PricePanda CEO Christian Schiller on Southeast Asia as a Market

Recently we had an opportunity to interview Christian Schiller, the CEO of price comparison website PricePanda. PricePanda was set up in early 2012 by Schiller and Louis Iskandar –both from Rocket Internet– and began operations in Indonesia around a year ago. While the company's Southeast Asian markets are Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, with Thailand coming soon, it has been operating entirely from Germany although it does plan to open a regional office soon.

PricePanda entered Indonesia not without competition. Between 2010 and 2012, companies such as PriceArea and Telunjuk have already established footholds in the market but the size and growth of Indonesia's online market should be able to sustain multiple competing services.

On Indonesia as a market "Indonesia is one of the most interesting markets for us", Schiller told DailySocial. "Not only we have a personal connection through Louis in our team, but it‘s also one of the biggest and most competitive markets". Schiller said that in the three other markets PricePanda is in, the company is "a clear market leader whereas in Indonesia we first had to catch up with established competitors like PriceArea, which we did".

In terms of market conditions, Schiller believes that in the past two years, there have been significant steps and a clear direction which allows PricePanda to establish itself as a tool for e-commerce companies to increase the number of customers. "Logistic providers and payment gateways reached a high level of quality and more and more professional online merchants are now entering the market. These merchants see PricePanda as what it is, a potential source of quality customers for them".

When PricePanda began, the company started out by aggregating openly available prices and notifying companies about conversion results, but as Schiller explained to DailySocial, "Now the approach changed. New online merchants are approaching us directly to get listed. Merchants recognize us as a valuable business partner and realized that they can grow their business with us"

Similar market behaviors PricePanda's current four markets cover roughly 120-130 million online consumers, but apparently as far as the company is concerned, the behaviors are mostly similar. "There are only slight differences between the countries: For instance, more than 50% of Indonesians visit our website via mobile devices, far more than any other market we are currently active in, but in the end, the difference between the countries is only marginal, because they are all part of one group: the online shopping community".

Schiller seems to imply that in terms of behaviors when it comes to online shopping, consumers across the region don't act too differently. The approach that the company has taken seems to work well equally in all of its markets. "We are very happy with the strong growth that we are seeing across all of our 4 markets in SEA. With growth rates of up to 40% per month, PricePanda really hit the nerve of a young and smart generation".

With regards to the consumer perspective, PricePanda positions itself as a curator or a guide to make online shopping more pleasant and informative. "We re-structure today’s shopping information overload and guide our users through the jungle of offers from diverse e-commerce stores in South East Asia".

Importance of mobile apps PricePanda recently launched mobile apps for Android and iOS. The company sees mobile access as a significant driver for its traffic and given the nature of today's consumers, to be accessible from mobile devices efficiently and effectively is crucial.

"This generation is used to asking their mobile phones and computers first where to buy a certain product", Schiller said. "We believe in e-commerce and the importance of price comparison as a fundamental service within the e-commerce ecosystem. The recent developments validate this approach and through our new mobile apps for Android and iOS we will now enable users to make even better use of PricePanda".

Regional presence After over a year of operating in Southeast Asia, PricePanda is about to open a local office. The company had been prioritizing on its online presence and activities to ensure that it has a strong product before landing in the region but eventually it needs to actually be in Southeast Asia.

"Our centralized structure enabled us to hone our product and processes very fast to reinforce our position as the leading price comparison website in Southeast Asia", Schiller said. "Price comparison is a new concept in these markets, with the exception of Indonesia. Our regional office will therefore focus on supporting and communicating with our partners. We want to help them to grow their online business in the most efficient way".

Schiller did not say when or in which country it will open an office in Southeast Asia but the company apparently has a sizable team of Indonesians in its office in Berlin. On top of that, co-founder Louis Iskandar hails from the country.

The strong Indonesian connection might provide a clue as to its plans, but regardless of where in Southeast Asia it will eventually land, having a regional office will certainly speed up communications and coordination with the company's business partners as time zone differences will no longer be much of an issue.

[header image from Shutterstock]