Plexial

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Uniforce Enterprise is a wholesale and retail company of perishable and nonperishable goods. We sell pet food and accessories, and we have our own IT and infrastructure services. The company is Singapore-based and locally-owned, and we’ve been in business for 10 years.

I’m one of the delivery heads of the business and the head of wholesale. I also take care of IT.

What challenge were you trying to address with Plexial?

We were building our e-commerce retail store ourselves, and we needed help from a partner to bring it to better shape.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Plexial has developed a couple of e-commerce sites for us, one retail and one wholesale, and they’re also managing our company website. We’re using ManageWP for all of our sites, and they’re on WooCommerce. The programming languages they’ve used are mainly PHP and JavaScript.

We have certain restrictions on minimum order quantities for the wholesale site. It works similarly to Alibaba, in the order of thousands. The site also has preordering, and the delivery dates are estimated and automatically set when the order is placed.

We have at least 3,000 products on the site, and the number keeps growing. Plexial has a team that helps us upload those products.

What is the team composition?

We work mainly with J Tan (Founder) and one developer from Plexial. There is a third developer that supports them from a remote location.

How did you come to work with Plexial?

As far as online retail goes, we’re a startup. We were looking to work with a local company in Singapore. I contacted a few vendors on Upwork or a similar site, and Plexial’s quote was the most attractive. I had a couple of meetings with them and evaluated their strength with the help of our internal technical team.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of the wholesale site was around $3,000 SGD (approximately $2,000 USD). In total, we’ve spent around $10,000 SGD (approximately $8,000 USD) so far, including upcoming support and maintenance.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Plexial around January 2021, and we’re launching the e-commerce site in April 2021. We’ve signed a yearly maintenance and support contract with Plexial, so we’ll be working with them for the coming year.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’re happy with Plexial’s work. They’re quite flexible, and they’re able to offer support even at late hours. Startups like us need people like them.

I’ve referred Plexial to a friend that runs an IT company in Singapore. He started working with them two weeks ago, and he’s quite happy as well.

How did Plexial perform from a project management standpoint?

J Tan is the one managing everything. He’s structured, and he informs us about any issues.

We normally use Zoom and email for communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

As a startup, we need a partner that’s quite flexible. Plexial always responds right away. It feels like they’re on call all the time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They should add more people. I believe they’re already expanding, but they need to make sure that they have the right team size to manage everything. Nonetheless, they’re good at what they do, and they’ll definitely get more clients.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I told the friend I referred to Plexial to give them all the information up front, preferably in a face-to-face meeting. You don’t want to end up with something other than what you had in mind.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the head of marketing for IHRP, a professional body for HR in Singapore

For what projects/services did your company hire Plexial?

We needed urgent help to revamp a landing page due to lack of traffic which leads to close to nil conversions

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I put up a proposal on a marketplace and they reached out. I like their portfolio and importantly they also did up their own website well.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

I did a mockup to show them and they mirror the design as much as possible onto WordPress. What I really appreciate is they did not just copy wholesale and added in their own opinions which make sense

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

2 person. One of the main web master and the other is supporting.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Landing page went well and we are generating >20 per weeks

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Enjoyed the hands-off approach since we are not the web dev expert

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They have a really quick turnaround. We appreciate their high-touch approach.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

They should charge more for the amount of service.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work as a business strategist at Accounting Clinics, an accounting company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Plexial?

We needed someone to develop our website to promote our business.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Plexial has developed two websites for us using WordPress. As for our usual work process, I relay our requirements to their team, and they send samples and templates for us to go over and approve. We then point out if there are modifications to be done, and their team proceeds with the development phase once those are applied. They’ve done two websites for us.

Accounting Clinics, the first website that Plexial has created for us, is currently deployed. It’s a straightforward platform that lists our services, rates, and a customer contact form. The second website is more service-specific as our users can select potential interest rates, loan amounts, and then our staff can also track a customer's loan repayment records.

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact is J (Founder). We also work with an in-house copy designer, who's in charge of designing site illustrations.

How did you come to work with Plexial?

We posted a hiring ad on a recruitment platform, and Plexial responded. We found their price to be reasonable, so we decided to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent $2,500 on the development of our two websites.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Plexial's team has developed and designed slick-looking and user-friendly websites for us. We haven’t tracked our marketing records to check the metrics yet, but I'm confident that our business will grow through our new online platforms.

How did Plexial perform from a project management standpoint?

We mainly communicate via email. Plexial has managed the project quite well — they've met all our requirements and delivered satisfying results on time. Overall, I'm happy with the way they've participated in our collaboration.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Plexial is a highly reliable team. There've been instances wherein we've reached out to their team outside their work hours, but they still deliver every feature we need despite the pressing deadlines. We've thought of the loan calculator site quite later in the project, and they've managed to deploy everything without any issues.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are no particular areas that I can think of. They've done their part without troubling us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them the mockup or the design sample that you have in mind to make the process flow smoothly and quickly. Plexial is a creative team, so you can trust them to make all your ideas come to life.