Millennials and Gen Zs have a new payment option at their checkout page. Termed “buy now, pay later” (BNPL), consumers only need to pay a portion for purchases, with the balance being paid for through interest-free instalments.

This payment option has made headways in European markets, with market leader Klarna being valued at over US$10.6 billion, making the Swedish startup the highest-valued fintech firm in Europe.

The entry of BNPL services in Southeast Asia should come as no surprise. With e-commerce trends accelerating, BNPL offers a tantalising alternative to credit-based instalments, especially in a region where debt is frowned upon.

According to a report by WorldPay from FIS, e-commerce transactions utilising BNPL services in Asia-Pacific are expected to double by 2023.

Credit to debit

The allure of BNPL payments is further heightened by the shift from credit to debit being observed in millennials today.

“What we have seen is that the younger generation, the 18 to 30-somethings, are more likely to use debit cards because they are more aware of the risk credit-based products possess and the debt they could incur. They are more inherently responsible, perhaps because of previous generations,” shared Stuart Thornton, Co-founder and CEO of hoolah, in an interview with e27.

The Singapore-based startup was one of the early entrants into the local BNPL market when it launched its payments platform in 2018.

Also Read: Buy now, pay later: The changing face of finance for a mobile generation

Consumers using hoolah only pay a third of the purchase price upfront, with the balance being automatically deducted interest-free over the next two months.

The platform claims transaction volumes have grown over 700 per cent year-to-date with topline sales up 350 per cent. This growth has led to hoolah actively raising for its Series B investment round, less than a year after its eight-figure Series A round.

Business model

Amidst the increased adoption of BNPL services, questions remain over the business models of these platforms. However, Thornton was quick to dispel the myth that hoolah relies on late payment fees to grow its business.

“We do have late fees in place, but they are minimal and are there to prevent consumers as opposed to driving a particular revenue stream,” he disclosed.

A check on hoolah’s website revealed late payment fees for Singapore-based consumers range from S$5 (US$3.75) for purchases made under S$100 (US$75) to S$30 (US$22) for purchases exceeding S$1 million (US$750,000).

Furthermore, consumers are given up to 48 hours past their payment deadline to inform hoolah on their inability to make repayments before they are charged a late payment penalty.

Revealing their primary revenue stem from deals with merchants, Thornton remarked hoolah’s value proposition to them is the ability to increase conversions by offering an alternative payment option for customers who might have otherwise, skipped purchasing due to insufficient funds.

The platform currently partners with over 1,500 merchants including household names such as Nike, Samsung and Secretlab.

Misconceptions

Despite the well-publicised benefits of BNPL services, the payment option still has its fair share of sceptics.

“BNPL services may give consumers, especially those whose credit profiles may otherwise disqualify them from conventional credit products, a false sense of affordability and encourage them to over-commit with multiple instalment plans,” warned Ho Kok Yong, financial services industry leader at Deloitte, in a Business Times report detailing the risks of the service.

Research detailing the impact of BNPL services in Singapore by financial comparison platform Finder showed that 27 per cent of a thousand Singaporeans surveyed admit to being financially worse off when using a BNPL service, with impulse buying being the most common mistake.

Acknowledging negative perceptions towards BNPL services remain, Thornton shares hoolah tackles these concerns by educating its users and utilising technology to identify high-risk consumers.

Also Read: 500 Startups invests in buy-now-pay-later services startup Split

“We firmly believe that it’s our responsibility to educate the consumer because ultimately, we’re looking after that consumer journey – from making that decision to purchase to repaying,” he opined.

hoolah publishes articles sharing budgeting tips and financial advice on its platform to encourage its users to make sensible purchasing decisions. Through observing user behaviour and their transaction history, technologies embedded within its platform can also identify consumers at risk of overspending and protect against it.

Expansion plans

Having garnered a wealth of experience working in the payments industry, with his most recent role being APAC Vice-President of business development at global payment processing firm WorldPay, Thornton is keen to put this experience to good use in expanding hoolah’s geographical outreach.

