It’s no secret that the outbreak of COVID-19 and the start of Singapore’s “stay-at-home” order caused many residents to change the way they operate, by replacing in-person activities with virtual ones. As a result, many e-commerce websites have seen an increase in customers, as more Singaporeans switch to online shopping.

While brick-and-mortar stores have their benefits, online shopping comes with its own perks of cheaper prices due to lower operational costs and overhead. However, do all e-commerce sites provide the same great deals to their customers?

To find out, we explored how four of Singapore’s largest e-commerce platforms compare on price across 73 everyday products.

We collected the best selling products across different categories that were available on the top four e-commerce platforms in Singapore. The products included in this study were limited to items that were mutually available on all four sites.

We then refined our list of data so that each product shared the same quantity, weight, and/or model number to ensure that the data was being accurately compared. This process left us with 73 products spanning over seven different shopping categories.

Once the data was collected and sorted, we analysed who had the cheapest prices based on item and overall product category.

Key Findings

Also Read: Flash Express secures US$200M Series D to expand its e-commerce logistics service in SEA

Smaller contenders seem to be the cost leaders

While Shopee and Lazada are the most popular e-commerce sites in Singapore, we found that they don’t actually offer the cheapest prices. Instead, our data suggests that the less prominent e-commerce sites, Qoo10 and new entrant Amazon, provide some of the best deals to customers.

Overall, Qoo10 had the cheapest prices on average out of all the e-commerce platforms we analysed, with 35 out of the 73 items being the cheapest. Prices were typically 10.97 per cent cheaper than average.

Amazon was the second cheapest platform, with 30 items that averaged 4.55 per cent cheaper than average. In contrast, Singapore’s most popular e-commerce site, Lazada, was 15.97 per cent more expensive on average for the categories we analysed.

Different platforms dominate different categories

While Qoo10 is generally the cheapest e-commerce site, there are still instances where you can find cheaper products on other platforms.

For instance, while Qoo10 was the price leader in the electronics, health, games and puzzles and literature category, with prices ranging from 14.23 to 28.42 per cent below average, Amazon specifically controlled the household and food & drink categories, with prices 10.14 to 11.08 per cent below average.

Also Read: 5-step strategy for agri e-commerce startups to engage customers

Price comparison of popular items

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Reports about Indonesian state-owned telco Telkom Group becoming an investor in tech giant gojek continues to circulate. According to an investigation by Tempo, Telkomsel –Telkom Group-backed mobile operator– is set to invest IDR2.2 trillion (US$150 million) and the process is close to being finalised. DailySocial has attempted to reach out to Telkomsel to confirm the news but has not received any response by the time this article was published. Even with the information openness on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (BEI), Telkom is yet to provide commentary regarding the report.

Rumours of the investment have begun circulating since 2018. By the time, the amount of the investment was said to double the reported number today at US$400 million, but this proposal was rejected by then minister of the state-owned enterprises (SOEs). It is said that the current minister gives the investment a green light as he has also been aiming for digital transformation among state-owned enterprises.

This corporate move is worth our attention as there is a great amount of public fund being at stake –Telkomsel is owned by two companies, Telkom (65 per cent) and Singtel Mobile (35 per cent).

High risks

In Indonesia, conglomerate groups that have taken part in gojek’s investment rounds are Astra and Djarum (through Blibli). With its decacorn status, gojek will continue to attract the attention of global investors. But as a startup with an emphasis on growth, the strategy that the company is implementing involves pumping its valuation in order to dominate the market.

In various opportunities, before the pandemic, gojek has revealed plans to execute corporate profit-making strategy through GoFood and GoPay. In 2019, GoFood is said to have made a revenue of US$2 billion, 50 million monthly transactions, and 2.5 growth. Meanwhile, GoPay contributed US$6.3 billion although the growth rate was not mentioned.

Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: gojek acquires WePay; Carousell close to becoming unicorn; Patamar launches US$50M fund for SEA’s female founders

But these numbers do not guarantee that investing in gojek will generate profit for its investors. A highly dynamic market may contribute to various factors that can threaten the business.

First, there is still gojek’s greatest competitor –Grab. Both companies hold the decacorn status and are reaching out to the same target audience, with a similar product offering.

gojek also owns many business units that are operating independently: GoPay and GoPlay. In the Indonesian digital payments landscape, according to various reports, GoPay is competing with OVO, Dana, and even ShopeePay. Meanwhile, GoPlay has to compete directly with Netflix, iflix, Viu, and many more.

