Coined in the 2010s, in response to a surge in high-profile closures of brick-and-mortar retail stores in the US, the term “retail apocalypse” supposedly heralded the end of physical retail.

While the situation in Malaysia is not yet as dire, the retail landscape has changed, and the outlook for traditional retail in Malaysia is gloomy.

Just last year, Parkson Corp Sdn Bhd shuttered its department store outlet in Suria KLCC, where it had been since 1998; and, as footfall into shopping malls continues to dwindle, more closures could be on the horizon. 

However, it may not be the end of days for physical retail. In China, malls and traditional retailers are seeing a resurgence as they adopt technologies that give them a better understanding of their customers, enabling them to deliver a better experience and value.

Furthermore, they have also invested in converging the online and offline experience for their shoppers, giving them seamless experiences between their online and offline stores. 

It is unlikely that physical retail will completely die out; if anything, the movement of e-commerce retailers into the brick-and-mortar landscapes shows that consumers still have some preference for sampling products in real life before purchasing them.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: Vietnam’s e-commerce startup Leflair accused of owing US$2M to suppliers

However, in order to stay abreast of the changing retail landscape, brick-and-mortar retailers must adapt to customers’ changing expectations. This includes adopting the latest trends and technologies such as experiential retail, mobile payments, and big data. 

Bringing small retailers up to speed

What are the challenges they face?

That said, this solution may come easier to some businesses than others. Big data, analytics, market research, and even large-scale experiential retail employed by brands like Sephora, have traditionally been seen as capital- and labour-intensive solutions available only to big players; for SMEs with limited funding and technological know-how, these solutions seem out of reach. 

According to a study, 69 per cent of SMEs have incorporated Industry 4.0 technologies into their operations, which is certainly a figure to be optimistic about. However, obstacles remain in the adoption of the latest technologies, in the form of insufficient finances, knowledge, or workforce talent. 

This is something we at Innergia Labs have realised first-hand while communicating with retailers: Some retailers lack awareness of the benefits of data, and how understanding customers through data can drive revenue; some retailers hesitate to adopt new systems out of a fear that they lack the manpower and expertise to use the tools effectively; others believe that adopting new technology is an expensive affair with an unclear return on their investment. 

The troubles facing small retailers only deepens when online retailers are included in the equation. In contrast to the struggling physical retail sector, ecommerce seems to be on the up-and-up, with online retail in Southeast Asia predicted to grow from $19 billion in 2018, to $53 billion in 2023.

Increasingly, consumers are turning to large online marketplace platforms, like Lazada and Shoppee, who are able to provide products at competitive prices and deliver them at convenience. Already, 80 per cent of Malaysian internet users are shopping online. 

Also Read: Afternoon News Roundup: Malaysian e-commerce aggregator iPrice raises US$10M Series B financing

In order to remain competitive, retailers — big or small — must adapt. However, there is a significant gap in the adoption of beneficial technologies between big businesses and SMEs. When considering that 98.5 per cent of Malaysia’s business establishments are SMEs, this is something that requires immediate attention. 

How can these issues be addressed?

As the saying goes, “if you can’t beat them, join them.” For small retailers to thrive, they must get on board with the sort of technologies that their competitors are using. 

When devising solutions for small retailers, the constraints that SMEs face must be taken into consideration. To address the lack of capital that most SMEs have, the solutions offered must be priced fairly.

To address the manpower and knowledge shortage SMEs deal with, these tools must be easily implemented: the amount of resources required to start utilising them must be kept to a minimum — they should require as little extra hands, and extra knowledge as possible.

Of course, education is also paramount. More efforts must be made in reaching out to small retailers: They need to know that there are tangible benefits to adopting these tools, and that solutions they can afford exist in the market. 

An example of this is retail business analytics. With retail business intelligence software, data is no longer solely the domain of ecommerce and big businesses.

It is now possible for small retailers to gather data, to personalise their customers’ shopping experiences, craft sales strategies, and address the pain points of physical retail. 

