As we wind down from the Hari Raya festivities, many people would still be browsing their favourite...
Online Selling: Growing from Socials to Websites
Online selling is where the future of commerce is headed. Research shows that e-commerce is expected to grow to a revenue of US$13.43b by 2029. Another study revealed around 5.5% of all e-commerce in Malaysia is done through social platforms like TikTok or Facebook, so it's no surprise that many are making a shift to the online sphere to capitalise on this trend.
Regardless of the size of your operations, to sell online, you would need a plan to not only start selling online, but ultimately grow your business to outside your social selling circle. By expanding your selling channels, you will be able to reach more customers, upgrade the efficiency of your operations and increase your bottom line.
Follow along with this latest blog series to learn all about e-commerce in the modern era to discover insights to transform your online sales game. In the coming weeks, we will be sharing about the differences between different online selling methods and the history of e-commerce in Malaysia, so be sure to follow us on social media to not miss out when the new posts go live!
Just fill up a form.
In order to be able to start selling your products and start making a profit, you'd need a way to accept payments from your customers. Though there certainly are ways to do this for free such as sharing your bank details or QR code to receive payments, these are often a hassle for both you and the customer.
A simple solution for this would be to offer payment forms. With this, all you need to do is simply send the payment form link to your customers and their payments can be seamlessly processed through a payment gateway platform. This allows you to streamline payments so you can worry less about whether your customer has paid you and focus on providing quality products to them instead.
Getting on the world wide web.
Once your business has grown a sizeable amount, you would no doubt want to expand your operations further to accommodate your evolving needs. You may want to look into creating your own website to not only flesh out your product catalogue and your business' story, but also to enhance your payment capabilities.
There are many free and paid platforms that can get you started in building a website such as WordPress, Typeform or Shopify. Some of these platforms even offer payment integrations (usually at a cost), allowing you to publish a full product catalogue easily. If you're struggling with setting up on these platforms, utilising a payment gateway platform like senangPay can streamline the integration process on your webstore greatly.
Plug-and-play shopping carts.
Sometimes, we want to exert greater control over our website. While modern e-commerce platforms' website builders have become much more customisable, some people still prefer to exert greater control over their own website. For those people, you could install plugins that allow you to incorporate shopping cart functions to your website.
Shopping cart plugins like WooCommerce or OpenCart are a simple yet affordable solution for budding entrepreneurs that maybe already have their own website or want a custom-built experience. Just like with the options above, partnering with a payment gateway platform can greatly simplify the setup process.
The bottom line.
In the current year, it's easier than ever to set up an online store and promote your business. Whichever way you decide to setup your digital storefront, whether it be selling purely through social media or having a fully featured, complex website, e-commerce today is as simple as clicking a few buttons.
It's hardly shocking then that the amount of e-businesses are growing exponentially. Thus, to stand out from the crowd, you need something more than what everyone else is offering. While a unique product or idea is great, it's not the easiest or most viable option, especially for long-term growth.
Providing an exceptional payment experience, however, is not something many think of for success, but you'd be surprised at the mileage and scalability you can get out of prioritising the user journey. Feel free to explore some of senangPay's solutions to see how we can help you start your business today.