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Previously, Karl Noronha was the Regional Director of Amazon Global Selling

End-to-end e-commerce enabler aCommerce today announced the appointment of Karl Noronha as the new General Manager of aCommerce Singapore and Malaysia, to lead the company’s further expansion to the region.

Noronha will focus on making aCommerce Singapore the ‘e-distributor hub’ for international brands interested in tapping Southeast Asian e-commerce market.

Leveraging on its latest funding round, the company plans to develop proprietary technologies such as chat commerce, before scaling throughout the region.

The plan was based on the fact that chat commerce is the main starting points in Southeast Asia, with 33 per cent of Thailand’s e-commerce Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) comes through social media and chat messenger platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Line.

“Everyone working in Southeast Asia e-commerce knows this landscape is transforming rapidly, much faster than some brands form their 12-month plans,” Noronha said in a press statement.

“You need to be nimble and willing to explore new routes. I’m excited to join aCommerce as they understand the terrain and have been bold in redefining it,” he added.

Previously, Noronha was the Regional Director of Amazon Global, where he worked to build channel and partner programmes in Southeast Asia while enabling brands in Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand to sell globally.

Also Read: Going online? Beware of cannibalism, says aCommerce’s Hadi Kuncoro

aCommerce’s Singapore operation is already live with its first clients on board, while its Malaysia operations is set to launch in Q4 2016. It has about 20 to 30 people across all functions.

According to an aCommerce spokesperson, the company will leverage on its Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines offices to support with web development, IT and customer service before moving these functions in-market.

Singapore is an obvious choice for the e-commerce enabler, being the country with the highest online shopping proportions (2.1 per cent of retail sales, according to Google and Temasek) in Southeast Asia.

Noronha believes that Singapore is a perfect testing ground for brands looking to expand their online presence, with 26 per cent of Singaporeans buy something online every week whether from a brand site, marketplace or messaging app.

“[As] for Malaysia, working with DKSH will enable us to partner with category leaders and redefine the way a brand takes its products to market. We aren’t thinking B2B or B2C, we are thinking B2A, business to all,” Noronha said.

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Disclaimer: aCommerce is part of the Ardent Capital portfolio. Ardent Capital is an investor in Optimatic Pte Ltd, the parent company of e27.

Image Credit: aCommerce

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