“When we started our business three years ago, we already had a clear intent to grow hoolah into a pan-region business,” he shared when quizzed on expansion plans.

“We designed our technology platform from the beginning to enable us to expand and at the same time, localise our capability in every market,” Thornton elaborated as he shared hoolah’s proprietary risk engine can be personalised to the markets they operate in.

Despite expanding its operations to Malaysia and Hong Kong in January and October respectively this year, hoolah is not resting on its laurels. Thornton shared Thailand represents the firm’s next target due to its retail-driven economy and popularity of social media platforms, making it an attractive market to launch BNPL services.

The CEO shared similar sentiments for the Philippines market and revealed hoolah has long-term plans to expand into Japan and Korea, where BNPL services remain nascent.

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Image Credit: hoolah

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Customer engagement is an essential part of any successful business’ growth formula.

An engaged customer buys from you, recommends you to their friends, and has a higher average order value. There are tons of benefits but how do you create an active and engaged customer base?

That’s a good question. There are many strategies but the linchpin is a deep understanding of who your customers are and what problem they come to have solved. Here are some proven tactics to increase customer engagement and, by extension, customer lifetime value.

Segment contacts

The first and possibly most important thing you can do to increase customer engagement is to segment your leads and customers. There are many types of market segmentation and not all of them will be important to you.

Determine what kind of segmentation matters in your business and make it a point to group your customers accordingly. For example, if you sell hardware, the gender of your customer probably doesn’t matter. If you sell clothing, gender is probably one of the most important segmentation factors.

There are two areas of segmentation that can have an outsized impact on customer engagement that being, behavioural and psychographic segmentation. Here’s what you need to know.

Also Read: The only customer engagement strategy businesses need during a crisis

Behavioural segmentation

Behavioural segmentation, as the name implies, takes the actions of your customers into consideration to improve engagement. It encompasses almost any type of behaviour such as:

• What they signed up for? 
• The purchases they’ve made? 
• How often they purchase? 
• The pages and categories they visit on your website? 
• What they click on in emails? 

There are many data points you can use but it’s up to you to determine which ones matter in your situation. For example, if someone signs up for a lead magnet related to shoe care, it can be assumed they’re interested in high-quality shoes. Send them relevant emails and see how they interact with them.

You can take it a step further by asking demographic questions and pairing the insights with behavioural data. When you match behaviour and demographics, you can create ultra-targeted campaigns that move the needle even further.

Someone else may buy a belt once but come back and buy multiple bracelets. Their behaviour is telling you they’re more interested in bracelets so send them content and offers related to that.

You can also take the page they’re browsing into consideration. Drift does this well with its case studies page. A bot pops up and asks if you need any help. From there, you’re able to narrow down the kind of use case you’re looking for and see a case study that covers it.

Also Read: Customer is not always the king, says Tokopedia’s customer engagement expert

Another way to take advantage of behavioural segmentation is by giving people an explicit choice. This is especially powerful with your email marketing campaigns. Ask people what they’re most interested in and let them choose with a click.

Psychographic segmentation

Psychographic segmentation deals with a customer’s attitudes, beliefs, values, etcetera. It can be hard to get right but when you do, you’re able to connect on a deeper level. That’s because you align with what makes them tick as individuals.

Frank Body has done this well. It targets a female demographic and speaks too many of their inner desires. It’s almost like the voice in the back of their head that encourages them to do and be more. It just happens to be named Frank.

Own multiple content types

Right after segmentation, the best way to increase customer engagement is to create content in multiple formats. This allows you to appeal to customers who may not like one format but love another.

Before you start creating content at scale, run small experiments to see what your audience responds to the best. Choose the top three content types and focus on them.

Blog posts or written content

Written content is a staple of the internet. Before video became the go-to medium, writers were responsible for making the web go round. Not only is it an effective way to grow your brand, but it’s also perfect for educating and engaging your customers.

