Pomelo, Southeast Asia's leading omnichannel fashion platform, is celebrating its 9th anniversary as the no.1 fashion destination offering the best brands, products and fashion commerce experience for customers in the region. Since its inception in 2013, Pomelo has experienced strong growth and extensive regional expansion. It has also been one of the leaders in omnichannel commerce in Southeast Asia, whether that is online, in-store, or through its Tap. Try. Buy service. Continuing on its growth path, Pomelo has announced that in 2022 and beyond it plans to invest over 1 billion Baht in marketing and content, increase the number of brands on the Pomelo platform from 500 to over 2,000, and double its retail presence from 27 to 54 stores.
According to a report done by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company, Southeast Asia's digital economy is expected to be valued at $1 trillion by 2030, with the Clothing, Footwear and Accessories category showing the highest growth potential of 3.1X. Furthermore, Southeast Asia is home to 350 million online shoppers. With this in mind, Pomelo recognizes the opportunity and ensures that its strategy and investments in 2022 and beyond will be to accelerate its marketing and technology efforts, along with growing its brands and products assortment.
"For the past 9 years, we have been empowering women everywhere to look and feel their best in quality, stylish, and affordable fashion through our cutting-edge technology and innovation. The investment for 2022 and beyond will enable us to further our efforts to strengthen our core businesses and empower the overall fashion tech industry in Southeast Asia" said David Jou, Co-founder, and CEO of Pomelo Fashion.
Pomelo is targeting to grow its GMV by 260% in the near future, through the 1 billion Baht investment in marketing and content. The investment will be used to reach new target audiences, establish localized strategy and teams; and set up automated and scalable content creation tools.
To ramp up its platform efforts, the company aims to grow 2X in GMV for brands on Pomelo, and welcome over 2,000 brands in the next few years. To achieve this, Pomelo is committed to providing exclusive and diverse product offerings from fashion and lifestyle categories and enhancing the experience for brands through dropship and seller center. In addition, brands on Pomelo will be able to tap into new features to empower their growth on the platform including a new Seller Center, Connected Retail and SEA Cross Border, among others.
Pomelo, as a platform, has over 500 brands from international labels, local designers, and the coolest up-and-coming Instagram brands. In addition, the company has been delivering on its mission to bring the world's biggest and most relevant brands to our community with Adidas, Maybelline, Cotton on, and Urban Revivo to name just a few recent brands joining the platform.
"For us, customer experience is always the top priority. Our Tap.Try.Buy. service offers a truly unique shopping experience, while we continue to build a sense of community for over 3 million social followers and our #PomeloGirls as they are our true inspiration and are at the center of everything Pomelo does. Our Tap.Try.Buy. feature accounts for 24% of total orders highlighting us as a leader in omnichannel, following 40% from ecommerce channels." Jou said.
Moreover, the company aims to double its physical footprint to 54 store locations across Southeast Asia. At present, Pomelo has 27 stores in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Following the ease of COVID-19 restrictions in September, the company saw a spike in traffic of 84%.
In 2021 we officially launched our e-commerce App in the Philippines, opened our first retail store in Malaysia, launched Tap.Try.Buy. at Home, and launched Prism, our newest business unit that empowers our brand partners by providing them with a variety of solutions to help scale their businesses," Jou added.
Pomelo currently employs over 600 staff across the region, with offices in Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, and China. The company is on the way to becoming an employee-centric organization where the company always looks to enhance employee experience and well-being. Its core values serve as the guiding principle of the company. These values support its vision, reflect its identity, shape its culture. To move forward as a future-ready company, Pomelo is building an inclusive community, a dynamic hybrid workplace, Pomelo learning, and work that matters to ensure the growth of the employee, and community as the company grows.