Omnirio: Revolutionizing the Philippine Retail Industry

For a long time, retail operations in the Philippines lacked a system or platform that enabled retail sellers to efficiently manage all their shops, whether offline or online. As a result, customer experience has not reached its maximum potential, and has left both customers and retailers with poor quality goods, and services. To fix this pressing issue, a bridge between customers and retailers needed to be built all in one platform: a place where retailers could streamline all their stores and operations in one place for all customers to access. This is what Omnirio does.

Omnirio gives access to revolutionary e-commerce technology to help fuel the growth of more than 1,000,000 e-commerce retailers. It provides retailers with the software to manage a myriad of online stores all in one platform, enabling them to sell everywhere at anytime.Omnirio not only allows e-commerce sellers also provides centralization in stocks, faster order processing, product launches, and real customer insights. With this, why don’t you join me in learning more about Omnirio with its Co-Founder and CEO, Archit Anand.

How would you describe your journey as a software engineer and startup founder?

Growing up as a teenager in India, I studied in 8-10 different educational institutions in my 14 years in the academe. This was the time wherein people became fascinated and intrigued with technology. A number of my peers during this time were slowly immersing themselves in technology and envisioned themselves as tech people in Silicon Valley. This was my aspiration in school and led me to pursue computer science engineering. From there, I worked as a software developer for 3 years in the industry and was fortunate enough to have worked with clients in the United States. Over this journey however, I soon realized that maybe being a software developer wasn’t my calling in life. I enjoyed talking to clients more and enjoyed the business-side of things. This told me that I wanted to have more of a people's role. I always saw myself as someone who had aspirations of being an entrepreneur as well. I had to bridge myself from being a software developer and entrepreneur because I realized that I couldn’t just make a jump. I went on to pursue my MBA in Singapore specializing in marketing and decided to work for a startup there. My working experience in Singapore gave me grounding: I learned how to do business, how to lead teams, how to launch products into new markets, and how to sell products. If you’re building a tech product, I believe you need to have some sort of knowledge on technology. As an entrepreneur, you need to know your product. This was a great journey and I wouldn’t go back in time to change anything.

What motivated you to establish Omnirio? What problems did you want to solve?

The startup I was working for in Singapore was in the e-commerce enablement domain. They were helping online retailers sell in marketplaces and helping them streamline their operations. That gave me very good exposure for 3 years in that industry such as networking and talking to retailers directly. I always had a fascination for customer experience and I felt like more could be done to give customers a better experience. To a certain extent, China and the United States were leading the way in terms of customer experience in shopping. I was looking at what could happen in the retail sector and how customer experiences could be better compared to what they were getting in Southeast Asia. The problem in Southeast Asia was that retailers did not have the money and the talent required to  invest in technology. They are reliant on a third-party service provider to provide them with solutions. Could we make technology available to all the retailers in Southeast Asia at par with what Walmart, Amazon, Target and others use to power their business ? That was the start of the journey. Fortunately, I was in the Philippines at that time ideating and was able to get customers from SSI. I was able to work with brands like Payless, Lacoste, Marks and Spencer, Gap, Beauty Bar and others. From then on, the business just kept growing.

What services does Omnirio offer? What makes Omnirio unique from its competitors in the ecommerce enablement space?

We started off with a mission to help these retailers who had shops and online stores. We are now trying to give that superior experience to the consumers. Unfortunately, on our end, COVID happened at the wrong time. All of our plans had to be pivoted. Both the COVID situation and our plans remained unclear since shops and retail stores remained closed. As a business owner, one would rather build something or do something with clear answers. We decided that since everyone was going to shift online, we would build a software that would help people streamline their online businesses. We focused on retailers who were selling online and not just those who have an online and offline presence. We provided them with a SAAS solution to streamline their operations. The idea there was if we could build cutting edge technology which helps them streamline their operations, inventory, and orders across all their online channels. We curated this solution built for the Philippines and the Filipinos. That was our vision and those are the services we provide as of the moment to our customers. Our customers manage their inventories across Lazada, Shopee, and Shopify. We are very Filipino focused and built the software in the Philippines and for the Filipinos. The mission of Omnirio is to help elevate Filipino businesses to the same heights as what’s happening elsewhere in the world and how do we provide them with good technology at an accessible price.

What milestones has Omnirio achieved so far?

Throughout our journey, some of the most interesting milestones we have reached as a business would be that in 2021, we reached about 1,000+ users on our platform. We were able to make around USD1,000,000,000 worth of revenue on our platform sometime in 2022. We processed more than 10,000,000 orders on our platform. We also learned that our platform was being shared widely throughout our networks.

What future plans do you have for Omnirio?

In 2023, we are trying to bring in AI technologies on our platform. 2023 will be an exciting year for us as we broaden our vision from the Philippines to the entire world. We are looking at making our platform very accessible to SMEs across the world.

What are your interests and hobbies outside of work? Why do you think it's important to have time for yourself outside of your career?

I learned that not everything is easy. One needs to have something beyond work, something which grounds you on a regular basis. For me, sports have been one of the biggest parts of my life. Growing up, my first dream was to be a sportsman. To this day, I follow sports and continue to play it: Tennis, Football, Cricket, Badminton, and Table Tennis. I play a variety of sports when I have time. If I don’t get to play often, I head to the gym. Having an active style is important to keep you healthy physically. I also ensure that my mental and spiritual health are kept well. I have also built a growing interest in literature and art.

Archat Anand is the Co-Founder and CEO of Omnirio, a powerful ecommerce platform that ultimately aims to fuel the growth of more than 1,000,000 e-commerce retailers. Omnirio saves retailers time and effort spent by streamlining all their online store operations all in one place. This will ultimately transform the retail industry in the Philippines into a more efficient and streamlined industry which will significantly improve customer experience. Archit is committed to bridging the gap between the retail industry and technology in the Philippines.

Visit www.techshake.asia if you would like to know and connect more with Omnirio.