The key to making this strategy work is to focus on delivering value to your customers in an easy-to-understand conversational manner. Having 500-word blog posts that don’t say anything new won’t cut it.

Also Read: F&B customer engagement startup Mobikon snags US$12.5M funding led by Flipkart co-founder, to transform into data exchange platform

Audio content

Podcasting has enjoyed a meteoric growth trajectory over the last few years. It’s becoming cheaper to host your audio files, it has just reached a saturation point in terms of mainstream awareness, and listeners tend to be loyal.

The millions of monthly podcast listeners only demand two things. The first one is a clearly defined premise for the show and the second is interesting content. If you can deliver that then you’ll be able to quickly grow an engaged audience.

Infographics

A few years ago, infographics were difficult to make and only a few brands could cut it. They ended up being the ones to generate massive amounts of traffic, links, and revenue as a result. Now, it’s easier than ever to create an infographic because of tools such as Venngage and Canva.

Before you start making infographics, look at the kind of content that has done well in the past. Use tools such as Buzzsumo and Social Animal to find content in your niche that did well on social media.

Create an infographic on the same topic but choose a unique angle and make something better. Not only will current customers engage and share, but new prospects will also stumble across your brand.

Video content

Video content is last but far from least. It’s estimated that by 2022, more than 80 per cent of all internet traffic will be video. There’s only a short amount of time left before that saturation point is achieved. With that being said, it’s not something you can jump into without careful planning.

For a brand, video can be expensive and difficult to make. Before you start, look at the competitive landscape and find out a gap you can exploit. Does everyone else do talking head videos? If so, can you make a more active type of video or documentary-style videos?

Mr. Beast has been able to find his niche on YouTube and now has almost 30 million subscribers and makes millions of dollars a year from the platform.

Also Read: Beyond consumer targeting, here are 3 ways blockchain fosters customer engagement and loyalty

While that may not be your goal, it’s still important to make content that appeals to your customers. With whatever type of content you choose to create, it’s important to follow content promotion best practices.

Get active on at least one or two social channels

Almost everyone is aware of the reach and influence of social media. Facebook alone boasts roughly 2.5 billion monthly active users. While this may seem like a no-brainer, there are many caveats with social media.

Most of the platforms throttle your reach so you’ll have to pay to promote your content. That’s part of the reason Facebook makes billions of dollars every quarter.

If you want to continue engaging your customers on social media, it’s important to carefully consider the platforms you’ll prioritise. Here are a few questions to ask yourself.

• Are your current and prospective customers on the platform? 
• If so, are they active?  
• Is it easy or inexpensive to reach them on the platform? 
• Are there alternative ways to engage with them beyond your profile (For example Facebook groups) 
• How long is the shelf life of a post on the platform (Twitter is a few minutes while Pinterest is a few weeks)?

Once you’ve answered these questions and have shortlisted a few platforms, start by running small tests. Figure out the best formats for your brand. Do people prefer long-form posts or are short and snappy the best?

Once you are done, then consider:

• What’s the best way to optimise your profile page?
• How often should you post?
• Is there a way to encourage comments?
• What are similar brands doing on the platform?

Also Read: Mobikon, a customer engagement platform for restaurants, raises US$7M Series B to expand to UK, Australia

Once you’ve done your preliminary research, start implementing your strategy, and ramp up the methods that prove successful. DollarSprout followed this research trial and error approach on Pinterest and now has over a million views a month.

Prioritise VIP customers

Not all customers are created equally. Some of them trust you, understand the value you bring to the table, and purchase almost every offer you put out. Others are a drag on your customer support, use your products the wrong way, and complain any chance they get.

Which kind of customer would you like more of in your business? If you said the first type, you’re not alone. Those are your VIP customers and everyone seems to want them. The problem is that few people put in the work needed to satisfy the ones they have.

Start taking steps today to make your VIP customers happy. They’ll be more engaged with your brand, have a higher level of satisfaction, and refer even more VIP customers your way.

There are multiple types of VIP customers and you should identify all of them.

