Shopmatic acquires 50.1% stake in Octopus

Shopmatic chief executive Anurag Avula said in an interview that the company has picked up a 50.1% in the Singapore-based company.

Octopus offers cloud-based retail management software, and omni-channel sales and customer engagement solutions, to small and medium enterprises. It focuses on physical stores, from small boutiques to large retail chains.

Shopmatic helps SMEs and individual sellers to sell products online by creating a digital store, and offering payment gateway and logistics solutions, among others.

With the merger deal, Shopmatic plans to offer PoS services to its existing customers across verticals such as retail, food and beverage and other e-commerce-focused sectors in the Asia-Pacific region.

“Both brands will continue to function independently, although there will be integration of Octopus’ products into our platform," added Avula.

The retail segment in India is increasingly converging towards an omnichannel business model. New-age e-commerce businesses, including Myntra, Lenskart and Nykaa, have increased their brick-and-mortar presence in the country in the last two years.

Traditional offline retail chains, such as Max, Puma, Fossil and US Polo, too, are tying up with e-commerce and logistics service providers to build their own online presence. Avula said that the merger with Octopus will help Shopmatic to break into this market.

The merger will also help both firms enter into newer markets and leverage on each other’s geographical strengths. Shopmatic is present in India, West Asia, Singapore and Hong Kong with over 50,000 customers. Most of its users in India are in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, according to Avula. While Octopus operates in China, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and the US.

“...It has become critical for retailers to implement an efficient omnichannel retail management system to enhance business productivity. This is where our partnership with Shopmatic will come into play. Together we cover markets spanning Asia Pacific, Middle East and the United States," said Ong Whee Shiong, founder, Octopus, in a statement.