Seeing the immense opportunity in the eCommerce industry of the GCC region with Saudi Arabia and UAE already becoming the centre of maximum online shoppers followed by Qatar, Kuwait, Oman etc., large marketplaces, both local and international ones are working on providing seamless and easy to use business models to sellers and retailers in order to boost sales, increase profitability and enhance customer relations. 

Two of the most renowned and highly valued marketplaces with the best seller models in the UAE and Saudi Arabia are:

• Noon
• Amazon 

While both are the biggest rivals fighting it out big to dominate the Middle Eastern eCommerce market, selling on either or both of these platforms can really bring in tons of revenue for your online business and help you reach a massive customer base regionally and internationally.

This article has been designed to enlighten sellers, retailers and brands like yours to understand each of the seller models of these two platforms and curate the best strategies and plans to not only sell on them but also to be fully ready to tackle any issues or challenges along the way. 

Noon Selling Models

Starting off with homegrown and one of the first most popular marketplaces across UAE and Saudi Arabia, Noon offers two selling models for eCommerce businesses to choose from or use both at the same time for higher sales. The only condition Noon implements when you go with both the selling models is that of keeping separate inventory for each one of them.

1. Fulfilled By noon (FBN)

Fulfilled by noon or FBN allows sellers to deliver their products to the Noon storage facilities and take care of the next processes all from there. 

The entire process followed by FBN to enable faster, efficient and hassle-free service to your customers includes:

• Once FBN facility receives all the products, a thorough quality check is performed 
• Items that pass the quality check are then allocated locations in the noon fulfilment centre as per product type, size, expiry, etc.
• The FBN team takes care of the entire picking, packing and dispatch process once a purchase has been made. 
• To help you with every single update on your orders, there is a dedicated noon support team that manages, tracks and updates all your inventory and orders and ensures that your sales run smoothly. 
• Post dispatch, the FBN team handles all the customer queries and disputes regarding your product.
• For returns and cancellations, FBN keeps the products under its wing till you raise a return request from their  facility 
• Payments for each successful delivery is processed into your seller account on a weekly basis. 

While noon takes care of the complete cycle of your online sales, all you have to do is maintain pricing of your products and promote them as much as possible.  

How does noon Express help me?

FBN also renders special delivery benefits such as same-day delivery anywhere in Dubai for orders placed in the morning and for other regions in the UAE, it ensures that orders reach the customers within the next 24 hours of purchase. For orders placed in KSA, FBN allows easy dispatch and free delivery for orders above AED 100. 

These quick delivery options are a major governing factor for customer happiness and can help you acquire loyal and repeat shoppers.

Using the noon Express or FBN facility you can experience higher sales, focus more on developing your core business, and deploy cost-effective steps for better stability of your eCommerce business.

2. Cross-dock Back 2 Back (B2B)

Cross-dock Back 2 Back or B2B is the second selling model provided by noon that helps sellers do things as per their own convenience. 

With the Seller Back to Back selling model, you do not have to send your products anywhere and keep them in your own storage facility until an order is placed and you receive an email notification to confirm the same. 

Once you receive an update, the support team of noon follows a series of steps to ensure correct and timely deliveries of your orders to the customers. 

The major steps followed in the Crossdock selling model by noon include:

• Post requesting for stocks, the logistics team of noon, noon express collects your orders from your facility then brings it back to their own customer fulfilment centre
• In the noon fulfilment centre, all the products undergo Quality Checks and those that qualify the checks are then prepared for dispatch
• Once the order is dispatched from the noon facility, a confirmation on the same is communicated to you. 
• If an order is cancelled post it has reached the noon facility, the staff tries to reallocate the item to another customer order in line but if there is none, then the product is converted to FBN within the next 24-48 hour or returned back to you.

Even with the B2B selling model, you save big on most of the processes and only have to take care of the storage of your products while having full control of the pricing, quality and promotions of your items and be assured of the noon serviceability to provide your customers with the best shopping experience.

While you can choose either or both of the noon selling models, understanding the major difference between the two FBN and B2B selling models is important. 

Here is a tabular depiction of the most distinctive differences that the two selling models have.

No matter which of the two models you choose, noon allows you complete control over your products and works as an extended business model to help you make the right decisions and take your business to the next level.