Also Read: E-commerce trends: What to expect in 2020

Data collection addresses some of the unique pain points and challenges that small physical retailers face. These are the time and costs of manually collecting and managing sales data — which can take up to three days, or even more, when done traditionally — and shrinkage and pilferage by staff.

These problems are further exacerbated when expanding into multiple outlets as resources are spread thinner, resulting in a drain on revenue. With point-of-sale data analytics, managers can cut down on time spent rifling through and organizing sales data, and can quickly catch anomalies in sales records to nip pilferage at the bud. 

Furthermore, collecting data enables these small businesses to remain competitive by employing tailored sales strategies e-commerce-style. Just as most e-commerce websites gather data on consumers to personalise their shopping experience and thus drive sales, with the proper use of retail analytics, small businesses can identify sales patterns in the data they have retrieved and visualised, in order to craft sales strategies.

In the case of an F&B outlet, this could mean using retail analytics software to collect data on what their best-selling products are, what other products are bought alongside them, and what the average expenditure of each customer is. With this knowledge in hand, they can design a set meal that fits not just their customers’ tastes, but also their wallet size. 

In conclusion

Reports of physical retail’s death may have been greatly exaggerated, but it remains true that physical retailers must continually adapt in order to stay ahead of the game in the rapidly-changing retail landscape.

As SMEs form the backbone of Malaysia’s business establishments, it is imperative that they are not left behind. Now, there are more solutions available on the market that physical retailers — even those with limited capital — can utilise to give themselves that much-needed edge on the rocky road ahead.

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Business

Vietnam’s e-commerce platform Leflair allegedly owes US$2M liabilities to suppliers, customers

Leflair Vietnam, an e-commerce startup which ceased its local operations in February, is accused of owing US$2 million in liabilities to around 500 of its suppliers and many customers, Tuoi Tre News reported.

According to the suppliers, Leflair representatives admitted in a meeting that it is undergoing a capital crunch and is seeking funding from different investors. 

The company also revealed that it only has less than US$50,000 in its cash account.

Founded in 2015, Leflair was started as an online platform with a flash-sales model and sourced goods from brands and official distributors such as Calvin Klein, Botanist, and Moleskin, and resold them to Vietnamese customers. 

Before ceasing operation, Leflair raised US$7 million in Series B funding from Belt Road Capital Management and South Korean retailer GS Shop.

Coronavirus Drug Discovery competition reveals top 3 potential COVID-19 treatments

Sage Health, an organisation with a mission to help treat, prevent and cure all human diseases by the end of the 21st century, hosted Coronavirus Deep Learning Competition.

The competition has revealed its top three potential solutions identified from contestants, they are:

First place: 

Matt O’Connor, Founder of Reboot.AI, Data Science Coach-based in Hong Kong and New York City.

Results: He identified Remdesivir as a potential COVID-2019 treatment, as well as a few other novel molecules that still need to be tested for synthetic feasibility, using a generative recurrent network trained on the Moses and ChemBL datasets which together represent about 4 million molecules to learn a representation, a compressed form, of all of them.

Second place: Thomas MacDougall, a graduate student in Computer Science at the University of Montreal.

Results: He identified a novel compound as a synthetically feasible potential treatment for COVID-2019by building a neural architecture using constrained graph variational autoencoder to generate molecules, and an edge memory neural network to classify them.

Third place: Tinka Vidovic, a PhD student at the Mediterranean Institute of Life Sciences based in Croatia.

Results: Vidovic identified Valproic Acid as potential treatments for COVID-2019 using a Connectivity map genome-scale library of cellular signatures that catalogues transcriptional responses to chemical, genetic, and disease perturbation her analysis. She also used a dataset called ‘Harmonizome’, which contains 72 million functional associations between genes and their attributes as a starting point.

Also Read: Keep calm and remain communicative: Startup founders share how they cope with coronavirus crisis

Sage Health was founded in February 2020 by Siraj Raval and Dr John Billings with a mission to assist healthcare providers in both volunteer and paid projects, involving its growing community in as many related initiatives as possible every step of the way. 

