SwipeZoom is Amer Qavi’s third business, excluding the one he set up in college. SwipeZoom has developed a “plug-in” ecommerce software for retailers to instantly start selling their products.
SwipeZoom’s “Global eCommerce Adaptor’ manages store-to-door logistics fulfillment to 238 countries, payment processing in 120 currencies and 14 payment methods, duties and taxes in 76 countries, and customs brokerage for every border crossing.
Why a new business?
I streamlined the new business in 2006 and felt that I had bandwidth to do something new. I partnered with a friend to start a food business, of which I had zero experience. I thought it was a common sense thing. We opened doors in 2007. What started as a fast food concept grew into something that we could have never imagined.
Why SwipeZoom?
I started SwipeZoom sensing an opportunity without a business idea. I envied entrepreneurs who say they love what they do. I hadn’t found that niche. I wanted to do something really interesting.
For your first business you had domain expertise and networks. What was the business model — trading or indenting? Did you have adequate capital?
I started the business with £1,850 (Dh10,874). Cash was advanced to me by a customer who came for a medical exhibition. He visited a booth, saw something he liked and wanted. I promised to get it for him. I visited the manufacturer, managed to convince him for the agency and to sell me the display piece. I purchased it for £1,400 with 30 days credit and resold it for £1,850. I deposited the cash received, issued two cheques, one with a 10-day window, and then worked hard to sell to generate cash.
Stress focuses the brain. I ran after doctors, hospitals and private clinics. I concentrated on the private sector. I sat with many decision-makers, learning to read body language, interpreting whether I was going to make the sale or not.
What was the difference in Biryani Express?
We launched Biryani Express when the rental costs of outlets were sky-high and traffic congestion was endemic. We planned a hub-and-spoke distribution model for Biryani. A central kitchen would pre-cook Biryani. And vans, modified internally with a chiller and microwaves, would deliver fresh hot Biryani.
A central kitchen could support many vans in the city, each van creating brand visibility. A call-centre would handle orders transferring instructions to vans, proximate to the customer, for delivery.
How did the food business morph over time — from B2C to B2B?
A customer visited our kitchen and said, “You have all this empty space and all you are doing is Biryani. Could you supply us additional products?” Today we make 180 items. Biryani is branded as Biryani Express. Everything else is sold under The Daily Gourmet label.
What is SwipeZoom?
SwipeZoom is solving a simple problem. If a customer in Dubai orders a shirt from a US retailer he often gets a message that his card is unacceptable or they don’t ship to Dubai. SwipeZoom is solving a problem of a retailer who wants to sell internationally but wants to do nothing beyond the transaction.
SwipeZoom does everything else. We enable retailers around the world to sell and ship products internationally by eliminating all obstacles in payments, logistics, and customs, via a single relationship.
You make money doing the physical work or IT work?
SwipeZoom has a transactional business model. We make money only when the transaction happens. We are a payment service provider that also does logistics. This requires networking with organizations across the world to make things happen in a cost-effective and efficient way. We have created a solution that has over 5,300 customs and shipping related documents that exist on the planet. For example, there are 169 types of invoices in the world today.
We ensure that the automated paperwork for every transaction is correct in content, format and language. We are integrated with logistics companies and have 62 brokerage relationships around the world.
This enables us to give the end customer a guaranteed landed cost calculation, and the capability to prepay that at the time of the transaction. SwipeZoom ensures exchange rate transparency so the customer gets an exact price at checkout in his or her local currency with no hidden transaction costs.
Are you now focusing on return on this investment?
Consciously no. Subconsciously maybe. I am crafting a business model. This is not what I expected to do when I started thinking about this.
I was thinking about just logistics. Then I discovered issues with payments and currency fluctuations. Then it was online payment fraud. Bits kept getting added. I can’t assume the role of an investor as yet and test every decision with RoI criteria. Nothing will get done. I suspect that will happen when revenues start to flow.
How did you convince Visa, MasterCard and others to work with you?
I had to fill out a lot of forms! But when it comes to decision-making, subjectivity creeps in. My business model didn’t exist, so nobody knew how to handle me. They asked me about the numbers of merchants I handled. I said none. It took nine months before I finally won the arguments.
How are you going to convince retailers to buy the idea?
Retailers the world over are looking for growth in international markets. And over 90 per cent of online retailers don’t sell and ship their product overseas. SwipeZoom is a risk-free and cost-effective value proposition of curing multiple pains of global selling, with a “nothing to lose’”model.
How are you different from others?
I start a business with a premise that I know nothing. This enables me to become hungry and receptive to new knowledge. Observation is what leads to opportunity, also known as “luck”. I micromanage, trying to understand what causes business to work.
If something is labelled ‘impossible’ it’s probably because no one has tried it. In my entrepreneurial career I have had to kiss a lot of frogs on the way to finding a prince, but that is what kept me going.
