How This Saas Company is Driving Southeast Asia's E-commerce Boom The SaaS technology and integration with ecosystem players make online selling and e-commerce logistics simple for everyone

The e-commerce sector in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region has grown at a rapid pace. As a result, companies are finding it difficult to differentiate themselves in this crowded market. According to Frost & Sullivan 2016 study, Southeast Asia is poised to become one of the world's fastest-growing regions for e-commerce revenues, exceeding $25 billion by 2020.

For Anchanto founder, Vaibhav Dabhade, the first and foremost reason for the growth of e-commerce is that local governments in Southeast Asian countries have started prioritizing the sector in order to boost regional and national economies.

"The finest examples of these are the Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ) and eUsahawan, that are helping SMEs tackle complexities and jump the bandwagon," he says.

Dabhade also credits a large number of e-commerce providers and logistics startups, that have become the adopter of technologies themselves, leading to a massive disruption in the supply chain ecosystem.

"This trend has led to a remarkable purchase experience to the customers across every facet such as payment, last-mile and order placing. Also, given that 45 percent of APAC's population is represented by the millennials who also happen to be early adopters, the region is set to witness an impact on e-commerce purchasing patterns and in turn a boost in e-commerce revenue," he adds.

Founded in 2011 by Dabhade and Abhimanyu Kashikar, Anchanto's SaaS technology and integration with ecosystem players makes online selling and e-commerce logistics simple for everyone. The Singapore-based platform helps brands, retailers, online sellers, warehousing players, postal associations and e-distributors with best-in-class eCommerce capabilities through its proprietary SaaS products.

The Inception of Anchanto

Given that Dabhade grew up in a family full of entrepreneurs, he developed a keen interest in logistics by watching two generations of his family setup their own respective brick-and mortar logistics businesses.

"Afterwards, owing to my proclivity toward technology, I went on to study engineering and thereafter completed my executive education from Harvard to learn the intricacies of business and management. Once I was ready to take the final plunge into my entrepreneurial journey, I simply combined all the aspects that I deeply cared about: logistics, technology, e-commerce and retail. The convergence of all these four fields led to the notion of Anchanto — a company that delivers an enchanting experience to its customers through its various products and services," recalls Dabhade.

Digital Transformation and Customers Acceptance

Competing in a crowded market can be tough but Dabhade believes that his biggest competition is the very complacency of Anchanto's potential customers toward the rapidly approaching digital transformation in the business world.

"This complacency is also coupled with considerable laxity and an urge to keep holding on to the decade old systems of retail and logistics. Although many businesses have started to realize that they must align with the upcoming digital trends, there are far many sellers, retailers, SME's and enterprise businesses in Southeast Asia that are yet to accept and realize the enormity of implications the transformation brings with it," he explains.

SaaS to the Rescue

SelluSeller, Anchanto's new SaaS offering, solves the most prominent pain points of online sellers in Southeast Asia. The platform reduces complexity and helps sellers get a centralized view of their entire sales operations on a single dashboard. It can cater to sellers of all sizes, right from small online sellers and retailers to bigger organizations such as brands, distributors, warehousing and logistics players.

"We observed that managing selling on multiple sales channels not only requires additional time, resources and efforts, but often leads to errors and issues. Based on our own experience of selling online for more than two years, we launched SelluSeller — a powerful platform to help sellers manage selling on multiple sales channels at one place," says Dabhade, adding that a customer base of more than 6500 sellers is using the DIY version of SelluSeller.

What's Next?

Anchanto is currently serving a massive customer base consisting of global players across more than 14 countries, with their regional offices spread across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Philippines and Australia.

Next, the company is looking to break all barriers and reach potential customers across the globe in countries such as the US, the UK, Spain, Germany, Italy, Canada among others.