The Pitch by Garage: How ShopBack bagged 30 million users in 8 years (Ep 2)

In 8 years, ShopBack has become the market leader in cashback in South-east Asia and Australia, dominating 13 markets with over 1,500 retail partners. Host Vanessa Ho speaks with Joel Leong, co-founder of ShopBack, who shares about retail and market expansion. The expert of the episode, Varun Mittal, chief growth officer of Singlife with Aviva,  weighs in on achieving sustainable businesses and why companies integrate financial services.

Here are 4 key takeaways from the episode:

Build the product around the customer experience

While it is no surprise that many companies, from the super apps to the marketplaces, expand into financial services to capture more value from their customers, ShopBack’s approach was more focused on building a product that makes the shopping experience delightful. Payments (ShopBack Pay) and a Buy Now Pay Later facility (Hoolah acquisition) are simply means to an end. 

Aligning interests with partners

ShopBack makes money from commissions from successful transactions.  If the merchant earns, ShopBack earns - a win-win situation. 

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Additionally, brands want to interact with their customers on a deeper level and for a longer term, and further  establish loyalty. They are constantly looking for different channels to  to engage with  customers, and  ShopBack’s  reward scheme  strengthens the customer relationship.

Triumph over a market leader

One of Joel’s biggest surprises in his venture journey was when ShopBack surpassed a competitor in Australia that has a bigger market share than the rest of the players combined. ShopBack was clear on what they could do to beat  the market, which was to focus on the device. While ShopBack was very app-focused, the competitor has a great website but was not as strong in mobile apps. 

Achieving long term sustainability

Companies now face, more than ever,  the added pressure of social responsibility.  While they are promoting an exciting shopping experience and encouraging people to shop more,  public watchdogs are very wary of whether these companies are being responsible for issues such as consumer  debt.

Consumers have to be encouraged to accept and embrace responsible consumption. All consumer-facing companies have to strike a balance between short-term, medium-term and long-term to create an efficient economy and efficient environment for their customers and for them. So that balance of not looking for instant gratification and having a sustainable long term growth path is what differentiates the leaders.

Highlights of the conversation: 

01:50 The goal was always to be ‘customer-first’

04:18 Tackling negativity surrounding BNPL

07:22 How to defend one’s positioning

12:00 How ShopBack ‘took down’ a major player in another region

15:45 The step-by-step of going into a new vertical

17:05 How ShopBack grew quicker than its competitors

20:18 The driving force behind companies entering the payment space (and other comments from Varun Mittal, chief growth officer, Singlife, Aviva) 

Produced by: Vanessa Ho (podcast@sph.com.sg), Howie Lim a), Howie Lim and Ang Guang Zheng

Edited by: Howie Lim

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