SkyEye: Supporting small businesses to identify new customers and sales opportunities

SkyEye, a software solutions provider based in Samoa, has an existing eCommerce platform called Maua which works with Samoan small businesses to facilitate access to local and international markets and collect sales, user, and location data. Through this program, SkyEye intends to make better use of this data to increase the reach and sales of small businesses across Samoa. They currently have 150 active MSEs on the platform and aim to onboard up to 650 more during this project, which would represent half to two-thirds of all Samoa’s MSEs (according to their own estimates). 

Currently, reports available on the platform for small businesses include top selling products and total sales by time, period and location. They plan to integrate additional features that will connect it with more data sources such as offline sales (including bringing some MSEs online for the first time) and social media data. It will also combine MSE online/offline business performance with open-data sources for more advanced business intelligence analyses. Further, it will identify new customers and sales opportunities using marketing analytics and transaction data. 

As well as increasing sales, partly through increasing access to new markets, and enabling better decision making, the solution presents operational efficiencies and cost reductions for MSEs. An Android POS will be provided to small vendors to digitize and cost their inventory as well as record offline sales. This can be communicated via a chatbot using SMS and/or in-app messaging to automate data collection. This AI-enabled chatbot will also allow vendors to update their inventory, inform customers of special promotions, update their daily opening hours, and more.

SkyEye will add the functionality for customers to create product wishlists with notifications when the items become available, to facilitate quick sales, as well as pre-ordering. In Samoa this is particularly important for local delicacies that are only available at certain times and/or in limited supplies, e.g. seafood such as “palolo” or other goods that became scarce due to COVID-induced supply chain challenges. This functionality will help vendors to pre-sell their products and produce.

The Maua platform allows for cash payments, as well as the use of mobile digital wallets and credit cards, which - when combined with more data on transaction streams - can help to unlock access to finance for the micro-retailers. This will also help SkyEye to tap into the $200m annual remittances market, targeting the Samoan diaspora so that a portion of their remittances might be spent “in-kind” instead, by placing orders for their families in Samoa via the Maua platform.

About SkyEye

SkyEye Pacific is a locally owned and operated technology company specializing in geospatial software solutions, headquartered in Samoa with offices in Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Tonga.Our main service lines include a proprietary GPS vehicle and vessel tracking system, Geographical Information Systems & Remote Sensing with Drones services, eCommerce and payment gateway solutions, and ICT data management solutions. We strive to make life easier in the Pacific using innovative cutting edge technology solutions to solve some of the pressing needs we face as a community.