• Spenders: These customers tend to spend the most money with your brand and have a much higher LTV than the average customer. 
• Referrers: These ones may spend an average amount of money with your brand over time but their value is even higher than spenders because they refer more customers. The people they refer to tend to be better customers as well. 
• Referrers and spenders: The customers who spend a lot and refer a lot are precious to your brand and should be treated as such. They provide the most value to your business over the long haul. 

After you’ve identified the customers that meet the criteria, spend extra time, effort, and resources to make them happy. Give them better support, prioritise their feature requests, create content they care about, and ensure you go beyond expectations.

Also Read: Knowlarity acquires Delhi-based customer engagement platform Smartwards

Final thoughts

There are many benefits associated with higher customer engagement. This post has outlined a few of the highest impact methods available. Instead of trying to implement all of them at once, look at the one that’ll give you the most leverage in your business and start there. Once it starts to yield fruits, implement the next strategy until you see a marked increase in both engagement and LTV.

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Image Credit: Valeriy Khan on Unsplash

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The Nurturing Co (TNC), which owns and operates the sustainable plastic-free home goods brand Bambooloo, has raised GBP187,013 (more than US$252,000) in an oversubscribed equity crowdfunding round on Seedrs.

The money came from 193 investors from Singapore and the UK, in return for a minority stake of 7.43 per cent at a pre-money valuation of US$3.1 million.

The capital will be used to finance Bambooloo’s expansion into the UK in 2021, as well as to launch its new products.

Also Read: Startup of the Month, December: Bambooloo by The Nurturing Co.

“We took the decision to launch first in the UK under Bambooloo UK Ltd as our first main market outside Singapore, as we felt that the scale of opportunity, early and promising development of the sustainable alternatives sector and improving trade relationships with Singapore created a good set of signals for the timing to move on this plan,” Co-founder David Ward told e27.

TNC was originally started in US in 2018 as a luxury toilet paper made from 100 per cent sustainable bamboo. Its product are available on notable e-commerce websites such as Redmart, Cold Storage, and Lazada.

Bambooloo provides customers with 100 per cent plastic-free packaging. Its main goal is to provide cost-effective, safer, healthier daily essential products that help reduce water usage, carbon impact and slow deforestation.

Also Read: Singapore’s plastic-free home goods brand Bambooloo raises seed funding

The brand recently added a bamboo-based personal safety mask-line to its products.

“Daily essentials are every home need in today’s world. But importantly here in Singapore, we see an increasing opportunity to link what we offer to the overall sustainability goals of the government and the nation as a whole. This aligns directly with those of the Singapore government in seeking to reduce waste, better manage resources and create a smarter less impacting society,” he said.

Since its last angel seed round from TNC and a small group of investors in Singapore and the US, Bambooloo claims to have grown 280 per cent this year, despite the challenges created by COVID-19.

Earlier this month, Bambooloo expanded into Malaysia through its partner Starkers, which is based in Johor Bahru.

Aside from Singapore and Malaysia, its products are also available in New Zealand.

The startup plans its next Seedrs funding round in the summer, early autumn of 2021.

According to Ward, COVID-19 has in some ways created more overall awareness of our impact on the natural world, but also brought basic daily use essentials like toilet paper and anti-bacterial wipes into sharp focus for many many people. “And with more than 70 per cent of consumers seeking better less impacting alternatives we felt that the time to push international was now,” he concluded.

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Image Credit: Bambooloo

 

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An India-based entrepreneur-couple has designed a smart cradle, which they claim to help toddlers experience quality sleep automatically.

The crib, developed by San Francisco- and Bangalore-based Cradlewise, comes with a baby monitor, which senses early wake-up and initiates the bouncing to help safeguard baby’s sleep.

In addition, the crib provides actionable sleep insights to help parents understand and improve their little one’s sleep.

“This smart, safe and secure cradle is designed to imitate the natural bounce of a parent’s arm,” says Radhika Patil, who co-founded the startup, along with her husband Bharath Patil in 2017.