Second, there is the challenge of the never-ending validation process. gojek may have secured millions of users but they have to continue on making adjustments.

The company even had to shut down all the services under its GoLife business unit and laid off 430 employees. The pandemic has radically affected user behaviour, forcing startup founders to reconsider their business strategy.

When considering these two challenges, Telkom Group’s investment in gojek will likely focus on the opportunity for the two companies to collaborate. gojek will gain benefits from Telkomsel’s 172 million customers –which also includes merchants– and vice versa.

It is not easy to guess on the kind of collaboration that can happen between the two companies, as their core business differs greatly. The difference also lies in their business culture. Some of their business units are also competing directly.

Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: Bangkok Bank picks 1% stake in gojek; Grab in talks with AIA, Prudential for US$300-500M funding; Vietnam’s Do Ventures launches US$50M fund

By June, gojek’s valuation is predicted to reach IDR184 trillion (US$12.5 billion). If Telkomsel walks in with a US$150 million investment, there is a great possibility that they will own no more than one per cent. With this percentage, it is certainly unrealistic to expect great returns in the short run, especially since gojek’s IPO plan remains unclear.

Telkom in the Indonesian startup ecosystem

Telkom does not have a very bright history with managing digital businesses; several of its innovation had sunk with the latest being Blanja. As the result of its collaboration with eBay, Blanja failed to compete in the local market.

But the company remains eager to compete. Their latest move included the appointment of Bukalapak Co-Founder Fajrin Rasyid as its new Director of Digital Business.

The state regulation on SOEs (UU No. 19 2003) stated that the goal of an SOE is to contribute to the national economy by making profits. Considering the end goal, it is crucial for corporations to put profits first.

Telkom and Telkomsel have more luck in the startup investment sector through MDI Ventures and TMI. They have made a rather glorious achievement with five exits through M&A and IPO last year, according to DailySocial reports. It was the highest among local VC firms in that time frame.

Telkom has recently launched a US$500 million fund to invest in startups. MDI is managing a total of IDR 11.6 trillion (US$760 million) while Telkomsel’s TMI manages US$40 million.

Let us see how this potential collaboration with gojek is going to end up for Telkom Group.

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The article was written in Bahasa Indonesia by Randi Eka Yonida for DailySocial. English translation and editing by e27.

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According to iPrice Group and App Annie’s data for Android phone users, the total number of sessions on online shopping applications in Vietnam reached 12.7 billion in Q2, the highest ever and up 43 per cent compared to the Q1 2020.

This amazing growth rate is also higher than that of most other countries in the region.

Their data also shows that shopping activity in all of Southeast Asia (SEA) increased by 39 per cent quarter-over-quarter. In Singapore, it increased by 25 per cent while Indonesia is increased by 34 per cent.

In terms of specific numbers, Vietnam also ranks third in SEA in terms of the total sessions on shopping applications (Android phone), accounting for a whopping 19.5 per cent of the region’s market share. Vietnam ranks only behind Indonesia and Thailand, missing the second place by only 0.2 billion sessions.

This major development is not a big surprise for anyone who has been following Vietnamese e-commerce closely.

As with many of the e-commerce startups in SEA, online retailers in Vietnam have achieved phenomenal growth in recent years. According to the e-conomy Southeast Asia report 2019 by Google, Temasek, and Bain, the internet economy of Vietnam has reached a value of US$12 billion in 2019, with an annual growth rate of 38 per cent since 2015 and is expected to surge to US$43 billion by 2025.

Adsota’s 2019 report also put Vietnam among the top 15 countries in the world with the biggest number of smartphone users. With an adoption rate of 44.9 per cent, even higher than Indonesia’s 31.1 per cent, Vietnam is truly a mobile-first country and online shopping is not an exception.

Also Read: 3 trends that will drive Vietnam’s e-commerce sector in 2019

E-commerce spreading to mobile applications has been predicted for a long time. By the end of 2019, major e-commerce startups in the country have all started to apply their own new features aiming at mobile users: Tiki has TikiLive, Shopee has Shopee Feed, Sendo has SenLive, etcetera.

Majority of these features encourage users to interact more and stay longer with the shopping apps through entertaining activities such as video games, livestreaming, or flash sales, some of which might not even look like something you would expect from a shopping app.

