E-commerce Tips to Succeed in the Philippine Market

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Currently, e-commerce Philippines is unquestionably on the rise. It is becoming increasingly common for people to make online purchases, and there are more methods than ever. Today, you can order products directly from your smartphone and deliver them to your door in seconds. Local e-commerce is booming, and now is the time to get in on the action.

A study conducted by the research giant Grant Thorton estimates that e-commerce trade in the region will amount to $88 billion by 2025. Due to its sizable population, the Philippines is expected to take home a substantial portion of the ASEAN revenue shares. As a result of restrictions in place that force people to seek new alternatives to fulfill their shopping interests and make a purchase, the e-commerce Philippines alone has grown by 55% throughout 2020. COVID-19 has undoubtedly benefited e-commerce rather than hurt it and is a positive development for the sector. However, the country lacks a well-developed payments and logistics infrastructure. As a result, many Filipinos still prefer to process their orders with an actual person instead of conducting transactions online. 

Leverage Real-time Personalization 

Personalizing your web store creates delightful experiences tailored to the people who visit it. It is a similar experience to walking into a retail store only to be greeted by a salesperson that helps you with your purchases. Through website personalization, you can receive the same personalized experience online. 

As a result, shoppers are more likely to return to your web store for repurchases with the right personalized shopping experiences. According to McKinsey, 71% of users expect personalization, and 73% are disappointed when shopping experiences fail to meet expectations. A customized marketing campaign yielded 40% more revenue for digitally native companies. 

Following are the tips which you can follow to make your websites personalized. 

  • Users on your site should be able to register and use their information to help customize their experience.
  • Display information, galleries, and reviews about the product and suggest products based on seasonality and geography.
  • Offer product recommendations based on past shopping experiences or viewings. Frequently used terms such as “people who viewed this also bought…” can also be included for the consumers.
  • You can create surprises for new customers by offering discounts for the first time they register or shop on your website and deliver a consistent omnichannel shopping experience.

Use discount sales 

An e-commerce store owner can use discounts as part of their marketing strategy. Online discounts offer numerous benefits, including being easy to track in email messages and helping generate customer loyalty and acquisition. 

Those with larger margins can use discount offers to drive revenue into their stores. Discounted merchandise should be offered only after e-commerce store owners craft a strategy or determine whether it is needed.

Here are the following instances where you can offer discounts that will add benefits to your E-commerce sale.

  • Offering discounts to visitors who have previously shopped at an e-commerce store makes sense. It is a good practice to offer discounts to loyal customers to thank them and retain their business. 
  • Including a discount is a good strategy when reaching out to influencers, incentivizing them to try the product and recommend it to others.
  • The possibility of sending a discount coupon to shoppers makes it more likely that they will convert after leaving their cart unattended.
  • It is worthwhile to offer a discount when a current customer refers a new customer because a new revenue stream may come into play.
  • It may be more cost-effective for store owners to use adaptive pricing models than to rely on discounts. Store owners may offer several versions of the same product at different price points.

Make Your Website Mobile Friendly 

More and more shoppers are shopping online as they prefer the convenience, great deals, and discounts that go along with it over shopping in a brick-and-mortar store. Unlike in previous years, a computer is no longer needed to enjoy online shopping. In a study conducted by Forbes, 80% of surveyed customers said they shop on their mobiles, which is why you should optimize your shop for mobile use. The attention span of shoppers is already short, so contrasting colors and big, easy-to-tap buttons are necessary for a call to action (CTAs) to make your website stand out. 

To improve your customer experience in an e-commerce Philippines and make finding what your customers need easier, place a navigation menu at the top of your site. As some users know exactly what they want, others may be exploring. Therefore, it is very helpful to include a search option alongside the menu option for those users who have no idea what they want. A process that requires customers to create an account or enter additional personal information can reduce the probability of a purchase.

Use Opt-In Pop-Up Offers

Pop-ups are the ultimate tools to help enhance and expand your e-commerce Philippines email list and significantly increase newsletter sign-ups and sales. These are proven strategies for businesses large and small.

E-commerce pop-ups, if executed in the right way, can prove to be the game-changer that your marketing strategy has been looking for.

But first, let’s thoroughly define an e-commerce popup and find out how it differs from other popup campaigns on the web.

What is the Definition of an E-commerce Popup?

An e-commerce pop-up is a specific type of informational or promotional message that appears (albeit without warning) above a website’s content to grab its visitors’ attention. These messages are designed in a way that would attract new leads and customers to your online store.

You have come across several e-commerce Philippines pop-ups in the past if you regularly visit the internet. But what is it that makes this type of popup unique? How is it different from other types of popups we see online daily?

