LAI SHANRU

Co-founder of Shopback

Serving more than 30 million shoppers across 10 markets from Singapore to Australia, South Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand and more, the Shopback Group is Asia Pacific’s leading shopping and rewards platform. A powerful demand generator, it has driven 450 million shopping trips to merchant partners in 2021 and powered over US$3.5 billion in annual sales for over 10,000 online and physical retail stores.

Together with her two co-founders, Lai Shanru has been at the helm of its success since 2014. Late last year, Shopback announced yet another milestone: the acquisition of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) platform, Hoolah. With this, Shopback Paylater enables transactions with BNPL options at participating merchants or sites. Shanru, who has taken on different roles at her company throughout the years, is currently in the Paylater team supporting the account management of key brands, especially in fashion.

While she is hyper focused on scaling the business, she also places great importance on forging close connections and mutual understanding with the people she works with. During a year-long stint in Shopback’s people team, she worked on refreshing the company’s values. “In that process, we spoke to many people across our whole organisation to find out what makes us special, what makes us tick and what will continue to move us forward,” Shanru explains. “I was happy to be a part of that because while we’re aggressively expanding, it’s also necessary to look at the values we need to take us to the next stage.”

As a leader, she empowers her team by providing both professional and personal support. “When there’s care and connection, people will naturally feel empowered to do the best that they can because they know that they have the support of their community.”