Last year, the COVID-19 pandemic caused many businesses to stay shut and forced customers to remain indoors. This has led to online shopping becoming one of the best ways for consumers to get the items they need in a fast and convenient and safe way. 

It’s a phenomenon that has a far-reaching impact across the region, with the pandemic accelerating the shift to digital shopping and resulting in major changes in supply-chain interactions. We’ve seen announcements about more business owners prioritising a digital-first approach when it comes to their retail strategy.

At the same time, more people have experimented with shopping online for the first time, with existing online shoppers buying more, both in terms of the quantity and variety of items. 

This has led to both shippers and customers increasingly demanding richer experiences and safety considerations, with both groups asking for uncomplicated, reliable, and safe service offerings.

But for all its convenience, shopping online can’t replace browsing and shopping in a physical retail outlet, so one of the key challenges brands face today is how they can reinterpret the in-store retail brand experience into a unique offline one that still manages to deliver that “wow” factor to their customers, further creating opportunities to cement customer loyalty

Beyond the product itself, what we’re seeing is that online shoppers prioritise delivery options and the perceived quality of delivery service when considering which company to shop with.

When selecting a logistics partner, online retailers need to consider two main issues; what needs and expectations do they and their customers have, and how are logistics companies addressing these identified issues? 

Also Read: zennya nets US$1.2M to scale its mobile healthcare, medical last-mile logistics services in Philippines

Immediacy of response

In today’s customer-centric world, delighting shoppers has never been more critical, with COVID-19 putting additional pressure on customer service teams. 

Part of creating a great experience is in resolving issues quickly and giving assurances of reliable outcomes. When it comes to reliability and hassle-free experiences, Ninja Van has taken on a Fantastic Service Recovery (FSR) approach to the entire parcel delivery process, and it’s an important initiative that drives our teams towards identifying and addressing potential challenges in the workflow even before they become issues and resolving problems quickly with reliable solutions. 

Customers are also increasingly demanding an omnichannel brand experience, so companies that have real-time tracking and immediate communication across multiple touchpoints will satisfy that need while providing customers with convenience and peace of mind. 

Our proprietary NinjaChat system does just that, offering shipping customers and online shoppers real-time tracking updates with the flexibility to directly manage their deliveries through their preferred social messaging platforms (FB messenger, Telegram, Viber, Line, etc). The system also enables users to chat directly with a member of the Ninja Van team.

This allows us to optimise our customers’ experiences, helping online retailers boost customer satisfaction and increase the likelihood of repeat sales.

Reimagining the physical network

Logistics companies that offer alternatives to doorstep delivery such as retail partner collection points and parcel lockers tend to be favoured by consumers due to the added convenience of such options.

Also Read: How Pomelo tackles the problem of high product return with its O2O retail experience

Doorstep deliveries and collection points can co-exist and provide balance in meeting expectations from both business owners and consumers. Businesses that offer both options tend to be preferred by customers due to the added convenience of such options, and have often seen improvements in trust scores and transaction volumes with business partners.

Contactless delivery

Contactless delivery is more important than ever and it is also now seen as an effective way to help businesses meet the health and safety concerns brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of this, logistics companies that do best are the ones that have developed a way to notify both shipper and customer almost instantly for each successful delivery, without the need for any physical contact.

The pandemic has underscored the importance of digital tools in helping businesses adapt to the business environment, and business owners should leverage these digital capabilities to identify opportunities for improvement and growth.

Final thoughts

I am a big advocate of the ‘less is more’ and believe that parcel deliveries should be an uncomplicated affair for both businesses and customers. We are constantly working on fine-tuning our business to make sure we’re creating solutions that are relevant and bring long-term improvements. 

Last but not least, last-mile logistics will increasingly be about personalisation and scale and technology can play a crucial role in customer interactions in the years to come. The less people have to think, the more scalable a business gets and companies should leverage these opportunities brought on by technology to future-proof their business.

The winners will be those companies who can adapt and seize the opportunities emerging in this new normal.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. This season we are seeking op-eds, analysis and articles on food tech and sustainability. Share your opinion and earn a byline by submitting a post.

Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community or like the e27 Facebook page

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Cryptocurrency, from concept to application, has changed how people think of finance, giving rise to new financial innovations within the space. Paired with both retail and institutional investors seeking ways to maximise returns in a low-interest rate environment, decentralised finance (DeFi) has come to the fore.

From lending to borrowing and trading with smart contracts, commercial use cases have proven the potential of DeFi in disrupting the financial services landscape globally.

In April, DeFi became a US$100 billion sector, and though recent price corrections have seen declines in the total asset value committed to the DeFi ecosystem — now standing at approx. US$106.5 billion as of June 3 — it’s apparent that confidence in the space is only growing.

But much like the initial crypto hype of 2017, DeFi itself has seen its share of scepticism — especially when it comes to how decentralised DeFi actually is. In reality, decentralisation shouldn’t be seen in absolute terms but rather, as a continuum.  

Understanding decentralisation

Firstly, DeFi protocols are open-source and auditable by anybody. All transaction records are stored on the blockchain and remain immutable and publicly available, thereby enabling a more transparent model of finance.

On top of that, DeFi has become the beacon for financial inclusion and accessibility, as transactions are permissionless, meaning that anyone with internet access can trade on DeFi applications regardless of identification, geographical location or the amount of funds available in their crypto wallets.

Furthermore, users can trade on decentralised exchanges (DEXs) 24 hours a day, seven days a week with no downtime. Earlier this month when the market experienced what can only be determined as a “black swan event”, centralised exchanges like Binance and even Coinbase couldn’t keep up with the drastic price fluctuations and as a result, users were unable to access and exchange their holdings without experiencing limitations and restrictions.

Also Read: 3 trends that defined Taiwan’s blockchain industry last year

On the other hand, many DEX’s, like that on DeFiChain, encountered no such issue. 

Unlike traditional exchanges, DEXs are non-custodial by design, meaning users have sole control of their funds rather than having to deposit them with the exchange directly.

This protects them from hacks that can easily exploit single points of failure on centralised platforms, such as the infamous Bitfinex hack back in 2016 which saw US$623 million worth of bitcoin stolen, or the Mt. Gox saga, which eventually resulted in the Tokyo-based exchange filing for bankruptcy. 

CeFi: the OG

Similar to traditional finance, all trade orders and funds on CeFi platforms are handled by a centralised exchange. They also act as custodians, meaning the exchanges control the private keys to your assets. As such, traders will need to trust that the custodians will hold your funds securely and allow you to withdraw them whenever needed. 

In addition, centralised exchanges are also subject to the relevant regulations in the markets in which they operate. They include know-your-customer (KYC) data collection practices and anti-money laundering (AML) frameworks, which can vary not only from country to country but also in countries like the US, at a state versus federal level.

Along the decentralisation spectrum

Ultimately, decentralisation is determined by governance. DeFi projects have governance mechanisms in place to make crucial decisions about protocol updates, recruitments or even changing the governance structure.

Most DeFi platforms adopt on-chain governance mechanisms, where individual stakeholders can vote on these decisions directly on the blockchain. It’s also worth noting that for most projects, the governance of DeFi platforms is independent of blockchain governance, which usually aims to achieve two potentially distinct goals.

While some DeFi projects are designed to be as participative and decentralised as possible, some gravitate towards the end of the spectrum over time by relinquishing control of their holdings to the community entirely— something DeFiChain is working towards.

One way this can be achieved is through a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO) which allows decisions and transactions to be fully automated based on rules that are completely determined by its participants. Participants vote on proposals that can impact anything from the trajectory of the development of a platform or even vote to dissolve a DAO entirely.

At the code level, all source codes for open source DeFi protocols, platforms and projects should be distributed in a highly permissive open source license, and be managed in an open manner by the developers involved in the project.