Last year, for 11.11 campaign, Lazada Vietnam live streamed an entire concert on their app. This year, Sendo experimented with streaming online classes for students who had to stay at home for social distancing.

The sudden arrival of COVID-19 in early 2020 became of definitive turning point for Vietnam’s e-commerce to accelerate the process. With more people staying at home, and with the increasing demand for online entertainment, Q2 became the ideal condition for e-commerce startups to apply the features they have been testing.

And as data now shows, these efforts have been bringing in great successes.

Notably, at the same time, the total number of visits to the top 50 e-commerce websites in Vietnam decreased slightly by one per cent compared to Q1, according to SimilarWeb’s data.

In that context, the competition, unfortunately, seems to be overwhelmed by foreign businesses. According to iPrice Group and App Annie, the top 10 most used online shopping apps in Vietnam in Q2 were Shopee, Lazada, Tiki and Sendo, followed by a series of foreign apps.

Thegioididong is the only domestic app apart from Tiki and Sendo in the top 10.

Also Read: How Vietnam’s e-commerce firm Tiki manages to keep employee churn rate healthy

There are then certainly big opportunities for local startups to move in and truly take advantage of this jump in mobile shopping usage.

One such player is VinShop by Vietnam’s conglomerate Vingroup who launched their mobile app right this October. Aiming at traditional mom-and-pop retail stores, VinShop wants to connect manufacturers and shops through their app with a B2B2C model.

Expect to see more exciting movements from the m-commerce scene in Vietnam in the near future.

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For majority of organisations in Asia Pacific, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the transition to remote work by at least five years. But remote work should not come as a surprise.

Organisations’ growing preferences for remote work have been building for several years due to enhanced broadband connectivity, competition for global talent, and workers’ changing inclinations. By some accounts, 61 per cent of the global workforce is now remote. And, while it is unclear whether and by how much this number may change in the next few years, it is clear that remote work is here to stay in a significant capacity.

What does this mean for you and your influence skills? Modern organisations feature flatter hierarchies, matrix structures, and cross-functional workflows, with great degrees of involvement from external stakeholders, such as alliance partners, suppliers, investors, and even rivals.

To succeed in these environments, you cannot rely on your formal authority alone, that is, the influence that stems from your job rank. Instead, to successfully engage stakeholders over whom you do not have direct authority—colleagues from other functions, business units, or from outside your organisation—you need to rely on informal influence and persuasion and on building and leveraging relationships with others.

So, how good are you at getting work done without relying on formal authority and instead using informal influence and persuasion?

To lead effectively using informal influence and persuasion has always been challenging. The transition to remote work has made it even more challenging than it already was.

Studies have shown it is more difficult to influence people through digital interactions. One study, for example, looked at changes of opinion in response to differing information.

When contrasting information was revealed in a face-to-face discussion, 38 per cent of participants changed their mind. Conversely, only 10 per cent did so when the information was revealed through an online discussion forum.

Compared to face-to-face interplay, computer-mediated interaction reduces the degree of social presence—acoustic, visual, and physical proximity—with the people you are trying to influence. Reduced social presence makes it more difficult for you to influence others.

Also read: Why remote working is the future for startups 

Consider these three characteristics of digitally mediated interactions that make influence more difficult.

Asynchronous communication

In some digital channels, interactions do not occur at the same time. For example, with emails and texts, exchanges are not immediate. This reduces the fluidity of interaction and opportunities to clarify ambiguities. Such ambiguities could, in turn, lead to wrong attributions (Why is he not responding to my email? Did I say something he did not like?)

Reduced social image

It takes longer to build your social image, especially with people you do not know. Who is this person? Where does she come from? What’s her background? What’s her interest in this project? Can I trust her?

Limited use of non verbals

Non verbals are inevitably harder to leverage in an online environment. Even in video calls, during which we largely remain seated, we are often limited in the use of body poses. The influence benefits of movement and proximity are not available.

What can we do about it? When considering the nuances of digitally mediated influence, think about the following practical tips:

Favour rich channels for influence

A video call gives you more opportunities for influence than a phone call. You can use non verbals such as gestures and facial expressions, and you can respond to the non verbals of your audience. And a phone call is better than an email. It is synchronous, and you get information on paralinguistic cues (tone, pace, intonation). It is particularly important to use rich digital channels when influencing those you do not know well.