Many pop-ups that you see are called lead magnets. Trying to get an email address using a lead magnet is usually some kind of content that offers high value to the reader in the form of information. Some well-known lead magnets include: 

  • eBooks
  • Infographics
  • Case studies
  • Webinars

These pop-ups aim to exchange this valuable content for contact information. When businesses acquire email addresses or other contact details, they can gradually nurture relationships and convert qualified leads into regular customers.

However, e-commerce pop-ups tend to take a fairly different approach. Instead of leveraging lead magnets in the form of content, they offer their audience a tangible financial incentive. In simpler words, e-commerce pop-ups are attractive because they allow customers to save money instantly.

This is sort of like a 2-for-1 offer on your product or giving your customers a discount on their purchase.

But here comes the best thing about using e-commerce pop-ups to increase your sales – part of the checkout process involves the customer providing an email address. So, in addition to making sales, you can add your contacts to your mailing list.

Secondly, if you are good at email marketing, you can create email campaigns to increase repeat customers. The right e-commerce popup can often lead to more active long-term profits for your business.

Offer Free Shipping

Free shipping is an increasingly popular online shopping option that allows customers to avoid paying additional shipping costs. Free shipping is attractive to customers in e-commerce Philippines who prefer a simple pricing structure, and this is a potential competitive advantage for your online business.

There is no denying that the logistics situation in e-commerce Philippines can be quite tedious, especially for small businesses. There is no gold standard for calculating shipping charges. Everything depends on each carrier, and the variance can be massive. Digital integration with several service providers is also mostly non-existent, partly or fully inaccessible. Similarly, delivering within a city is a very different challenge than delivering to other parts of the country.

In layman’s terms, logistics (like payments) is an area where the best practices of global e-commerce don’t easily translate into the e-commerce Philippines environment.

Most would consider free shipping quite unusual and controversial. However, flat charges or free shipping brings in more customers exponentially. This also greatly reduces the headache of coordinating pricing and calculations and smoother customer checkout. They can offer flat-rate shipping at higher-than-average costs, so they are unlikely to eat up your margins. Also, many have recently launched a same-day delivery service that offers fixed prices subject to certain restrictions. This is a great option to simplify shipping calculations.

Importance of Free Shipping

By offering multiple shipping options in e-commerce Philippines, online retailers can take advantage of the fast-growing e-commerce Philippines experience and create a revenue stream from increased sales. Free shipping also motivates customers to buy by factoring all costs into the price of each item.

Carts are often abandoned at checkout if customers are reluctant to pay additional shipping charges. Keeping the cost from the product page to checkout constant makes customers more likely to complete a purchase.

Different Ways To Offer Free Shipping

  • Orders over a specific price: Many savvy shoppers often add additional items to their shopping cart to receive something for free, especially delivery.
  • Buy more than one item: Up-sell through the use of a free shipping campaign.
  • Predetermined Time Frame: Free online shipping during a specific period is ideal for sales surges during slow periods — or offers further incentives during highly-competitive seasons.

Promote Customer Reviews and Build Trust 

Customer reviews and e-commerce site revenue are two sides of the same coin. Positive reviews are a sign of customer loyalty, and companies with more positive reviews tend to grow revenue twice as fast as their competitors. Understanding exactly how customer reviews benefit your business can help develop strategies to get more customer reviews. 

Customer reviews build credibility and trust to the highest degree. Some sources say that most prospects are 82% more likely to convert if they’re reviewed online. Positive reviews mean you are giving your customers exactly what they require. Therefore, they can trust you. By responding to positive and negative reviews, you show your customer(s) that you care about them and their business.

Paying utmost attention to customer reviews increases e-commerce Philippines sales. Online shoppers today rely heavily on customer reviews to make purchasing decisions. This information can provide the facts consumers are looking for about a product or service, and hearing positive experiences from others like them can bring in more purchases. People are more likely to buy something if they are recommended by someone within the industry, which can ultimately increase their earnings.

Customer reviews also promote low-cost marketing. Positive reviews ultimately help you to promote your business in a way that traditional marketing strategies can not. They give your e-commerce site a positive image to consumers who would consider entering business relationships with you and help increase brand awareness.

Tie up With Influencers and Product Reviewers

Influencer marketing is just a tactic used by companies to advertise their goods and services by collaborating with well-known social media influencers or bloggers. Brands can use influencers’ typically sizable, engaged audiences to enhance their credibility and possibly increase sales. With the emergence of social media celebrities over the past few years, influencer marketing has taken off. You need to have an influencer marketing plan since this kind of advertising is considerably more effective than it would first appear to be.

