Singapore’s Sprooki expands to Philippines to fuel the country’s mall obsession

Update: Added more clarification about Sprooki’s fundraising efforts

Mall of Asia in the Philippines. Photo credit: Roberto Verzo

Shoppers in the Philippines will soon be notified about promotions from luxury brands on their smartphones whenever they’re in the vicinity of shopping malls. They could even receive vouchers anytime on their mobile devices and redeem them in-store.

All this is made possible through a new mobile app called SSI Life (available on iOS and Android), which is developed by Singapore startup Sprooki for Store Specialist Inc (SSI), a specialty store retailer in the Philippines.

The platform includes over 80 brands, including Bally, Calvin Klein, and Lacoste. All of SSI’s 600 stores will be included, with the stores mostly concentrated in Manila and Cebu.

On the backend, retailers will get an analytics and campaign management platform where they can send targeted notifications to consumers based on their profiles.

While a large swath of Filipinos are using feature phones and low-end smart devices, the same cannot be said for Sprooki and SSI’s target market.

Catherine Huang, manager of digital media office at SSI, said that based on market statistics, an estimated 90 percent of the local customer base for lifestyle brands are currently using smartphones.

The proliferation of mobile devices is rising together with a shopping mall boom across Asia-Pacific. The Philippines contains some of the largest in the world, with at least three megamalls surpassing The Mall of America in retail space.

Sprooki is counting on a rise in retail spending as it spreads across the region. To date, the startup has raised a total of $878,000 from angels, founders, and external investors, including $480,000 from Get2Volume and the Singapore government’s National Research Foundation. After developing an app for Singaporean shopping mall 313@Somerset, it is now seeking similar partnerships in Australia and Taiwan.

The underlying technology behind all of Sprooki’s retail apps are the same, although customers can choose what features they want.  The apps are white label — meaning the Sprooki brand won’t be visible on the apps at all.

A number of other Southeast Asian startups are also combining mobile technology with offline retail. Philippine startup Zaptag is trying to improve the cashback experience using NFC stickers, while Singapore companies Perx and ShopGuru are attempting to make headway in the customer loyalty space by fusing location-based marketing with analytics.