Ondango offers an innovative, user-friendly social commerce
solution for Facebook Pages. Ondango's shopping system can be installed in just
a few steps and allows fans to purchase their favorite products without ever
leaving Facebook - from window-shopping to check-out. The Berlin-based startup
was founded by José Matías del Pino (CEO), Claudio Bredfeldt (CTO) and Nicolas
Dittberner (CMO). We had a talk with Jose to understand how Ondango is doing
and their future plans going forward.
What is Ondango.com
and what problem are you solving?
Ondango is a shopping solution that helps companies to sell
their products directly on their Facebook pages. Most companies use Facebook as
a marketing channel and as a way to communicate and engage with their fans.
With Ondango, they can use Facebook also as a sales channel.
Tell us something
about yourself and how did this idea come into your mind?
I'm 31 years old, studied Industrial Engineering in my home
country Chile and then an MBA in Germany, after which I started working in the
internet industry. The idea of Ondango was born as a friend of mine who owns an
import company in Hong Kong wanted to sell products directly to consumers in
Chile. Facebook has a huge penetration in that market, with over 9 million
accounts for a total population of 17 million, so we thought that it would be a
good idea to use Facebook to sell his products. We looked for solutions to do
this, and we didn't like what was available on the market. I thought that it
would be an interesting challenge to offer a superior shopping experience in
the world biggest social network, and this is how Ondango started.
Recently you have
received $500K funding, where are you going to use this money?
We'll use the funding to fuel our growth and do product
innovation in social commerce.
How are you doing
marketing for your product?
Beyond classical channels like SEM and SEO, we do direct
sales and are currently crafting a reseller program with a revenue-share
scheme.
What is your
monetization model?
Ondango offers 3 plans with a fix monthly fee, starting at
$12.99 per month. All plans come with a 30-day free trial.
What all
features/Product are adding to Ondango.com?
I won't disclose specifics, but we're working on different
features that aim to increase the traffic of our customers' shops, so they can
sell more.
Who will be you
potential target customers?
Our target customers are small and midsized shop owners. In
particular, we look for fashion labels, music bands, DJs, Sports organizations,
and product design firms.
Which all Geography
are you targeting?
Our shops are available in more than 14 languages, and we
support all currencies worldwide, but our main focus today is Germany, and
secondary focus are the UK, Italy, France, Spain and Turkey.
Where do you see
Ondango in next 4-5 years’ time?
We want to help every small shop owner worldwide to sell
more using the power of social.