You may imagine influencer marketing as a single client endorsing your item to millions, or even billions, of friends rather than just thinking of it as like or shares on social media. The two main goals of influencer marketing are also to raise brand recognition and boost sales. However, it is more effective to begin by focusing on what your company requires rather than focusing on these two broad objectives. Influencers can connect with highly niche audiences. With influencer marketing, you can ensure that a targeted audience whose interests align with your brand sees and interacts with your content rather than you having to depend on thousands of followers. 

Step up Your Email Marketing

Delivering a message through email marketing gives you the chance to do so. This message ought to be engaging and easily understood. You must be familiar with your target audience to deliver the right message. To best personalize your message while creating a successful email, it will frequently be required to segment your contact database. You can only segment your audience in the best way by conducting a thorough analysis of it.

Make every effort to ensure that the recipient opens your email if you want to develop email marketing that will help you accomplish your goals. You can be certain that you won’t receive queries for estimates or website visits if nobody is reading your emails. Never forget to mention the sender’s name, email subject, preheader, and time of spending. 

In the era of the web and social media, it is commonly believed that a successful communication plan consists of 80% high-value content and just 20% promotional content. As a result, refrain from spamming your target with email marketing. You won’t receive the anticipated profits. Give them content that goes above and beyond for them. Informational, instructional, or entertaining content is all possible.

Your email marketing campaign’s objective likely extends beyond a single click. This click must be converted and inevitably passes via an ideal landing page. A landing page is a page on which a user who clicked on your email’s button arrives. It must be carefully planned down to the last detail to achieve the highest conversion rate.

The caliber of your landing page determines how well your email marketing campaign performs. Consider this in light of your ultimate objective. Analyzing each of your campaigns is crucial for developing the ideal email marketing plan. Deliverability, open, click-through, reactivity, and churn rates should all always be monitored. You may evaluate the success of your email marketing strategy using these key signs. Then, you must make the appropriate inferences and take the necessary steps to enhance them.

Reward Loyal Customers

Regular clients appreciate freebies, discounts, and special purchasing opportunities since it shows you value their business and encourages them to make additional purchases. Tom Whitney lists ten ways to express gratitude to devoted consumers. You can adopt a few ways to reward them, like:

  1. Give high-spending clients discounts 

Offer clients price breaks when they achieve a certain spending threshold; for instance, 10% off their subsequent purchase if they spend 6000 PHP. Limited-time promotions might promote quick purchases, but make sure you are clear about the terms. Take into account your discount and voucher usage.

  1. Make a program for loyalty cards

Provide consumers with a card that can be stamped after each purchase if you sell low-value, high-volume items (such as hot beverages). When they reach the desired number, they are eligible for a gift. A digital card is a wonderful choice if you sell various goods because it enables clients to accrue points that can be exchanged for discounts or other advantages.

  1. Joining Forces with Companies for Discounts

A well-known instance is a sportswear store that provides discounted gym memberships for purchases over a specific amount. Members receive access to exclusive promos and discount retail coupons as compensation from the gym.

  1. Organize a preview night:

Invite your top clients to a preview event where they can purchase new products well before the rest of your clientele if you are introducing a new offer. Before introducing a new offer, ask your most reliable clients for their opinions. This will give them a sense of responsibility over the offering, which is likely to lead to future purchases and expression recommendations.

  1. Offer favored terms of service:

A small number of major clients may account for a sizable amount of your revenue. Therefore, it’s critical to offer them a special degree of service. This could involve anything from forgoing minimum order amounts to offering expedited delivery or an after-hours service.

Take an Innovative Approach 

A successful marketing strategy to draw in clients is the main innovative approach needed to expand your e-commerce Philippines business and fuel your brand. If you can’t get people to visit your online store, you won’t get any sales. It’s not like having a real storefront where clients might just happen to walk in. Your online store needs to attract clients. If you want to succeed, you’ll need to put a lot of effort into this area; it needs to be regularly reviewed and altered depending on what is and is not driving traffic.