Amazon Selling Models

The journey of a global marketplace, extremely popular and highly beneficial for sellers looking to start their eCommerce journey, Amazon began its operations in the Middle East by acquiring Souq.com in 2017 which was the biggest eCommerce platform in the region during that time. Post acquiring the platform for a whopping $580 million, Souq.com UAE became Amazon.ae in 2019 and Amazon.sa for Saudi Arabia in 2020. 

Souq.com now serves as the subsidiary of Amazon in the GCC region and allows thousands of sellers, retailers and brands to move their offline business online to sell on the biggest marketplace and experience a customer poll beyond any. 

Amazon allows sellers to choose their own fulfilment options, FBA or Fulfilled by Amazon, or unlike noon, it provides logistics assistance to businesses known as Amazon Easy Ship as well as Amazon Seller Flex that wish to ship their own products. 

1. Fulfilled By Amazon (FBA)

The most preferred and trusted choice of sellers, new as well as existing is the FBA or Fulfilled by Amazon selling model which is also popular amongst the shoppers as they receive assurance of good quality by Amazon for the products they purchase. 

With Amazon FBA your products need little to no assistance from you and are taken care of completely by the marketplace as soon as you have sent them to the Amazon warehouse. The complete structure of the FBA selling model consists of: 

• Keeping your products in the Amazon fulfilment centres across all regions with a huge storage capacity to eliminate the chances of your products going out of stock.
• Amazon allows the flexibility to pay on the go, as in paying for only the storage space that your products acquire in the facility with no extra costs on shipping.
• Picking, packing and shipping of all your products from these Amazon fulfilment facilities 
• Amazon takes care of all customer services right from resolving queries to giving tracking updates, handling disputes, etc.
• As FBA is present in almost all regions, your customer pool expands internationally and helps you achieve greater sales
• With Fulfillment by Amazon, customers trust your products more and you save a lot on marketing expenses, manual involvement, shipping charges and more.
• Amazon also handles all your return orders and ensures that you experience minimum losses.

Apart from these very cost-effective features by Amazon, your products also get to be featured in exercises like Lightning deals, getting free shipping etc., that attract more shoppers to your products. 

Amazon also gives out a very special ‘Buy Box’ feature for sellers or brands that reach a certain level of popularity and repeated order rates. 

2. Amazon Easy Ship

For businesses that can or want to take care of their inventory all by themselves, Amazon offers another selling model in which all it does is provide assistance for shipping products whenever your products are purchased from the platform. 

Amazon Easy Ship enables sellers to store and pack their products in their own warehouses or storage facilities and then sends in an associate from Amazon’s identified courier partners to the seller’s location to take up the packed orders and deliver it to the customer while charging a small delivery fee. 

Sellers who want their customers to have a faster and more accurate delivery experience as well as to have accurate shipment tracking information, choose the Amazon Easy Ship model that offers a number of advantages including:

• Option to schedule orders for pick up at your one convenience all through the day
• Undivided attention to core business without the distraction of handling customers
• Live tracking for orders and real-time updates on its location 
• Allowing easier and faster modes of serviceability to enhance customer satisfaction
• Availability of Cash on Delivery or COD options.

Although the AES selling model offers more control to the sellers, it has some restrictions too. One of them is the unavailability of the feature throughout the GCC region and the second is the fact that certain product types such as heavy or bulky items cannot be delivered through the Amazon Easy Ship program.

3. Amazon Seller Flex

Especially beneficial for local sellers and logistics service providers, the Amazon seller flex model allows the best last-mile delivery services around UAE as the Flex Seller Model allows independent logistics partners to pick up bundles of items from local Amazon warehouses and then deliver them to a specific address provided to them by Amazon.

The sellers have complete control over storage, packaging, time of dispatch etc., and can ship more orders with multiple Flex drivers to specific locations at a time. This model also helps these local logistics companies to make maximum wage delivering Amazon packages in their chosen and well-known locations.

4. Amazon Global Selling

With Amazon Global Selling, sellers can reach customers beyond borders as it allows them to sell internationally from anywhere. Over 200 countries fall under the International Selling of Amazon Global Selling model including the USA, Canada, Mexico & Brazil, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, UK, UAE, Turkey, Japan, Singapore & Australia.  

