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Sebastián Goette

Country Manager, Wabi

José Bonilla

CEO, Chiper

New technologies offer convenient and competitive solutions that help stores digitalize and better serve their end consumers.

What is the company’s value proposition?

SEBASTIAN GOETTE Pre-pandemic, no one had thought about or developed tools and B2B/B2C platforms that could enhance the competitiveness of traditional trade, namely enhancing their capacities, optimizing the supply chain, and growing their customer base by leveraging the great benefits of e-commerce and working together with one of the main stakeholders of our ecosystem: CPGs/FMCGs. We have the opportunity to activate thousands of new users while understanding shoppers’ behaviors according to different socioeconomic profiles. There is a huge opportunity to continue developing technology and optimize the use of information to deliver value to all those who are part of the value chain, such as small suppliers, consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies that are introducing their brands to the traditional trade, and leading companies.

JOSÉ BONILLA Chiper is the leading B2B e-commerce platform for corner stores. In 2018, my co-founder Oscar and I realized there was a massive untapped opportunity to serve the corner store retail market. B2B purchasing transactions between corner stores and CPGs has not changed in over 50 years, resulting in lost sales, high operational costs, and a labor-intensive business for store owners. Chiper was established to provide solutions for store owners to be competitive, eliminate complexity, and reduce the time needed to run their businesses. We have developed an end-to-end platform connecting suppliers, logistic partners, independent corner stores, and consumers.

How do you seek to increase the competitiveness of your partners?

SG We built Wabi2C, a marketplace that connects our consumers with traditional trade. Wabi2C is based on the infrastructure and capabilities of partner stores. The stores are the key players on the last mile: stock management and delivery radius depending on their capacity, communication with users, and excellent delivery time are the most important factors in the operation. We are highly dedicated to generating awareness of stockouts and delivery effectiveness and developing new technology to simplify store management. In addition, we built another marketplace called Wabi2B that connects stores to our suppliers. Wabi2B generates added value based on the democratization of the information on the supply. This means our stores can compare prices, minimum purchase volume, delivery fees, payment methods, and availability of products in less than 48 hours.

JB It lies in changing mindset and culture. The main transformation begins with the store owners themselves, who with Chiper, has access to technology that will help their business grow and thrive for the first time. To provide some context, the traditional way a store owner would procure their store’s needs would be by physically going to wholesalers, which are huge markets, and also having distributors and manufacturers deliver to them. The latter entails keeping up with 20-plus vendor relationships and spending the time to manage each as they stop by their store. That complex system has not changed in decades and was never designed with the storeowner’s benefits or needs in mind. For businesses such as corner stores, which operate 100% in cash, buying a week’s worth of inventory does not make sense.

What have been the company’s most important recent achievements?

SG Thanks to effective teamwork the following pillars have been achieved. Technology: Development of new algorithms to improve the UX, demand peak times and delivery capabilities of the grocer. Operations: We double the coverage area, currently positioned in all neighborhoods of Bogotá, Medellí­n and surroundings, acquiring and training the number of allied stores necessary in less than 6 weeks.

JB In 2019, we accumulated 3,000 users and tripled that amount in 2020. However, the most important thing is that stores that work with us stay with us. Over time, these store owners buy more often and choose us as their go-to solution for their procurement needs.

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