Singapore, Sept. 3, 2020 — Fast-growing Singapore technology startup Techsembly is securing clients from all over the world with a Software as a Service platform allowing businesses to replicate a curated and customised in-store shopping experience online.
Founded by three entrepreneurs with a background in ecommerce and online retailing – and who built their own Gifts Less Ordinary marketplace into a million dollar business – Techsembly addresses a common pain point of companies who know they need to pivot online rapidly during the pandemic to maintain customer connections and sales.
“The retail industry is at an inflection point and we are increasingly seeing the emergence of new players who are changing the rules of the game,” said Techsembly co-founder and CEO Amy Read. “Businesses, whether they are retailers, media or hotels, are all impacted by the Covid-19 crisis, and marketplaces have become the new normal – already accounting for more than 56% of all online sales. Some industry experts are predicting that will increase to 80% in the future.”
Even so, many businesses who know they have to pivot online are daunted by the cost and logistics of building their own marketplace and concerned how it might integrate with their existing online experience.
Enter Techsembly, whose founders understand the challenges of creating marketplaces – having already observed the lack of a technology that would have allowed them to scale at their target pace at the time when their own business became successful.
Proof of the success of Techsembly is the recent signing of three significant clients as customer partners: Boutique Fairs Singapore (BFS), Anglo-American fashion platform Not Just a Label and luxury accommodation provider The Peninsula Hotel Group.
BFS is regarded as one of the leading calendar events in Singapore, taking place biannually at the F1 Pit Building, attracting more than 300 local designers and artisans and 37,000 visitors per event. With social-distancing requirements due to Covid-19 forcing the cancellation of the latest edition of the fair, the company recognised the need to pivot online quickly to serve both vendors and visitors.
In a matter of weeks, BFS was able to launch an online marketplace featuring 200 local brands and 4000 products by partnering with Techsembly. Charlotte Cain, Founder of Boutique Fairs Singapore, said the company needed a solution that combined offline experiences with online shopping through the launch of an ecommerce marketplace immediately.
“Finding a technology partner to work with that could help us to build the right dropship platform, mobilise us quickly and provide us with the guidance and support to ensure the marketplace was a success from the onset was our biggest challenge, until we met with the amazing team behind Techsembly,” said Cain. “Not only did Techsembly provide the platform and help customise it beautifully, they also provided us with all the support and training we needed to onboard sellers within an extremely tight timeline.”
Not Just A Label (NJAL), another client of Techsembly, is a designer platform based in California and a UK-based designer showcasing and nurturing today’s pioneers in contemporary fashion. NJAL needed to pivot its business from a B2B to B2C model at the height of the pandemic. Not Just A Label operates the largest global network of contemporary fashion designers, having access to 4 million styles designed by more than 40,000 independent and emerging creative designers.
NJAL, like BFS, reacted quickly to the global crisis by adopting a new strategy to provide a capital-light and highly profitable sales channel, thus saving a generation of emerging designers and brands that were impacted by the downfall of the brick-and-mortar retail sector during the pandemic. Many designers on the NJAL platform are also now moving to “Made to Order” to increase sustainability, with more than 60% of items on the marketplace now carrying a made-to-order label.
NJAL founder Stefan Siegel said the company was looking for a partner who could not only help build an online marketplace but also bring in industry insights that would help recreate an experience to delight its customers, and ensure the platform was commercially viable from the outset.
“The uniqueness of their platform is the ability to own multiple localised storefronts through one centralised platform, ensuring each regional storefront can be tailored to the needs of the local audience,” Siegel said. “It was a delightful journey working with Techsembly, since their team was constantly engaged and helped us mobilise our marketplace very quickly, making it live in under eight weeks.”
Read says the experiences of these companies underline the importance of moving quickly to embrace online trends and implement solutions to stay competitive.
“This shift is not just limited to the fashion and retail industry, but many other businesses, including hotels and media outlets, are also looking to pivot and find new innovative ways to support their customers and generate additional revenue streams and value, without investing in inventory or new builds,” she said.
Another of Techsembly’s clients is The Peninsula Hotels, which, like many other hospitality providers, has suffered as a result of the global pandemic. The firm launched a marketplace solution that allows for global sales of gift cards and experiences. As a result, despite their hotels having to remain closed, they were able to generate supplementary revenue for those customers wishing to give and purchase ‘experiences’ they could look forward to.
“Marketplaces allow businesses to innovate and grow without the risk of holding stock, to support their local suppliers and replicate the mall experience online. This omnichannel approach is the future of modern retailing,” Read said.
A SaaS platform, Techsembly charges a simple monthly subscription fee and businesses can get online within a matter of weeks.
About Techsembly
Techsembly is a marketplace SaaS (Software as a Service) platform, that enables businesses to start and operationalise their own marketplace. Techsembly was founded by three entrepreneurs Amy Read (CEO), Sohail Qureshi (CTO) and Ross Knight (CIO). It is built for businesses who understand the importance of offering geographic-specific content and storefronts to their customers, enabling them to build a global presence while personalising content for their individual local markets. Visit https://www.techsembly.com/ for more information.
For press enquiries, please contact
Danielle Chow
T: +65 9727 7766