campaigns. Another way is to create content that interests the K-pop fanbase, [such as] talking about their behavior.”

Top 4: Former Gojek growth leader Crystal Widjaja joins kumu as new chief product officer

Filipino live-streaming platform, kumu, has appointed the former chief of staff and senior vice president of growth at Indonesia’s Gojek, Crystal Widjaja, to now assume the role of chief product officer.

MARKETECH APAC conversed with Widjaja to know more about what kumu products she is looking to develop and prioritize.

“We need to start building out products that really do unlock experiences, better than online and offline experiences,” said Widjaja in the interview.

Widjaja shared that the platform will be developing its creator base, building out the best creator tools so that content creators can host game shows, create amazing vlogs, and have fun, among others.

“I think what’s really important is to actually build an enablement platform, where people who want to be a community builder and to engage one another have the tools and [apps] to do that,” she said.

The core of kumu is beyond just a social network for content creators. It really is a social participatory network, and that means we are highly engaging and we allow users to reward one another.

Widjaja will be leveraging her extensive experience in helping startups with growth, data, and strategy, as well as bolstering the platform’s overall product strategy. 

In the same interview, Widjaja bared that building kumu has always been about creating opportunities for people to create their small social spaces and a safe environment, one where they can be themselves with people they admire.

Top 3: KFC turned every Malaysian Kitchen into a KEPCI Kitchen

At the start of the Covid in 2020, fast food brand KFC in Malaysia was faced with a dilemma – how does it maintain its delivery business, when consumers, even despite its initial surge, had easily grown tired of ordering take-out? In trying to find a solution, KFC soon found it was not other QSR brands that were the enemy, but the newfound love of home cooking. 

In partnership with digital creative agency Reprise, KFC released the campaign KEPCI Kitchen based on this insight, and turned the present trend in their favor – building the excitement of Malaysians to repurpose KFC items in their personal recipes, and therefore, turning their kitchen into a KEPCI kitchen. 

Due to a highly engaging integrated campaign which included a dedicated ‘KFC’ cookbook, consistent recipe sharing on Instagram, and also a sponsored cooking show, the campaign soon achieved its target and even more. 

In an exclusive chat with KFC Malaysia’s CEO Chan May Ling and Reprise’s Creative Director Eddy Nazarullah, the two both chalked it up to great teamwork and relationship between the brand and agency. 

“I think the lovely thing about this case study, I think, is the client-agency partnership, and how fast the team reacted because nobody knew how to react during a lockdown,” Chan said.

“[We’re] very close to our agency partner to uncover the insight and to have a common agreement on how we want to build the brand, and how we want to engage, and I think that’s very important in a relationship; and that’s how it sparked,” she added.

I think what’s key is the collaboration between KFC and [Reprise]. It’s the agency and client relationship that’s definitely made this happen. For us to achieve this, it’s definitely something we can’t do alone, and we definitely need the support from the team.

Nazarullah echoing Chan’s statement

Top 2: PH commerce enabler GrowSari secures US$30m funding for operation expansion

Philippine-borne business-to-business commerce enabler GrowSari has announced that the company has secured more than US$30m in funding from various companies and venture capitals, which include Gokongwei-led listed Philippine retailer Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. (RRHI) and JG Digital Equity Ventures, as well as Wavemaker Partners.

Other funding participants include Pavilion Capital, Tencent, Saison Capital, ICCP SBI Venture Partners, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) which is a member of the World Bank Group.

For GrowSari, said funding will help fuel the company’s vision of tapping into sari-sari stores, the Filipino version of neighborhood mom-and-pop stores, which according to GrowSari, has the potential to be the biggest and most accessible distribution channel in the Philippines through driving efficiencies in route planning while collecting valuable insights on store behavior.

In an interview with MARKETECH APAC, Maimai Punzalan, chief marketing officer at GrowSari stated aside from creating more offerings and establishing bigger suppliers and market supply for their clients, they envision expanding from their current 50,000 store base across 100 municipalities in mainland Luzon to around 300,000 store bases in the next two years.

She also added that as they started GrowSari in the first place, there were two things that they needed to address in order to aid these sari-sari store owners: access to affordable goods and assortment of goods, ranging from dry goods to basic necessities. Such aspirations stem from the company’s observation of the current status quo of these local neighborhood stores in the country.

We recognize that the sari-sari store segment is such, maybe an underserved channel for the Philippines, despite it’s serving [about] 84% of Filipinos [who] would shop in a sari-sari store, and it makes it relevant for all of the Filipinos out there. There are about 1 million sari-sari stores spread across the archipelago. I think what’s tough for them though is despite being so important to the lives of the Filipino people, they’re barely making enough really to keep running their business.

GrowSari outfits Philippine sari-sari store owners with inventory, infrastructure, and tools to manage and grow their business while generating crucial data and market insights for manufacturers and distributors.

Top 1: foodpanda ties up with Unilever to now deliver on-demand ice cream products

For our top story for the month, we have the leading food delivery platform in Asia, foodpanda, and its recent partnership with Unilever. The digital change for all economies continues to accelerate, especially now that new consumers migrate online for shopping due to the pandemic, and with this, quick-commerce – the super fast delivery of anything to customers in under one hour or often much faster – is becoming the standard of service.

Unilever and foodpanda’s team-up is aimed at offering 24/7 on-demand ice cream deliveries through foodpanda shops and pandamart – foodpanda’s cloud grocery network. This move targets to reach a wider customer base via foodpanda’s q-commerce across Asia, including Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, as well as Pakistan, and the Philippines.

