• Building an online platform with Dropee

As the CEO and co-founder of Dropee, Lennise Ng is no stranger to the concept of venturing into the unknown in search for success.

Dropee is a business to business (B2B) marketplace for businesses to buy and sell in bulk with a mission to empower businesses growth, particularly the small and medium entreprises (SMEs), by providing access to affordable quality products nationwide.

According to its website, retailers are able to have immediate access to thousands of wholesale products -- all fulfilled by suppliers that Dropee’s team has personally vetted and verified.

“The idea came about after a few pivots and tweaks from our business model and system development,” Ng said to the BizHive Weekly in an interview recently.

“We initially focused on creating a software to help suppliers to handle their internal operational processes before implementing the marketplace element after speaking to hundreds of SMEs.

“What made us shift our focus and direct our technology to the SMEs is because of the fragmented distribution channels across cities, towns, and states that affect the way SMEs procure goods.

“We believe technology can solve this and our platform has the capabilities to group SMEs and simplify distribution, which ultimately help these SMEs to have access to more affordable quality products.”

Dropee currently has hundreds

The idea came about after a few pivots and tweaks from our business model and development. We initially focused on creating a softndle ware to help suppliers to handle their internal operational processes before implementing the marketplace element after speaking to hundreds of SMEs. Lennise Ng, CEO and co-founder of Dropee

of businesses across Klang Valley and Kuala Lumpur area that use its platform to source for products.

Dropee’s focuses mainly on dry fast moving consumer goods, with the selection ranging from beverages to office stationery goods.

For future entreprenuers, especially women, interested in venturing into the e-commerce or digital business industry in Malaysia, Ng has revealed that there are a few things to consider when setting up an e-commerce business.

The first step for budding entrepreneurs would be to identify their target market, whereby they will need to ask themselves whose pain points they are ultimately solving.

When setting up an e-commerce business, entrepreneurs will also need to consider their solution or unfair advantage factor in that they need to identify what product and-or solution they are providing

that makes them unique.

Aside from the above, Ng stressed that key partners play a major role towards success.

“I am a firm believer of partnerships is the way to go to growth hack any business. Understand your ecosystem and industry very well, then find your partners.

“Your partners should serve the same target customers and provide value-added service or products when paired with your business offerings.”

On the direction of the e-commerce field in Malaysia, Ng opined that it is definitely growing here.

“In Dropee, we’re fortunate to work closely with the brand owners such as Nestle, Redbull and others and whilst we understood that sales-wise in percentage is extremely low, at one to five per cent of their total sales, the growth in e-commerce aspect is definitely growing,” she said.

“We strongly believe that companies shouldn’t exclude the fact that eventually both consumers and businesses will start operating and transacting purely online.

“We believe that the next generation will eventually take over the businesses and will heavily implement technology and e-commerce in throughout the businesses simply because they all grew up with tech.”