If you want to get the inside scoop on eddress and why we got started, this post is for you. Here, we sit down for a friendly question and answer session with the co-founder of the company, Karim Khoury. We take a look at the ups and downs of the e-commerce industry and how eddress evolved to become a white-label marketplace platform enabler.
The birth of eddress
Why did you want to set up eddress in the first place?
K.K: The idea for eddress actually came from a pretty unusual place. We were trying to order from an app and noticed that it kept crashing whenever we typed in our addresses. It was just too long for the software to handle.
This is when we thought: why not digitize addresses and simplify the whole process? Doing that would make it so much easier for both the apps and everyone involved.
This approach was actually sensible. Many emerging market countries simply don’t have proper address systems in place, and those that do actually have billions of dollars in loss or return made. So we created eddress. We took long conventional addresses and converted them into six-digital alphanumeric codes unique to each individual.
What if people had to relocate?
K.K: Our system allowed customers to keep their code for life but just change the address associated with it in case of relocation, immediately notifying all vendors and suppliers. For instance, a person currently living in Paris who decides to move to Madrid would keep their six-digit code. However, they would manually change the address associated with it, which would notify all companies, eliminating the risk of parcels being sent to their old address.
eddress is a white-labeled marketplace enabler today. What’s the reason behind this?
K.K: It all started in 2016, as many businesses wanted to “Uberize” their operations. Brands wanted consumers to simply log onto their platforms via an app and start purchasing products and services.
When figuring out how to become more robust and grow eddress even further, we took inspiration from companies that were already transforming the customer experience.
Amazon, for instance, used to take seven days to deliver parcels to customers. Then, with the introduction of Amazon Prime, they got it down to 72 hours. Now, people can get items delivered the next day. Consumer attitudes changed as a consequence, and people began to expect next-day delivery as the norm.
In parallel, we looked at Uber. We liked how the company made it possible for customers to track services in real time down to the last mile on their apps. It was certainly a revolution.
We took these two innovations and resolved to make them the norm across the e-commerce and delivery industries. Firms needed to be able to deliver rapidly while letting consumers track their parcels with precision in real-time.
How did you go from being an address system to a do-it-all platform?
K.K: Consumers got used to the new models provided by Uber and Amazon, but old-fashioned B2B operations, like fleet management, were still stuck in the dark ages. Nobody was offering an integrated fleet management system.
So, we first got into the fleet management space believing that it was the best way to deliver to our customers. It was also an opportunity for us to combine it with the eddress system we had initially put into place.
While we were developing our fleet management solution, the competition started to rise. As a consequence, we needed to be innovative. We couldn’t just copy and paste the industry standard.
That’s when one of our lab projects came to the forefront. We’d been working on a white-label marketplace that would provide our customers with a do-it-all platform. The idea was to create an all-in-one solution that would give businesses fleet management, order management, and consumer app capabilities in one place.
We soon realized that this was our core product, so we doubled down on it. The modular technology allowed businesses to go online within days, connecting them to all relevant stakeholders, from suppliers to customers.
Which industries can benefit from eddress’ technology, and what has your company gained in return?
K.K: Our focus is pretty wide. We concentrate on commerce in general, which lets us benefit all sorts of industries. We’re involved in beauty products, pet products, pharmaceuticals, cloud kitchens, and groceries – you name it.
This broad focus gives us the ability to appeal to a range of customers that other platforms simply can’t cater to. Strong revenues mean that we can reinvest in our products, making them stronger for a wider array of sectors, and keep on upgrading our technology.
Did you always provide services globally?
K.K: Like most businesses, we actually started on the local level and grew from there. When we were focusing on our eddress-enabled fleet management solution, our first client was in Bolivia, which helped us expand in South America.
Our second client was a Nigerian marketplace – that was the day when we went truly global.
Over time, we began winning more clients from all over the world, including Germany. Take Gorillas, for instance, the Berlin-based grocery delivery company that grew and achieved unicorn status only nine months after its launch, becoming one of the first German startups to achieve this feat. This partnership helped us grow our visibility even further by demonstrating how successful eddress’ technology could be.