Amazon Global Selling makes export of products from one region or country to another seamless and offers sellers a wide range of customers across the globe. 

Apart from these selling models of Amazon that are being used around the GCC region, there is one more model rendered by the platform across the world to further help sellers choose the right option suitable for their eCommerce business and then proceed to expand sales and provide greater customer experience. The other selling model of Amazon is:

5. Amazon Self Ship FBM (Fulfilled By Merchant)

Quite popular in regions like India, the Amazon Self Ship model allows sellers to fulfil orders themselves without the involvement of any third-party entity. 

Using this model, sellers get to produce as well as store all their inventory at a single place in their own facility, pack and ship items on their own which guarantees more cost savings and faster deliveries.

Although Amazon Self Ship model is yet to hit the GCC eCommerce market, if you plan on choosing any of the other selling models currently provided by Amazon, i.e., Amazon FBA, Amazon Easy Ship, Amazon Flex or Amazon Global Selling, you can always be clear on the fact that the level of trust customers from all around the world have on Amazon, you can fully expect a rapid release in your demands, order volumes and fulfilments to find yourself climbing the ladders of success with your business.

Start selling on Amazon & Noon today with the right solutions to support you!

Different selling models, tons of options to choose from within each model, various advantages and disadvantages, and of course the possibility to onboard on any of these platforms, let alone both can all be a little intimidating if you do it all by yourself.

But with a highly knowledgeable and robust technology solutions platform that provides:

• Seamless integrations to 100+ biggest eCommerce players including Amazon & noon
• Automates all inventory, order and warehouse operations from a single panel
• Enhances productivity and overall profitability 
• Provides real-time updates to you on all business operations

and a lot more so that you can sit back and gather all your focus into expanding your business and providing the best in class customer service.

Unicommerce is leading supply chain technology solutions platform that excels in empowering your business to integrate on both of these platforms if not one along with 200+ other leading e-commerce service providers including logistics providers, ERP & POS systems, etc., to make the entire e-commerce journey for your business truly simplified. 

Learn: Automate your Business with 220+ Stable E-commerce Integrations!

With Unicommerce, over 20,000 businesses have accomplished the true potential of their business and have unlocked the best possible strategies to experience: 

• 35% Increased Sales Growth
• 25% Reduced Inventory Cost
• 30% Lower Manpower Cost
• 20% Reduced Order Return

Don’t wait up, allow your business to explore new opportunities and increase your profitability with the customized and tremendously impactful solutions of Unicommerce. 

Explore our platforms:

1. Integrated logistics management system
2. Automated payment reconciliation system

Read how Businesses are growing with Unicommerce –
1. How Dubai-based Vidiwell achieved 230% sales order growth in 7 months in the Middle East
2. 99.99%+ Fulfillment Rate for the Kuwait-based Platform Toyfull
2. Oryvo Achieved Maximized Efficiency and Minimized Workload

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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!

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eCommerce in the Middle East has seen rapid growth with more than 45% of shoppers beginning their purchase journey online. With the rise of accessibility to smartphones, high-speed internet and an overall choice of shopping from the comfort of their homes, the percentage of shoppers shopping online has increased in the eCommerce ecosystem.

If you are a retailer and selling only offline in the current times you may face the issue of selling in-store Inventory first due to the low footfall in malls and stores as more and more shoppers are choosing to shop from the comfort of their homes, without going through the hassle of stepping out. And so, by going online, you will not only be able to rotate the stocks on a regular basis but also increase the sales, improving your overall unit economics.

To make the switch from offline to online, this is the right time because not only will you find superior assistance in making the transition, but you will find a rather larger audience to make your mark on.

Going by the reports of Go-Gulf, online shopping is shaping up to be a big deal in the Middle Eastern countries with the biggest amount of shoppers coming from UAE and KSA at 60% followed by Egypt at 43%.

48% of UAE and KSA consumers explore hundreds of online shopping sites to know the price range and variations in products to get the right ideas and inspirations before making a purchase.

These numbers show a positive future for eCommerce in these regions and that makes up for a crucial factor to strengthen your online presence even more than that offline.

This article has been designed to help you make the right decision with a complete understanding of all the aspects you need to consider before and after making the switch. Read on to get useful insights on how to become a top eCommerce seller in the Middle East.

