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Ecommerce has always been a cutthroat, bloody battlefield. That’s a good thing for consumers – as companies fight for buyers, we get to enjoy deep discounts and other benefits.
But it also means that if you’re one of the platforms that can’t match that energy, it’s difficult to catch up. Without some other reason to secure brand loyalty, it’s likely that shoppers will dump you for the next cheapest thing, even if the difference in price isn’t that much.
In today’s story, we take a look at how Vietnamese ecommerce platform Tiki did this year. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t much to write home about.
Today we look at:
- Tiki’s top-line struggles
- Apple’s plan to invest US$1 billion in Indonesia
- Other newsy highlights such as Nvidia’s AI deal in Vietnam and two Byju’s executives facing legal scrutiny in the US.
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Tough luck, Tiki
Image credit: Timmy Loen
It has to feel bad seeing outsiders come into your home market and take local consumers away from you. However, if Tiki doesn’t make some significant changes soon, its poor 2023 financial numbers could become permanent.
- Way down we go: The ecommerce platform recorded US$127.3 million in revenue for 2023, a 36% decrease compared to the previous year. Most of this was due to a 39% drop in sales of merchandise products.
- Carrying over: The slowdown has continued well into 2024. In the third quarter of the year, sales on Tiki decreased by 32.1% compared to the same period last year.
- Silver linings: There’s some hope in the fact that Tiki has obtained a US$6 million credit facility from a Vietnamese bank. Further, the government could soon require local operators of foreign ecommerce platforms to pay value-added tax, which could make their product prices less competitive.
Read more: Heavy competition weighs on Tiki’s 2023 top line
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