Favour lean channels to protect yourself from unwanted influence

Flip the logic for protecting yourself from unwanted influence and use leaner channels to buffer yourself. For example, if someone insists on a video call, ask them to outline the situation and the request in an advance email. It is more difficult to say no to a request on a video or a phone call than in an email. Even if the video call is inevitable, asking for the advance email gives you a chance to preface your position with a preliminary email response.

Expand the number of channels used

To influence others on issues that encompass complex messaging, expand the number of channels you use to communicate. For example, conduct a video call on the issue and follow up with an email. Studies show that influence that activates multiple senses (e.g., both hearing and reading) reduces information overload among those you are trying to influence and produces better results.

Enhance relational closeness

When using digital communications do not focus just on your message at hand. Ask people about their day, the team, the weather, or the performance of their favourite football team. Get to know them on a personal level. For example, experienced executives often hop on conference calls early or stay behind to catch up with teammates.

Also read: The future of remote work is happening now, here’s how

Check-in with people not only when you need something from them. Keep in mind that people vary greatly in the degree of closeness they experience while working through digital channels, and yet closeness fundamentally shapes how well people respond to your message.

Allow more time

When you’re trying to influence, your audience builds a mental model of you: Are you credible? Trustworthy? What are your intentions? Proving these qualities to others is essential for influence and yet they take longer to form in digitally mediated communication. Be patient and allow yourself more time to get people on board.

Leverage reduced majority pressure

Certain forms of computer-mediated communication (e.g., online chat rooms) put people at ease, allowing them to express their opinions more readily. In video-based communication, some platforms (e.g., Zoom) allow you to seamlessly and easily poll people privately, which can further reduce the effects of majority pressure.

Leverage private communication in group meetings

On most platforms, you can send private messages to others during a meeting. The goal here is not to be sneaky. Instead, private chats can enable your team to regroup during a client negotiation, entice participation, or ask a question without interrupting the speaker.

For example, try hosting 150 employees on a call and asking for feedback on a new initiative. In this case, crickets is likely your best outcome. If you privately text one of the people on the call, however, you can ask for direct feedback: “Cindy, the team would really appreciate hearing from you on this issue.”

If you would like to learn about enhancing your influence and persuasion skills, consider the new online course on “Maximizing Your Influence and Persuasion” offered by the Ross School of Business.

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Before the product, there is an idea. As a passionate entrepreneur, it is easy for you to get ahead of yourself in your belief that your idea will be the “next big thing”. But do not let emotions blind your judgment and immediately commit everything you have (career, house, family) on the get-go. 

This is why bringing your idea through the stages of Proof of Concept (POC), Prototyping, and Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a necessity. By following the process through these three stages, you can conservatively commit your limited resources in the most efficient way, to bring the idea and product to market.

Disclaimer: If the characteristics above don’t apply to you, the general concepts are still applicable, but specifics may differ.

Proof of Concept (PoC)

You may have your idea on the back of a napkin, but that does not mean you can go straight to hiring a developer and get things started. Instead, you should always start with a PoC.

The purpose of PoC is to test a concept, product, or process; basically to validate your assumptions as well as those of your potential customers. It ignores all UI/UX issues while focusing on proving the potential use-cases and operational feasibility.

In fact, the PoC does not have to be about a software product or something technical. It could be as simple as observing the execution of your ideas by using simple tools such as pen-and-paper forms, spreadsheets, or following a checklist of tasks, formulae, and processes while making sure that it solves the problem you have identified, or improves the efficiency of processes you are trying to optimise.

Prototyping

Once you have validated your idea through your PoC, you may want to embark on the prototyping process.

The prototype enables you to actually see how the product will operate in real life. It is the physical embodiment of the ideal concept. 

A prototype in software development has two different stages:

User Interface/User Experience (UI/UX) Prototype

A UI/UX Prototype shows how your inputs are collected and how your outputs are presented in the product you are building. As a result, startups will have to work closely with stakeholders to develop a UI/UX that is useful and usable.

Often, a prototype of this stage consists of static paper sketches or digital drawings or web pages that are interactive and clickable.

Working prototype  

Once the UI/UX is done, a working prototype might be developed and tested with a small group of potential stakeholders to ensure that the prototype function just like how they wanted. The defining point of the working prototype over a UI/UX prototype is that it works on real data. It may also reflect a more accurate UI/UX.

