Indonesian fashion e-commerce platform Berrybenka announced on Thursday that the company has secured an “eight-digit” US dollar fresh investment from institutional investors Maj Invest Private Equity, Asia Summit Capital, and Softbank-Indosat Fund. Several undisclosed local investors also participated in the round.
The firm had raised $5 million in a Series B round of funding in 2013.
In a media briefing event, Berrybenka CEO Jason Lamuda explained that proceeds from this latest investment would fund marketing and user acquisition, talent acquisition and retention as well as inventory cycle maintenance.
Berrybenka will also give a push to grow its online-to-offline (O2O) capabilities, launching 10 to 15 pop-up stores in Indonesia cities such as Pontianak, Balikpapan and Ambon, as well as establishing six to 10 permanent stores.
According to Lamuda, the stores will play a crucial role in driving sales claiming that a single pop-up store hosted in a shopping mall for three to six months can drive overall city sales growth by a multiple of two to four and online sales by 1.5 to two times.
Berrybenka also plans to launch a “personal shopper” feature, which will permit its loyal customers access fashion advice via messenger apps (e.g. WhatsApp) in addition to receiving priority after-sales service and access to pre-launch promotions. This is likely to aid customer retention and drive sales in the long term.
Berrybenka is also planning to launch new fashion lines such as Berrybenka Curve and Berrybenka Premium. According to the enterprise, the company’s private label collections contributed at least 40 per cent to the overall sales and also reported in excess of 100 per cent year-on-year increase in revenue and gross profit in 2016.
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