As the country is at an early stage of digital growth with a massive potential consumer base, Indonesia is one of the most sought after regions in South East Asia for eCommerce sellers, businesses and brands to invest in. 

It is completely safe to say that the scenario of the eCommerce market is going to expand even further in the near future in Indonesia with a great number of developments on the way that will lead up to more and more businesses starting their journey in eCommerce or moving to the online space from their traditional offline stores.

But with such a drastic move, it is also necessary to understand the possible hurdles that might occur in your way to becoming a top eCommerce seller and the most effective ways to overcome those difficulties. The biggest challenges faced by beginners or offline Indonesian sellers may include:

Major challenges when starting or moving to sell online in Indonesia

 These challenges may seem difficult to manage at first, but with the right strategies and solutions, you can seamlessly begin your eCommerce journey or complete the transition from selling offline to online. 

And so, if you are an offline Indonesia seller, retailer or business, or just a beginner looking to venture onto selling your products and services online in the growing eCommerce market of the country, then you need this blog to understand every bit about the market, why it is the top choice to sell online here and how you can leverage technology to position your brand as a top eCommerce platform.

Why to Sell Online in Indonesia?

As the largest population amongst any other South East Asian country and a rapidly increasing consumer base, Indonesia is estimated to reach the online market worth of $53 billion by 2025!

The reason behind such an increase is the fact that Indonesians have grown to like the ease of shopping online and the availability of cheaper options to help them lead a life of better standards. Also, there is a massive internet penetration of the Indonesian population as the county is ranked 4th highest for both Twitter and Facebook users and presently has over 130 million social media users.

Due to their active online presence, Indonesian shoppers have had the ease to search for products, compare prices, check reviews, look for offers, etc., before any purchase, all from the comfort and safety of their homes, making online commerce more favourable than offline

These massive numbers of online users in the region, make it even more critical than ever to take your business online and achieve higher profits and faster growth. 

Moving from the ‘Why’ to the ‘How’, let us understand the best strategies, methods and techniques of making your eCommerce business in Indonesia a big hit.

Where to Sell Online in Indonesia?

Where to start your online selling journey?

The first step of starting your eCommerce business is to either integrate with an already existing marketplace in Indonesia or to build your own online site to take the direct to consumer or D2C route of selling.

While you can surely begin your eCommerce business by integrating on any of top marketplaces in Indonesia including Tokopedia, Zalora, Shopee, Lazada, Bukalapak., it is important to build your own independent presence in the eCommerce industry as it provides you with a loyal customer pool, boosts sales, maximizes profitability, increases productivity and offers the most successful results when you move your offline business online or star selling online!

Selling from your own website or eCommerce platform directly to your customers, your business gets the opportunity to identify the right approach and the best methods to ensure higher growth and better customer experience. 

You can build your own eCommerce site using any of the popular platforms such as Pixitem, Shopify, Lime Commerce, BigCommerce, Kemana.com, Magento,  Woocommerce, Jejulan, Sirclo, etc. that give you hundreds of options to choose from for the perfect look and feel of your website.

But before you begin your Direct to Consumer eCommerce selling using your own website, you need to analyze a few basics from the online ecosystem to be able to render the right services to shoppers. Some of the factors to research and work upon include:

• Identifying the right set of traffic
• Ensuring relevant product listings
• Enhancing product reach 
• Providing better user experience

You can easily onboard a well designed and highly advanced multi-channel technology solution to enable you to manage all of your sales channels from a single panel by automating operations, saving you precious time and eliminating extra manpower cost.

Powerful Strategies to Quickly Expand Your Business Online

Follow the best strategies to ensute successful online selling in Indonesia

• Increase Your Social Media Presence 

Keeping into perspective the dependency of Indonesians on social media, it should be your first focus to build a strong reputation for your eCommerce business amidst the consumers and be heavily active on all social channels such as Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, as well as WhatsApp to engage and educate people about your products.

To build a strong social presence, you can leverage:

• Good quality content 
• Effective marketing strategies
• Relevant social media campaigns, targeted Google Ads, offers, etc
• Collaborate with top influencers with thousands of followers 

All of these methods will help you promote your brand, raise awareness, enhance product reach, ultimately increasing your sales and boosting your business.