How to Take Your Retail Business Online?

If we look at the statistics, the audiences of the Middle East region accounts for 60% in terms of internet usage and has the highest social media engagement of 99% in the UAE and Qatar alone.

The consumers of today prefer more options of buying, delivery, payments, etc making it necessary for a retailer to not just limit their audiences to offline channels where the only way to make a purchase is by visiting the store in person, making payments and then taking the product home by themselves

Incorporating online selling creates a more flexible environment for your customers and that has become a major factor in deciding your overall profits and growth as a business. 

But even if you decide to take the route to online selling, the biggest concern you as a retailer will face will be about the right ways and strategy to start your eCommerce journey and what all you’ll need to be prepared for in the process?

Here are the top 5 requirements to sell online in the Middle East that will help your business make the shift, start the sales and maintain growth

1. Website Creation and Marketplace Integrations

Numbers show that over 56% of shoppers prefer to search for products on different marketplaces and or on the own website of a brand so it is a fundamental step towards building your eCommerce business.

If you wish to kick start selling without waiting up for too long, you can list your products on various marketplaces such as Amazon, Noon, Jollychic etc., but it is always better to have your own website while being present on these platforms as well because then you will have multiple options to cater to your audiences with and will not be restricting your online presence. 

Platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento., etc can help you create a unique website and promote your business in the way you want to. They provide you with hundreds of templates or personalized formats to choose from along with many other plugins to ease your process of selling online. 

2. Personalized Shopping Experience

Going by the reports of Go-Gulf more than 52% of shoppers in the Middle East buy products based on their popularity on social media platforms, making it essential for an eCommerce business to give their customers a sense of personalization when recommending or pitching products to sell them.

Over 42% of customers in the region prefer to shop from platforms that provide them with options based on their previous purchases or interests in a more personalized manner. To ensure that your customers connect well with your products, work with local language experts to revamp your website to have an Arabic version.

You can change the interface of your website as per the Arabic language, show more local faces and products preferred by the audiences, etc.

3. Payment Gateway

Once you have built your website or listed your products in any of the popular marketplaces and carts, the next big thing to ensure is the safety and security of your customers when they purchase products from you and this can be done only with a trusted Payments partner. 

In the Middle East, 62% of the shoppers still prefer Cash on Deliveries due to the very reasons of theft and fraud but with more and more advanced security features being added to several Payment Gateways, users have slowly started to place orders using credit or debit cards, prepaid, wallets etc.

4. ERP and Accounting Systems

Not only for payments but having a stronger system than can evaluate your total earnings, keep track of all payments and provide you with useful information on your accounting processes is also necessary. 

These are no tasks to be done manually and require precision and attention to detail which cannot be achieved fully using manual efforts.

Apart from these, the VAT system in the Middle East, effective from January 1st, 2018 makes it even more crucial to have a robust ERP and accounting system onboarded to handle your taxes, better understand the VAT laws and be aligned with government regulations.

Utilizing the expertise of technology, you can provide your business with the right tools to maintain, manage and keep records of all your payments, get error-free calculations on profits and always be one step ahead of your competitors.

5. Logistics and Delivery

When all the shopping is done and the payments are made, the next thing to take care of is the delivery of products on time and without errors.

Shipping products on time and making sure they reach the last mile is what will set your eCommerce business apart from all others. Onboarding third-party logistics and shipping providers that have strong local ties to ensure your orders can reach the farthest of the end, will help you create a happier and bigger pool of customers.

Look for partners that provide multiple options for delivery such as same day, next day, etc. This will allow your customers the convenience of getting orders at their own time.

Your eCommerce platform will need to have complete automation of services to tackle the demands, sales, deliveries and much more, all at the same time and that can be achieved only when you have all of these 5 crucial aspects in place to ensure a seamless transition, better management and overall higher profits for your business.

Establish your Business With the Right Solutions!

Accomplishing all 5 of these highly important aspects to take your business online may be difficult if you do not have the right support by your side but with Unicommerce you’ll be able to check all the boxes and scale up your eCommerce business in the most successful way possible.

Unicommerce is a leading supply chain technology solutions provider that ensures complete simplification of all your eCommerce needs be it managing your inventory, orders, warehouse, returns and much more!

