by Ted Chong, co-founder of Ice Dice Advertising
Traditionally, we suggested native companies to keep away from participating in e-commerce instantly. As a substitute, we advisable itemizing their merchandise on main platforms like Lazada, Shopee, or Qoo10. These platforms provide an in depth vary of merchandise, making it difficult for particular person companies to compete. Many objects on these websites are offered at a loss, with the platforms subsidizing costs to draw customers. They recoup these losses over time as clients return to buy different objects.
These massive platforms have vital funding, permitting them to maintain losses on sure merchandise for prolonged intervals. Nonetheless, we’ve just lately noticed a shift, with lots of our shoppers starting to seek out success in e-commerce. Whereas they might not be seeing returns of 10x or 20x, they’re attaining a constructive return on funding (ROI). This constructive ROI justifies continued funding, as they’re able to cowl promoting prices and purchase new customers at no internet price.
Traits of Profitable E-commerce Companies in Singapore
Among the many native companies that thrive in e-commerce, a number of widespread traits stand out:
1. Promote Your Personal Model.
As a substitute of promoting well-known merchandise from manufacturers like HP or Philips, deal with promoting your personal branded merchandise. Widespread model objects are straightforward for customers to price-compare, main them to buy from the most cost effective retailer. Nonetheless, with your personal model, the competitors shifts from worth to perceived worth. For those who can successfully talk the worth of your product, clients usually tend to buy from you, even when your costs aren’t the bottom.
2. Goal Impulse Patrons with Reasonably priced Costs.
Goal to cost your merchandise inside a variety that encourages impulse purchases, sometimes underneath $100. This pricing technique is especially efficient on platforms like Fb, the place customers are sometimes searching casually and open to spontaneous shopping for choices. Excessive-ticket objects require extra consideration and might result in delayed purchases or misplaced curiosity. On social media, the place customers usually tend to be participating in leisure searching, a well-priced, enticing product can result in fast gross sales with out in depth worth comparisons.
3. E-commerce isn’t confined to bodily merchandise.
Service-oriented companies in Singapore may carve out their area of interest within the e-commerce sector. That’s right; you possibly can provide companies and settle for funds on-line. This is called O2O, or on-line to offline. For instance, you possibly can promote a trial session for $50 on-line or provide your full package deal with an upfront deposit fee. There are quite a few benefits to this method, essentially the most vital being that it will increase the chance of shoppers displaying up for his or her appointments since they’ve already made a fee. This offers greater probability of success as in comparison with conventional types of lead technology whereby no fee is collected. Moreover, this technique reduces administrative work by automating fee processes. Moreover, the income generated on-line may help offset a few of your promoting bills, making your advertising and marketing efforts more cost effective.
E-commerce is quickly gaining traction, particularly with the rise in distant work. Customers have gotten more and more comfy with conducting transactions on-line. No matter whether or not your corporation is service-oriented, product-focused, or event-driven, there are alternatives to interact in e-commerce. Be sure that you capitalize on this rising pattern and don’t get left behind!
Ted Chong is the co-founder of Ice Dice Advertising, a Google Premier Companion digital advertising and marketing company in Singapore that has been working since 2015 and has helped greater than 500 SMEs develop their enterprise by means of Fb and Google adverts.