Based
on a report by Google and Temasek Holdings, Southeast Asia’s (SEA) digital
market could exceed US$200 billion before 2025. Southeast Asia’s digital
economy is forecast to triple its size in the next 5 years. Read more on
the challenges faced as a seller in the E-commerce marketplace, to help you decipher
and be part of this immensely growing economy.
E-commerce
stores are on the rise due to a numerous reasons. As far as market association is concerned,
E-commerce sites already have an existing network of buyers. So, selling your
products becomes relatively easy as branding and advertising is already taken
care of.As Sigmund Freud's had rightly said “I
carefully consider my decisions as everything comes with pros and cons!”
Marketplace Management
When it comes to South-East Asian E-commerce market, the
most underestimated struggle is Fragmentation i.e. there are a
number of e-commerce platforms in ASEAN countries attracting significant
traffic, making it tedious for the brands to make an online presence.
In Indonesia, five
different e-commerce platforms rank in the top 50 in total online monthly
traffic, including Tokopedia (37.6 million), Bukalapak (27 million), Shopee
(15.3 million), Blibli (11.6 million) and Lazada (7.9 million).For Malaysia, it
is Lazada (12.6 million), Shopee (11.1 million), 11th street (4.4 million) and
Mudah (3.6 million).
Merchant
Vs Monthly web traffic
(Data per Q4 2019)
(Data per Q4 2019)
When we compare it with
e-commerce marketplace in United States, here it is much less fragmented. The
breakdown of the three horizontal e-commerce marketplaces in the US with
maximum traffic are: Amazon (1,500 million), Wal-Mart (166.5 million) and
Target (88.6 million).Hence, the number one
challenge faced by the sellers here is Marketplace management.
Complicated logistic,
legal & banking set up
Another major concern
would be the lack of consistent legal and custom border regulations and the
fluctuating tariff rates across countries. Each region has their own local set
of laws and regulations. The payment methods, customer interactions and support
could pose a barrier as each of these processes / laws are unique to each
country.
As per Barclaycard
stats, 30% of the products purchased online are returned.This is due to
undependable logistics & delivery issues posed by marketplace courier companies.
This ends up costing the seller return charges and the cost of product loss.
The risk of damage or loss of goods across borders immensely affects
buyer-seller relationships. The solution is streamlining orders throughout the
process via. Order management.
Marketplace Complexity
With a multitude of
marketplaces and countless number of products, the task of product
listing (attributes and categories) poses on-going hurdles for the
sellers. Along with this, we also see difference in promotions/campaigns,
fulfillment methods, payment agreement & cycles and cumbersome on-boarding.
 |
| Fig: Every Marketplace is different |
Overseeing Inventory
Imagine a situation with current AI
advancements in e-commerce, a
customer visual search for a product and identifies it online. He is about to
click on “Add to cart” but unfortunately it is out-of-stock! Not only can
technology bring in customers,but if you master the right inventory management
techniques you can reach maximum productivity. Effective Inventory management
prevents such setbacks and ensures on-time delivery.
Lost
sales due to tracking and pricing
Competitors continuously change prices which pose as a
huge challenge to present day sellers while they try to keep their sales curve
up. It’s predicted that by 2040, close to 95% of products will be purchased
online! To win buyers, you will need to quote competitive prices in
the marketplace. What you will need is to devise a pricing strategy, which
automatically adjusts the price whenever there is a change in the competitor’s
price.
 |
| Fig :Sell Anywhere Sell Everywhere! |
In a nutshell, the challenges faced by the E-commerce
sellers comes right down to listing , synchronizing inventory, managing orders,
shipping & pricing .So what we need today is a multi-channel marketplace
management solution ! From accepting order, printing invoice and
shipping label to tracking shipping status, we cover everything with
SELLinALL’s user friendly dashboard. With our automated pricing feature based
on a predetermined pricing strategy & a finance metrics dashboard, we help
you stay ahead of your competitors!
“Not just a platform, we are your support system!” claim our team of e-commerce experts. As the e-commerce industry grows, new challenges will arise and so will new innovative solutions.
References