• Provide Personalization of Services

To show value to your customers, you need to offer them a personalized experience which will pay you to the greatest of length in terms of loyal and long term users of your products and services.

Once you have moved your business into the online space, start keeping track of the sales you make and what your customers most expect out of your service. Check the most common reasons they visit you, either for the price, the product range, delivery time, payment experience, etc. 

To get a complete understanding of what your customers may be looking for, try to:

• Maintain shopping histories 
• Monitor interests and choices
• Look for the most popular products such as clothing, electronics, etc., 

and based on these observations, offer your users suggestions and recommendations to get a more personalized feeling whenever they shop.

It is also very important to ensure that there are no stock-outs or delays in delivery as well if you really want to give your customers the best experience

You should also focus on promoting localization which can be done by promoting your products and services in the local language, converting prices into Indonesian Rupiah, etc. This will give your consumers the ease to shop without any language barriers and make them trust you more.

• Enable Safer Payments Options

eCommerce shoppers in Indonesia prefer online payments via debit card, credit card or wallet payments along with the oldest COD method. You need to ensure your business supports all of these payment methods along with the assurance of complete safety.

It is important to strengthen your checkout experience which comprises most of the payment options where your consumers save their card details and provide relevant information at the time of payments. 

If you want to build that trust and make your customers come back to you for all their needs, work on strengthening your payment experience as the increasing number of shoppers online and wallet payments touching an all-time high post the Coronavirus outbreak in Indonesia, it has become even more crucial to ensure better handling of payment information of your consumers. 

• Ensure Better Privacy of Customer Data

One thing which is the most important to each and every customer is the safety of their personal details and it is your legal responsibility to ensure the same, whenever someone makes a purchase from you.

The Indonesian government is still working around the best data safety policies as the industry reports a fair share of data breaches, wrong or unfulfilled delivery of products even after full payments and at times hacks on payment gateway accounts.

Johnny G. Plate, Communication and Information Minister of Indonesia urged eCommerce service providers in an online event last year, to improve their cybersecurity and data information systems to protect not only the customers but also the businesses.

•   Implement Best Shipping & Delivery Strategies 

To effectively handle the shipping and delivery of your products across all locations in Indonesia, it is essential to onboard the top and highly reputed logistics providers in the region.

Linc Group, DHL, Yamato, FedEx, DTDC, Prima Cargo, Dunex, etc., are some of the most sought after logistics providers in the region to help you with fast and precise delivery even to the last mile.

The Indonesian terrain requires highly accurate delivery and shipping services as the country is collectively made of over 17,000 islands and so the streets and addresses can be difficult to find due to lack of infrastructure planning and management.

To handle the issue in the most efficient way, it is better to rely on bigger service providers that have well established local shipping offices even in the farthest of pin codes. 

Apart from the route you also need to be aware of what products are eligible for shipping and movement within the country and what products need extra care during transit. Perishable goods, alcoholic beverages, luxury items all require extra care and permits to be shipped across the region.

Render the Right Solutions  to Scale Up Your eCommerce Business Operations

In order to begin selling online or to make the move from offline to online, to be able to handle all 5 of the above-mentioned processes and to run successful eCommerce operations, you require highly advanced and technologically robust supply chain solutions.

Right from managing inventory, updating fresh stocks, processing orders, maintaining warehouse performance, order fulfilment rates, on-time deliveries etc., eCommerce businesses need the best support to perform each of these tasks with ease and accuracy.

With Unicommerce’s fully automated and technologically superior solutions, allow your business to become a prominent eCommerce name, achieve effective and faster serviceability, reduce operational costs and increase profitability to become a top seller or brand in Indonesia.

Unicommerce is a leading supply chain solutions provider that offers streamlined eCommerce operations across all online and offline sales channels and has been simplifying eCommerce selling for thousands of sellers, retailers, brands and businesses in the Indonesian eCommerce market.

Using the Unicommerce solutions, allow your business to achieve exponential growth along with:

Allow your business to acheive exponential growth for your Online business

• 30-35% Increased Sales Growth
• 35-40% Reduced Logistics Costing supported
• 25-35% Lower Manpower Cost
• 15-20% Reduced Order Returns

and much more!!

Experience seamless integrations to top marketplaces, logistics providers, ERP & POS systems in Indonesia by choosing Unicommerce as your technology partner.