Depending on the scale of the product, a working prototype may not be required. It is advisable to build a working prototype if your product depends on a lot of inputs with different processing paths. 

For example, your PoC was a fairly complicated spreadsheet, or your checklist of tasks and processes spans many pages, to ensure that you can replicate your PoC realistically.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

An MVP is a product with a minimum number of essential features and remains viable. This is your version 1 release where features should be selected based on the feedback of the PoC/Prototype users instead of assumptions.

Also read: Things to consider before you build a profitable SaaS MVP

It is a common misconception that the MVP is the same as a Prototype. However, an MVP is actually shipped to the early adopters. Beyond the initial release, your MVP is further developed through an iterative process based on your early users’ reviews to identify pain points and eliminate them.

As an MVP is considered the very first version of your product, a preliminary business/monetisation plan should be available before this stage to help you use some rudimentary form of cost/benefit ratio to decide on the core features to develop.

Comparison at a glance

	Proof of Concept	Prototype (UI/UX)	Prototype (Working)	Minimum Viable Product
Timeline	Variable   If you have run your concepts by a few potential users and they all/mostly come back negative, then this concept is not viable.    Stop, review, and decide if you need a new concept.	1-2 months for developing UI/UX prototype and obtaining user feedback.	Takes 1-2 months to develop a working prototype	3 to 6 months on average
Resources	Yourself     Optional technical expert (if you want to develop your PoC in an electronic form or to ensure you gather enough technical knowledge)	UI/UX Designer     Your potential users for feedback	UI/UX Designer (To reconcile any technical requirements)     Developer (Nominally 1-2 freelancer/outsourced developer)     Your potential users for feedback	Maximum 3 developers   UI/UX designer    A long-term technical expert, who could be one of the developers.
Takeaway	Have information written down/documented for someone else to carry out the concept.   If everything is still in your head, you probably have not developed the concept sufficiently.	Your UI/UX designer should understand your PoC very well. If not, it means you need to revisit your PoC.     You have a good prototype of the product you want to develop.    You and potential users are fairly happy with how it has turned out.	The developer understands your PoC very well, just like the UI/UX designer.     Real-life data gathered during the PoC phase continues to work/be valid.     Many people confuse this step with developing an MVP. It tends to overlap due to how most people develop their MVP but making it distinct may save you time in the future by not having to test the basics out on a live or production system.	For most start-ups, anything beyond 18 man-months/6 calendar-months just means you are targeting too much in your MVP.   Look at re-prioritizing your feature set and get it down to a maximum combination of 18 man-months AND 6 calendar-months.   Be ready to start selling/marketing your product at the beginning of the last third of development.    Most importantly, this is your production system.

When it comes to assessing the feasibility of your product’s potential, each of these stages is useful on their own. PoC is great for a completely new product and idea while the prototype allows testing product viability in an internal user group. On the other hand, MVP is the best option for improving the product by letting the mass to validate its potential.

Still, It does not mean you must go through all stages sequentially and not skip any stage. A startup may, ideally, go through all the stages according to the software development stages. 

However, depending on the business idea, you might find that it is unnecessary to spread out the resources across all stages of product development. This may sometimes occur when your product is the digitalization of existing processes, where the existing processes form your PoC.

When to go MVP mode

As mentioned before, you might want to choose the MVP approach or go for it after developing a PoC, UI/UX prototype, and finally, a working prototype. 

So let’s take a breather, and consider these questions below before venturing into the MVP stage. 

Do you have an experienced technical expert/advisor onboard? 

It is crucial for ensuring that you have a long term expert or advisor. Ideally, this should be a co-founder or your very first technical hire. 

Funding and monetisation plans? 

When you know what to build, the next question is ‘how?’. In a very early stage start-up, development is your #1 cost factor, and you need to show something to your customers to get their buy-in. As the saying ‘you need to spend money to earn more money’ goes.

Clear business requirements for development? 

Imagine assembling a car without knowing how the individual parts connect. Sounds awful, right?

This goes the same for product development in tech startups. They need to know what they are building and expectations. Being able to document what your product is all about is extremely important. 

Also read: How to launch your MVP faster and smarter

This should be a living document. The good news is that it gets better each passing day. 

The Proof of Concept will help in verifying the feasibility of your idea, and Prototyping helps to refine it even further, while the MVP will be the very first step of your product’s life outside the internal development cycle.

With that in mind, one should consider these stages as a measure of your progress.

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