How e-commerce site ShopBack makes shopping so much sweeter in Southeast Asia

The Singapore-headquartered startup shares how it differentiated its value proposition in the competitive Southeast Asian e-commerce space to attain year-on-year growth

The exponential growth of e-commerce has been one of the largest contributors to the rise of Southeast Asia’s digital economy. In 2019, Southeast Asia’s internet economy hit US$100 billion (or S$135.84 billion) for the first time — with e-commerce and ride hailing platforms continuing to beat even the most optimistic of predictions.

Against this backdrop, ShopBack was launched to help consumers find better deals, and merchants be more effective in marketing their products and services in the ultra-competitive online space.

Buy that fancy dress at half-price, and get some cash back? Yes, please!

“ShopBack is a platform that enables consumers to uncover value when they make purchases through our platforms on the website, mobile app, or [browser] extension. We also serve merchants by sending them traffic and orders to their respective platforms,” explains its Chief Commercial Officer Candice Ong.

“E-commerce platforms pay ShopBack a commission when we redirect customers to their platforms and if they make a purchase there. We then give a sizeable portion of this commission back to the consumers in the form of cashback, which is a reward for using ShopBack,” Ong added.

The company counts digital players like Amazon, eBay, Agoda, Booking.com, Lazada, and Shopee amongst its merchants, and boasts a usage rate of at least one order every three seconds, with annual transaction volumes growing 250% year-on-year, reaching US$840 million just five years since its establishment.

How does ShopBack keep an even keel through its growth?

Previously working with Credit Suisse and leading e-commerce website Zalora, Ong, who currently manages ShopBack’s regional marketing and country teams, is no stranger to scaling digital platforms based on data-driven decisions. She shares with e27 some tips guiding ShopBack’s growth in the region.

Being savvy about how your customers shop

Southeast Asians’ constant search for value and the “better deal” in every facet has seen both consumers and merchants turn to ShopBack, Ong said.

“We have seen strong traction from merchants as we are seen as an effective media channel, given that we only charge for successful transactions,” she pointed out.

To successfully reach out to merchants and consumers, ShopBack has placed a strong emphasis on building local market knowledge, typically hiring local talent in each country who are comfortable interfacing with colleagues from across the region.

Ong added: “It’s also very helpful to go down to the ground often to better understand the market conditions, as changes can happen quickly in this space.”

Consumers' browsing and purchasing behaviours also vary across the different markets ShopBack operates in, and consequently, these insights drive how the company’s marketing campaigns are designed and run.

“For instance, consumers in developing markets are much more active during weekdays and on mobile, whereas consumers in more developed markets like Singapore, Taiwan, and Australia spread their shopping behaviour more evenly throughout the week, and may use both the mobile and desktop platforms. This influences how we decide between weekday and weekend campaigns for different markets,” Ong illustrated.

Appeal to the mobile-first Southeast Asia customer

With the dominance of mobile in many developing markets, ShopBack has given attention to building a quality mobile experience. For instance, ShopBack offers App-to-App integration, so that customers can be redirected from the ShopBack App to merchants’ Apps seamlessly and reliably.

"We’ve seen tremendous uplift for merchants who have done App-to-App integrations with us, and will continue to do more to improve the mobile experience for our users,” Ong shared.

She added, “Likewise, since desktop is popular in markets such as Australia, Singapore, and Taiwan, we wanted to enhance the desktop experience by building the ‘ShopBack Cashback Button’. This is a browser extension that automatically notifies users if an online store is eligible for cashback, saving them both time and money.”

In this spirit of customer-centricity, ShopBack has also created new features to enhance users’ buying experiences in the offline world. Its latest product, ShopBack GO, is a step into the food and dining space. Launched in partnership with Visa and Mastercard, the feature helps users discover and decide where to eat while saving them time and money — essentially, they get to dine out and be paid.

“By providing offline merchants such as F&B operators with a digital marketing platform, ShopBack empowers them to make better business decisions,” Ong remarked. “This is just a taste of things to come, as we believe there are other opportunities to develop new business models in this fast-growing space.”

Be prepared to fail, learn, and try – a lot

The fast-changing nature of e-commerce is heightened by the different consumer and merchant profiles in each of the Asia Pacific countries ShopBack serves, be it in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, Australia, and very soon, Vietnam.

“I think being prepared to learn by iterating is critical in such a dynamic and diverse landscape. What might sound good in theory may not work the way you hoped it would when you put it to the test in the market. It underscores the need to understand the local context and competitive landscape and have the humility to accept that you might be wrong so that a better solution can be found,” Ong said.

She also credits the tenacity of ShopBackers who drive operations on the ground. 

“A lot of ShopBackers have given up the creature comforts of past jobs, be it flying premium airlines or staying in luxury accommodation to do what they do now, and it reflects the grit and sacrifice that is needed to operate in these markets.

“I think that hiring well and having a strong culture, does enable individuals who are best fit to join and stay with the company. We also pay attention to employee engagement by monitoring and acting on feedback in our quarterly surveys,” Ong noted.

Never compromise on culture fit

The emphasis on culture is even more pronounced for senior hires, where ShopBack’s hiring committees test for culture fit during interview rounds that sometimes span many hours.

Internally, ShopBack’s training and development budget allows employees to acquire new skills and knowledge, be it through attending training programmes or completing online courses. The company also routinely invites external speakers and conducts formal training sessions to onboard employees on using internal tools so that they too, are fluent in making data-driven decisions.

Given how fast things in the tech world move, Ong is on the lookout for talent with the hunger to keep learning, as well as the humility to take feedback.

“Our wish list also includes the ability to problem solve by first principles: to be able to navigate the “why” and create a pathway through ambiguous situations. Also, being able to galvanise action without having direct managerial oversight is a key requirement to getting things done in a startup, especially when reporting structures are fairly flat,” she said.

“Little” no more

The journey for ShopBack is just starting. With supporters such as Ebates, the US behemoth in the cashback space now partnering ShopBack, this once small company from Block 71, an enclave in the western region of Singapore for up-and-rising startups, has ambitions to serve even more customers wherever they are in this part of the world, and maybe one day, beyond.

Its recent partnership with Ebates brings operating experience in the cashback space, effectively reinforcing Shopback with the might and track record of a global cashback brand. This signals a bright future for the company as they usher in a new era that seeks to revolutionise the e-commerce space.

This article is written in partnership with e27.