September 13, 2020 Antonio Aguirre, Jr. Setting up your online store/shop – PART 2 of 2 E-Commerce

E-Commerce Platforms | Ok, so now your .com site is now up. You’ll want to sell a product or service. You’ll need an online shop. Here are international and local e-commerce platforms that are very popular:

1. Amazon – If you’re talking about online shopping, this is the king, bar none. It’s the world’s busiest marketplace. They do charge a monthly fee and a per-sale fee that averages around 15%. It also puts you toe to toe with your competition, so be fully aware of what your competitors are offering. Amazon prime offers fast shipping for members so make sure you consider how you fulfill orders very carefully. You can also use Amazon’s Keyword Research Tools to make use of bullet points in your descriptions.
2. eBay – This platform offers BUYING & SELLING at auction or fixed price bases for new/used items/goods. You have complete control of the price and terms. You also pay for an insertion fee and sometimes a featured fee. You can also make your own eBay store, but you handle your own fulfillment.
3. Shopify – An e-commerce platform that works alone or integrated with Amazon and a point-of-sale (POS) tool which means you can conduct face to face sales which having your payment go through your own Shopify store using an app. You can also add a “Buy” button on your site and social media channels. It’s a very easy platform that is drag and drop basically. It offers sales insights also including other added features like fulfillment.

Local Platforms based in the Philippines:

1. Lazada – If Amazon is king in the world, Lazada is King in the Philippines. Majority of e-commerce funnel through this juggernaut of a platform and there’s plenty of reasons to love Lazada with it’s aggressive marketing strategies, including it’s per-sale marketplace fee that hovers around 7%. You can create your own shop of have a verified “LazMall” official account that separates you from OEM sellers. The platform has gone through a major overhaul since it’s early inception and has made online shopping in the Philippines a sweet delight especially during the pandemic. All market types are in here from A, B, C to D.
2. Shopee – Lazada’s direct competitor which pretty much offers the same e-commerce platform. It’s like the 1B to Lazada being 1A. Both have almost the same aggressive marketing strategies and use influencers heavily also to drive online traffic to their app. I’m just not a huge fan and user of the Shopee app mainly because if the comfort level I’ve personally developed as a buyer in Lazada. But Shopee is a great place to sell your products as well.
3. Zalora – I’ve had the pleasure of working with Zalora since it’s inception in the first 4-5 years of it’s existence in the country in terms of how they market their fashion centric products. This is a great destination when it comes to fashion brands. Their per-sale rates average between 25-40% of retail prices and OEM brands are absolutely banned or not allowed in this platform. They offer a wide variety of fashion items for men, women and kids, even expanding to Beauty and Essential goods.

There are other platforms that you can sell your products too that are widely popular such as Facebook Marketplace, Carousell and Metromart, all with unique ways you can sell your products. So choose which platforms you may want to put your products heavily into. You can also work with fulfillment companies such as Cloudlogic or Great Deals that offer warehousing and marketing for your e-commerce, so you avoid all those headaches.

That’s it! Hope this helps you set up your own shop and make you profitable!

Question of the day: What’s your go-to buying platform for your needs/wants, and why?

*Featured image: DV8 Socks in available in Lazada with it’s own LazMall account with unique fashion socks to choose from!