Unicommerce has been catering to hundreds of sellers, retailers and brands emerge as thriving eCommerce businesses and create new opportunities of success for them. 

To know more about our services, technology solutions or to get a free demo, speak to one of our experts right now.

Start your eCommerce journey with us today!

Request a Demo

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According to the Statistica reports, the revenue of the Philippines eCommerce market is projected to show an annual growth rate of 16.7% (CAGR 2020 – 2025), leading up to the rise of market volume to US$7,665m by 2025.

With the rapid increase in the number of online shoppers which is expected to grow further up to 47.8% by 2025, the industry is all set to experience a massive boost in sales to the eCommerce sellers, retailers, businesses and to the overall economy of the country.

Opportunities to Sell on Marketplaces & Carts

Local as well as global users browse through the eCommerce arena of the Philippines giving way for small to large eCommerce players to multiply their sales and increase their customer bases.

Apart from this. consumer behaviour has now shifted from making trips to retail outlets to shopping remotely and getting their products delivered right at their doorsteps. 

With an increase in the number of online shoppers, the need to be present everywhere has magnified as well. You can no longer just sell from offline and match the level of competition around you to experience true growth and profits.

Benefits of Selling on Marketplaces & Carts

Being on marketplaces and carts gives your business the chance to double your sales and grow your consumer base. 

Once you have made the shift from selling just offline to now being present online as well, you get to experience some huge advantages. The biggest benefits of selling online include:

1. Lower Costs of Handling – In the absence of paying for physical stores and with low staff requirements, you automatically save a lot when you sell online.

2. Bigger pool of Customers – When you start selling on marketplaces and carts, your products are accessible to a wide range of shoppers, increasing your sales and overall profitability.

3. Data-Driven Operations – Marketplaces allow you to collect data insights about the choices and interests of your customers, helping you plan better sales.

4. Complete Automation – With the automation of operations and lesser dependency on manual efforts, you get more accurate information about your business and experience higher productivity.

Top 8 Marketplaces & Carts in the Philippines

The future of eCommerce in the Philippines is going to be huge and if you plan to expand your online business here, it is necessary for you to start selling on the top marketplaces and carts that have made a mark in the country and are soaring up with a rapidly growing list of shoppers.

#1 Lazada

Lazada.com.ph is the most renowned eCommerce marketplace in Philippines with a wide range of products that allows something for everyone and has been a key player in scaling up the online shopping trends in the country.

Lazada has gained immense popularity ever since it began operating in 2011, not only in the Philippines but in other regions of Southeast Asia as well including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam as well.

The platform is the first choice for sellers for a lot of reasons, including their preferred Cash on Delivery (COD) mode of payments that allow the majority of eCommerce businesses in the Philippines the ease to accept payments without relying on banks. 

The huge list of products on the platform with over 300 million SKUs from all shopping categories and with 25.6 million visits each month, Lazada becomes a necessary place for sellers to be present at.

#2 Shopee

Although Shoppee.ph was launched just 5 years ago, the platform has managed to attract a lot of customers and thousands of sellers on it making it one of the top competitors of Lazada in South East Asia.

Being the most preferred platform for over 15 million shoppers, Shopee has grown big in the region. The platform has a rapidly growing seller base with a catalogue size of over 3 million products from various categories.

In order to be a successful seller on the Shopee, it is necessary to be socially active, maintain good customer feedback and provide highly satisfactory customer service. The platform provides paid ad services but charges 0 fees for listings. 

Shoppee serves in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam with a product range consisting of essential products, apparel, electronics and even pet foods. The platform also allows reselling, making it a more popular online shopping destination.

#3 Zalora

Zalora is yet another top eCommerce selling platform in the Philippines that provides a huge platform for apparel and shoe brands to showcase their products to a wide list of shoppers.

The platform is well known to have some of the biggest global names in the fashion industry such as H&M, Adidas, Superdry, Nike., etc be a part of their online marketplace and offers a variety of wearable items right from formal to casual wear. 

At present, Zalora offers over 120000 products and allows Cash on Delivery payment method, as well as free returns, making it easier for sellers to build trust amongst their customers.

The platform as a huge social media following and has also collaborated with the biggest fashion icons in the region such as Isabelle Daza-Semblat, Solenn Heussaff-Bolzico, Georgina Wilson-Burnand and Liz Uy, to curate a label ‘the__edit’ making it a top choice for budding as well as known fashion houses to sell online.