Request a Demo now!

The post Proven Strategies and Solutions to Expand Your Business Online Rapidly appeared first on unicommerce.com.

A good e-commerce warehouse management system (WMS) helps you in receiving the inventory, placing them on the designated shelf; improve the picking and shipping of orders and get real-time information on the inventory.  Warehouse management softwares can be a standalone application or it can be integrated into your existing ERP system as well.

Utilising a strong Warehouse management software can immensely benefit your eCommerce and retail business.  Some highly useful advantages include:

• Lowering Labour Costs
• Enhancing Inventory Accuracy
• Improve flexibility in operation
• Reducing errors while picking and shipping of goods
• Upgrading customer services
• Accessing real-time data

Wit these, WMS enables you to manage complete warehouse related activities including but not limited to orders, shipments, receipts and intra-warehouse movement of goods.

What are the best practices & processes for warehouse management?

So, if you are planning to opt for any management software for your new warehouse or planning to upgrade your existing system, ask these questions:

Below are 10 Key Questions one must ask before opting for any warehouse management software, to get Maximum benefits of their solutions.

1.Can it handle orders from multiple marketplaces?

You must be selling on  6-8 marketplaces all at the same time and so, it is important for any WMS solution to provide the sellers with the ability to seamlessly process orders of all marketplaces so that the inventory can be managed accordingly. 

2. Does the solution provide you inventory accuracy?

Inventory management is a big problem for sellers, particularly when you have to manage 100+ dispatches every day. Managing the inventory manually, tracking it timely and updating the stock after each day’s sales is a hectic task which when not done with complete accuracy leads to unmanaged and errorful operations. 

Any errors in inventory not only results in loss of working capital but also impacts sales volume as inventory listed on marketplaces is the key factor in determining sales for all online sellers. Thus, an automated system above a manual one to manage inventory accurately can go a long way in managing complex warehouse operations.

Read: How Dhani Services Ltd., a leading Consumer Services, has streamlined operations across 166 facilities while ensuring a 99.99%+ fulfillment rate

3. Will you be able to manage all the sections of your warehouse?

Most sellers end up doing an ad hoc management of their warehouse, causing inventory errors, stock-outs, etc. which lead up to a lot of mismanagement. It is imperative that the WMS you choose allows you to define zones, bins, locations, etc. so that your warehouse can be neatly organized. 

Your WMS solution should allow you to define zones based on product categories, product velocity (i.e. how fast or slow a particular product is selling) or any other such criteria which are important to your business.

Most leading WMS solutions still do not have a very comprehensive implementation of this requirement, but some new-age solutions like Unicommerce provide the flexibility to manage the warehouse in a very systematic manner with cycle count enabled and RFID barcode scanning to handle returns as well as maintain the serial numbers.

4. Is it compatible with various third-party hardware devices?

With increasing volumes by the minute, it becomes impossible to operate a warehouse manually. Seeing the need,  sellers have begun to invest in deploying Bluetooth-based handheld devices to automate key warehouse processes.

These handheld devices are not very expensive and can be procured anywhere in the range of Rs. 5-10k, adding a lot of value in terms of improving productivity, reducing errors and are able to recover the cost of investment in less than 6 months if used with a proper system. 

5. Does it help to optimize the picking process?

Using manual or traditional systems typically leads to a lot of inefficiencies in the picking process. Eventually, the picking staff ends up wasting time trying to locate the right product.

If they end up picking the wrong product, it only adds to the delay as they are then required to put the product back and fetch the right one for dispatch. All of this leads up to monetary losses. 

And so, it is important that the WMS solution one uses has inbuilt features like picklists, FIFO based picking etc. to ensure that picking of goods happen in an efficient manner. 

.

   Figure 1: Sample Picklist format In Unicommerce

6. How easily can you manage returns in the WMS?

For any online seller, returns are a big pain area, as it adds directly to the cost, and every seller continues to grapple with this issue. If returns are managed properly, the profitability of any seller can easily improve by 10-15%, thus it is important that the solution deployed by you is able to handle such a critical process seamlessly.

It is important that your WMS solution should be able to scan each item and identify the order against which the return is received. The solution should also be able to reconcile the returns for which the item itself is not received.

