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Entrepreneur Vanessa Ong founded Gernise Global in 2014, a B2B company specialising in distributing polycarbonate and plastic raw material. . In 2016, she also founded MamaShop, a B2C e-commerce platform specialising in environmentally-friendly products including lifestyle products and eco-friendly straws.

During the pandemic, like many other businesses, her ventures were pushed towards digitalisation out of necessity. Though the process was challenging, they received help through a partnership with The FinLab, an innovation accelerator powered by United Overseas Bank. The results have shown how digitalisation not only allows for survival, but opens up new avenues for long term growth and performance.

SMEhorizon spoke with Vanessa Ong, Managing Director and Founder of Gernise Global and Mamashop, and Pauline Sim, Head, The FinLab, on Gernise Global and Mamashop’s digital journey, the current momentum for digitalisation, and how SMEs can best leverage digital transformation for long term success.

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Sim shared how The FinLab, which has supported Fintechs, SMEs and start-ups across Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand on their digitalisation journey for five years, is now seeing more businesses prioritise and accelerate their digitalisation efforts, sometimes out of necessity rather than choice, as a result of COVID-19 restrictions.

“We have also seen more consumers going online more frequently to buy goods and services. We believe that this shift in consumer behaviour to digital services is permanent, and businesses must follow suit to continue to grow their customer base and revenue streams.

“Not surprisingly, a recent UOB survey of ASEAN SMEs found that SMEs in the region now see digitalisation as their top priority (60 per cent) following the pandemic, an area that was ranked fourth (49 per cent) prior to the outbreak.”

Echoing her statements, Ong shared how the current pandemic was a decisive factor in recognising the importance of digitalisation. “During the circuit breaker, we had to re-evaluate our customer acquisition strategy because our retail partners could not operate and corporate orders were put on hold. We needed to strengthen our digital capabilities for both Gernise Global and Mamashop.

Source: SME Horizon | 9th September 2020

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One mum who had to transform her company quickly is Ms Vanessa Ong, 43, founder and managing director of Gernise Global, which deals in plastics, and Mamashop, which offers eco-friendly products.

She found herself working seven days a week during the circuit breaker as she had to supervise her twins’ home-based learning (HBL), manage the household and cook.

She has no helper and her husband, 43, is an essential worker in the marine industry.

“Managing working from home and HBL drove me nuts,” she says.

She founded Mamashop in 2016 after looking for environmentally-friendly items for her twins, now aged seven.

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While she used to focus on selling to retailers and corporations, she had to overhaul her business quickly when her retail partners closed during the circuit breaker and corporate orders were put on hold.

She already had an e-commerce website, but online consumers have little brand loyalty. So she created regular marketing activities, from contests and giveaways to collaborations with other businesses and influencers.

For instance, when bubble tea shops had to close, she shared a DIY bubble tea video online to promote her eco-friendly bubble tea straw, and sent some to influencers to try. This boosted sales for two weeks.

Now that malls have opened in Phase 2, she is seeing business-to-business opportunities resume, but will continue to have both online and offline platforms.

“I learnt that mumpreneurs can be wonder women. We can multitask as a mum, a chef, a teacher, a boss, an entertainer and even a fitness coach,” she says.

Source: Straits Times Online | 27th June 2020