With the surge of various online shopping platforms and e-commerce sites to choose from, we’ve rounded up the most popular destinations best suited for your business and products.
In less than a year, the e-commerce industry has skyrocketed exponentially. As 2020 comes to an end, global retail e-commerce sales are expected to exceed over $4.2 trillion and show no signs of slowing down with a whopping prediction to hit $6.5 trillion by 2023.
If you’re looking to tap into the rapidly growing e-commerce market, there is no better time than now. From daily necessities to the luxuries of life, almost everything can now be bought online. With the new and widespread work-from-home set-up, more and more people have adjusted their lifestyle to comfortably continue and thrive within the four corners of their homes—most especially through their shopping habits.
Leveraging the opportunity to utilize popular online e-commerce sites such as Shopee, Lazada, and Shopify can not only strengthen your brand presence but also accelerate your company’s growth by reaching more people. However, with the surge of items on the market, attracting customer attention and generating conversions have become more competitive than ever.
Knowing where to sell your products is a critical key to achieving record-breaking sales. After all, it’s all about being where your target market is. So what are the best e-commerce sites available?
5 Popular E-commerce Sites
Shopee
Headquartered in Singapore, Shopee has expanded to other countries such as Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, and most popularly the Philippines. With its reliable payment gateway and logistical capabilities, Shopee became one of the region’s leading e-commerce destinations in no time. As of mid-2020, they recorded an average of 19 million monthly web visits. Its user-friendly seller center interface allows entrepreneurs to easily create a seller profile, list their products, and start running a business within mere minutes.
Commission Fees: Shopee charges 2% (+VAT) of the buyer’s total amount
Lazada
Another e-commerce giant in Southeast Asia, Lazada has pioneered e-commerce since 2012 and redefined the online shopping experience with currently over 34 million monthly web visits.
There are two ways to sell via Lazada:
- MarketPlace – ideal for individual sellers where you can conduct businesses with 0% commission fee and a 2.24% payment processing fee.
- LazMall – utilized by authorized brands to sell products with a boosted product search ranking for a price of 5% commission fee
Fun fact: Lazada was bought back in 2016 and is now owned by the Alibaba Group.
WooCommerce
If you run your own online e-commerce website, you have probably heard about WooCommerce. This WordPress plug-in allows you to integrate a shopping cart option and immediately turn your website into an e-commerce site.
An all-in-one user-friendly tool, WooCommerce also comes with its own payment gateway which makes transactions easier for your customers, without being redirected to a separate page to finalize their purchase. Fully optimized for your backend system, you can use it to create discounts and coupons, manage your orders, and view your sales reports & analytics conveniently on your WordPress dashboard.
Roughly 3.9 million websites around the world rely on WooCommerce for these powerful features. It’s a free plug-in to any WordPress site with a domain, but you can avail of tools and extensions are available starting at $25.
Zalora
Launched back in 2012, Zalora took the fashion industry by storm by introducing a new way of shopping while housing some of the top clothing brands around the world. With a well-curated fashion selection of over 500 international and local brands for both men and women ranging from apparel to accessories, it’s no surprise that the e-retailer soon became Asia’s major online fashion destination across multiple countries like in Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan, and the Philippines. With 2 million site visitors every month, everything is guaranteed trendy and seasonal, which is why it gained popularity even among celebrities, influencers, and fashion gurus.
Sellers stand to gain access to Zalora’s intuitive seller center, fast and reliable delivery services, and multiple secure payment methods. Centered on lifestyle, they usually work with entrepreneurs who sell products related to clothes, electronics, beauty, home, kids, health, and food essentials with commission fees ranging from 10-30% depending on the item.
Shopify
A multifaceted e-commerce solution widely recognized around the world, Shopify has helped build over a million shopping websites around the world. Continuing its mission to help businesses raise sales trajectories to groundbreaking levels, Shopify is an all-in-one channel where retailers can set-up stores and seamlessly manage them in all aspects including payment, logistics, and even customer relationship management.
The best part is everything is simplified. Designed to be as user-friendly as possible, it enables all types of individuals to start selling online within a matter of minutes, no coding experience is required. You’ll see that having your own domain can prove profitable as you can play around with various strategies to effectively attract customers to your website, especially revolving around SEO. With full control of your online business, most sellers who are focused on creating a distinct brand and shopping experience for their customers opt for Shopify.
A wide array of packages is available depending on your business’ needs starting at $9/month. Plus, they also have a 14-day free trial in case you want to first give it a try!
Choosing the right e-commerce site is one of the most important aspects of setting up your online business. Remember: How you sell your product is one thing, but where you sell them is another.
Take advantage of the rapidly soaring e-commerce market in 2021 and expand your online presence by maximizing these popular online shopping destinations. To adapt to the high;y competitive market, sellers now find themselves setting up their businesses and listing their products on multiple e-commerce sites to reach larger audiences. In order to keep up with the large volume of orders that come with expanding across multiple e-commerce channels, both entrepreneurs and enterprises tap on a fulfillment partner like LOCAD for an all-in-one integrated solution to supercharging their business.
LOCAD offers a multi-channel Control Tower that integrates e-commerce sites such as Shopee, Lazada, WooCommerce, Zalora, Shopify, and more into one convenient and easy-to-use tech platform for user-friendly business management.