#4 Amazon

Amazon has ventured into the Philippines eCommerce industry as well, and being an international marketplace, it immediately caught the attention of online shoppers in the region as well. 

With the biggest range of almost all kinds of products available on Amazon, it is one of the most visited marketplaces in the region. Amazon FBA has allowed tons of Filipino sellers to showcase their products locally as well as globally, expanding their poll of customers.

The platform has a well-defined product listing guideline that helps new sellers to set up shop easily, and gives them equal exposure with other competitors, driving good sales for them. Apart from this the built-in affiliate program of Amazon FBA provides complete assistance to sellers right from handling their products to shipping them, to even managing their returns. This helps online sellers save huge on inventory management, manpower costs and returns. 

Once you begin your eCommerce journey with Amazon, you can grow seamlessly as it takes care of your audiences, your marketing strategies depending on your budget and a lot more of such highly impactful features to help you boost sales.

#5 eBay

eBay Philippines was brought to the Filipino eCommerce market to help sellers get a well structured and easy to use online platform to sell their products. 

As the platform allows selling new as well as used goods, sellers from all sections could make immense profits with a wide reach within the region and around the globe. 

The platform is very user friendly and all it requires for you to start selling online is to sign up, create your account and make your listings.

eBay serves over 180 million shoppers around the world and you can begin selling without having a company website or full-time resources to manage your promotions. 

With a dedicated Seller Hub, eBay provides complete assistance to sellers and even lets them print their own shipping labels, have knowledge of the best performing products, etc. making it a top choice for new online sellers and homegrown brands.

#6 Shopify

Shopify is well known for its ability to kick start an online business by allowing sellers to create top-notch websites, add products, and more such plugins to tackle crucial operational tasks. 

This fully-hosted platform gives Filipino sellers a free 14-day trial and a completely streamlined experience to enable them to make the switch from their retail business or just start selling online from the first go.

Thousands of eCommerce businesses in the Philippines operate via the online shops created on Shopify and utilize the multi channel selling capabilities. Shopify allows sellers to sell directly on Facebook, Instagram, eBay, Amazon, etc making it a one-stop solution.

With features such as 1 click upsell, abandoned cart recovery and with thousands of pre-built templates, the process of creating an online shop becomes very easy for sellers and gives a user-friendly experience to the shoppers.

#7 Magento

Magento is yet another highly trusted and sought after eCommerce platform in the Philippines where sellers can easily start selling online and make good profits.

The platform offers unique and customizable options to create your own website, add as many features you want and a lot many third-party integrations to tackle every aspect of your e-commerce business.

Magento also allows sellers to create personalized marketing promotions, provide recommendations, instant purchases and much more with the use of drag and drop tools to help them serve better to their customers.

#8 WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a plugin of WordPress that serves as an exclusive eCommerce platform for sellers who create their websites via WordPress.

This free plugin offers a variety of options to the sellers including highly customizable features to handle your eCommerce website, thousands of extra plugins to increase performance and create a user-friendly experience.

The platform is very convenient to use and has a lot of shoppers logging in each day to shop for hundreds of products.

Start today, Choose the right platform for your business!

These top 8 marketplaces and carts have been offering the best online selling experience to eCommerce businesses in the Philippines and have built a strong customer base for them.

Multichannel selling can be a little tricky if you do it alone because big exposure to consumers requires faster operational efficiency and better customer experience to achieve profits.

When you sell on any of these big marketplaces and carts, handling your inventory, orders, sales and accounting manually can be a tedious task and may lead up to errors, but with the right multichannel management software, the process can be truly simplified!

Each business has its own requirements and expectations when selling on these platforms and we at Unicommerce bridge the gap between you and the right choice for your business to thrive in the online eCommerce business.

The robust plug and play features of Unicommerce’s Order management Software to any of these 8 marketplaces and carts combined with completely automated operations, in built collaborations with Logistics partners, ERP etc can give your e-commerce business the much-needed boost it requires to increase profitability and enhance the customer experience.

Interested in building an advanced, feature-rich ecommerce dashboard tailored to your business needs? Give our solutions expert a call today!

