Ocean Treasure has invested $100,000 in a business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce platform that aims to allow clients to buy seafood more conveniently and follow up-to-date market trends.
Ocean Treasure CEO Mr. Oliver Nikolovski had an interview on Undercurrentnews.
“COVID [highlighted] that we cannot rely on the basic and old-fashioned way of doing business,” said Oliver Mr. Nikolovski, CEO of Ocean Treasure — a seafood company headquartered in Nantong, China.
As such, Ocean Treasure has made the $100,000 investment to developing the e-commerce platform providing up-to-date market overviews and order tracking.
“More people are going online [shopping], they don’t go to shops. Amazon and Uber Eats are booming, the business trend is changing. So we have to adapt and make it very simple for people to know when to order, when to wait, and what they should aware of,” Mr. Nikolovski told Undercurrent News.
The new mobile app is still under development, and it will feature order tracking and a range of seafood prices and supply data for clients to follow.
Mr. Nikolovski said that the app’s price portal will compare and analyze data provided by around 10 seafood suppliers, giving the pricing trends over the past two to three years.
He emphasized that seafood is a fast-consuming business and it is necessary to provide the most up-to-date information to buyers.
Giving the example of tilapia prices, Mr. Nikolovski said his firm had flagged a supply-price imbalance. “Some clients listened to us and made a boatload of money,” he said.
“Some didn’t [listen] and [are] now pushing us to find more materials, while there are no materials and prices are not competitive anymore. So why don’t we use a more frequent and simple app to show information? We don’t need to call clients, and they can consult by themselves,” said Mr. Nikolovski.
The mobile app is expected to let users receive notifications on specific seafood products according to their own choices. Buyers can also purchase seafood through the online platform and check their orders anytime.
“The beauty of this will be to receive notifications when the order is shipping out, when they have been inspected, and when they will be received,” said Mr. Nikolovski.
“The main issue in China and other Asian countries is transparency. You never really know what’s going on with your orders. So we wanted to launch the app to solve these problems.” He added that many of the company’s clients were supermarkets, and the aim is to help them plan better.
Mr. Nikolovski expected to launch the first phase of the app in June and a modified version in July after receiving client feedback. The company also wants to develop the app in multiple languages, including Chinese, English, Spanish, French, and Russian.
Based in Nantong and Shanghai. Ocean Treasure exports whitefish, shrimp and cephalopods to customers in Europe, North Africa, Latin America, and the US. It also imports vannamei, squid, and ribbonfish for processing and re-export.
As the epidemic recedes in China, the firm sees a recovery in business as exports have increased by 20% in volume after the Lunar New Year, compared to the same period of 2020, said Mr. Nikolovski.
