Shopmatic & Octopus merge to disrupt omnichannel ecosystem

With the combined entity, online businesses can enhance their e-commerce technology with Shopmatic’s solutions while tapping into the physical retail opportunity with Octopus’ easy-to-use point-of-sale (POS) solution. And similarly, offline businesses can power their stores with Octopus’ suite of retail management solutions and at the same time have Shopmatic’s handholding and support required to navigate the burgeoning world of online commerce. Retail businesses of all sizes, from aspiring entrepreneurs, hobbypreneurs, craftsperson, artisans to retail SMBs and retail chains can partner with Shopmatic and Octopus to power their successful e-commerce and retail journey.

The collaboration will also see Shopmatic and Octopus spread their wings into newer markets and leverage on each other’s geographical strengths, Shopmatic with their presence in India, Middle East, Singapore and Hong Kong and Octopus with their presence in China, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and the US, said the companies in a joint press release.

Shopmatic and Octopus understand that retail businesses require a holistic offline and online digital ecosystem to scale their businesses and assist them in managing their customers, reducing operational costs and increasing revenue. While Shopmatic offers the entire ecosystem for establishing a successful business online, Octopus offers innovative, cloud-based retail management solutions to brick and mortar businesses, from small boutiques to large retail chains with several hundred stores.

The retailers that are succeeding today are incorporating modern omnichannel strategies into their operations, which include a cross channel customer experience across online and offline digital touch points, order management systems that provide accurate, real-time inventory & fulfillment intelligence and order visibility through highly scalable application programming interfaces (APIs) that connect to ERP and financial accounting platforms.

“Our aim is to continue to cement our commitment to supporting SMEs and entrepreneurs in their online commerce journey, around the world. Through the Shopmatic platform, we have always wanted to democratise the process for any business to go online by making it easy, simple and cost-effective. We strongly believe that there needs to be an integrated consumer journey that allows brands to transparently enjoy the benefits of both offline and online journeys,” said Anurag Avula, co-founder & CEO, Shopmatic.

“Our merger with Octopus will enhance the offline-online synergy. Their strength and experience in cutting-edge POS suite of solutions which has benefitted a variety of businesses spanning the retail, F&B and ecommerce sectors will be of immense value to merchants across the Asia Pacific region. We see great synergies in the two companies and will be one of the few entities to offer a comprehensive omnichannel offering for SMEs & aspiring entrepreneurs,” added Avula.

“This is a big step for us. We have been one of the pioneers in creating retail management solutions and are growing phenomenally outside Singapore with our suite of solutions implemented across thousands of retail businesses globally,” said Ong Whee Shiong, founder and managing director of Octopus. “We understand that the digital age has brought about several challenges at businesses. It has become critical for retailers to implement an efficient omnichannel retail management system to enhance business productivity – this is where our partnership with Shopmatic will come into play. Together we cover markets spanning Asia Pacific, Middle East and US. We believe that online and offline need to coexist for the retail sector and through our integrated solutions, we will be able to provide our clients, and thus, their customers an enhanced, seamless shopping experience.” (PC)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India