I have forged a long part of my career in e-commerce, starting with co-founding fast-fashion label Dressabelle, co-founding major online lifestyle marketplace Megafash, culminating in retail enabler iFashion Group today.

I have successfully exited all 3 e-commerce ventures, with iFashion Group pursuing a public listing together with MC Payment as the most recent development.

Since my foray into e-commerce in 2008, the addressable market has certainly grown. Of note, the South-East Asian e-commerce space has outperformed by experiencing exponential growth year-on-year.

With increased volume of purchases, e-commerce technologies specific to payments and website development has also advanced steadily. One can now easily ‘flip the switch’ and launch a store on Shopify without knowing code, or sell their wares on Qoo10 marketplace without knowing marketing.

Amazingly though, when I look at supply-chain purely from a brand and marketplace owner’s perspective, I hardly see any improvements. The same issues and bottlenecks plaguing e-commerce in 2008 exists in 2018.

Often overlooked, supply-chain inefficiencies cost our companies more than appears on the P&L. With strong competition from international e-commerce players, brand owners need to compete by price and superior customer service, both of which are constantly dragged down by supply-chain issues.

Incompatibility among stakeholders in the chain

IF they exist, software systems from suppliers/manufacturers to freight providers to company CRM does not communicate, leading to delays and costs at every instance, ultimately costing the customer more in the product price tag. Businesses are unable to scale with volume. Product returns is another nightmare altogether.

Inefficient Tracking

From brands to marketplaces, tracking a product on the chain from end-to-end is virtually impossible. Robust (and expensive) systems may exist, but they are inaccessible to startups. Without such visibility, it is not possible to deliver the best customer service.

The world’s first integrated e-commerce and supply chain ecosystem

Vanig is currently building a solution to these (and much more) problems. The solution is built on the blockchain, which is a perfect use-case and marries the best aspects of the blockchain with the biggest issues in supply-chain. The problems of multiple intermediaries, high fees, low visibility and lack of tracking is tackled by a scalable proprietary blockchain solution.

By harnessing cutting-edge technology which was non-existent in 2008, I believe 2018 to be the year where supply-chain management gets disrupted by Vanig, leading to a more level-playing field among brands and marketplaces.