Airfrov, a platform that connects buyers with travellers for requesting products from abroad is now expanding its market reach to Indonesia – a strategic move responding to the opportunities in the increasing numbers of travelers that are crossing Indonesian borders.
Based in Singapore, the startup launched in 2015 has been operating for a year and a half, before it began expanding its businesses into Indonesia that has started since last August.
But entering Indonesia, Airfrov will be facing competition from existing peer courier services such as BisTip and Neetip.
“This trend of bringing back overseas products is getting popular, but there are some issues concerning the conventional process, for example, the limited number of products that can be sent, the long duration of delivery, the payment guarantee, and the high delivery fees,” said Airfrov, CEO Cai Li.
In response to the competition, Airfrov intends to set itself apart from other P2P courier services, through offering a safer solution that prioritise the needs of users.
Through its website and mobile application, Airfrov offers a simple way to shop abroad. Requesters simply post the desired items and offer a price quote, while Travelers abroad who are interested will meet the demand.
Additionally, the company will handle the payment from the requester and keep it until the items have been paid for. Travellers will receive their money only after the products have arrived in the requesters’ hands.
Besides, Airfrov also features information on the latest trends and popular existing products abroad.
“We are currently focusing on building the best user experience for our users in Indonesia and a strong local team to understand the people’s culture and local trends more deeply,” said Airfrov CTO Robi Ng, who is an Indonesian.
In this aspect, Airfrov also continued their efforts through approaching users who have used their services in order to get input related to Airfrov development as well as maintaining relationships in order to re-use the service and recommend it to people nearby.
Airfrov is said to have more than 95,000 active users, some of whom reside in Indonesia. Its soft launch event held in August has claimed to have received more than 1,000 offers from 150 travelers.
In an effort to continue increasing the number of users in Indonesia, Airfrov has partnered with Martha Tilaar, a homegrown cosmetics company. This partnership is in part due to the potential of the beauty school student who requires imported beauty supplies not found in Indonesia.
“Those who need products that are outside the country is expected to see Airfrov as a solution,” Cai Li adds.
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media
Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6O8Bt1I78Y&feature=youtu.be
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