Interview with DG1 CEO Gregor Zebic: Bringing the Power of Ecommerce Back to the People

DG1 has entered the Malaysian market, and they are looking to disrupt the ecommerce industry, especially going against giants like Lazada and Shopee. We at Pokde.net spoke to their CEO, Gregor Zebic, to learn all about it.

What is DG1?

For those of you who aren’t aware, DG1 is a company that provides enterprise solutions for small-to-medium businesses (SMEs) with technology and scalability in mind. The goal here is to allow just about anyone to manage and grow an online business as efficiently as possible through the use of AI, automation, and other data-driven advanced technologies.

You might be thinking that existing ecommerce platforms like Lazada and Shopee could easily do that but there is a commonly underestimated issue here; the businesses do not own or have control over their customer data. As such, they are at the mercy of these 3rd party services, and DG1 seeks to alleviate this disparity and bringing this power back to the business owners where they belong.

While they may sound knew to you as they recently arrived in Malaysia, they do have over 20 years of experience in digital product development and enterprise systems. In fact, they have offices in Canada, Switzerland, Slovenia, and Japan. Their efforts are being spearheaded by CEO and founder, Gregor Zebic, whom we’ve had the honour of speaking to.

How DG1 Started Out

We were one of the first companies to use data aggregation tools, and then building the tools to monitor this data, to (help) sell more. We were building these tools, from web systems to mobile apps, and then later social apps.

Gregor Zebic, DG1 CEO and Founder

According to CEO Gregor Zebic, anyone from your average joe to large-scale businesses have been searching for solutions on how to use the internet to grow, to globalize, and to use data effectively. Previously, DG1 was considered the “one-stop shop” for large brands to move their businesses online so they can use the internet and expand it on a global scale.

In the past with ecommerce, they developed all the tools needed to make this possible, such as newsletters, with the goal of being as efficient as possible with resources. Then in 2016, Gregor filed patents for a new type of ecommerce where the flow of purchase is different as it uses intelligent grid and is driven by big data. The result is said to be 70% improved efficiency with a 10% increase in volumes of orders on average.

After gaining experience in the enterprise world, they shifted their focus on bringing enterprise-level features and downsize its usability to make it as accessible to everyone as possible, especially SMEs. After all, large companies would have all the resources necessary to digitalize their business but this is out of reach for SMEs from both a cost and expertise perspective. Thus, they created the first all-in-one software as a service (SaaS) tool known now as DG1.

Why Should Malaysian SMEs Consider DG1?

They don’t need middle-men, they don’t even need agencies, as they are usually the bottleneck between the business owner and their digital landscape. In many cases, the business owner doesn’t know exactly what’s happening in digital. He / she knows how many orders they got but won’t know what’s their capacity.

Gregor Zebic, DG1 CEO and Founder

DG1 offers a subscription-based service, with the small tier being free. The idea here is that they will help you to start things out and their services, along with the subscription, will scale up accordingly, making it easier for SMEs to grow. As it is an all-in-one environment, you will have everything you need to digitalize you business. Furthermore, it’s said to be easy to use with drag and drop elements and all the tools pre-prepared.

All you have to do is have your own elements prepared, place them inside the web builder and you will have a responsive webpage that works on all devices. You get an online shop, a booking engine, interaction management, campaign management, and an advanced promotion engine for discounts. With mobile apps, it will be under your name and brand, so you get all the accreditations and exposure needed to solidify your business.

Most importantly, all of the important data, especially your customer data, is owned and solely accessible by you. This differs greatly from other platforms like Shopee and Lazada as the data doesn’t belong to you and without it, you could miss out on key developments such as the use of artificial intelligence and personalization, both of which are highly data-driven. The goal here is to bring data ownership back to where it belongs, to the business owners.

DG1 is continuously working on new tools and when these tools are ready, they will be instantly available to all their customers without the need to pay extra. This is how they keep their customers up to pace with new technologies, which continues to evolve at an overwhelming speed. As they see it, the more you grow, the more they will grow as well, but it will always be proportionate to your online sales, so you will not be suddenly moved to some “enterprise pricing” out of the blue.

They can cater to a wide variety of brands to build their digital presence tailored to their needs as they have onboarding specialists to help accordingly. Even for those who want variations of their website in different countries, it is possible with their multi-site feature, which takes into account the different currencies, taxation, and languages used, and it will also integrate different payment gateways, logistic systems, and billing systems as well in a single environment.

All of this can be up and running in just two minutes as it’s self-provisioned. DG1 will enable you to digitalize your business really fast with all the tools you need to not only start, but also to manage it. With their pricing being packaged in a predictable way with scalability in mind, it will be easier for SMEs to strategize ahead of time. In the case of any potential downtimes, they have a dedicated support team to help get things back up and running again. You literally have everything from A to Z prepared for you.

How Much Do I Have to Pay?

If all of this sounds interesting to you, you might be wondering how much you will have to pay for such a service. As we mentioned earlier, you can start out for free as they have a 14-day trial period. Afterwards, you could even get a 30-day free subscription as well. Once all of that has exhausted, there are a total of 14 subscription tiers available, ranging from USD $290 (RM1,360 approximately) per month to USD $10,390 (RM48,850 approximately) per month.

That final figure may sound scary but do not worry as they will only scale it up accordingly to your business size and growth. After all, it wouldn’t make sense to put you all the way in the 14th tier if the 1st tier is more than enough for your volume of sales. If you would like to make enquiries, head over to their official website for further details by clicking right here.