All these features are already supported in Unicommerce, making it a preferred tool for handling returns seamlessly without any hassles.

7. Does it have an access control feature?

With data theft and stock pilferage a day to day reality for most sellers, it is important that the solution you choose provides the ability to configure secure access to the system.

The solution should provide a definition of roles to the users and grant access to the users based on the roles assigned to them. The roles should also be flexible enough to map all the warehouse processes. For example, Unicommerce provides the flexibility to define up to 9 roles in its solution.

                                                               Different Roles for Different Users

8. Does it provide quality checks?

Due to the regular wear and tear in the warehouse, some stock may not always be in a sellable condition. For example, a stock may be damaged while lying in the warehouse, and the operator may discover the “bad” stock only at the time of the dispatch.

To avoid situations like this, it becomes important that the WMS you choose allows you the flexibility of doing quality testing at every key checkpoint (inbound, outbound, picking etc.).

9. Does it help in tracking shipments across multiple delivery partners?

Ecommerce sellers have to deal with various shipping providers (marketplace provided shipping, self-shipping etc.) and it’s quite troublesome to deal with multiple shipping partners.

Thus, it is important that the WMS you choose helps you track shipments across various delivery partners. In addition, the system should allow you the adaptability of defining the priority of shipping providers or build custom rules. For example, fragile items should go through courier X only, or high-value items should go through courier Y only. All this is currently supported in Unicommerce.

10. Does it provide comprehensive analytics to assess your operations?

Analytics is a powerful tool and the insights that you can draw from your WMS solution can be useful in making key business decisions related to growth, productivity, unit economics, etc. It is important that the WMS solution not only provides comprehensive data but also presents the data in an easily comprehensible manner.

Unicommerce currently supports 100+ marketplaces, carts, logistics providers, ERP & POS systems and is the first choice of over 10,000 brands, sellers and retailers to be their Warehouse Management Solutions provider.

Unicommerce allows multiple technologically advanced warehouse management solutions such as handheld, FIFO, batching, cycle count, etc., and continues to evolve its offering in this regard.

Effective warehouse management translates to having the right amount of the right product at the right location delivered just in time to satisfy customer needs at minimum cost and Unicommerce is capable of imparting that for your business.

So what are you waiting for? Register today with Unicommerce, the leading supply chain operations management to ease your daily eCommerce as well as a retail business!

Request a Demo Now!

The post Best Practices in Warehouse Management System appeared first on unicommerce.com.

The seller meet was organized in Hyderabad on 3rd September, 2016, which was another grand success for Unicommerce after its Pune event, earlier this year.

The main objective of the event was to discuss issues faced by sellers in online selling, and how Unicommerce is helping to solve those issues, especially through launch of some new features like Payment Reconciliation and collaboration with quality listing partners.

The Seller Meet took place at The Golkonda Hotel in Hyderabad, where a good mix of sellers including those starting just now and sellers already selling on multiple marketplaces took part. It was a 3 hour interactive session, where the audience discussed in depth about the challenges they are facing and were very happy with the solutions they got from the Unicommerce team conducting the event.

The event also featured some of the existing customers of Unicommerce who spoke very highly about the product and support provided by the entire Unicommerce team.

The session came to an end with high tea arrangements for the sellers, which served as a good networking opportunity for sellers.

The post Unicommerce Organized a Grand e-Commerce Seller Meet in Hyderabad appeared first on unicommerce.com.

Hi everyone, I am Satya Singh from Satya Shoes. I am selling online from last two years. And it’s been one year I am doing with Unicommerce. And I would say that it’s a wonderful stuff to increase your business multiples.

I am a seller from Agra and I am doing footwear business from last 20 years. I used have a manufacturing house, but from last 3 years I am doing it online. And the best way to get online is through Unicommerce. You can start your business with no inventory.

Earlier I used to sell around 60-100 pairs of shoes on an average. But after Unicommerce, the best part is that of inventory management. I don’t have to block the inventories for different different channels.

So I can even sell a single pair of shoes across all two or three or four or five market places without blocking my money or inventory. So the best part is the inventory only that I can manage inventory without any hassle and also the order management of Unicommerce is perfect.

It’s been year now, and my business has been increased 5 times. My average selling been has reached to around 500 pairs. And I would say that it’s only due to Unicommerce due to which I am able to manage the orders and each and everything.

