RateS App Wants To Make It Easy For Anyone To Start Selling Online

The large use of social media in Indonesia has been exploited by Singapore-based startup Rate to create a useful platform for small business owners to adopt technology. Named RateS, the product is now officially launched in Indonesia.

Founded in 2016, Rate innovation wants to make transactions E-commerce cross-country is more efficient and accessible. In March 2019, Rate graduated from the PayPal Incubator program in Singapore. Previously, Rate also managed to get an investment of $2.3 million from Alpha JWC Ventures and Insignia Ventures Partners in the pre-series A round.

Help anyone start selling online

Its working concept RateS acts as an intermediary between the user and beg to procure products, handle inventory and logistics. App users only need to sell and market the products they find on RateS.

Users can browse the product catalog on RateS and select the products they want to add to the online 'store' they create in the app. Apart from that, they can also take advantage of their social network and share product details directly on social media.

Users can determine the final price of the products they sell and earn profit from their sales. After the order is successfully placed, the product will be sent directly by beg to the buyer.

According to Rate CEO Jake Goh, Indonesia has similarities with Singapore, from habits to lifestyles that are almost similar. For this reason, RateS was first present in Indonesia by prioritizing the concept of Social Commerce.

"For the first time we present RateS in Indonesia, seeing the large use of social media in Indonesia social commerce not a new thing in Indonesia, we see that this method is still very fragmented its nature and less effective to be developed, for example the use of various chat app to social media groups, while the payment process is still being done offline."

Will present a premium version

RateS has also launched the app and already has around 1000+ active users. This new application aims to create an infrastructure for micro merchants who want to start their online business without capital and product inventory.

Currently, RateS can be downloaded for free, but in the future RateS will launch a premium membership program. Each member gets access to exclusive product categories and more learning content. After Indonesia, RateS will also be developed in Vietnam and Singapore.

“We are very pleased to be able to launch our application in Indonesia. Going forward, we have big plans for RateS, including inviting more suppliers to join us, and developing attractive features for our sellers,” said Jake.

In Indonesia, startups that offer a similar concept are: ShopTalk, which is a service that allows shop owners to create personal websites for their stores with customized technology and features.

In April 2019, TokoTalk pocketed funding worth $3,2 million or 45 billion Rupiah from Altos Ventures from Silicon Valley, United States. After obtaining funding, the company will focus more on improving services to boost business growth.

In addition, a similar concept was also initiated by a startup made by Hadi Kuncoro called Feeders.