Tag: Online sellers

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Regional e-commerce platform Shopee has announced that it is launching more collaborative seller marketing tools to help local sellers attract more new and returning customers on the platform.

According to Kavan Sito, director of Shopee Malaysia, starting by the third quarter this year, all sellers can expect to expand their reach through over 13,000 Shopee affiliate partners to gain a wider audience and boost sales via Shopee’s Affiliate Marketing Solution (AMS).

The affiliate partners include social media influencers, coupon and cashback platforms, price comparison platforms and content publishers. Apart from that, the platform will also be enhancing its voucher features that will enable sellers to incentivise new buyers as well as reward repeat buyers for their loyalty.

The new tools were announced during the Shopee Seller Summit on 16 June, where Sito said that reviews are essential to help create trust and appeal for a product online. As such, Shopee will also be enabling sellers to reward users for leaving useful product reviews.

“These are among many innovative seller marketing features that Shopee will be launching in the coming months to help sellers drive long-term business growth,” he said.

Sito added, “Shopee remains committed to upskilling and empowering local businesses. Apart from free training modules provided through Shopee University, Shopee is glad to be the trusted partner of government agencies to support local communities and drive training initiatives that help to upskill local businesses.”

Manila, Philippines – As the platform continues to grow its presence in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, the local arm of e-commerce platform Lazada has launched a new process called ‘Start It Up, Laz It Up’ which encourages new sellers to register via a simplified three-step sign-up process. To add up to the encouragement, the platform has also placed a raffle for the new registrants, amounting to US$10k worth of prizes.

Said raffle will be awarded to one lucky recipient and is composed of cash and advertising credits to kickstart the recipient’s online business on the platform. Interested new sellers must sign up and launch their Lazada marketplace stores in active selling mode during the period of 27 September to 30 October.

The ‘Start It Up, Laz It Up’ process is as follows: submit and enter a registered local mobile number, then enter a one-time six-digit code to verify the mobile number, and finally setting a strong and unique password.

Once finished setting up the account, online sellers can start selling on the platform by adding the address of the location where the seller will ship their products from; then adding a valid government-approved identification so that payments can be processed, and adding a valid bank account information for ease of withdrawing earnings from the platform.

For Carlos Barrera, chief operating officer at Lazada Philippines, the first six months of 2021 saw the number of Filipino sellers joining the platform tripled, which is a striking testament to how e-commerce is a must-have for many local businesses in today’s digital era, adding that the company remains committed to empowering Filipino SMEs with the tools and services that are key for their online growth ambitions.

“This journey starts from something as simple as making the first step and registering as an online seller. With the simple and seamless seller registration process, we hope more aspiring entrepreneurs from all walks of life will dream big and explore e-commerce with zero barriers. Lazada is here with you to build resilience and preparedness in order to tap onto the massive online opportunity,” Barrera stated.

The rise of sellers has been noted in their first-ever ‘Digital Commerce Confidence Index’, where 70% of Southeast Asia’s online sellers are optimistic and confident about their future growth and prospects for the third quarter of 2021.

To further help new sellers in setting up a successful online shop in the platform, Lazada University has an introductory step-by-step guide to welcome new users with a manageable Learning Management System (LMS) with a suite of diverse training materials for easy understanding especially by first-time sellers. Topics available range from advertising to budget management, as well as offline and live-streamed training sessions conducted by Lazada staff and peers from the seller community.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – eCommerce platform Youbeli has collaborated with IT mall PJ Digital Mall to adopt an online-to-offline (O2O) commerce.

The new partnership comes as Youbeli gears up for its 10.10 sale event. It has brought together 10 participating tenants from the mall onboard the Youbeli platform.

In conjunction with the 10.10 campaign, the parties have prepared surprise freebies for customers who prefer to self-pickup items from the mall. In the future, Youbeli said that it will be offering same-day delivery to any addresses within a 10km radius from the PJ Digital Mall.

