On 29 January 2019, SITEC held its first English E-Commerce class titled Introduction to E-Commerce at the Selangor Digital Creative Centre in i-City, Shah Alam. Attended by 116 people, the class was conducted by top industry leaders from the e-Commerce industry.
Easy Store’s Founder, Alan Kok was the coach for the session. He started off by sharing the A – Zs of e-commerce, starting with setting up and managing online stores, then delving into the basic framework for an online store, and moving into the thematic values an online store should be focusing on, such as the value proposition, customer relationship, and marketing independence.
Kok shared multiple operations and marketing tools and processes that e-store owners should be aware of, such as logistics and fulfillment, social media marketing, search engine optimisation, product management, and more.
He also spoke about how e-stores can be optimised, highlighting the importance of UX design elements such as brand/store colour schemes. For example, trust and dependence can be elicited through using the colour blue, citing brand examples such as Oral B, HP, IBM and more.
He shared more about the different kinds of e-commerce platforms, hot selling product categories, business exposure, and growth strategies.
First Guest Speaker Tam Yong Sheng, Head of Business Development & Partnership at eBay Malaysia shared some insider tips for e-merchants intending to sell on e-Bay to a global audience. He started with exploring the growth of the global e-commerce market, then the opportunities for e-Commerce sellers, and the best practices e-merchants can undertake.
According to Tam, the global marketplace has a larger market size, revenue potential and tools and processes for e-merchants to make it big, versus the local marketplace. However, the local marketplace has a ready pool of buyers. eBay as a marketplace was touted by Tam to have 175 million buyers worldwide, spanning 190 countries, generating over USD 23 billion in GMV in Q2 of 2018. Over 95% of eBay sellers engage in exports.
The top 3 markets Malaysians can target in eBay include the US, Australia and the UK. High growth sales categories on eBay include Baby products, home improvement, business, health and beauty, and toys.
Tips Tam shared to sellers included knowing your market – eBay is home to treasure hunters who are looking for the latest products at competitive prices, great bargains, and functionally equivalent products of branded goods. It is also home to hobbyists who know what they want and who are looking for limited edition or rare products. He also offered tips on optimising item listing for the best results on Google and eBay, such as putting up six item specifics about products, as product identifiers help external search engines capture eBay sellers’ merchandise and display it for relevant searches. He also went into detail about shipping options for merchants and highlighted it as an important part of the customer acquisition process.
The session ended with a closing note from the organisers, as participants were treated to an afternoon tea and networking opportunities with brands and partners.
Second Guest Speaker Reggie Watson, Director Business Development & Product Development at 2C2P, spoke about the fundamentals of online payment. Watson defines online payment as “a system that allows e-merchants to accept payments in the form of debit/credit cards, internet banking and e-wallets, and to facilitate the payment for goods or services online by customers”. According to him, this acceptance is only possible if merchants are connected to a payment gateway or payment service provider.
Payment gateways and payment service providers facilitate online transactions through information transfer between payment portals to the front-end processor or acquiring bank.
According to Watson, 2C2P is a leading omnichannel payment gateway/payment service provider in Southeast Asia, and provides a payment gateway, alternative payment and prepaid/wallet services. They accept all cards, e-wallets and alternative payments, and certified by all card schemes