The Coronavirus Competition is its first initiative, and it will be donating samples of the winning compound to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for further analysis.

Malaysia’s Cradle Fund reveals 5th cohort of Coach and Grow programme

Malaysia-based early-stage startup nurturer Cradle Fund announced a collaboration with Proficeo Consultants to launch the fifth instalment of Coach and Grow Programme (CGP)2020 to support the fast-growing innovation ecosystem in the country.

According to Digital News Asia’s article, CGP is a specialised coaching programme focussed on nurturing startups and growth-stage companies to get them on the path of sustainable revenue generation and scale.

The programme provides “show-how” techniques from successful entrepreneurs, investors, and corporate professionals who join the programme as coaches in order to Pay-It-Forward to the ecosystem.

Acting Group CEO of Cradle, Razif Abdul Aziz (pic) said the CGP’s goal is to help build and strengthen the capacity of local entrepreneurs and to accelerate the growth of Malaysian tech-companies.

Started in 2011, the CGP was the first long term coaching programme offering customised content and dedicated coaches for a period of 12 months. 

This programme is fully mandated by the Government of Malaysia for high potential entrepreneurial ventures with the objective of creating a pipeline of high-quality companies that will grow and scale their businesses locally and regionally and attract investment and growth funds from funding agencies and investors.

Enrolment for CGP opens from March 6, 2020 with 100 places available for startups and growth-stage companies.

People

Co-founder of Bali-based creative community hub Rumah Sanur Arif Budiman passed away

One of three co-founders of Bali’s Rumah Sanur – Creative HubArif’ Ayip’ Budiman passed away yesterday at 10 pm local time at Puri Raharja Hospital, Denpasar, Bali. Budiman was known as a creative hustler in Bali’s startup scene and also Deputi Litbang (Head of Research and Development) of Indonesia Creative Cities Network (ICCN).

The deceased will be laid rest at Kampung Jawa Jalan Maruti 13, Denpasar at 1 pm local time today.

Also Read: Indonesia’s association for coworking spaces is officially launched

Rumah Sanur – Creative Hub was opened in June 2015. In line with the co-founder’s vision of fostering Indonesian makers and creatives, Rumah Sanur nurtured two startup businesses—Kopi Kultur, a coffee shop that works directly with Indonesian coffee farmers and To~Ko Concept Store, a store that presents designs by small-to-medium enterprises from across Indonesia with a focus on sustainability and upcycling.

Over time, as the website recorded, Teras Gandum, the Bali Export & Development Organisation, Rudolf Dethu Showbiz, and Chris the Barber joined the Rumah Sanur family.

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Picture Credit: Unsplash.com/Dimitri-Karastelev

 

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SAMA, a digital recruiting platform for migrants, closes US$1.15M seed round

Sama, a Singapore-based startup that uses a digital recruiting platform to match migrant workers to jobs, announced today that it has closed a US$1.15 million seed funding from Collaborative Fund, 3tvcp, Antler and other unnamed angel investors.

Steve Melhuish, Co-founder of Property Guru, also joined the round.

The company plans to use the capital for growth in 2020.

SAMA recently became a fully-licensed agency, having obtained the Singapore Ministry of Manpower (MOM) license to work directly with companies to address hiring needs.

Also Read: Owning your data is a basic human right says blockchain-based startup Credifys Rasmus Kütt

Migrant workers are currently said to be paying S$10,000 in agent fees to secure a job in Singapore, Sama targets to drastically lower these rates and enable workers to save for the future.

Newman, a medtech startup for men in Indonesia, raises US$150K to boost marketing initiatives 

Indonesia-based men’s medtech startup Newman, which was part of Y Combinator in the US last year, has raised US$150,000 from the accelerator, according to DealStreetAsia.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: Vietnam’s e-commerce startup Leflair accused of owing US$2M to suppliers

Prior to this, the startup had raised undisclosed pre-seed funding from Indonesian early-stage VC firm Everhaus.