Meanwhile, up until 10 October 2020, shopping vouchers and promotions will be continually announced on Youbeli’s and PJ Digital Mall’s Facebook pages. The promotions will be applicable for computers, laptops, and accessories.

This will be the second time that the platform has collaborated with a physical shopping mall, and according to Youbeli CEO Chua Khai Suan, the new partnership is part of their ongoing O2O initiative to help brick-and-mortar retailers to attract sales.

“[Instead] of competing as two different entities, we complement each other’s business model to bring the best deals for our customers,” Chua said.

Meanwhile, Jeffrey Fang, leasing manager of Digital Mall shared, “Since we started the collaborative campaign on 1 October, we saw a long queue of customers outside the mall especially last weekend.”

“At times like this, we need to ensure businesses continue to run to support the country’s economy however much we can so we can reduce the number of unemployment due to the pandemic,” Fang added.

Just recently, Youbeli has also partnered with a co-eCommerce player, Taiwan’s PChomeSEA, to integrate its products to the platform.

United States – As more businesses in the APAC region turn to eCommerce amid the pandemic, Google has decided to make it free for merchants to list their products on the Google Shopping tab, which takes effect in mid-October.

The free listing has been available in India and Indonesia since 2019 and was earlier introduced to the United States in April as part of its COVID support to retailers.

“For retailers, this change means free exposure to millions of people who come to Google every day for their shopping needs, regardless of whether they advertise on Google. For shoppers, it means more products from more stores, discoverable through the Google Shopping tab. For advertisers, it means paid campaigns can now be augmented with free listings,” said President of Google for APAC Scott Beaumont on a product update.

Google said the time of the pandemic changed the way people shop and sell in the region. According to Google analysis, 53% of online shoppers in APAC stated that they’ll choose to buy online more frequently after the pandemic, while almost 40% who weren’t online shoppers before said they intend to continue buying online.

To help retailers adjust to the changes, Google will be offering skills training through its dedicated learning resource Grow with Google. Google will also be sharing research and insights on its market research platform Think with Google to inform retailers’ business decisions.

In addition, Google has launched a playbook and webinar series on how to better manage digital storefronts. It will also be working closely with a number of partners to help merchants manage their products and inventory; this includes global partners like eCommerce platform Shopify, and those across the region such as Vietnam-based SEO website design platform Haravan, eCommerce Shopline in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and Thailand’s eCommerce business provider LnwShop.  

The free listings will be automatically applied to retailers already registered on its Merchant Center and those currently using Shopping Ads, while for new registrants, Google will continue working to streamline the onboarding process over the coming weeks.

Singapore – Amazon has announced that its annual deal event Prime Day will be running on its official dates, October 13 and 14. The event will be a first for Amazon Singapore since it launched last year. 

Aside from the discounts and savings in store for shoppers, Amazon will be launching e-Gift Cards on the event. Amazon.sg’s e-Gift cards can be redeemed on an extensive selection of products and during Prime Day, members who purchase at least S$50 e-Gift card in a single transaction will be able to receive a bonus e-Gift card of S$10. 

Amazon will also be introducing 10 new categories of products on Amazon.sg during the event. These will be musical instruments, gardening, furniture, jewelry, and watches, as well as luggage, business industrial, scientific supplies, and also video DVD, music, and software. 

Starting October 1, customers can already shop early exclusive offers and deals on Amazon.sg leading up to Prime Day. Each day from October 1 to 12, items from one of Amazon’s category will be up for a 30 – 45% discount.

“This year’s Prime Day is an amazing opportunity for Prime members to enjoy savings with thousands of deals, explore our new expanded selection and get their holiday shopping done early, all from the comfort of their homes. In the midst of an unprecedented year, we’re excited for Prime members in Singapore and worldwide to discover new ways to support local retailers and save big on everything they need and love,” said Henry Low, country manager of Amazon Singapore.

In an effort to build on the momentum of the event, Amazon Singapore has also partnered with digital media Mothership to launch a shopper personality quiz on the site to help shoppers discover their shopper persona.