Also Read: How startups can improve customer engagement and grow LTV ratio

Equipped with a built-in baby monitor with quiet sight technology, audio monitoring and a night vision camera with an HD resolution of 1280 x 720, the self-learning crib is capable of detecting the early wake-up signs, she claims.

“The crib learns the sleeping pattern and acts accordingly to put the baby back to sleep. Along with the natural-soothing-noiseless bounce, it also plays curated music and prevents the baby from reaching the crying stage,” Patil explains.

The other salient feature is that it enables parents to connect their phones to the cradle using the smartphone app to get a live video of the baby or listen to the baby anywhere, any time. The night vision camera enables parents to get a glimpse of the baby at any hour of the night.

“The cradle monitors the baby and sends notifications and alerts to parents, notifying them about the changes and shifts taking place in the baby’s sleep pattern. This has proven to be the ultimate solution that is helping several new parents be close to their little one at anytime and anywhere, while being engaged in household chores or even at work,” she elaborates.

The cradle has a natural coconut coir mattress with waterproof, TPU-laminated cotton, natural antimicrobial Dunlop latex, and eco-friendly Coconut Husk.

Priced at US$1,499, the crib is 40″ in length, 25″ in width and 42″ in height, and is weighed 66 pound (30kg).

Also Read: Uncovering the rise and challenges faced by deep tech startups in Singapore

The crib can be lifted by two people, and has nylon bushes on the legs underneath. It can be easily dragged on a wooden floor without leaving marks. It can also be easily dragged on a carpet.

The three-year-old Cradlewise was incubated by Qualcomm. As part of the programme, Cradlewise team got access to the Qualcomm Innovation Lab to develop and test the electronics for its initial prototype, grants for filing a couple of key patents in the US, and benefitted from mentorship workshops that helped them grow as a company.

Qualcomm also connected the Cradlewise team to HAX accelerator, which fast-tracked their product development.

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Image Credit: Cradlewise

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Started in Taiwan in 2015, M17 Entertainment Ltd. runs 17LIVE, a popular live-streaming app designed by Taiwanese pop singer Jeffery Huang (a member of Machi which features instant photo and video sharing functions).

17LIVE integrates multiple themes (entertainment, game and community) into one by using technologies such as real-time interaction, live streaming, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

In the past five years, the company has expanded its business and team across the world, and it now has presence in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, the US, Malaysia, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. It has more than 50 million users worldwide.

But how did the company achieve a large number of audience in a short span, and what strategies did it use to achieve its goals?

Also Read: M17 Entertainment raises US$25M for R&D and more

In this conversation, Alex Lien, CEO (Taiwan and Southeast Asia), walks us through 17LIVE’s different customer acquisition strategies.

Excerpts:

How does 17LIVE identify quality potential customers? What are the different tools employed to achieve this goal?

As an open platform, 17LIVE continues to advocate content-driven philosophy and delivers diverse topics, from politics and music to entertainment, to live up to the expectations of our audience of different age groups.

We focus on live-streaming content on social media to attract users.

We start by discovering LIVERs (those who deliver entertainment and perform talent on 17LIVE) proactively.

For example, during the Taiwan elections, every political party live-streamed on our platform, driving massive traffic to the platform.

We recently had an 80-year-old live-streamer signed into our platform, which is helping drive users from new demographies.

Can you talk about the different strategies 17LIVE has adopted to reach out to potential customers?

17LIVE focus on diversified contents, starting with music, and it now has over 5,000 music streamers around the world.

We start with music because it is easy to combine our expertise with that of our LIVERs. Music is also quite connected with artists and influencers and we have collaborations with well-known artists in regions such as the US, Hong Kong and Japan.

In Taiwan, we host regular Flash Music Events, an annual large-scale project launched in August 2020. Here, LIVERs will have the opportunity to perform concerts in 17LIVE Taiwan Tour Flash Music Events. These events gather new music talents, who march to every corner of Taiwan and perform surprising shows everywhere.

