E-commerce has proven to be more than just a trend, it’s a viable direction in which most businesses nowadays are moving towards, in order to expand their enterprises globally. The e-commerce industry in Asia especially has seen exponential growth over the past few years and marketers are optimistic about its future. As a matter of fact, according to Statista the e-Commerce market in Asia is projected to reach $1,357,488m in 2020. Compared to last year’s $1,110,263m that’s a projected 22.26% increase, which is just astounding.
So the question now is how can brands take advantage of this fast-growing industry? Well, in this article we will be looking at answering just that, how one can tap into this multi-billion industry with the help of the well-known online business builder – Shopify.
How’s the e-commerce industry doing in Asia?
Let’s take a look at South East Asia in order to answer this question. Two years ago, back in 2018, Google in collaboration with Temasek reported that SEA’s e-conomy reached $72 billion in gross merchandise value. There’s a reason that South East Asia has been dubbed as the fastest-growing internet region in the world!
But that was 2018! Well ok then, let’s look at 2019. According to Google, 2019 saw Southeast Asia’s internet economy hit $100 billion! That’s more than 25%, in just a year.
So to what does SEA’s e-conomy owe the favor for this immense growth?
Well, according to Google, more than $37 billion of capital has been poured into the region’s internet economy in just that last four years. And the majority of that money went into e-commerce businesses and Ride-Hailing Unicorns.
However, if you really want to get everything there is about SEA’s booming internet economy, it’s best you head down to Google’s report.
Why Shopify is the perfect platform for tapping into Asia’s booming e-commerce market
Although nowadays the e-commerce market is growing rapidly and there’s huge competition in every niche it’s also much much easier to start an e-commerce store from the ground up than ever before. According to the site Ecommercetw.com this is term thanks to platforms such as Shopify, that let you launch an online shop in no time.
Shopify is a fully functioning e-commerce platform that has all the necessary features to help you start, manage, and grow your online business.
Creating your very own online store using Shopify
In order to build an online store with Shopify, you will first need to pick a theme. Luckily there are more than 70 themes you can choose from (some of them are paid of course.) And the best part about all this is that you don’t even need any prior knowledge of web design or have developing skills, it’s all pretty straight forward.
Online stores built on Shopify also come with all the extras, like:
- Built-in mobile commerce shopping – your customers can buy things from your store from a plethora of devices.
- A blogging platform feature – through this you can write blogs and articles to help drive quality traffic to your website.
- Shopify supports many third-party apps – some of these include Sourcify, Facebook Messenger Marketing, Oberlo, Kit, and many more.
Take advantage of Shopify’s support of multiple channels
The best thing about Shopify is that it allows you to sell practically anywhere you want. You can either go with the classic approach of selling a product through your own website or online storefront or you can take advantage of all the sales channels and platforms that Shopify supports. Amongst these are eBay, Amazon, Facebook, Instagram, and Google shopping, just to name a few. In total Shopify has 24 sales channels in its network which you can use freely.
So basically you can have the same store on different platforms(at once) and only pay the price for one. A pretty sweet deal!
Easy inventory and payment management
Shopify allows you to easily add product listings to your store with almost no hassle whatsoever. Once you upload a given product along with pictures and a description, you just have to ensure that you have it in stock and you’re good to go.
Shopify also offers a great inventory tracking feature which lets you see how your inventory count is and whether you need to adjust it. This feature is quite helpful as it helps you avoid running out of stock on the products you’re selling.
Now, Shopify also offers a lot of benefits when it comes to payment options as well. Aside from credit card payment, they also offer customers the option to pay through third-party providers such as Paypal, Google Pay, Amazon pay, and of course WeChat(the most popular payment option in China).
In total Shopify supports more than 100 payment providers worldwide. This can help a lot when you’re targeting a foreign market like the Asian one.
Shipping made easy with Shopify
Shopify offers an integrated shipping method that allows you to manage your store’s shipping options. Here you can choose which provider you would like to use to deliver the goods to the customer and can also track where the package is. These are all great features especially when you’re shipping to a foreign country and want everything to be in perfect condition.
So what other benefits does Shopify offer in terms of shipping?
Well here are some:
- Use of third-party services that can ship orders for you.
- The bulk order fulfillment option helps you micromanage and prepare multiple orders at once.
- You can choose to either use the shipping rates of the shipping company you’ll be using or set your own.
Conclusion:
There are many platforms out there that can give you an upper hand when dealing with the ever so growing Asian e-commerce market. However, none offer as many features as Shopify. It’s the overall perfect platform for targeting foreign markets without leaving your country. And thanks to Shopify’s many different packages you can set up the exact e-commerce business you want.
