Reference no: EM133331249

INTRODUCTION TO DROPEE

Founded in June 2016, Dropee is a one-stop business-to-business (B2B) e-procurement marketplace which changes the way businesses do transactions across the various supply chain. Its platform connects suppliers with small to medium enterprise (SME) business owners in real time to streamline the transaction process and facilitate bulk purchases through a suite of enterprise solutions. Suppliers and brand owners work directly with Dropee in facilitating their operational process to become more efficient, fluid and customer-focused. Dropee currently specialises in food and beverage (F&B), fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and retail market segments. It is unique selling proposition is making its online platform easier for businesses both big and small to manage their procurement and supply chain ecosystem. Some of their offerings include: • Automated ordering placements to reduce stocking issues • Digitalised documentation, such as auto-generated purchase documents and cloud storage accessibility, which reduces human error and eliminates inefficiencies • Tools to easily compare suppliers, prices and products all on one single platform, simplifying the decision-making process through greater transparency • Purchase and product tracking across the supply chain in real-time • Supplier controls for business customer visibility of product ranges, prices and promotions based on location Dropee is currently active in Malaysia, with focus on the metropolitan areas of Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Johor. It is planning to expand business operations in neighbouring ASEAN countries which include Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam soon. Dropee currently supports more that 800 brands, over 6,000 stock keep units (SKUs) and serves more that 1,000 businesses to date. The company expects these numbers to significantly increase in 2020 as business growth accelerates. The Covid 19 pandemic also plays a significant part in spurring new partners onto its platform due to the movement control order (MCO) imposed by the government. Suppliers are looking into Dropee to assist them in distributing their products around Malaysia. There is a major increase of 120% in new sellers coming onboard Dropee during the MCO. Usually, when we talk about new business, we always ask what big problem does your product solve? As of today, the supply chain in Malaysia and across ASEAN countries lack meaningful real-time connectivity between brand, distributors, wholesalers and retailers. With Dropee it reduces the long sales cycle, minimizing cost by streamlining order processing and helping businesses to maximize sales for each of its retail customers. Dropee provides better communication for all parties through their online platform for businesses to source and deals with one another in a faster, more effective and efficient way.

DROPEE BUSINESS MODEL

Dropee B2B platform allows businesses to get connected online to buy and sell in bulk and its enterprise solution allows businesses to streamline their operational processes to work more efficiently and effectively.

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES OFFERED Dropee has three main products namely: 1) Open marketplace-Dropee.com 2) Software as a Service (SaaS) - Private marketplace for client 3) Value Added Services - Financial, Digital Marketing, Design works, B2B Marketing Consultation Users used Dropee to solve their main problem in managing their supply chain management process. Users can track their products through the supply chain in real-time and can acquire their sales reports as and when required through the system. Dropee provides ease of managing their reports online and the flow of their stocks nationwide. In addition, Dropee intelligent recommendation engine will provide sellers with the info on buyers on the pricing structure that they need to provide. Sellers can also be connected to Dropee platform via mobile, making sellers connected wherever they are around the world. Its location-based services also will make the logistics of the sellers manageable as they can track where the demand came from and they can anticipate the movement of goods nationwide. Sellers need not be bothered by the complexity of Dropee platform engine. What they can see is a manageable, user-friendliness of the platform for them to sell their products in the marketplace and not to mention the sexiness of the look and feel of the platform to create the ambience for them to do more transactions. In the future, Dropee will add another two value-added services which are recommendation and insight. The Recommendation is a feature on the platform where a supplier can recommend another supplier to use Dropee. Insight is a feature where detailed data on transaction history can be viewed by a supplier in real-time.

CONCLUSION

Being a startup with limited resources proves to be quite challenging in the digital era. However, the available technology that we have nowadays does not limit the creativity of how we manage our marketing strategies. There are still lots of avenues that we can mix and match pertinent to our targeted marketing mix. Having said that, Dropee can still experiment with all the available marketing tools in marketing its product and services as in the 21st century, we have a market without borders. What works in Malaysia may not work in other countries. So the challenge is to keep on analyzing marketing strategies and implement them by following the market that they want to venture into.

Question 1

Compose a business letter from you as a Dropee salesperson to any company promoting Dropee as a product and wanting to meet for further discussion.

Question 2

Imagine that you are Sales Staff at Dropee. Propose the product and the product strategy for Dropee to your customers.

Question 3

Distinguish between Dropee business model with Shopee business model.

Question 4

Identify the value proposition when you are selling the Dropee platform to potential customers.

Question 5

Discuss how transactional selling on price can help in boosting Dropee sales.

Question 6

Identify the steps taken in the sales process for you to promote Dropee platform to potential customers.

Question 7

Discuss how you as a Dropee salesperson manage your customer account using the Portfolio model.

Question 8

Explain any five approaches in gaining prospect attention.