Digital Commerce Intelligence (DCI) has raised SG$1m to use artificial intelligence (AI) to help south-east Asian retailers keep stocking levels in line with demand during the Covid-19 crisis.

The Singapore-based start-up tracks real-time ecommerce performance for consumer goods sold online. The funds were raised from Velocity Partners to enhance its service across the region.

DCI addresses the characteristics of the ecommerce ecosystem in south-east Asia, most notably the complexities arising from the vast numbers of independent sellers operating in these markets. Aside from the typical ecommerce channels of the established brands and retailers, there are more than two million independent sellers operating across the region.

These independent sellers are highly competitive and opportunistic and can collectively trade over half of a brand’s total ecommerce sales. Many operate without the brands’ knowledge, often making commercial planning and brand management more challenging.

This challenge is further amplified during the Covid-19 crisis where demands in certain products do not necessarily reflect the demands from forecasting. Using the vast amount of online product data and its proprietary AI algorithm, DCI offers real-time product demand information at a direct-consumer level, enabling brands to act fast and plan their productions, thus ensuring adequate inventory levels across their supply chains.

“During the Covid pandemic with many countries experiencing lockdowns, customers have largely shifted to online shopping, creating huge challenges for many companies,” said Kyriakos Zannikos (pictured), founder and CEO of DCI. “Today, more than ever, brands need real-time granular data to be incorporated into their forecasting models to avoid stock-out incidents and to better allocate inventory across distribution channels. We are proud to be able to offer our solutions that are dynamically customised to our customers’ planning and analytics requirements, helping them optimise their ecommerce sales and operations.”

From high-level market data down to which product image to use to stimulate sales, DCI’s AI-driven offering provides brands with intelligence to eliminate blind spots and promote sales. Brands can gain insights into their ecommerce market share and retailers’ dynamics, monitor competitors’ strategies, and stay on top of their game by keeping track of all vital ecommerce performance fundamentals.

“What makes a brand a leader is often the wise use of data,” said Zannikos. “This is particularly true in ecommerce where the pace and dynamics of trade are so much faster than any other commercial channel. Hence, being able to consult category level data and derive quick insights from them can give a brand a significant advantage over its competitors.”

Established in 2018, DCI uses data science techniques and AI technologies to provide ecommerce market performance insights and competitive intelligence for consumer goods brands and retailers in southeast Asia. DCI aggregates large amounts of product (SKU level) data daily across all major ecommerce platforms in the region and uses a proprietary analytics algorithm that identifies market trends, establishes benchmarks among key competitors and produces commercial insights.