The following list includes some of the crucial components of an innovative approach: 

  • Building brand awareness with social media is a fantastic strategy that has emerged as a digital impact channel. Without a social media presence of some kind, it is nearly impossible for e-commerce Philippines businesses to succeed online. Maintaining a high level of activity on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and other networks makes sense because they can be used for practically everything, from accurate targeting and immediate interaction to customer support and direct sales. The best part is that these platforms are free.
  • Search engine optimization (SEO)  refers to methods that raise your company’s visibility on search engine results pages. By doing this, you increase the number of individuals who can see your website while they are looking for the solutions that your e-commerce Philippines business services may offer. Consider how you use Google searches’ second or third pages infrequently to find what you’re looking for. Therefore, you should aim to be on the first page. You should invest a lot of time in your product pages’ design and SEO. Make the headline include a word or phrase that online users are looking for. Make it part of your product title by conducting keyword research and determining what customers look for when they search for your products. Put some time into that because everyone who views your product page wants to hear your ideal sales speech.
  • Schema Markup is a little more advanced approach, ensuring that your product pages have schema markup. This means that when someone searches on Google, right there on the search page, before they even visit your website, they will see what Google refers to as product-rich cards, which will show your product image and some information right there on the search page. This will give you an edge over your rivals and increase your natural visibility to searchers on sites like Google. Google will direct you to a testing tool if you simply search for “schema markup testing tool.” You only need to enter the URL of your product page, and it will inform you of whether or not your markup is correct.

Upsell and Cross-sell Products 

The challenging aspect of operating an online store is attracting customers interested in buying what you offer. Comparatively, upselling is one of the easiest and most effective techniques to raise your average order value and overall revenue. Upselling simply refers to a strategy or opportunity utilized to persuade a consumer who has already made a purchase or is about to do so to upgrade their order or increase their order by adding more products to their cart.

Upselling focuses on raising the average order value of a lead that has already been converted, rather than bringing in new clients. This is crucial for e-commerce Philippines businesses because it is far easier to upsell an existing customer than to convince someone who has never visited your website before to become a customer. 

Upselling is an opportunity that shouldn’t be passed up because doing so would mean leaving money on the table. Examining the various upselling alternatives in more detail will help.

  • Upselling doesn’t necessarily take place at the end of the purchasing process. In actuality, there are several opportunities to upsell a customer during the purchasing process. Any online store in the Philippines wants its customers to desire to purchase the item on the website. If you’ve done your job correctly, customers will select their size, style, and colour before clicking the button. At this point, your first upsell will take place. The animated arrow draws the consumer, and the upsell content promises further discounts on more expensive bundles.
  • Customers can view everything they had in their shopping cart before selecting checkout by exploring the shopping cart. Another excellent opportunity to upsell is now. After the client has moved to examine their cart, offering a reduced cost, one size fits all item is a terrific method to enhance AOV.
  • How many upsells should you make? Anything more than two upsells before checkout may come across as pushy from the customer’s perspective and possibly risk a deal that has already been struck. You should be cautious about how frequently you try to upsell an existing client.

Cross-selling and upselling are excellent methods to adopt since they promote engagement, foster brand loyalty, and encourage more repeat business in addition to being effective at increasing initial conversions. Cross-selling is the practice of offering a different product concurrently with or following a first purchase to boost the value of the transaction. For instance, a case or screen protector might be suggested when you buy a new phone. 

Let’s take a look at various cross-selling strategies you can use in your e-commerce Philippines marketing.

  • You may encourage cross-selling immediately when a visitor enters your website by grouping collections together or providing an ideas or inspiration section.
  • On a product listing, you can advertise cross-selling as a further strategy. You can alter parts like “complete the look,” where you link to the additional things used to generate the image or usually purchased together. Although there is a lot of flexibility here, it’s a great approach to cross-sell products.

Email Marketing Softwares For Ecommerce Businesses

There are many email marketing softwares available for e-commerce businesses, each with its own unique features and benefits. Here are a few of the most popular options:

Klaviyo: Klaviyo is a powerful email marketing software that is specifically designed for e-commerce businesses. It offers a wide range of features, including email segmentation, automation, and reporting. Klaviyo is known for its ability to help e-commerce businesses increase sales and customer engagement.

Mailchimp: Mailchimp is a popular email marketing software that is used by businesses of all sizes. It offers a variety of features, including email segmentation, automation, and templates. Mailchimp is known for its ease of use and its affordability.

ActiveCampaign: ActiveCampaign is an all-in-one marketing automation platform that includes email marketing, CRM, and sales automation features. It is a good option for businesses that want to automate their entire marketing process.

Drip: Drip is an email marketing software that is specifically designed for e-commerce businesses. It offers a variety of features, including email segmentation, automation, and reporting. Drip is known for its ability to help e-commerce businesses increase conversions and customer lifetime value.

Omnisend: Omnisend is an omnichannel marketing platform that includes email marketing, SMS marketing, and push notifications. It is a good option for businesses that want to reach their customers across multiple channels.

Conclusion 

As a result of the abundance of customers and sellers, the e-commerce Philippines business constantly adopts new trends. You need to be aware of the top trends in the e-commerce sector to grow your business successfully. You can do this by utilizing these trends to increase customer traffic to your website and increase sales.

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