[How to] Sell Online on Philippines Marketplaces

Filipinos began to make money online through capitalizing, serving as a freelancer, or opening up their web store.

Trading of goods and services online without a physical mart is the new method of business these days.

What’s the need to trade online?

Filipinos are known as one of the biggest spenders in the digital world. Consumer’s buying behaviors are vigorously shifting from a physical store to the web store, perhaps, an opportunity to develop a new realm for e-commerce.

In fact, the number of hours spent on the Internet is more than 3 hours a day.

So, don’t you find it intriguing? You might be wondering how to commence marketing and generating revenue in the digital world?

We will assist you to find valuable information for the growth of an online business initially. Things to be considered before expanding it to a different world are –

Be specific while Deciding your product

Knowing what kind of products are going to deal with, enables you to discern the other facets as well. To run an online store, research work really strengthens the possibilities of a profitable business.

There are different tools i.e. Google keyword planner and Google trends affiliated by GOOGLE operated for market analysis accessible to everyone, who runs a web store.

Google keyword planner allows you to search for product ideas through the highest keyword search volume, buyers search in the Philippines whereas Google trends deliver market analysis through pictorial representations of growing (or declining) behaviors towards a specific product over time.

Branding strategies play an integral part in any form of business

When it comes to buying, people are more receptive. Whether the product is authorized or authentic plays a crucial role. How do shoppers anticipate your brand? What kind of additional customer services your brand provides?

All these components come under the category of marketing, advertising, and website development. Look out for a team of specialized in branding your products online to function in an efficient manner.

Decide where to trade for every product you own

Every product requires a different marketing strategy, for trading online you have two options which comprise of –

• Use existing online platforms
• Create your own website

It’s your product that plays a vital role in deciding the strategy to sell online, relying upon changing buyer behavior and interests.

Using existing online platforms with respect to Filipino’s buying habits and market behavior depends on the category of products and services being procured.

For instance

• Facebook marketplace is widely used for meals, desserts, clothing, household appliances, electronics, real estate, and cosmetics.
• Various platforms like ZipMatch, eBay.ph, Carousell, Food panda, Shoppee are widely used in the Philippines for the mentioned categories as well.

Also, some of the marketplaces have their own payment gateways while some of them like the Facebook marketplace lacks the functionality that permits you to oversee invoices. it’s going to a difficult task to choose a suitable online platform for marketing.

It has its advantages like International or localized reach, low-cost management, and easy to access customer’s insights. But it also has its own consequences which are lack of control, high competition, and fees.

Creating your own e-commerce website for trading

Trading website is a major step towards success, a website acts as the backbone of a web store. A place where you can explore various websites’ layout, and let people know about your brand in detail which might help you to build a better relationship with customers.

But, it’s important to know about various advantages as well as disadvantages while deciding a platform to sell online.

For instance- Filipinos have used it a strategy to sell online, e-commerce websites like Magento, WooCommerce, Shopify are some of the widely known websites in the Philippines.

Sort out logistics for efficiency

Creating a website is not sufficient, strengthening logistics is more crucial. Deciding the process of shipping the products is also important.

Owning your own website with a wider range of customer base is a difficult game altogether, you might prefer the help of logistics specialist’s companies to work for your brand.

In the Philippines, there are some of the known and reputed logistics companies like Lalamove, Entrego, LBC, 2Go Express, Transportify, and Air21.

Also, if you are using existing online platforms to sell online, you are expected to follow their procedures.

Understand how to market your brand

Building brand awareness, persuading new customers, and building customer relationship ultimately helps in driving more sales.

There are numerous strategies like Content marketing, digital marketing tools, PPC, email marketing, etc. available for e-commerce websites.

Retargeting, cross-selling, upselling strategies are also commonly used in the Philippines ‘ e-commerce industry.

Choosing the right marketing strategy and implementing it at the right time is all you need to work on, to build your brand widely.

While commencing your business online, you must know the above-mentioned aspects as well. It might appear fascinating but it’s a bit difficult task to engage a wider customer base altogether digitally.

Knowing about consumer buying behavior enables you to plan accordingly. It might be possible to achieve success and profitability in the first place in any part of the territory.