iprice

iprice is a privately owned online shopping aggregator based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The company is an online aggregator that simplifies a consumer’s shopping experience by allowing them to browse for products from various online stores,^[1] thus the “Your One-Stop Shopping Destination” tagline. iprice is a funding and investment product of Asia Venture Group and currently operates in seven Asian countries; namely Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia.^[2] As of December 2015, iprice hosts a catalogue of over 15 million products from over 150 merchants across the region,^[3] including big e-commerce sites like Lazada and Zalora.

History

Founded in October 2014^[4] in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, iprice expanded in the same year it was founded^[5] and became an active player in the e-commerce industry of six other countries: Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.^[6] The site first started out as a coupon site that offers deals and discounts for other online stores, but later changed into a shopping aggregator that helps shoppers discover products from various e-commerce sites.^[7]

Service

iprice provides the service of hosting products from several Southeast Asian e-commerce sites on one platform. With claims that it is more than just a price-comparison site as it focuses more on the discovery of products rather than the price of the products,^[8] how the site works is that it narrows down the vast volume of products (via a search and filter interface) to find products that would suit the consumer’s preferences.^[9]

Traffic volume for e-commerce sites are increased via exposure on the site. The way it works is through clicking of the products on the site which redirects consumers (traffic) to the websites that the products are located to complete the purchase.^[10] Sites like Hermo^[11] and Zalora^[12] have reportedly seen an increase in traffic volume since signing on with iprice and have seen growth in their revenue. Apart from being a platform for several e-commerce sites, iprice is also considered as a comparison shopping website.

Revenue and traffic

The company started off with an approximate of 11,924 traffic sessions weekly. In July 2015, iprice managed to raise a revenue growth of $13, 347 (per week) and made a leap in online traffic which was recorded at an approximate of 207K separate sessions per week.^[13]

Funding

iprice raised its first round of seed funding in May 2015. It received approximately US$550,000 from Asia Venture Group (AVG).^[14] The second round of seed funding came in December 2015 when the aggregator announced that it had raised US$1.2 million. This round was led by existing investor, AVG, followed by 500 Startups, IMJ Investment Partners, Venturra Capital, F2 Capital, and Starstrike Ventures.^[15]

Partnerships

iprice is a partner of several online sites to provide potential customers with the chance of accessing its money-saving deals and bargains (or more commonly known as coupons).^[16][17] Its coupons cover a wide range of discounts and offers available for various e-commerce sites, such as Zalora, Lazada, Uber, and Foodpanda.^[18] Among the partners currently signed up under this coupon program are Rappler (for Philippines)^[19] as well as two of REV Asia’s Malaysia-based news sites; SAYS^[20] and Juice Online.^[21]

Competition

Iprice’s top competitors are Saleduck, Juyyo , Shopalike / Visual Meta GmbH, HiSHOP and HERMISO^[22] as both are online shopping and providers of online shopping coupons and deals.

References