Thanks to Unicommerce. Specially, the team is very much dedicated. You can call the support team any time, they ready to help us out at any stage, at any issue. I got training to my staff and to me also, which was easy and hassle free.

The post Seller Success Story 2 #SellmorewithUnicommerce appeared first on unicommerce.com.

Recently, in an interview with a popular Business Magazine “Retailer”; Ankit Pruthi- the Cofounder and CEO of Unicommerce has revealed the Seller Side of the Indian E-commerce.

Unicommerce is a Tech Product Company, processing more than a million orders every month. The biggies of Indian e-commerce industry like Jabong, Snapdeal, Myntra, Lenskart, Urban Ladder, and Caratlane are some of its clients.

While revealing the seller side of the story, in his conversation with Retailer, Mr. Pruthi has also talked about some other essential aspects of ecommerce business like order fulfillment process, the role of ecommerce platforms and the future of online businesses in India.

In a particular mention to the Future of Indian Ecommerce Industry, he further added, “We currently have around 30,000 odd online sellers. That’s a tiny fraction of India’s real potential. The potential will be unlocked in coming years, and this number will easily grow seven to eight times in next five years. Complexity, competition and scale are going to get bigger and bigger. So any online seller, who is serious about his e-commerce business, must automate as much as possible.”

According to him, “Running multiple physical stores is too easy as compared to selling at multiple places online.”

To get the complete story, keep reading…

Why online sellers should not focus on fulfillment?

Unlike physical retail chains, selling online works on scale. In fact, Indian e-tailers have already accepted the fact that it is better to outsource the job of promotion/marketing to big players. That’s why they enlist themselves as sellers on marketplaces like Snapdeal, Flipkart, Amazon, etc. They have also outsourced the delivery of goods to end courier companies. But when it comes to order fulfilment, they underestimate its complexity and try to do it themselves. Soon, they get so overwhelmed by it that they are not able to focus on their core activity – which is focusing on growing their business. Hence, they should not focus on fulfilment.

Tell us a bit about the ‘seller side’ of Indian e-commerce story?

There has been a lot of research on the pain points, demographics, demands, and such other aspects of online buyers in Indian e-commerce. But the seller side has been a bit neglected. In fact, the current situation of e-commerce is overwhelmingly in favour of end customer. In such a situation, online sellers need all the more support to survive and succeed.

Delivery time is the only pain area people think online sellers might be having. That’s not true. There is much more to order fulfilment than just delivery. Delivery is the most visible portion of it. A lot happens at the backend like managing activities such as procurement and inventory and looking after vendor base and warehouses,and of course, the syncing of orders and inventories from many places you are selling at. From day one,Unicommerce has focused on the seller side of Indian e-commerce. Our best team solves their problems leveraging the power of technology. And, it has paid us rich dividends.

What is the role of an e-commerce platform?

There are too many players, people, entities and processes involved in the entire chain of order fulfilment. It is very easy to lose focus and side track your priorities when there are so many variables to take care for every single order. Unless and until you can manage all of them from a single platform, you won’t be able to control the entire customer experience. E-commerce platform connects all the dots and keeps you in sync with the big picture, and lets you focus on things that matter. Time (to deliver), price (offered to end customer), variety (catalogue size) and cost (of fulfilling orders) — these four things decide the growth and profitability of the online business. And a right e-commerce order fulfilment platform makes a definite, clearly measurable impact on all four of those things.

How do you see the Indian e-commerce shaping up?

We currently have around 30,000 odd online sellers. That’s a tiny fraction of India’s real potential. The potential will be unlocked in coming years, and this number will easily grow seven to eight times in next five years. Complexity, competition and scale are going to get bigger and bigger. So any online seller who is serious about his e-commerce business, must automate as much as possible.

The post Ankit Pruthi on the Seller Side of the Indian Ecommerce Story appeared first on unicommerce.com.

He went from being a cynical, cautious businessman with a shop in the market to being an actively ambitious online seller who is selling 24/7 on multiple marketplaces.  And the journey has been quite a learning experience he mentions. Would love to share these pieces of wisdom with you.

Perks of selling online on multiple marketplaces:

• The location does not matter! 