Bridging the CeFi-DeFi gap

DeFi’s merits lie in the fact that it can mitigate the vulnerabilities of CeFi systems, with transparency, accessibility, censorship-resistance, and security as the most common benefits cited by advocates. However, like any form of innovation, DeFi still has an uphill climb to make before it can truly reach a meaningful form of mass adoption.

Also Read: You don’t care about crypto but here are some things you need to know about DeFi

Whether we like it or not, the traditional financial services ecosystem — as it exists today and always has — has set a precedent for what most consumers have come to expect, such as convenience and ease of use. That being said, participants of the traditional financial services sector have also been innovating across its verticals, from payments to lending, insurance, and investments.

With bulge bracket banks such as JPMorgan becoming more confident in blockchain technology as an enabler of fast payments, it shows that disruptions in the space such as mobile payments and insurtech have served as a stepping stone to a more digitally-powered financial ecosystem.

While CeFi will always have a role to play, it’s important for financial service providers to strike a balance between centralisation and decentralisation in order to reap the best of both worlds.

Recent crypto projects have managed to combine the advantages of both systems with CeFi’s flexibility to perform fiat-crypto transactions and integration with third-party DeFi platforms via liquidity (or farming) pools or lending.

Instead of deeming DeFi a threat, traditional centralised institutions such as banks would do well to capitalise on the technology to boost business outcomes and address the inefficiencies in their systems.

Once a sweet spot between CeFi-DeFi is identified, these models will be able to deliver a higher level of trust, compliance, and convenience while still staying true to the mission of DeFi that is making finance inclusive for all.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. This season we are seeking op-eds, analysis and articles on food tech and sustainability. Share your opinion and earn a byline by submitting a post.

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The Founder on Founder Podcast series is a weekly podcast hosted by Olivier Raussin, Managing Partner at FEBE Ventures, an early stage Venture Capital fund supporting outstanding entrepreneurs in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. It features tech entrepreneurs with a focus on Southeast Asia’s innovation business and tech landscape. The podcast uncovers stories from outstanding entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia on their journey, insights and advice on running a tech company.

In this episode, the founder of Locad, Constantin Robertz, shares his story in building Southeast Asia’s first cloud logistics network as a solution to the emerging supply chain needs and demands of e-commerce and omnichannel distributions.

Born and raised in Germany, Robertz got into e-commerce around Europe and started building Zalora, a fashion e-commerce platform in Singapore in 2013. Through his time at Zalora and working with a lot of brands, Robertz came to understand their challenges in the supply chain which led him to found Locad.

“In the early days, a lot of brands would only be in e-commerce through one or two channels. A lot of the fashion brands started out on Zalora but over time, as the e-commerce industry matures, all of the brands are going multi-channel, selling on three to four platforms and marketplaces per country while building their brand presence across five to six other countries,” he explains.

“Then I figured that not every brand, retailers and businesses that want to sell online should have to go through figuring out how to build warehouses, the tech that supports it and runs their logistics. Because of that, we built Locad as the on-demand supply chain and fulfilment network for e-commerce brands so they can focus on selling more and developing great products and not figuring out how to run warehouses and logistics.”

Also Read: Meet the 12 startups from Antler’s latest Singapore cohort

Locad combines an integrated technology platform with a network of warehouses and logistics partners. It is a scalable and distributed supply chain network running on a fully digital and integrated platform with real-time visibility of order and inventory movements. Locad empowers business growth of brands and retailers in the e-commerce landscape with an international fulfilment network and flexible on-demand warehousing.

The company started last year with the Philippines as their first market and has recently launched its platform in Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia. Now they are on the mission to expand to the rest of Southeast Asia with warehouse offerings in at least every capital city, and integrations with logistics companies and cross-border carriers.

“By the end of the year, we aim to cover most of the Southeast Asia region with a plug and play on-demand, fulfilment network,” Robertz states.

Turning obstacles into opportunities

With his team located across different countries in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Locad built a remote working culture which eventually helped them in the long run for their future international expansion plan.

“Locad was born during the pandemic and we decided to make this constraint an opportunity and built a distributor team around remote working. Because we are always meant to become a regional company, at the end of the day we might as well figure out early through building the company as remote working, then it might be easier down the road when we make it international,” Robertz ends.

