Category: Business

If you run an online business, selling on local marketplaces like Shopee or Lazada has probably crossed your mind. And because we’re one of the leading E-commerce enablers in the Philippines, we know exactly how beneficial it can be for merchants like you.

If you play your cards right, selling on online marketplaces will help you reach more potential customers, showcase your products on a trusted platform, and expand your business operations. 

But before making your decision, it’s good to first assess if you’re ready for that next step. We created a short quiz to help you find out! Make sure to keep track of your answers until the end of the quiz.

Where are you currently selling your products?

A. A physical store

B. My own website

C. On social media 

D. I haven’t started selling products just yet

Are you looking for a new platform to sell your products on?

A. Yes, maybe one more platform

B. Yes, several platforms actually!

C. No, not necessarily

D. Not at all, it’s not something I want right now

How many products do you usually ship in a week?

A. Hundreds of products

B. 50 – 100

C. 25 – 50

D. 15 products or less

How many people are working for your online business?

A. More than 30 employees 

B. 10 – 30 employees

C. Less than 10 employees

D. Just me

Have you looked into the merchant requirements for selling on marketplaces?

A. Yes, and I’ve started preparations for it as well

B. Yes, but the most I did was skim through them

C. No, but I will soon

D. No, and I’m not sure if I will in the near future

How about the pros and cons of selling on online marketplaces?

A. Yes, and I’ve weighed my options

B. Yes, but I’m still undecided

C. No, I haven’t thought about them

D. No, and I’m not so interested in them 

Do you think that being on online marketplaces will benefit your business?

A. Yes, especially since business has been good

B. Yes, but I haven’t fixed all the details for it yet

C. Yes, but I’m not so confident about it right now

D. I’m not sure

Are you looking to expand your business in the near future?

A. Yes! It’s the next best step

B. Yes, but I’m still working out the details

C. Yes, but I’m not sure where to start 

D. No, not in the near future

ANSWER KEY

Mostly A’s and B’s: You’re nearly ready!

It seems like you’re both interested and even knowledgeable when it comes to what you’ll be needing to sell in online marketplaces. Your shipping volumes and willingness to expand your business is also a good indicator that you’re ready to take this next step. It’s probably time to start strategizing on how to penetrate local marketplaces. 

Mostly C’s: You need a bit more preparation 

You’re curious about online marketplaces and what they have to offer, but you’re just not sure where or how to start when it comes to the topic. Maybe you have other things to finalize first for your business, and that’s okay! You can always start selling on online marketplaces once you’re more sure of the direction you want to take with it.

Mostly D’s: Maybe in the future, but not right now

There’s a saying that goes “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” This can be applied to your situation, because it seems like you’re either just about to start your business or you’re comfortable with your current selling platforms. You might not be considering going into online marketplaces yet, and that’s completely fine. Maybe in the future! 

Whether you’re ready to get into online marketplaces or you’re unsure of what to do for now, Payo can definitely help your business!

As the leading E-commerce enabler in the Philippines, Payo provides a variety of holistic solutions for online merchants. This includes Marketplace Optimization, where we help merchants set up their stores in marketplaces while taking care of logistics and even marketing content curation.

If you’d rather focus on selling on your platform or social media pages, we offer Warehousing, Fulfillment, and Last Mile Management for businesses of all sizes. 

Want to know about how else we can help your online business? You can sign up with us today or send us a message at [email protected]. We’ll get back to you soon!

Excellent customer service in E-commerce can’t be overstated. Nearly three out of five customers believe that good customer service is key for them to be loyal toward a business. This only shows one thing: product price is important, but service is ranked as a close second.

E-commerce enablers in the Philippines believe that customer service is crucial to the success of an online business. Being one of the main pillars of E-commerce, merchants should pay attention to customer service, especially since shoppers today have sky-high expectations.

If you’re an online merchant, it’s time to level up your E-commerce customer service with these best practices!

Speed is essential

According to one study, around 12% of customers said that they would get frustrated when businesses didn’t respond quickly to their needs. That’s because customers demand shorter response times now more than ever. 

As a merchant, you should look into your processes, specifically when it comes to your response time. Are you too slow to respond? How much time do you spend answering a query? If you see that these are things you can improve on, then maybe it’s time to see how you can do so.

Go omnichannel

Meeting your customers where they are should be on your list of ways to level up your E-commerce customer service. This is why setting up a robust omnichannel strategy is important in ensuring improved customer experiences.

Offer different contact methods to make the interactions between you and your customers as seamless and efficient as possible. Customers should be able to reach you via any platform they prefer, whether it’s via email, chat, social media, or your website. By doing so, your omnichannel approach will increase your visibility and help you connect with more customers.

Offer a platform for feedback

Allowing your customers to provide feedback will help you understand what they love and don’t love about your business. Listen to them to know more about their needs. By doing so, you can also resolve the issues they may be encountering. This is an opportunity for you to turn a potential crisis into a sound E-commerce customer service practice.