The rest, as they say, is history. Today, we’re lucky to have clients in more than fourteen countries across the world benefiting from our services.
The pandemic hit businesses hard. Did it impact the company in any way?
K.K: At eddress, we knew that we had to build a robust global solution, capable of dealing with shocks to supply chains, from the start. In 2016, we had no idea that a future pandemic would actually act as a catalyst but we wanted to create a solution that could cope with events like these.
Incredibly, this new reality was what we had been working towards all along. In 2019, just months before COVID-19 news broke out, we created our first q-commerce marketplace. During the pandemic, firms faced serious logistics problems so our end-to-end platform arrived at just the right time. The service made it possible for many companies to transform and digitize their operation overnight.
Did it have repercussions on the team members?
K.K: The pandemic brought some downsides, of course. Indeed, It made it harder for our team to brainstorm, and engage on a day-to-day basis as we couldn’t hold face-to-face sessions anymore. However, we were able to overcome these challenges by coordinating and managing product and technology developments with our determination and industry-leading procedures.
Massive global growth in eCommerce
There’s been a lot of discussions around q-commerce. What are in your opinion the key points to take into consideration when building a successful online marketplace?
K.K: Anyone wanting to build an online marketplace needs a competent core team. Flawless execution is essential. It’s all too easy to overspend or scale too fast without testing. Many online commerce companies are getting into trouble precisely for these reasons. They’re not allocating resources across the right departments, they lack suitable funding, and they don’t have enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in place that can cope with demand. Customers are unfortunately being let down and they are damaging their reputations.
Q-commerce is no exception. Companies around the world are struggling to get the financing that they need. The sector requires a lot of capital, but uncontrolled growth has led to a loss in profitability, declining margins, and difficulty building out the necessary systems. The sector’s unit of economics is poor: company cost-to-revenue ratios are high. With that being said, there are still solutions. Companies that master the model can differentiate themselves from their rivals, and stand head and shoulders above the competition, but it is a work in progress.
Talking about q-commerce, Do you believe it is here to stay given high operating costs and the challenges in raising sufficient capital?
K.K: Yes, the industry is here to stay. Even if firms are struggling to decrease operational costs, the basic business model is sound. Convenience, speed, and precise trackable deliveries are what consumers want. That’s not going to go away.
Even though q-commerce is going through a proverbial “winter”, there’s still hope. In fact, both Uber and Amazon were unprofitable for years while they built out their systems. Now they dominate entire industries.
The key here is for q-commerce companies to slow down and consolidate. There’s still a massive demand for their services, but they need to build systems to do it in the right way.
In your experience, what qualities do enterprises or start-ups need to successfully optimize their online marketplace?
K.K: Enterprises need to have a solid strategy put into place when digitizing their operations or migrating to a new platform provider. Having a secured technology that protects data at all costs is a must especially when the legacy system is part of the ratio. Fortunately, larger enterprises can count on eddress to help them better meet their customers’ expectations. Migrating to eddress’ servers can be done safely and surely in just a few clicks.
As for start-ups, having a solid backend is essential. Entrepreneurs need a system that can deal with the challenges their businesses face more easily, giving them an edge against their rivals. That’s where we come in as our white label app is fully customizable, and businesses are able to implement their own branding.
In general, entrepreneurs and business leaders need to have a mix of favorable personal characteristics and operation skills. On a personal level, they need to be determined and committed to succeed. Indeed, commerce isn’t kind to people who only put in partial effort. On a business level, they need to ensure that they have the right people in the right positions.
Entrepreneurs should empower their teams, giving them the tools they need to achieve solutions.
On a more personal note
Behind every successful business is a team of highly dedicated people. What determines a successful and dedicated team?
K.K: In my opinion, everything comes down to working culture. Team members need to pursue projects that align with their personal values. Intrinsic motivation is really what makes businesses succeed.
Cultures like these don’t happen automatically, though. Leaders need to take action. Entrepreneurs need to give their teams the right tools, create workshops, and share best practices with them. They also need to make them feel like they are part of something bigger. Ethics, values, and beliefs all play an important role. Nobody should be working solely for a paycheck.