When selling from a physical store, if you get the location right, half the work is done. And we already know – the price of anything in demand goes up. That’s why getting a  good location is a costly affair. Only the big guys with deep pockets can afford it.

But when  selling online your location the same as the location of some fancy deep pocket brand. The customers see you and the big guys right next to each other. 

Just imagine how you wished to have the same kind of shop that your big-budget competitors had. But you could not. Today, online marketplaces provide a level playing field for small players who are beginners. You just need to manage your supply chain to sell goods online.   

• Increased Brand visibility & profits

In my initial days  – I had jokingly commented to my colleagues many times that – “Only If I could be at multiple places at the same time”. How can I be ? Silly of me!

But now – Some if it has come true. Sellers can be at multiple places at the same time.

It’s not Magic. It’s called Ecommerce.

Today, people sell on Flipkart, Snapdeal, and Jabong, at the same time! And manage all of the marketplace with a small team. The same team that used to cater to one small shop on the street.

Unlike conventional businesses where we get to sell our products on certain very selective places, ecommerce provides the facility to sell on multiple channels. Selling through various virtual marketplaces has not only increased visibility but also helped sellers to establish brand among a huge base of customers. Goes without saying that selling on multiple channels has multiplied profits of sellers. 

• No more unattended customer in your shop – Even during festive seasons

Usually, in a traditional shop, we need sales persons to attend to our customers. During festivals or any other special occasion, it becomes very difficult to handle lots of customers at one time. And in this scenario, the possibility of the customers going back from the shop unattended is quite high. It not only creates a negative impression on prospects but also destroys our chances of achieving business goals. 

On the other hand, an  online setup provides a huge advantage over offline stores. Contrary to a traditional shop, eCommerce allows to attend a huge number of customers at any point of time. A simple integration of multichannel order management software can further help you manage all the sales from singly dashboard.

By providing detailed information on the product description along with high-quality images, one can provide a virtual human experience to its customers. This further helps in ensuring a high customer satisfaction rate and attracting and retaining customers.  

•  Not Just More, but Better Footfall!

We always tried to get more footfall in our shop. Because at the back of our mind, we are clear that if 100 people walk in, at least 5 will like our products and buy them. But what about the 95 who don’t buy. It’s true that more footfall leads to more sales.  But there is a limit to the level we can take this approach.

Even the best shops have not more than 10% conversion rate.

Surprisingly, ecommerce shops have more than 20-30% conversion rate. The reason being – In ecommerce people come looking for your product. Such focused traffic is much higher online as compared to offline shops. They are already convinced about buying it, all they need is a little push. So  this means there is no limit to footfall and the conversion rate is even higher.

• No bargains

 In India, customers can be identified by certain very typical traits. One of the most popular traits of an India buyer is a bargain. Sometimes, in the process of bargaining, the seller has to compromise on his profits. While shopping online the customers can’t go for bargaining on prices of the products. They can only choose from a wide range of products with fixed price tags. The seller has the ultimate say on product prices.

 Of course, you can choose to give them discounts on particular items, for particular period, for particular type of customers. But you have total control over it. No more hassling with every other customer over price.

• No worries about holidays or closing time

When you are selling online, you are working 365 days and 24 x7. So, you don’t worry about the holidays or closing time, unlike offline or brick and mortar shop does each time there is a holiday (s) or bandh. There are abiding by the law, as they can’t be open 24 hrs. 

• New business options 

Dropshipping is the new business option for the new sellers as well as for the established business holders. The new option in the market makes space for new products to get introduced in the market. Apart from that, increases your revenue without making any huge investment in the business. You just need to collaborate properly with the logistics partners as well as with the seller. 

• Riskless business!

Business always comes with uncertainty. But this uncertainty turns into risk when stakes go up. In our regular business, once you up the stake, it becomes very difficult to take a step back. Also, the investment that is required to grow is quite substantial in offline business. In eCommerce, it takes just a fraction of that amount to start catering to more customers.

No wonder so many first time businessmen are lining up to open their shop online. And many of them are doing well.

Previously, when it’s about starting a business; the main concern of any prospective businessman was to gather a huge amount of money. They either had to use their savings or take bank loans or borrow from different people. Under this condition, if they would fail to achieve success, it would ruin them completely. Here, e-commerce portals have appeared as a great platform. Selling online or setting up an online store doesn’t cost much. Failing here is not a Punishable offence!

