Our Approach on e-Commerce Start-up: Your Question, We Answer

Whether you are running a new digital business, setting up an online store for your existing brands and products, or entering a foreign market through e-commerce, you are probably going to wonder where you should begin.

The two major routes in the market are developing your own online store and selling through e-commerce marketplaces. Last time, we shared our take on the differences of the two and explored their high- and low-lights with you. Now, here comes our suggestion on how you may step into e-commerce from scratch.

Begin with owning an Online Store

While marketplaces have very high traffic, it is rather difficult to make any brand presence among the massive volume of merchandise options there. We would therefore highly encourage our clients to start by developing and running an online store for their own brands.

Magento, WooCommerce and Shopify are just few of the many e-commerce applications you could use to build your e-commerce website which truly depicts your brand image. It is where you will be able to engage with your potential customers and to drive direct sales from them.

Build your Brand in the Market

The online store will serve only as a foundation to brand building, you will require a well-rounded marketing strategy to really boost your brand awareness in the market.

We would usually recommend our clients to focus on promoting their brand and products via social media like Facebook, Instagram, Google Ads and YouTube to begin with. With limited budget, you will be able to reach your target consumers effectively, direct them to your online store and develop their interest and desire in your products.

You may wish to further expand your customer range at a later stage. For that, we work with marketing agency partners to provide optimal above-the-line marketing campaigns for our clients to advertise their brands to mass audience.

Finally Expand into Marketplaces

After gaining a notable brand presence and a wide group of potential consumers in the market, it is time to increase your touchpoints and launch your products on the right marketplaces.
Although the sales revenue you earned from marketplaces will be smaller in comparison to that from your own online store considering all the surcharges you would have to pay to the marketplaces, they allow your customers easier access to your brand and products, which in turn enhances the retention rate.

Above is just a glimpse of how we would help our clients start their e-commerce businesses. Should you have any questions and/ or comments, please feel free to get in touch with us anytime.