Related read:

• UniShip – Advanced Logistics Tracking Platform
• UniReco – Automated Reconciliation of Orders, Returns and Payments
• Key Challenges & Benefits of Marketplace Payment Reconciliation
• Benefits of Shipping Notifications
• How to Sell on Zalora Marketplace in the Philippines?
• How can you overcome Supply Chain Challenges in the Philippines?
• Apparel Industry in the Philippines: Opportunities, Challenges and Solutions

The post Top Marketplaces & Carts to Sell Online in the Philippines: Lazada, Zalora, Shopee & more appeared first on unicommerce.com.

As the Corona outbreak has forced consumers to rely on the services of online platforms to fulfil demands, there has been a steep slope of changing consumer behaviour towards purchasing goods right from their homes and this trend is sure to last as the world is now adapting to new practises of strong hygiene and social distancing. 

Due to these, eCommerce businesses can expect a huge surge in demands, customer queries and expectations of faster deliveries. However, restrictions imposed by the lockdown resulted in severe on ground disruptions for logistics services, along with the migration of many labourers back to their hometown forcing the e-commerce players to revisit their operations and reduce dependence on manual tasks. 

For all eCommerce sellers to be able to address these challenges, it is highly necessary to incorporate important tools and technologies that can enable automation of services to ensure no more delays in business operations

To be able to address these requirements, we have compiled the list of some of the most useful tools to help you focus on potential solutions to improve profitability, increase productivity and handle operations during this time enabling a better future for your eCommerce business.

Shopify

Shopify is a leading eCommerce platform with 1M+ brands and businesses across 175 countries running their eCommerce store-fronts on it.

Shopify enables retailers to move their business online to focus on their online growth. 

With plug-and-play themes to choose from, the platform enables businesses in developing store designs, management of products and collections, enablement of marketing campaigns, etc.

Businesses can easily automate manual tasks such as order processing, marketing campaigns, analytics and reporting, customer communication and launch any new feature or integration with third-parties as well. 

With Shopify, your business can incur low development and resource costs along with zero maintenance costs all of which can help scale up profits, proving for this platform to be a topmost technology to onboard in your business. 

Razorpay (Thirdwatch)

Razorpay Thirdwatch provides an in-depth AI/ML based solution for eCommerce companies to tackle Return to origin (RTO) orders and Cash on Delivery (COD) fraud, which allows businesses to increase their operational efficiency and reduce losses.

With surge in demands, cancellations or RTOs increase as well and for businesses to maintain a profitable flow, it becomes crucial to focus on restricting these returned/cancelled orders to cut back on any extra costs of shipping. 

Thirdwatch analyses over 200 parameters about each eCommerce order placed in near real-time to recognize various patterns like address issues, fraud behaviour, suspicious email IDs/phone numbers, impulse purchase behaviour etc 

These checks enable businesses to prioritize genuine orders for fulfilment, management of undeliverable orders, and to flag out suspicious/fraud orders making this platform a highly essential tool for your business.

Yellow Messenger

Yellow Messenger is a leading conversational AI platform that caters to over 250+ enterprises across the globe, handling over a billion conversations quarterly.

The platform allows businesses to directly reach out to their customers via their preferred channels, eliminating the need for aggregators. This is especially crucial in these unprecedented times where digital commerce is on the rise and consumers are looking for an exceptional brand experience.

Yellow Messenger enables enterprises to leverage WhatsApp Business accounts to drive end-to-end eCommerce and support. The advantage here is that with a channel like WhatsApp that has a pre-aggregated audience, you can easily start with a basic WhatsApp Business account with little backend requirements. This enables you to kickstart impactful conversations with your customers without having to wait for all the pieces of the selling ecosystem to fall into place, making it one of the fastest ways to interact with your customers.

In short, conversational AI in conjunction with a communication channel like WhatsApp opens up a low-investment, high-reward channel for direct commerce

ClickPost 

ClickPost is a logistics intelligence platform which helps eCommerce companies rapidly optimize their operations, logistics costs in order to improve customer experience.

With AI-based selection of courier partners and pre-integrations with 100+ courier services, the platform ensures lower logistics costs for businesses with the ability to onboard partners within a day making the entire process seamless. 

