Mobile penetration is especially high in Southeast Asia, and still growing, and the increase in mobile devices also fuels a promising e-commerce market. The problem for many vendors, however, is how to bring their brick-and-mortar stores online.
A Singapore-based startup named Globby (short for Global Blaze Solutions) wants to be the e-commerce platform of choice for Southeast Asia’s stores (and differentiate from other e-commerce platforms like Shopify and Magento) by offering hyperlocalized support and tools that are tailored to sellers in the region before tackling other markets. The startup has gained user traction with a series of marketing campaigns that target small stores and fashion designers in Singapore.
“We are very bullish about e-commerce growth in Southeast Asia now. This is also shown in the strong growth in the number of shops using Globby: in less than 9 months, over 100 stores are using Globby to power their online presence,” says Pam Wong, the startup’s demand generation executive.
Wong says that one of the key challenges vendors face as they figure out how to set up an online presence is the lack of personal interaction in e-commerce stores and service staff to help guide customers toward products or take the right steps to ensure that they complete the transaction or return to the store for other purchases.
“A lot of small e-commerce vendors are not aware of how to overcome this issue because of the little knowledge they have of building up their brand. As such, most vendors have trouble building a customer base that comes back frequently to make repeat purchases,” says Wong.
Globby addresses that with a tool that allows stores to send our email campaigns that are targeted to specific segments of customers. Its analytics tools track unique visitors and their details and purchase specifics.
“Globby is not just about helping our clients build online stores. We want to change how businesses go about using their e-commerce stores. Here at Globby, we see e-commerce stores as a tool that facilitates data collection,” says Wong. “Using the data analytics on the backend, we help Globby users better understand their customers and create targeted promotions so as to increase the relevance of their marketing efforts.”
Image by Flickr user Les Haines used under a Creative Commons 2.0 license
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