Listen to the full podcast here.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. This season we are seeking op-eds, analysis and articles on food tech and sustainability. Share your opinion and earn a byline by submitting a post.

Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community or like the e27 Facebook page

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Jala Tech, an Indonesian shrimp industry data company, is the only Southeast Asian startup to have been selected for the 2021 Unreasonable Impact Asia Pacific programme.

Other selected startups hail from India, South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, and Australia.

Launched in partnership with Unreasonable and Barclays, the programme aims to scale high-growth ventures that address global challenges.

Each venture was selected based on its potential to address key social and environmental issues, such as transforming the future of food production or innovating renewable energy.

The programme helps startups by connecting entrepreneurs to its international network of experienced specialists and mentors in various verticals.

“Unreasonable Impact was co-created with Barclays with a shared intention to help entrepreneurs take their businesses to the next level, faster. We firmly believe that the most valuable, influential, and lasting companies are those solving humanity’s most pressing challenges, and we’re so incredibly grateful and privileged to support these ventures and Fellows, and welcome them into our global community of life-long support,” Daniel Epstein, founder of Unreasonable Group, said.

Also Read: Indonesian agritech startup Jala Tech secures seed funding to empower shrimp farmers

Founded in 2015, Jala Tech is built by a team with a background in fish farming. The goal of the company is to get farmers to make decisions based on actual data.

To do that, its system provides water quality monitoring, planning, and reporting tools, complete with a decision support system so that farmers can initiate the right treatment at the right time, based on data that has been collected and analysed.

While Jala’s core market is currently shrimp, their device is applicable for all types of water monitoring systems and treatment plants, including smart city water management.

Jala Tech was also nominated to be a part of the e27 Luminaries Series, a content series highlighting the unsung heroes of the startup ecosystem.

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Digital banking is one of the hottest trends in the Indonesian tech startup ecosystem today –and for good reasons. Earlier this year, we have witnessed how major players in the ecosystem entered the battleground, such as Gojek with their Jago app and Bukalapak with their collaboration with Standard Chartered.

Recently, even LINE Messenger app announced its participation with the launch of its banking platform, launched in partnership with KEB Hana Bank.

Traditional banking institutions in the country certainly do not want to miss out on the opportunity, and of the existing players in the ground today, BRI Agro is one with a rather unique background and preposition.

Founded in 1895 in the Dutch colonial era, Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) is the country’s first state-owned bank with a long history of serving customers in rural area. It has long been known for providing financial services and products that cater to the needs of an agricultural society, such as commercial loans for farmers and migrant workers.

But entering the digital era, the bank has started to make a transformation. In 2019, BRI introduced its VC arm BRI Ventures, led by former MDI Ventures CEO Nicko Widjaja. The VC firm has invested in leading names in the ecosystem, including PayFazz, Modalku, Bukalapak, and Investree.

Following up on that, the bank also prepared its subsidiary BRI Agro to become the next prominent players in the local digital banking ecosystem.

Also Read: Meet the 8 embedded finance startups joining BRI Ventures’s new Sembrani Wira accelerator programme

“Global funds are now looking into Southeast Asia for investments in digital banking as we have begun to show readiness in our infrastructure. The branch-centric banking model of the past has become obsolete even in 2020,” BRI Agro CEO Kaspar Situmorang tells e27.

Situmorang was appointed to the position as recent as April 2021. Previously, he was the EVP of Digital Banking Development and Operations at BRI. During his time, he initiated an open banking initiative that was one of the first to be introduced in Indonesia. Before joining BRI, Situmorang worked in notable tech companies in Germany, Singapore, and the US.

So, what is BRI Agro’s strategy in winning the Indonesian market through digital banking services? How do they differ from similar platforms? Situmorang shares the details in this interview.

We also discuss intriguing points from his recent contributed post on fintech trends in Indonesia.

The next frontier: Gig economy workers

Situmorang begins our discussion by explaining the state of digital banks in various markets. According to him, despite its promise and popularity, digital banks in the US and Europe continue to struggle to be profitable.