Clickpost allows real-time tracking of orders with constant updates via email, texts, etc. to reduce manual efforts and increase accuracy of deliveries all of which lower the rate of RTOs and hence an improved customer experience.

ClickPost helps companies automate their tracking & customer communication to allow better customer experience and enhanced satisfaction making it an extremely useful tool for your business.

Payoneer

Trusted by more than 4 million customers, this cross-border payments platform empowers small businesses, marketplaces and enterprises to grow their global commerce, serving around 200 countries and territories.

Payoneer’s technology, compliance, operations and banking infrastructure empowers businesses by delivering a suite of services that includes cross-border payments, tax solutions and risk management.  

Businesses get the option to instantly connect with customers around US, UK, EU, Japan, Canada, Australia and Mexico with accounts in multiple currencies having the freedom to receive payments in different formats including Credit Card, Debit card, etc, view payment history and receive notifications about key financial transactions, special offers, and other account activities.

Payoneer allows you to tap emerging opportunities and expand to new markets making it a necessary tool for your business.

Shadowfax

One of India’s highly reliable last-mile delivery platforms with a network of more than 25,000 delivery partners, more than 5000 vans active across 65 cities in India,  Shadowfax is a cross-category crowdsourced logistics platform offering tech-driven solutions towards optimizing partner efficiency and providing a cost-effective express logistics solution for eCommerce, restaurants, FMCG, pharma as well as online & offline retailers. 

Shadowfax ensures deliveries even to remote areas with an omnichannel offering specifically designed for essential businesses to help them service the complete city within 24 hours.

The logistics platform allows best-in-class rider serviceability, multi-modal delivery options via vans or bikes, and flexible delivery schedules like hyperlocal in the vicinity, next day in farther areas. Apart from this, Shadowfax has exclusive tie-ups with Indian Railways, airlines and leading trucking operators to maintain an uninterrupted intercity supply of goods

All of these features make the delivery provider a profoundly important technology for your business to have in order to increase business profitability. 

Shiprocket

Shiprocket is India’s leading eCommerce logistics aggregator, serving 40,000 active Direct to Consumer sellers with its lowest shipping costs, widest pin code reach and dedicated customer service. Providing bulk shipping rates with no minimum order requirements.

The company optimizes existing logistics infrastructure using data and AI to offer seamless shipping solutions for every online seller. Shiprocket is partnered with as many as 17 expert courier partners enabling sellers to ship products across 26,000+ pin codes in India and to over 220 countries globally.

With Shiprocket’s Logistics Aggregator Model, Courier Recommendation Engine (CORE), Shipping Rate Calculator and more such services sellers get to choose the right courier partners for each shipment, cost efficiency for the given pickup and delivery pin codes and transparency about the relevant shipping costs for their delivery areas.

Shiprocket provides better coordination with the buyers according to their shipping requirements and ensures a higher chance of delivery by optimizing cost per shipments making it a highly recommended tool for workflow automation for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). 

Unicommerce 

Unicommerce has been simplifying supply chain operations for 10,000+ eCommerce sellers, retailers, and brands by automating their operations across online & offline sales channels.

A one-stop solution for all eCommerce needs, the platform provides integration or has partnership across all domains of the eCommerce ecosystem. The solutions are designed to benefit eCommerce businesses by enabling sustainable operations that result in growth, cost efficiency, and an overall increase in productivity.

Unicommerce enables processes such as multichannel order, inventory and returns management, advanced warehouse management, dropship fulfilment solution, omnichannel selling across 40+ online marketplaces, website platforms, offline stores and much more.

With 30+ pre-integrated Logistics providers, and 10+ ERP & POS systems, Unicommerce provides a single source of various technologically backed solutions to increase productivity for all business operations making it a top requirement for your eCommerce business.

In Conclusion 

These tools and technologies can help you eliminate any more obstructions and lack of services that may put your business at risk.

The effects of Coronavirus have given way to new trends and practices indicating how technology will take over and a restricted approach to manual dependency on things is going to drive the way eCommerce operates henceforth and so it becomes necessary for your business to incorporate high-end services to quickly tackle losses and bring back your productivity and profitability that will ensure a better future for your business.

For queries, request a call back!!

The post eCommerce Essential Technologies & Tools: Increase Productivity of Supply Chain Operations Today appeared first on unicommerce.com.