Also, don’t forget to reach out to your customers! Make them feel valued by acknowledging their feedback and product reviews. 

Personalize your approach

As E-commerce growth continues at unprecedented levels, customers may start to feel that shopping has become more transactional. Stand out from the competition by giving your customers a personalized approach to customer service! 

An example of this is through using automatic product recommendations. This means having personalized segments on your site like “People who bought this product also bought these products,” or other custom-made lists. Another would be personalizing your marketing emails for different types of customers. This approach helps build trust in your brand, reminding customers that your business isn’t run by bots.

When you do this, you go above and beyond satisfying your customers’ needs and you give them more reasons to become life-long customers. 

Provide real-time customer support

Customers love real-time assistance. And being able to offer it will give you positive results, such as increasing your ROI. However, not all businesses can afford to have chat agents available 24/7. What can you do? There are a lot of E-commerce enablers in the Philippines that can do the heavy lifting for you. Some of them even provide Live Customer Support to take care of customer queries in real-time.

By providing live customer support, you can lessen failed deliveries and increase (even improve!) your sales retention.

Invest in automation

Automating customer service processes can save you a lot of time and effort. Dealing with support issues, consistent pressure, and demanding customers can be challenging. This is where automation comes into play. By automating your E-commerce customer service, you can now say goodbye to time-consuming manual tasks like creating a query ticket or giving customers updates on their order status.

Indeed, delivering quality and excellent E-commerce customer service is the secret to making your business palatable to customers. When done right, these practices can help you keep customers happy and turn them into repeat customers, even as you scale.

Ready to level up your customer service? Let Payo help you!

As the leading E-commerce enabler in the Philippines, Payo can identify and satisfy customer needs through vast technological solutions. With services ranging from E-commerce Automation and Marketplace Optimization to Fulfillment and Warehousing, Payo provides holistic and tailor-fit solutions to address your business needs. 

Allow us to help you provide effective E-commerce customer service! Sign up now or send us a message at [email protected]. 

Over the last two years, the pandemic has caused major changes to the global business landscape. Consumers have now shifted to the digital marketplace, making it essential for merchants to have an E-commerce enabler, especially in the Philippines.

According to Statista, E-retail sales have accounted for 18% of all retail sales across the globe in 2020. This is predicted to grow up to 21.8% in 2024. With this, merchants must adapt to changes in consumer behavior to maximize E-commerce opportunities, even during a pandemic. Additionally, merchants must put customer safety as one of their top priorities.

To help you better navigate your operations, here are some pandemic best practices that can keep you and your Filipino customers safe during this pandemic.

Stay updated on news and announcements

Merchants must always be aware and informed of what’s happening on the ground to make the necessary calls. From the number of new and COVID cases to pandemic restrictions alert levels, these are important details that can potentially impact your operations.

Since the Philippines is also prone to typhoons, keeping updated on the news will help you prepare contingencies should the areas you serve be affected.

Keep customers informed and communication channels open

Doing E-commerce during a pandemic can be tricky given the varying situations in the Philippines. Thus, it is essential to keep customers informed to manage their expectations. It is likewise important to have a channel where they can easily connect with you for inquiries and concerns.

Whether it is stock challenges, shipment delays, or other logistical concerns, merchants need to update customers and be accommodating to questions. Doing this can help you avoid low ratings, or worse, order cancellations.

Offer service recovery

Maintaining a good merchant-customer relationship is vital for any business to succeed. While E-commerce challenges caused by the pandemic are out of your control, you should always be ready to do or offer service recovery.

To avoid order cancellations or negative feedback, you can provide your customers with discounts on their next purchase. If you haven’t shipped out your customer’s package yet, you can include freebies that complement their order. These little things can definitely make a positive impact.

Follow health and safety protocols

One of the best things you can do for your customers is to keep them safe in your own way. Whether you’re alone or part of a team, it is always best to mask up when handling orders. If you’re a large group, try to do regular health checks to maintain everyone’s safety.

Should anyone fall sick, let them recover to avoid further compromises to your operations. Now, if this could pose delays on your end, inform your customers as soon as possible.

Sanitize orders properly

E-commerce operations, pandemic or not, must always include sanitation of orders aside from proper packaging. It is the responsibility of merchants to ensure that products are safe in every way possible to avoid any potential risks on your customers’ end.

You can never be too careful, especially with the current health situation evolving constantly. Treat this as another form of looking out for your customers.

Related Guide: How to Start an E-commerce Business in the Philippines

Find the right logistics partner

To better manage E-commerce operations during this pandemic, merchants must find the right logistics partner. It is essential that your partner is reliable, and has the same level of care and safety precautions that your company has.

As a merchant, you are not the only one responsible for keeping your products safe. Your partners must also be equally accountable to ensure the best online shopping experience for your customers.

Throughout this pandemic, Payo has remained steadfast in its commitment to being an effective and reliable E-commerce enabler in the Philippines. From ensuring safe handling and delivery of packages, and even providing other services like Warehousing and Live Customer Support, Payo can definitely help you implement these best practices.

