Saturdays Boosts Omnichannel Network Expansion After Seed Funding

The direct-to-consumer startup, Saturdays, has just announced seed funding from three venture capitals, including Alpha JWC Ventures, Kinesys Group, and Alto Partners. In fact, this round was closed in 2020, the announcement is just arrived. The fresh funds will be focused on expanding offline stores and strengthening the omnichannel network.

In a general note, Saturdays offers lifestyle products with eyewear as its main business. With the DTC model, Saturdays produced its own lens and frame materials, from design, manufacturing, to direct delivery to consumers. Saturdays was founded by Rama Suparta and Andrew Kandolha in 2016.

In terms of sales, Saturdays has adopted the online-to-offline (O2O) model through websites and retail stores. Its first flagship store is located at Lotte Shopping Avenue, Jakarta, which is integrated with a coffee shop for a lifestyle effect.

Today, Saturdays also announced a new online sales channel, the Saturdays Lifestyle. This application allows users to shop for eyewear products on an O2O basis. Users can now download it via iOS and Android devices.

In his statement, Saturdays' Co-founder Rama Suparta said that there are some integrated O2O shopping features available for users, such as online purchases, then picking them up at offline stores. Saturdays also present several payment options, including Buy Now Pay Later from Kredivo.

"One of the best features in this application is the Home Try-On reservation. This is Saturdays' breakthrough by presenting an at-home eyeglass trial program. Customers only need to set a date, select ten frames, set an address, and get selected Arabica coffee, all for free," Rama said.

Furthermore, Saturdays will continue to add offline store chains with a lifestyle to other big cities this year. Currently, the company has eight offline stores spread across the Jabodetabek area.

According to Rama, since the beginning, Saturdays was inspired by the unicorn startup Warby Parker who kicked off the conventional eyewear industry, by creating products that were authentic, affordable, and easy. Thus, by cutting significant brokerage fees, the company shares a vision of offering high-quality eyewear at affordable prices.

"We want to provide an extraordinary shopping experience for customers who are used to shopping with conventional and boring models. In the future, we will continue to innovate to become the dominant market leader in Indonesia," Rama concluded.

–Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian