This interview was conducted and adapted for the blog by Evan Chong.
In this digital age, shopping online has become a ubiquitous activity among Singaporeans due to the convenience of having a large selection of items available at everyone’s’ fingertips. With platforms such as Shopee and Lazada vying for customers through blowout sales and catchy jingles, as well as the advent of Covid-19 that has encouraged consumers to make their purchases online rather than in-store, this trend has only increased.
In a report by Statista, e-commerce revenues are expected to reach $3 billion in Singapore alone. What if some portion of this money went to a cause? That is the mission of Fairmarch, an online marketplace for social enterprises, charities, and nonprofits. Founded by Victor Chua in 2018, Fairmarch’s mission is “Every dollar spent contributes to a better world”.
Humble beginnings
Previously a Mechanical Engineer in heavy industry, Victor was first exposed to social enterprises in Beijing while doing his MBA at Tsinghua University. He was then inspired to start a social enterprise of his own. Upon coming back to Singapore, he started Fairmarch with the aim of helping other socially and environmentally responsible businesses sell better.
People are actually willing to pay up to a 20% premium for things with a social mission
Victor Chua
On existing online shopping platforms, it is hard for social enterprises to differentiate themselves from regular sellers. This forces them to compete on pricing and branding which only serves to further dilute the social mission that these social enterprises have. At the same time, conscious buyers also have difficulty identifying which vendors are ones that support a cause. By having these businesses list their wares on Fairmarch, these businesses are automatically differentiated, bridging responsible buyers and businesses.
When asked about how the name for the company came about, Victor was quick to quip:
The quick answer is because Fairprice was taken right? But joking aside, ‘fair’ is something that comes naturally for a Social Enterprise, while “march” is a play on the french word “marché” which means market. It’s also SEO-friendly which is great to have.
Victor Chua
While Victor was confident of Fairmarch and its ability to scale, like any other startup it faced several hurdles. A key boon for Fairmarch was Social Collider, a co-working space that Fairmarch is housed in, which referred Edwin Tan and Jorena Tan to the company. They have since become core members of the Fairmarch team. Social Collider, as well as other agencies such as the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) and the Singapore Centre for Social Enterprise (raiSE) also helped Fairmarch connect with vendors to sell on their platform, and they’ve been able to partner with over 40 social enterprises, charities, and non-profits, many of which are well known and serve a diverse range of beneficiaries.
To date, Fairmarch has been able to double its gross merchandise volume. But unlike the giants in the e-commerce space, Fairmarch doesn’t rely on web advertisements. It instead relies on referrals and corporate collaborations as part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives.
It’s so much more effective when a corporate [entity] markets it through their accounts as part of their CSR efforts and we just piggyback on that. They have so much more reach and credibility versus us just blindly spending money. A thousand dollars spent by them is much more effective than a thousand dollars spent by us because we just don’t have the reputation yet. So I’m just really grateful for these opportunities to do business with them while adding value to their impact programs; their customer engagement programs.
Victor Chua
Social Enterprises and Non-Profit Organizations, what’s the difference?
It’s common for people in Singapore to lump social enterprises together with non-profit organizations (NPOs), however, there are several key distinctions between the two types of entities.
An NPO is an organization that relies on donations or fundraising to fund their activities that serve a public or private good. If there are any surplus funds, the organization saves them for future activities rather than disbursing them among its members.
On the other hand, a social enterprise is simply a typical for-profit company with a mission to address social issues while maintaining financial sustainability. The Singapore Centre for Social Enterprise (raiSE) actually has a clear definition for Social Enterprises, but generally speaking, a Social Enterprise is a company that participates in a range of activities such as providing education, employment opportunities, services, or basic needs to at-risk individuals.
As great as social enterprises sound, Victor warned that social enterprises are not a panacea to social issues, but rather serve a complementary role to charities.
In times of disaster or need, charities are better equipped to react in time as they have dedicated resources.
Victor Chua
Marching on
While they’ve come a long way since starting out two years ago, Victor still has high aspirations for the future of the company. In the next few years, Victor would like to take Fairmarch to the regional stage. To that end, Fairmarch actually has an opening for a Chief Technical Officer to help manage their online platform and eventually the backend development for when they go regional.
More than that, Victor’s hoping to look for someone who’s mission-driven, both in terms of business and giving back to the community. If you’re interested in the role, get in touch at hello@fairmarch.com. If you’d like to support Fairmarch and their mission of making every dollar spent to contribute to a better world, consider making a purchase at https://www.fairmarch.com/!