 Besides, we don’t share our hard earned profit parts with local hooligans.

What are you waiting for? Book a consultation with Unicommerce, to look after your daily ecommerce and retail business. It eases your daily business operations; merges your online and offline business together; automates your inventory and warehouses; ERP integration with your software;  and much more.

The post Shutter Down at 9 pm ? Never. My Shop is now Open 24/7! appeared first on unicommerce.com.

Go to any traditional marketplaces of India. You will find everything there except silence. Chaotic and colorful, noisy and musical, enchanting and overwhelming, there’s no experience quite as memorable for the shopper as the bazaars of India.

It is always easy to convince somebody to buy your product when you can talk to them in person. It is easy to understand their needs and suggest products accordingly. Persuasion is always easy when you are face-to-face. Whereas you can’t persuade a person through when you’re selling online. Your website is the only mode of persuasion. The product description, photographs of products, portrayal of image needs to be top notch for a customer to be convinced and buy a product.

Not getting? Let me do the honor and tell you what I am talking here.

When a buyer enters your “Online Shop” or looks at your products on online marketplaces, do you know who does the talking on behalf of you? ‘Product Content’ which is listed beside or below your product. It gives the buyer in-detail idea about the product. 

And what if there is no Product content – Its like a shop with no salesperson to attend to customers. No marks for guessing what happens in such situations.

 Exactly. In these online shops without salesperson, Content is your salesperson who will convert the visitor into a buyer.  You might have heard this many times – “Content is  King”. Now you get it, right ?

Why you need to be concerned more on Product Content?

Converting visitors into buying is not the only benefit of Product Content. In fact, that should be enough to convince you to write a persuasive product description copy. Here are some more solid reasons why you should do it.

Google loves it. (by the way Google rules the web)

It has been found that almost 44% of the people proceed with their online shopping after searching it on Google. And around 37.5% of the traffic on the ecommerce website comes through the search engines. Around 23.6% of the ecommerce orders are all relies on the organic traffic. The customers always search for the informative keywords to checkout anything on the internet.  

Social media loves it

Content with accurate product information spreads across social networks, generate powerful word-of-mouth and thus provides exposure to your online existence. It actually builds up a strong relationship with customers. And showcases your product, how it is different from the competitors. Nowadays, almost everybody is using some social media platform. So it becomes an easy task to attract them to your products. The product description is the only information for them to get their queries answered regarding your products.

Your competitors Hate it

Look at product description as one more opportunity to establish your brand. As they say, Brands don’t have to compete to win. They just have to be themselves. Product description not only helps to build customer loyalty, but it also gives your prospective customers parameters to compare your products with other company’s products. And of course, your competitors are going to hate it.

Product Content – Rules to follow!

• No such thing as Too much

Provide as much information as you can through your product description. Customers want to know more about the products that they can’t touch and feel online. Just an image won’t be enough for them to judge what you offer. 

As said- eyes can’t always see the reality. Things that look good online not necessarily be the same. When it comes to Product content, there is no such thing as too much.

• Informative rather than Descriptive

Be informative rather than descriptive while developing content for online products. Clearly mention size, length, quantity, weight etc. Customers want to get confirmed that they are buying the right thing. More information provides better visibility.

• More You Hide, the More They Suspect  

If you are selling something that comes with a guarantee or warranty then clearly mention it in your product description along with the exact duration. It will clear the customer confusion that might become a hindrance in sale. Electronic goods with high value usually come up with such offers. Don’t hide. Transparency is the basic mantra of success here.

• What about Shipping Charges? Be upfront.

There are certain pain points of online buyers. Shipping charges are one of them. Many a time people change their mind at the last moment after looking at shipping charges. While providing product information never forgets to mention separately how much the buyer has to pay as shipping charges. The online portals where shipping charges are not mentioned clearly, people usually avoid them.

• Picture is worth a thousand words.

Make sure you always put quality product images on your website. It acts as a key role for the store engagement, conversion and retention, and customer’s trust. A good and closure view of your product picture can actually bridge an emotional connection with the customer. 

Time for Action – Take out your Appointment book.

Book a slot for Monday Morning – “Get Product Content Written” – High priority Task!

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