The novel coronavirus spreading fast globally, affecting about 180 countries and territories and claiming over 10,000 lives. While almost all industries got severely affected by the virus, e-commerce is seeing massive growth as people prefer to shop online while staying indoors.
Tiki.vn, a leading e-commerce firm in Vietnam, is also witnessing a growth in the number of orders. Let’s look at how Tiki is growing amidst the corona crisis and the different measures it has taken to tide over the epidemic.
15% revenue growth from the beginning of February
Since the beginning of February, the demand has recorded a 15 per cent increase over the November-December 2019 period. The most purchased items have been masks, wet towels and air purifiers.
The reason for making a comparison with the Nov-Dec 2019 period is because Q4 was a shopping festival time in Vietnam. During peak time in this period, e-commerce firms in the country saw an average of 3,000-4,000 orders per minute.
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“Tiki is always committed to high quality and good prices of all products on our platform, especially for disease prevention products such as hand sanitizers or masks. Besides controlling the prices of products, we also strive to ensure the product supply, particularly hand sanitizer products as washing hands is considered one of the effective disease prevention methods recommended by medical experts and doctors,” said Ngo Hoang Gia Khanh, Vice President of Corporate Development at Tiki.
Books witnessed 1.5X growth
The first two months of 2020 (as Covid-19 breakout was in the initial stages), Tiki witnessed a 1.5x y-o-y growth in the books category. The top-5 bestselling genres were literature books, self-help books, children’s books, books on economics and manga-comics.
Two genres with remarkable growth rates were medical books and family knowledge books with 2.7x and 2x growth, respectively. Foreign language learning books, reference books, mother-baby books, and medical books also got attention.
Tiki is currently running an online book fair until March 31, 2020,
Safety first
The company has disinfected all of its workplaces and fulfilment centres (areas such as canteen and offices are disinfected daily). Mandatory wearing of masks by employees is strictly implemented to ensure the safety of customers when shopping demands are high.
As online shopping peaked, Tiki’s logistics unit TikiNOW Smart Logistics (TNSL) swiftly activated/made operational all of its 33 fulfilment centres and warehouses of over 80,000 sqm in 13 key cities, including Hanoi, HCMC, Hai Phong, Da Nang, Nha Trang, and Can Tho.
“Goods are sourced and stored in our fulfilment centres, which allow us to proactively respond to the needs and wants of consumers,” said Henry Low, CEO of TikiNOW Smart Logistics.
Safe delivery
In peak times, the site received 4,000-5,000 orders per minute, requiring continuous stock-in. Top-selling products on Tiki have been masks, wet tissues, and air purifiers. Besides, other essential products like commodities and consumer goods are also adequately supplied to customers in 63 cities and provinces.
Tiki is also closely working with business partners (manufacturers, suppliers and retailers) to keep minimal the negative impact of Covid-19.
“Tiki has encouraged the partners to join hands with us to quickly and safely conquer the acute challenges of the Covid-19 storm,” said Vu Thi Nhat Linh, Vice President of Managed Marketplace at Tiki.
Safe TNSL has assured safety regulations during product processing and delivery to consumers. All employees working at TNSL’s fulfilment centres, hubs and sorting centres are required mandatory temperature checks before and after their work shift and are required to use hand sanitizer regularly.
Shippers and delivery executives, who regularly work outside and have direct contact with customers, are asked to wear masks all the time.
Thousands of back-office employees are allowed to work from home from March 15 to 22 to mitigate the risk of infection amongst. They are required to set up work objectives and deadlines and update their work daily through an internal work management system. All departments are requested to have online meetings.
Employees are discouraged from travelling to regions hit by Covid-19.
Founded in 2010, Tiki is a fast-growing B2C e-commerce platform. The platform initially sold e-books, but it has since diversified to become an all-encompassing marketplace, selling goods such as toys, digital devices, lifestyle and beauty products.
In November 2017, Tiki raised US$44 million from Chinese internet giant JD.com in one of the largest deals in the Vietnam tech ecosystem. This figure was twice the amount Tiki received from Vietnamese internet group VNG in 2016 — a US$17 million funding that gave VNG a 38 per cent stake in Tiki.
In August last year, Tiki.vn acquired local online ticketing platform Ticketbox.
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