Malaysia, March 9th, 2017— Malaysian based BloomThis, BMS Organics, Livlola alongside 23 e-commerce merchants in Southeast Asia were honored at the inaugural iPrice E-Commerce Merchant Awards (iEMA) 2016 at the eTail Asia Conference in Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. Voted and nominated by tens of thousands of consumers across Southeast Asia, the awards were organized by iPrice Group in partnership with eTail Asia, Trusted Company and UseInsider, with the aim to celebrate and honor the efforts of Southeast Asia’s top e-commerce merchants in the booming industry.
With the assistance of Trusted Company, each vote was validated and allowed to be casted only once. The voting and nomination period began on 15th November 2016 and ended on 31st January 2017. All merchants in Southeast Asia were automatically enlisted and qualified for the voting session.
Winners of the inaugural iEMA included BloomThis, winning the regional iPrice Special Awards while Livlola, won the Quality Award for Malaysia and Lazada won Popularity Award for Malaysia. Present to receive the awards were Giden Lim, Co-founder and CEO of BloomThis for the iPrice Special Award category.
“We are thrilled to be selected as the winner of the iEMA Special Award. I cannot be more grateful to the entire BloomThis team that has worked fervently to uphold the highest standards. This award is indeed an honor because it is validation that our commitment to excellence and high quality is appreciated and recognized. It drives us as a team to do more and keep raising our standards for our consumers” said Lim.
The iPrice Special Award category was created to recognize startups, or notable business efforts that made a significant impact in the e-commerce sector. Founded with his wife Penny Choo, the inception of BloomThis was the result of the couple’s passion to help others create beautiful moments with flowers. The startup entered into the e-commerce space with an ambition to make flower gifting accessible and convenient for consumers.
When asked about their future plans, Lim explained that the floral industry has been slow to adopt e-commerce in the past decade. “Our plans in the pipeline is to further refine the technological aspect of BloomThis and offer a greater experience to more consumers. The gap we observed with the flower gifting experience is still big and we intend to bridge that by leveraging e-commerce to ensure that it remains a joyful experience for your loved ones”
First runner up to the special award was Althea, an e-commerce company which was founded to make Korean beauty products accessible and affordable to consumers across the Southeast Asia region. The award’s panel of judges chose Althea as they have established themselves as great role model displaying how e-commerce can be an effective tool to meet specific consumer needs with a niche product.
Malaysian based, BMS Organics, was selected for the second runner up position for their efforts to encourage the consumption of organic food and healthy living in an affordable manner. Combining both their online and offline assets, BMS Organics has been instrumental in educating consumers on organic food, environmental protection and dietary knowledge across Malaysia.
The Absolute Winner of iEMA 2016 Awards
Bukalapak, a C2C e-commerce platform was declared the overall winner of iEMA 2016, garnering the highest number of overall votes in Southeast Asia. The startup began their operations in their garage with the passion to create a marketplace that is reliable and trusted by consumers today. When asked what made them successful Evi Andarini, PR Manager of Bukalapak mentioned that they constantly find ways to be creative and innovative in meeting their customers’ needs.
Receiving the Quality Award was Livlola, an e-commerce retailing luxurious bag at an affordable price. With the highest number of five-star rating by consumers, Livlola was loved by consumers not just for their high-quality products but also for their efficient and friendly service. Meanwhile Lazada received the Popularity Award as they were highly regarded as a wholesome shopping experience by customers.
The full list of winners:
The Absolute Winner of iEMA 2016:
- Bukalapak
iPrice Special Award
- BloomThis (Winner)
- Althea (1st Runner Up)
- BMS Organics (2nd Runner Up)
Quality Award – Country Winners
- Malaysia : Livlola
- Indonesia : Mazaya
- Philippines : Starmobile
- Singapore : Tech2Cool
- Thailand : Advice
- Vietnam : Alovendor
Popularity Award – Country Winners
- Malaysia : Lazada
- Indonesia : Bukalapak
- Philippines : Lazada
- Singapore : Tech2Cool
- Thailand : Advice
- Vietnam : Alovendor
The Absolute Winner and iPrice Special Award of iEMA 2016 were presented a special trophy while other winners and finalists received a certificate and an e-badge for their e-commerce platforms. In addition to this, products from all winners and finalists of all categories will be given a special highlight on all iPrice websites across Southeast Asia.
Further details such as list panel of experts, rules and regulations can be found at the iEMA 2016 microsite.
About iPrice Group
iPrice is Southeast Asia’s leading Meta-Search platform, connecting consumers with hundreds of e-commerce merchants through a great shopping experience. Since October 2014, the platform has established itself as the fastest growing in its segment across seven markets: Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines and Hong Kong.
iPrice currently operates three business lines: price comparison for electronics and health & beauty; product discovery for fashion and home & living; and coupons across all verticals.
About eTail Asia
eTail Asia is a one-stop shop for everything multichannel and E-Commerce; an event where business owners and entrepreneurs have opportunities to learn, be inspired, find innovative solutions for their businesses, and build lasting professional relationships. The annual eTail Asia conference aims to provide unrivalled networking opportunities, high quality content guided by research and experts conducted at top tier resorts. First organized by Worldwide Business Research LLC (WBR) in 1999, the conference production company now runs over 80 industry conferences and networking events on a worldwide scale.
About Trusted Company
Trusted Company is a review platform for e-commerce businesses in emerging markets like Southeast Asia and India. Motivated with the goal of educating businesses and consumers to facilitate good e-commerce practice, Trusted Company aims to be the most transparent go-to-place for business reviews. As the current state of emerging e-commerce in the Southeast Asia Region holds tremendous opportunities for solutions that tackle scam, fraud, and other types of abuse, Trusted Company strongly believes that creating trust through third-party verified reviews is the best manner to overcome these issues.