Speaking to MARKETECH APAC, Abhishek Sahay, foodpanda’s senior director of new business, said, “We did find speed as one of the customer insights that [really] people want, and it wasn’t just food deliveries but in every aspect of life. They are becoming much more used to on-demand stuff.”

He adds that the intention behind q-commerce is to provide speed and choice for customers.

Aside from delivering a variety of ice cream, the partnership also includes new product launches, bundle deals, and promotional campaigns, as well as optimized digital advertising and customer engagement on the platform, such as strategic placements of digital banners on the platform, the creative use of in-app notifications, and campaigns on social media.

We are no longer just a food delivery company. We are expanding into new verticals. In terms of future plans, we definitely have a long way to go, specifically on quick commerce. And as we think of expansion, we have three different ways. One is we want more and more stores. Secondly, we think of new country expansion, launching in Japan, Cambodia, and Myanmar. And the third is category expansion,” said Sahay, regarding foodpanda’s future plans.

Watch our live interviews with the newsmakers themselves on the latest episode of MARKETECH APAC Reports, live on our YouTube channel.

This is in collaboration with Malaysia-based media company The Full Frontal.

Singapore – With the sudden rise of K-pop groups such as BTS being tapped by global brands as their respective brand ambassadors, the trend has been evident among these brands to be more recognized by the general populace. The K-pop effect on the consumer is proven further with the latest findings from shopping aggregator iPrice showing that search results for brands can jump up to 50% after signing in BTS as their brand ambassador.

According to the insights, these sudden spikes in brand popularity have been long evident across brands three years ago when the prominence of K-pop brand ambassadors started to materialize. For instance, luxury brand Louis Vuitton and soft drink brand Coca-Cola gained 46% and 14% search boost respectively in the global market when they signed BTS as their brand ambassador. Meanwhile, sportswear brand Fila gained a 16% spike in brand interest in 2019 globally for the same reason as well.

Another successful brand interest was manifested last year when South Korean multinational electronics company, Samsung, released a BTS edition of Galaxy S20+. The result revealed a 53% increase in brand searches compared to the same period in 2019. 

And more recently, the recent collaboration of BTS and fast-food chain McDonald’s has earned the brand an 8% increase in search interest globally compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, among Singapore consumers, the said collaboration recorded a whopping 81% increase in Google search volume, signifying the massive effect it had on the growth of McDonald’s brand awareness in the country. 

The insights also note in McDonald’s case in Singapore that due to the insane demand for McDonald’s paper bags adorned with the BTS logo, people ended up reselling the packaging along with unopened sauces on an e-commerce platform within 24 hours of its launch.

Part of the reason these brands have gained so much success from their collaborations is that aside from the love towards BTS as a whole, each of the Korean boy band’s members boasts a fan base of their own. K-pop fans have come up with a term called ‘bias’, which essentially means a favorite member.

In terms of biases within the Singapore consumer base, findings show that Jungkook tops the list, accounting for over 26% of the country’s searches. He is followed by V (25%), Jimin (20%), Jin (10%), Suga (8%), RM (7%), and J-hope (3%).

In Southeast Asia, people seem to be Googling V the most, averaging 29% of the search volume, followed by Jungkook at 26%, and Jimin at 18%. 

Singapore – As the Muslim religious holiday of Ramadan draws to its conclusion, new report from e-commerce company iPrice shows that three products are most sought by Muslim consumers in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, namely perfumes, skincare products and ‘kaftan’, a type of robe worn by Muslims and has been a distinct clothing article of Muslims in Southeast Asia.

According to the report, demand for perfume among SIngaporean consumers skyrocketed to 6078% compared to last year’s Ramadan. Other goods most-searched in Singapore include supplements, kurtas, cooktops and cookies, all which saw a huge spike in search at a rate of 2090%, 1974%, 1529%, and 452% in increase from last year respectively.

Meanwhile, skincare leads in the search history among Malaysian consumers, which increased by 8140% compared last year. Other sought-after products include perfume (6183%), Baju Melayu, a form of Malay clothing garment worn mostly by men (4241%), and even sofas (1262%).

Lastly, the Muslim-rich country of Indonesia saw that kaftan saw the highest surge of online searches, with a 8773% increase since last year. Other items include Gamis (a Muslim female clothing garment), Rok Muslimah (a casual version of Muslim female clothing), and Sarung (an Indonesian skirt), all of which saw a surge of 2813%, 1532%, 1850% respectively when compared to the same period last year.

iPrice also noted in their report that consumers in Singapore started their online shopping journey as early as 5 am, after a morning lull. Shopping activities reached its peak at lunch break at 2 pm and after Taraweeh (the night prayer) period at 9 pm up until 11 pm before bed.

Surprisingly, it was even earlier in Indonesia and Malaysia where people began to shop as early as 2 am and 4 am respectively. After the morning period, shopping sessions peaked again at 10 am in Indonesia and noon in Malaysia.

Smartphones have frequently been pulled out by consumers to purchase products online. This is evident because mobile emerged as the most used device for consumers in Singapore (55%), Malaysia (68%), and Indonesia (93%) to shop online than other devices within the first two weeks of Ramadan.

By comparison, the usage of desktops only showed 43% in Singapore, 31% in Malaysia, and 6.41% in Indonesia. This also proves that the mobility and the convenience of mobile transactions eclipsed tablet and desktop usage.