Also Read: ‘Companies shut down not because of crises but only when founders give up’: Joseph Phua of M17

The biggest feature of Flash Music Events is the comprehensive combination of LIVER selection methods and live streaming. It is not just another online competition, but it provides amateur LIVERs better opportunities to perform and interact directly with followers (fans) on the 17LIVE platform.

We also organise Golden Feature Award (GFA), which features rising stars and bands in Taiwan. Since its debut in 2017, it has inspired young people to dream big, break away from the framework, achieve breakthrough, grow up and show off their talents on 17LIVE.

The GFA is a showcase of LIVERs’ annual performance, where they stand on stage with the direct support from followers. 

We also have LIVIT in the US (17LIVE US), which has signed a contract with hip-hop star Flawless Real Talk (rapper Alberto Martinez).

Besides this, we have worked with musicians for online concerts in Japan, such as famous guitarist and singer-song writer Miyavi).

Other than music, topics such as politics and entertainment are also live-streamed on 17LIVE.

In Japan, we aim for diversified contents and organic streamers, where we have signed the likes of Kotaro Yoshida.

What per cent of your customers comes through paid, free, inbound and outbound marketing?

About half of our customers come via paid marketing.

On top of the typical affiliate networks, our focus has now shifted to organic traffic; a sizeable amount of our traffic comes from organic installs.

Our B2B partnerships also add exposure to organic installs (MoMo, Burt’s Bees). We also have offline events/concerts such as Taipei Fashion Week with VOGUE and Christmasland in New Taipei City (an annual Christmas event organised by Taiwan most influenced TV station, TVBS, in New Taipei City).

We also get traffic via musician/celebrity contents. For example, in Golden Feather Award, we acquired organic traffic through the performance of hit hip-pop star OSN Gao.

What steps do you take to “lure” potential customers to your platform? Do you also do content marketing (blogging, video, social media, search marketing, email marketing)?

Below are the steps:

• Signature original contents shows. 
• B2B partnership-oriented original content shows that drive organic traffic.
• Streamers promote 17LIVE contents via their own social network.
• Offline flash concerts.

How are your customer acquisition strategies different from that of competitors?

Our strengths:

• Global insights: Diversified contents and global offline events and we are not limited ourselves to a single religion but we are spread across the globe. 
• Glocal: We create localised global content and make local original content international.
• Quality content: As a live-streaming platform, our offline events (called real events in Japan) are popular.
• Promote LIVERs: Our PR team and in-house content team help in getting our LIVERs more exposure.

Do you rely on customer referrals, loyalty programmes etc. to acquire customers?

We run customised our loyalty programmes for our customers. We have our in-house merchandise team who designs exclusive merchandise that can be used in reward programmes, which adds to our brand value. 

How do you convert free users to paid ones?

We improve the content quality of LIVERs as they are the strongest driving force of conversion.

Our primary focus is to satisfy our customers and fulfil their needs and wants. We use Machine Learning and AI recommendation engines to provide tailor-made experience for our users to find the contents they love.

Also Read: 5 steps on how to increase your referral marketing effectively on social media

We also run online/offline events to drive roadmap conversion.

How do you tackle customer churn? What are the different tools/strategies used to retain customers?

17LIVE’s core strategy to retain customers by delivering quality content. Seeding users more interesting content is our mission. We focus on improving LIVER content because we believe the content is the strongest force to attract users.

17LIVE features central around building strong community around LIVERs.
We have in-house business development team to groom our LIVERs, fully support their needs, so that they can utilise our resources, online/offline events, apps and functions to retain users.

What is your customer acquisition cost (CAC)? What are the factors affecting your CAC?

We initially do market survey to know our target and to know where to invest.

Our CAC is handled and controlled by our internal user acquisition (UA) specialist, who has experience working with top content creators in the US.

Factors affecting CAC are content and LIVERS. We keep improving our content and promote the right LIVERs. We believe that right LIVERs and right content are crucial to the growth of our platform.

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Image Credit: 17LIVE

 

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