The platform that aims to tackle uncomfortable topics in health through its online consultation aims to use the funds to grow its team and bolster its marketing initiatives.

Newman has also expressed plans of offering consultation into other verticals, like erectile dysfunction and smoking cessation.

First Digital Trust raises US$3M from Taiwanese venture studio Nogle

First Digital Trust (FDT), a technology-driven financial institution powering the digital asset industry, has secured US$3 million in funding from Taiwanese venture studio Nogle according to a press release statement.

Previous investments of Nogle include Telegram and TNG.

Also Read: Singapores Vouch Insurtech raises US$755K from GREE Ventures, Nogle Capital, angels

The newly added funds will support FDT in building its platform as they prepare their Asia launch in May.

“At Nogle, we are always looking for the next innovative technology that will disrupt the financial services industry. That is why we have invested in First Digital Trust. We see great potential in their technology for the digital asset industry, which will pave the way for the future of trust and custody services”, said Jonathan Leong, Founder of Nogle.

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Image Credit :  Anthony Fomin

 

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The tech sector is a notoriously difficult place to be a woman. A congressional report shows that only seven per cent of women-founded businesses receive venture capital funding. Every time we turn around, it seems there’s another gaffe that causes a rise within the community — this ranges from major companies’ lack of women in board positions to distasteful overheard conversations.

While most everyone in the tech sector has an opinion on the issue, for me, being a woman in the fast-growing tech space has actually paid off. In fact, I think that in most ways, being a female in tech has worked to my benefit.

Also Read: 3 awesome Indian women entrepreneurs tell you what it takes to start up

Maybe it’s the dynamic between me and my Co-founder Eileen Murphy Buckley, or the fact that we’re an ed-tech company that operates in a female-dominated industry (nearly two-thirds of teachers in the US are women). I’d like to think it’s because we built an amazing product that helps great teachers teach better. So far, all signs point to the fact that we’re doing something right: ThinkCERCA is now available in schools nationwide, and we’ve secured US$1.5 million in funding. We were a graduate of the Impact Engine Accelerator’s inaugural class, and we won the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Literacy Courseware Challenge in July 2013.

So how can you navigate the complex male-dominated tech world and succeed?

Combine skill sets
You have to be strategic about whom you partner with and bring onto your team. Our biggest success had nothing to do with gender. It had to do with our team’s unique combination of skills. I come from an entrepreneurial background, and have years of experience taking businesses from concept to launch, growing them in both revenue and size. Eileen is a teacher turned entrepreneur, and the former director of curriculum and instruction for a major school system. So while I brought the entrepreneurial know-how, Eileen brought the industry expertise and a firm basis of pedagogy and research. This helped us create a product that principals, teachers and students really need. Her deep knowledge continues to help us meet our core goal: helping students achieve college and career readiness.

I believe it’s this combination of skills that has not only helped us build a successful business, but also secure funding.

Never shy away from the hard stuff
So much of our success can be attributed to our dedication to our customers. Sometimes that means going against what others are telling you to do. While the ed-tech market continues to boom, there’s still the age-old problem of the chicken and the egg. Several investors wanted ThinkCERCA to be something it was not. They told us we either had to be a content publisher or a technology platform. Despite this feedback, based on our expertise and what our customers were telling us they needed, we decided to be both. Technology alone wasn’t the answer. Content alone wasn’t either. Focussing on both, and using a research-based approach, we have carved out a place in the ed-tech ecosystem and are poised for continued and rapid growth.

Build a team of mentors and advocates
While Eileen and I have a great partnership, we have strived and will continue to work to create a team that complements our skills and builds off of what the two of us have created. We now have 16 people at ThinkCERCA whose expertise ranges from technology to sales to marketing. In addition, we’ve had an incredible group of mentors and advisors, such as Chuck Templeton, the former Managing Director of the Impact Engine accelerator. Our mentors have provided the encouragement we need but also given us hard-nosed doses of reality from time to time. Our mentors aren’t the people who always tell us what we want to hear. They’re always looking out for us and telling us what we need to hear.

