Kuna Kathigesan is a familiar name within e-commerce, having enjoyed thus far an illustrious career covering all the various aspects and intricacies of this booming industry.
When Commerce DotAsia Ventures Sdn Bhd (Commerce.Asia) appointed him as its Group Chief Executive Officer last month, it certainly was another feather-in-the-cap for the group which has become synonymous with being an ‘all in one’ e-commerce ecosystem that provides one-stop, end-to-end e-commerce solutions for brands, businesses and SMEs in Malaysia and throughout Southeast Asia.
After many attempts due to his busy schedule – Kuna typically works 14 hours per day – Business Today finally managed to catch up with Kuna for this exclusive interview.
Business Today: For readers not so familiar with the e-commerce space, could you tell us a bit more about yourself and your experience within the industry?
Kuna: I have been in e-commerce for the past 9 years and I find it extremely fulfilling to be a part of this fast-paced world. The beauty about e-commerce is that it’s constantly evolving for the better, delighting customers with more memorable experiences while also being a strategic avenue for brands and businesses to cultivate brand loyalty.
I was previously the Chief Business Officer of iStore iSend, an end-to-end fulfilment solution provider known for its warehouse management system, and, prior to that, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of Next Commerce MENA, an e-commerce enabler providing local, international, and cross-border brands to create a footprint and expand their business in the United Arab Emirates.
Being in UAE was a real eye- and soul-opener for me. The UAE is today one of the most progressive countries in the world and the ‘glocalisation’ (global and localisation) I underwent when there helped shape me to be the person I am today in both life and work.
I like to think of myself as a firm believer that memorable customer experiences (CX) enable businesses and brands to stand out from competitors. CX also paves the way to position product and brand at the forefront of industry, while developing deeper customer loyalty.
With this core belief that I aspire to live and breathe everyday, and with the help of great teamwork, I successfully scaled and grew an e-commerce marketplace in the Middle East while also having enhanced the performance of two e-commerce platforms across two regions, including Lazada Malaysia, by reducing operational expenses, creating additional revenue streams, enhancing customer experience and leading automation projects for sellers and customers. (pic – Kuna as Commerce.Asia Group CEO in centre meeting the Lazada Malaysia team recently)
Business Today: How do you see yourself as a leader?
Kuna: I deeply value strong teamwork and see myself as a ‘People’s Manager’ who believes that collaborative problem solving leads to, ultimately, better outcomes.
People are more likely to take calculated risks that lead to innovation if they have the support of a team behind them. What’s more, working in a team encourages personal growth, increases job satisfaction, and helps employees realise their fullest potential.
While at Lazada (Kuna was there for three years ) as Head of Partner Support and, later, as Head of Seller Support, the precious learnings I got include but not limited to creating processes for marketplace operations, leading all new initiatives at early stage which includes “Buyer Seller Communications” and outsourcing projects which further accelerates the growth of Lazada in a scalable manner.
Business Today: So how did you land in Commerce.Asia – and how excited are you to be leading the troops there?
Kuna: There’s no other company I would rather work for right now other than Commerce.Asia – and I am blessed to had been given the opportunity.
It all started at a chance meeting – the e-commerce industry is like a community of its own – and I met an icon in the e-commerce space, Ganesh Kumar Bangah who is of course the Founder and Executive Chairman of Commerce.Asia. Ganesh is also the Executive Chairman of growth marketing group Netccentric-Nuffnang. Even prior to my appointment, Ganesh is someone I look up to and have huge admiration for.
Anyway, what started out as a ‘quick coffee’ turned out to be a few hours long engagement until the wee hours of the morning! We discovered that we were very much aligned in our thoughts and strategies about e-commerce and where the industry was heading.
For example, online-to-offline (O2O) is a fast growing trend because, post-pandemic,and in the ‘new normal’, retail is also beginning to pick up and there is a strong need for businesses and brands to bridge O2O solutions with offline retail.
O2O is a strategic business strategy that draws potential customers from online channels to make purchases in physical stores. The strategy is instrumental in helping increase a brand’s revenue and sales.
This stems from the reality that successful online shopping experience that integrates with in-store strategies is often more successful than either online or in-person sales alone. This is one area that we are currently placing great focus on at Commerce.Asia, because we believe that it’s an avenue for the Commerce.Asia ecosystem to consolidate before furthering our leadership position both in Malaysia and throughout the region.
With latest digital innovations and technologies, I also aim to take Commerce.Asia to the next level such as through Web 3.0 and blockchain technologies.
And with Tik Tok and Social Commerce growing among Gen Z, Commerce.Asia is also in a position of strength through Nuffnang Live Commerce with its 20,000 active influencers. This enables our joint venture with the Nuffnang Group to enable fully integrated and seamless end-to-end live commerce experiences with their experience and strength of social influencer and content marketing. This platform is API integrated with Facebook and Tik Tok to provide a seamless user interface from live video production and streaming to automated order management, online payment and fulfilment.
Currently, we have over 92,000 active sellers, posting group gross merchandise volume (GMV) of RM6.7 billion last year and we aim to move to the next level this year by further value-adding to the management of all aspects of customers’ online businesses: From developing online stores to managing product sales across multiple e-marketplaces and social commerce (such as Tik Tok, Facebook on marketplaces], and covering the likes of live streaming services, video content creation, warehousing, payment, data analytics, delivery, digital marketing and order management.
Long and short of it all, our vision is to build further on Commerce.Asia’s already strong foundation to empower businesses and SMEs to further accelerate their digital business through Commerce.Asia’s end-to-end ecosystem.
This includes expanding their businesses and digital growth to other SEA countries so that our customers continue to grow their businesses regionally and not only confined to the local market while also enabling them with omnichannel capabilities. In other words, “our customers’ successes translate to Commerce.Asia’s own success.
Business Today: How do you see the industry as it stands today?
Kuna: The pandemic was a boon for e-commerce. It enabled the industry to take off in a big way and become part of consumers’ shopping behaviours.
Now that lockdowns are a thing of the past, some brands and businesses are unsure of the outlook of how it’s gonna be. As brick-and-mortar has been picking up, they also want to ensure online sales revenue share is growing too. This is a goal every brands and businesses want to achieve. (pic below – The Commerce.Asia team with the Ninjavan team)
(Pic above: The Commerce.Asia and Nuffnang teams with the POS Malaysia team recently.)
Question: How does Commerce Asia enable brands to increase their online revenue for brands through its all-in-one ecosystem?
Kuna: While everyone is dependent on e-commerce marketplaces, brands and businesses have to be creative in driving their traffic to their online platforms. Also, building seamless connectivity of omnichannel experience for the consumers.
New sales channels that are coming up such as Tik Tok and a few subscription-based marketplaces are supporting the current gap and it could potentially be the next big game changer.
New retail, Tik Tok and influencer marketing are a few of the solutions that Commerce Asia is providing to ensure sustainable of online sales growth. A few brands and businesses have elevated their business into their own webstores to provide loyalty and membership programs to their customers through Commerce Asia.
When building sustainable online business, Customer Experience and Customer Loyalty play a key role in ensuring customers are happy and loyal to the brands and businesses. E-Commerce warehousing plays vital role in ensuring those are met.
Commerce Asia is also exploring robotic warehousing through strategic partnership to deliver first class warehousing and operational excellence. The objective is to fulfil all orders in the same day as part of our mission as being ‘the e-commerce enabler partner for brands and businesses’.