He named three global players that have successfully recorded profit with their digital banking services: Tencent’s WeBank, Alibaba’s MyBank, and KakaoBank.

“The three profitable digital banks in the world … are those who have successfully explored [the potentials] of their existing ecosystem. This is the reason why, even in the US, digital banks have yet to make profits as there is an imbalance between their customer acquisition cost (CAC) and the customer lifetime value,” Situmorang elaborates. “The profitable ones are those who acquire customers from the existing ecosystem which resulted in a very low CAC.”

Before explaining how BRI Agro aims to tap into the potentials of the ecosystem, Situmorang gives an exposition of the leading players in Indonesia’s banking ecosystem today.

First, there are the hybrid banks which are defined by their use of digital technology to improve the existing traditional banking processes. Fifty-two per cent of the market in this segment in Indonesia have already been captured by leading private and state-owned banks, including BRI.

Second is the sharia-based bank which is dominated by Bank Syariah Indonesia, the result of a merger between three state-owned sharia banks.

Also Read: BRI Ventures’s Sembrani Nusantara fund hits first close at US$10M; Grab and Celebes Capital among investors

Lastly, there are the digital banks. While Situmorang acknowledges that state-owned banks are yet to become a market leader, he says that BRI Agro is prepared to compete in this segment.

“We are fully prepared from the aspect of talents and licensing,” he states.

In its customer acquisition strategy, BRI Agro will tap into the potentials of BRI’s existing two digital ecosystems: The first one consists of the 500,000 BRI Link agents across Indonesia, and the next one consists of the portfolio companies of BRI Ventures.

With this network as a foundation, BRI Agro aims to target Indonesia’s growing gig economy workers as its main audience.

Situmorang further defines these gig workers as those who may have experienced being laid off during the pandemic, but could not be considered ‘unemployed’ as they have been branching into various online-based gigs since then. This group consists of a wide range of profession from ride-hailing drivers to social media influencers.

“In Tier 2 and 3 cities in Indonesia, we have seen cases of young customers who work as a farmer in the morning and do dropship business throughout the day, before turning into ride-hailing drivers at night,” Situmorang elaborates.

“Our approach is different than other banks who are targeting the lifestyle segment who consists mainly of young customers who only use their phone to play TikTok or stalk their exes, instead of making a living. Because, last year, the number of gig economy workers in Indonesia has reached 46 million. This is a 27 per cent increase from the previous year and we are expected to reach 74 million by 2025,” he continues.

For these customers, BRI Agro is going to offer its banking products and services through the network of BRILink agents and other agents in the network of BRI Ventures’s portfolio companies such as PayFazz or Bukalapak.

An untouched segment

By using the B2B2C approach, BRI Agro believes that it can balance out its CAC and lifetime value.

“While BRI’s goal to provide banking services to the unbanked, our goal is to reach the underbanked –those who are yet to use banking products and services apart from bank accounts,” Situmorang says.

Also Read: BRI Ventures, IDX partner to help more Indonesian tech startups get publicly listed

In his recent opinion piece published on e27, Situmorang writes about how ASEAN fintech brands have been playing on the shallow end by dabbling in lending or simple payment services.

“We need to look into the future. We act as if there was already a saturation in the market when there are still segments that remain untouched,” Situmorang says.

“This is what we call the new SMEs. Of the 60 million MSMEs in Indonesia, 46 million of them are already online, but what about the rest? Many banks are unwilling to facilitate these businesses because the data was not yet available … but now that we have it, we want to be on the forefront in this segment,” he stresses.

When asked about how the digital banks scene is going to be like in Indonesia within the next few years, Situmorang says that digital bank positioning in Indonesia will remain slightly complicated. But there is one thing that he is certain of.

“There will be two types of players: The digital banks that are part of a larger finance ecosystem, and those whose construction is not part of any ecosystem. The latter has a greater potential to fail as we have seen in Europe or the US,” he closes.

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Image Credit: BRI Agro

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