Also Read: Crowdfunding is a strong community building tool for women

As our business has grown, so have we. When we came together, Eileen was “the educator” and I was “the entrepreneur.” Now, we have both learned and have each assumed both roles. We are able to fluidly assume the voice of the customer and the voice of the business, which allows us to brainstorm and problem solve, and — most importantly — switch hit. Thanks to our complementary skill sets, dedication to our customers, and our refusal to accept the stereotypical limits that go along with being a woman in tech, ThinkCERCA is doing great things for the future of education.

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Abby is the Co-founder and COO at ThinkCERCA (www.thinkcerca.com), an education technology company that provides teachers with tools and lessons they need to personalise critical thinking instruction.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organisation comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship programme that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

This article was first published on e27 on September 19, 2015.

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Cryptocurrency and Blockchain technologies are disrupting the technology landscape for sure. Right from small businesses to giant multinationals, right from grocery stores to financial institutions, everyone is talking about leveraging blockchain and changing the course of their industry altogether.

Cryptocurrencies that were once perceived to be evil, and were only associated with the dark web, have attracted the attention of almost everyone with the rise in the prices of Bitcoin that happened last year. Now, everyone is betting big on the success of the currencies as well as their underlying technology Blockchain.

Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies are all set to disrupt the stock markets now. While this goal is an ambitious one, it is not very far from reality. Only recently, Wall Street went down from being promising and optimistic to really depressing. What was shocking for analysts and researchers was the fact that the cryptocurrencies closely resembled the behaviour of the traditional financial market.

It is then that the question of the traditional finance market affecting cryptocurrencies and vice-versa sprung up. Another question this leads us to be how much correlation exists between these two markets.

1. Challenging the Dollar Standard

While up until now, the US Dollar was termed and perceived as the reserve currency of the global economy, with the rise in the use of cryptocurrencies, the trend might take a toll. The US Dollar lies at the core of the financial web that is spread all over the world. As an example, the 2008 global financial crisis that started in the US spread like wildfire to other parts of the world as far as Iceland.

This centralisation and the authority of the US Dollar is being challenged, and at the same time, disrupted by the rise in cryptocurrencies. Financial transactions are being decentralised at a rapid pace with the advent of the most popular Bitcoin and about 1,000 other cryptocurrencies.

Also read: Everyone talks about cryptocurrency, but the real hero is blockchain

The dynamics of international trade can be changed once and for all with the help of cryptocurrencies. There always have been attempts to get the US Dollar off its throne, and the rise in cryptocurrencies might be the last nail.

2. Investing in stocks and Crypto-trading

Trading in the cryptocurrencies market fulfils for some people the same purpose as trading in the traditional stock market does. Profit, ownership, and motivation are the three plain reasons why people have been investing in the stock market since forever, and all these reasons are fulfilled by the cryptocurrencies market too.

The investors who love to go global can do so easily with cryptocurrencies. While investing in stocks that are out of your home country is a painstakingly long process, the alternative to it, crypto-trading, might prove to be beneficial for the truly global investors.

Initial Public Offerings have smoothly been replaced by Initial Coin Offerings. Investing in companies that open ICOs is so effortless that it might be preferred over the traditional methods by almost all of the investors in the near future.

ICObench is a company that lists ICOs from about 70 different companies and confirms the fact that stock markets are begin disrupted by the invaders called cryptocurrencies.

Investors today are of the opinion that if the prices of Bitcoins can surge in a week like they did, why can’t the same happen with other currencies and the companies that are leveraging these currencies, too.

It has been easy up until now to ignore cryptocurrencies in all their merit, but soon things are about to change. The world will witness the staying of cryptocurrencies as alternate ways of investing, or maybe, the primary ways of making investments.

Cryptocurrencies are set to affect the real financial market and not just a bit!

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e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

Image Credit: antonprado / 123RF Stock Photo

This article was first published on e27 on April 26, 2018.

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