How Shop Suki Is Tackling Profitability, Loyalty, and Leadership in a Competitive Market

Inside the Operational and Customer Challenges of a Growing eGrocery Brand, insights from Jessa Aguirre, General Manager, Shop Suki.

As digital grocery expands in Southeast Asia, Shop Suki is one of the brands navigating the next phase of growth — one where success is no longer just about scale, but about retention, operational efficiency, and smarter leadership.

Here’s a look at the current challenges Shop Suki is focused on solving.

1. Operational Optimization: Balancing ROI with Day-to-Day Performance

One of Shop Suki’s core challenges lies in operational efficiency — especially in managing the trade-off between long-term technology investment and short-term productivity metrics.

The company has made significant investments in tech, but the return on these investments takes time. This creates pressure to justify spending using performance metrics like UPH (units per hour), which are monitored closely across teams.

There’s a constant balancing act: ensuring the business remains profitable while also allowing new systems and tools the runway they need to deliver results.

2. Data-Driven Leadership: Upskilling for Smarter Decision-Making

Shop Suki is also investing internally — particularly in the development of data-driven leaders. Leadership teams are being upskilled through mentorship and training to close skill gaps and improve analytical decision-making across the organization.

By strengthening this capability from the top down, the company is ensuring that strategic choices — whether in marketing, brand partnerships, day-to-day operation, or customer engagement — are supported by strong data literacy & KPIs - reimagining it to be more business-focus.

3. Security and Fraud Detection: Not a Major Issue — But Still a Gap

While fraudulent transactions do occur, the issue is relatively minor today. However, the team has not yet invested in partnerships with fraud prevention vendors — largely because the cost of implementation currently outweighs the scale of the problem.

This reflects a broader reality for mid-growth digital brands: every tech investment must be weighed against immediate operational impact, especially when margins are tight.

4. Retention Over Acquisition: Maximizing Value in Saturated Markets

With high penetration in its existing cities, Shop Suki is now shifting its growth strategy from acquisition to retention.

Because customer acquisition is limited unless new residents move into those cities, the business is focusing on deepening relationships with existing users — ensuring they stay loyal, spend more, and return more frequently.

5. Loyalty Reimagined: Building In-House with Local Flavour

One of Shop Suki’s biggest customer experience projects has been the transition from an external loyalty platform to a custom-built, in-house program. The new loyalty system is designed around research-driven customer personas and seasonal relevance.

For example, rewards are tailored to specific life moments — like offering graduation-season family portraits through partnerships with local photographers or creating back-to-school perks for parents.

This localization effort reflects a deeper strategy: move beyond transactional rewards and toward programs that feel genuinely personalized.

6. Holiday Acquisition = Retention Risk

Like many retailers, Shop Suki sees strong spikes in customer acquisition during major holiday seasons — but those customers often fail to return after the campaign period ends.

Improving retention during off-peak periods has become a key area of focus, as the team looks to convert one-time seasonal buyers into long-term users.

Growing Smarter, Not Just Bigger

Shop Suki’s next phase of growth isn’t about rapid expansion — it’s about refinement. From building smarter internal leadership to reinventing loyalty and making every investment count, the company is focused on what makes customers stay, not just what makes them click.