Singapore, 26 May 2020 – To help local SMEs tide through these difficult times, digital marketing company Hashmeta and its fashion marketplace subsidiary ShopperBoard recently launched a new initiative — ShopperCliq — a community commerce platform for community group buys with islandwide deliveries.
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ShopperCliq is an extension of ShopperBoard B2C fashion marketplace. It works closely with suppliers to procure a wider variety of products at a discounted bulk purchase rate to community leaders, or what is referred to as Key Opinion Consumers (KOCs), on its platform. KOCs then distribute the products to their community consumers via social messengers such as WhatsApp or WeChat. KOCs are thus socially and geographically close to the consumers they serve, which makes them highly relatable, and accessible.
By offering fresh food, cooked food, pre-cooked food and ready-meals on its platform, ShopperCliq plans to launch its services by supporting the local F&B sector. Restaurants and wholesalers can choose to work alongside the group buy platform to tap into KOCs’ wide network of consumers in less time and with fewer resources.
With the outbreak forcing many people to work from home, having food delivered to the doorstep has also become the norm, especially for those who have little time to cook.
“For working parents, it is very challenging to keep your children engaged, work from home and prepare 3 home-cooked meals for the family at the same time. Community food ordering and food delivery can help to alleviate some of this stress,” said Terrence Ngu, founder and CEO of Hashmeta and himself a father of two young children.
Then there are also others who wish to #supportlocal and do their bit to #savefnbsg. But with higher minimum orders and limited delivery options, mid and upper-tier restaurants may find it difficult to gain access to this group of loyal customers.
According to a Straitstimes article on 22 March, Mr Vincent Tan, president of the Restaurant Association of Singapore (RAS), which has 450 members who run 4,000 outlets, said that as many as a quarter of the 12,000 restaurants here could close in three months if the situation remains the same or worsens.
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Within a month since the commencement of Singapore’s Circuit Breaker on 7th April 2020, Hashmeta together with the R&D team from StarNgage and ShopperBoard — have put together a solution and rolled out their #savefnbsg initiative.
What makes ShopperCliq different from the rest of the food delivery platforms is its focus on bulk buying and partnering with Key Opinion Consumers (KOCs) to consolidate these orders.
Although KOCs do not have thousands of followers like Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) or social media influencers, a good KOC can also easily rally people around them with an attractive lobang (bargain) or two. To date, ShopperCliq partners with roughly 20 active KOCs and community leaders in Singapore and is ramping up efforts to recruit more.
These KOC-led communities are becoming increasingly vital to businesses. Parenting communities have been leading the game for years, where parents often share information and rely on WhatsApp groups for group buys, parenting tips and even emotional support.
But KOCs are not limited to only this demographic. A friend, a colleague or a family member can be a potential KOC as consumers become more dependent on information and purchase recommendations found on digital communities.
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One of the first restaurants to work with ShopperCliq was Diandin Leluk at Golden Mile Complex. KOCs were engaged to collate orders from different locations throughout Singapore, and with their help, this popular Thai restaurant was able to process $400-$500 worth of group buys per KOC on average.
Island-wide delivery using our pool of freelance delivery drivers can be included as part of ShopperCliq’s solution for business owners if they are unable to fulfil the logistics themselves.
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About Hashmeta
Hashmeta is one of the fastest-growing digital marketing companies in Asia. Headquartered in Singapore, Hashmeta has offices in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and China. We make marketing easy by providing digital marketing services and solutions. Hashmeta operates several online marketing platforms including StarNgage – an influencer marketplace and ShopperBoard – a fashion shopping app. For more information, visit hashmeta.com.
About StarNgage
StarNgage is an Influencer Marketplace that enables brands to analyse, customise, manage, measure word-of-mouth marketing and connect with global influencers (KOLs & KOCs). It has powered over 3,000 global campaigns and helped more than 5,000 advertisers in their influencer marketing initiatives. For more information, visit starngage.com.
About ShopperBoard
ShopperBoard is a mobile fashion shopping app that brings all the trendiest online fast fashion brands into one app and provides convenience for shoppers to follow their favourite stores to get immediate notification on new arrivals and browse on-the-go. For more information, visit shopperboard.com.
About ShopperCliq
ShopperCliq is a social e-commerce platform powered by Hashmeta. This platform supports community group ordering and delivery island-wide. The main differentiation of ShopperCliq from the mainstream e-commerce marketplace or delivery platform is that orders are placed through Key Opinion Consumers (KOCs) of each community. For more information, visit shoppercliq.com.