When was the last time you bought something online? Probably this week, if not just before you clicked on this article. eCommerce is everywhere and now such an integral part of our shopping experience, it is almost impossible to remember a time before.
But do we actually know what goes on behind these eCommerce giants like Lazada, Shoppee and so many others? There’s millions of data points and terabytes of actual data that need to be processed to effectively run an eCommerce business.
We spoke to Crescodata, who recently made the 2019 Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ for Asia Pacific about this. CEO Anna Trybocka was kind enough to take some time out of her schedule to answer a few questions about the underlying industry behind the growth of eCommerce in the region.
This 17-year digital veteran has built Crescodata into one of the top automation and data companies for the eCommerce industry and counts brands like Tradegecko and Shopmatic as clients.
Find out what else she has to add.
Congrats on CrescoData being ranked in the 2019 Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ rankings for Asia Pacific (APAC). What do you think made them select your company for this list?
Thank you.
Deloitte Technology Fast 500 is one of the most objective rankings for technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, and energy tech companies. It is based on percentage fiscal-year revenue growth over a three-year period so there is a strict application criteria that CrescoData fulfills with a 305% growth.
In your experience, how has the eCommerce industry in the region evolved when it comes to their use of data.
A: The eCommerce industry in Southeast Asia and around the world has started to realise the need for high-quality structured data and automation. However, there are many companies that still survive on spreadsheets and manual processes. This is not only time-taking but there is also a huge margin for error with data collection and integration leading to inaccuracies. Slowly, companies are starting to see that this is not scalable. The industry is starting to realise that it is important to have high quality data surrounding a product’s attributes not only when dealing with high volumes of products and sales but also for discovery.
Where do you see the trend or industry moving to in the next few years? What is the next big thing?
Discoverability of products and the role of technology – There will continue to be a dynamic change in how and where people find products. With technological advancements in the field of image recognition and visual search, the role of influencers in product promotion is set to become more cemented.
The rise of fintech and changes in modes of payment- The continued growth of alternative payment methods like mobile wallets or payments that bypass traditional banking and credit cards like Grab Pay will help support the trend further driving the industry towards automation and cloud commerce.
What do you see as the biggest challenges to companies like Lazada, Shoppee and others becoming global players like Amazon?
A: SE Asia is a very unique market as we well know and each country has a very different ecosystem. The majority of sellers on Shopee and Lazada are SMEs most of whom do not have the resources to support a global customer base. There are challenges with cross-border. If Lazada and Shopee wanted to effectively sell to a global customer base they would need to be able to provide the same level of service that Amazon does for its customers e.g. same day / next day delivery. This would mean the setting up fulfillment centres in those hubs and holding stock locally.
What role do companies like CrescoData play in helping automate data management and customer data integration? How does your suite of tools work?
The CrescoData Commerce Connect Platform sits as a middle-wear between different commerce platforms mapping, updating and automating product, stock, price and order data in real-time. The CrescoData Commerce-in-the-Cloud Suite offers an out-sourced offering for Channel-Integration-as-a-Service and Systems-Integration-as-a-Service. Outsourcing these pieces allows our customers to better focus on their own business.
We develop APIs through our “Commerce-in-the-Cloud” suite and are ready to help your company find the best solution to business needs. Most business models today are based on agile development with room to pivot quickly. With CrescoData’s headless commerce development and cloud based platform, this agility is applied to the company’s shopfront, giving them greater control and flexibility as they grow.
One thing you mentioned in an article was ‘Quicker response to changing trends and consumer behaviour‘. Can you elaborate on how Crescodata technology enables this and what the results look like?
Certainly. By not having to build an entire tech stack in-house provides businesses with the flexibility to trial new ideas and to innovate. CrescoData can provide the glue between this commerce tech stack as well as quickly providing access to new sales channels. CrescoData is a globally connected team of experts and developers with over 40 years of commerce experience. Partnered with market-leading commerce platforms, such as Lazada, eBay, Google Shopping, Facebook, Magento, and Amazon, CrescoData has helped build businesses across ten countries in 8 different languages. With over 120 million products processed in the last 12 months, CrescoData is Asia Pacific’s leading enterprise commerce automation platform reducing onboarding barriers and advancing years worth of vendors’ online presence in a matter of weeks.