Ecommerce aggregator iPrice raises $550,000, sets sights on Southeast Asian markets

After global financial services firm UBS came out with a striking projection for ecommerce in Southeast Asia – a fivefold growth to US$35 billion by 2020 from about US$1.1 billion today – startups operating in this space are making sure they won’t miss out.

Malaysia-based iPrice, a site that aggregates a multitude of ecommerce sites in Southeast Asia into a single shopping destination, is upping its game. The startup has raised US$550,000 in seed funding from Asia Venture Group (AVG) to double down on its machine learning algorithms and compete with the likes of Pricepanda and Save22.

Established in October 2014, co-founder Heinrich Wendel says the website aims to create an enjoyable shopping experience by giving consumers not only a visual but intuitive way of discovering products. Whereas other sites in the space are all about comparing prices, he explains that iPrice focuses on narrowing down – through an easy-to-use search and filter interface – the vast volume of products online to suit a user’s preference.

“No matter whether you are looking for a blue and black dress, three-inch high heels, a solid backpack, or a classic Chesterfield sofa, we will show you where you can get the best offer,” he adds.

Shoppers browse through millions of products on the site by categories, brands, models, and colors, among other attributes. All products are automatically linked to special promotions and coupons offered by ecommerce stores.

iPrice is already live in Singapore (iprice.sg), Malaysia (iprice.my), Philippines (iprice.ph), Hong Kong (iprice.hk), Thailand (ipricethailand.com), Indonesia (iprice.co.id), and Vietnam (iprice.vn). It offers more than three million products from over 10,000 local and international brands sourced from different ecommerce stores.

Free online marketing

iPrice has already signed up more than 30 ecommerce stores such as Lazada, Zalora, and Luxola. It sources the products on its site using a combination of data feeds stores provide, its own crawler, and an automated classification system. This model appeals to the stores, especially the smaller ones since they no longer need to build up expertise in online marketing to compete against incumbents.

“We know that online marketing services can support retailers in expanding their reach to new target markets and growing their customer base. Therefore, iPrice works with ecommerce sites in the region, offering them an additional channel to market and advertise their products,” notes Wendel.

iPrice assures its partners of a real revenue opportunity, claiming it only sends highly targeted traffic or online shoppers who have a clear intent to buy.

Since its launch, Wendel says traffic on iPrice has been doubling every month. “We have seen tremendous traction – quarter of a million monthly sessions,” Wendel says. While not all of these sessions are successful leads, the conversion rates are high, according to him.

iPrice gets a commission of between five and 15 percent of every sale. Over the last three months, it has booked a revenue of US$1 million.

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