Want to know more about what Payo can offer your business? Sign up with us today or send us a message at [email protected]. We’ll be happy to discuss them with you!

E-commerce is a steadily growing industry globally. With its simple business model, online selling is a great way to earn money in these trying times. But while starting an online business can be a little frightening and daunting for inexperienced entrepreneurs, there are E-commerce enablers in the Philippines that can help them out.

As online shopping booms amid the pandemic, E-commerce enablers help make sure that the industry remains thriving. So if you’re thinking of starting a business, being familiar with what local E-commerce enablers have to offer is important. 

Here are some other foolproof E-commerce tips you should take note of, spanning from marketing your products to acquiring warehousing services in the Philippines:

Make sure your platform is user-friendly

The E-commerce industry is highly competitive. One of the ways to stand out is to have an engaging platform to market your products. If your platform looks lousy, your online presence may not be as noticeable.

For newbies, this is an opportunity to get help from E-commerce enablers who can optimize your platform. With their assistance, you can set up your online store and make sure that it’s user-friendly and ready for online selling in the Philippines. 

Offer flexible payment options by integrating CoD

Cash on Delivery remains king in the Philippines and to be at the top of your game, you must be able to integrate this payment option into your online store. By offering CoD, you offer customers both the flexibility and the convenience of easily purchasing in your store.

Ultimately, you get to expand your Philippine market and attract more Filipino shoppers with CoD.

Automate, automate, and automate!

One of the most common E-commerce tips you will hear from successful merchants is to embrace E-commerce automation. Even E-commerce enablers in the Philippines put emphasis on this as an integral part of E-commerce. That’s why they provide innovative automation solutions for businesses, such as dashboards for tracking your packages or automated SMS order updates for your customers. 

Ultimately, being open to E-commerce automation will help you save time, avoid manual errors, and optimize your business. So if you have the chance to automate your processes, you should do so!

Provide excellent customer support

Having a customer-centric approach will make your business a standout. Customers appreciate it when you help them with everything, from making online purchase decisions to resolving issues. That’s why it’s important to make sure that you give them a seamless customer experience across all channels and platforms. You can do this by marrying speed and efficiency in your responses. 

Find a reliable fulfillment partner

Fulfilling one order at a time when you’re starting is easy enough. But once you’re dealing with a bulk of orders, it can be burdensome. Rather than doing it all by yourself, why not have a fulfillment partner to do it all for you? This can help make fulfilling orders as convenient as possible. And by having a reliable fulfillment partner who can handle the logistics side of your business, you won’t have to worry about shipping orders yourself.

Check out your warehousing options

As you start your online business, you might eventually consider putting your products in a warehouse for storage and inventory. Thankfully, there are numerous warehousing services in the Philippines that can help you run your business efficiently. When choosing a warehousing partner, try to partner with one that has a multiple warehousing solution. This can help you save on costs and expand your customer reach in the long run.

With all these tips, we bet you’re now ready to enter the awesome world of E-commerce. You never know, you might be on your way to becoming one of the most successful E-commerce companies. But should you need help with building your business, there’s one E-commerce enabler in the Philippines you can partner with — Payo! 

Payo provides holistic and tailor-fit solutions to address the needs of online merchants. Armed with its tech-driven solutions, Payo can help merchants scale faster and ship smarter. 

So if you are looking for a partner with the best warehousing services in the Philippines who can also do Marketplace Optimization, provide Live Customer Support, and take care of Last Mile Management, Payo is perfect for you!

Sign up now or send us a message at [email protected] so we can start navigating the Philippine E-commerce landscape with you!

As merchants all over the world welcome a brand new year, they also welcome an opportunity to make changes for the better. And though merchants can level up their business all throughout the year, there’s just something special about New Year’s resolutions. This is especially true when these resolutions help you achieve both your short-term and long-term goals. 

If you’re an online merchant, and you’re not quite sure about what resolutions to stick to for 2022, we’re here to help! 

Be open to change

Maybe the word ‘change’ isn’t so appealing given that major changes all over the world have happened in the past two years. However, there’s no denying that being open to change is the only way businesses can adapt. If there’s anything the pandemic has taught the world, it’s to go with the current of change, not against it. 

When you’re open to change, you can better find opportunities for your business. It will also make you more flexible, giving you a higher chance of getting past the challenges you may face. 

Prioritize the well-being of your team

A company is nothing without its people, which is why it’s important to take care of your team. This doesn’t just mean giving them fair wages and benefits; it also means fostering an environment where they can openly share their ideas, have difficult but necessary conversations, and ultimately grow as professionals.

It’s also important to encourage work-life balance within your team, making sure that they don’t jeopardize their health for work. This should be a given, but it’s always best to have regular team check-ups to make sure they are looking after themselves.

Learn from your customers

As people who directly use your products or services, your customers can give a lot of insights on your business. That’s why it’s important to listen to their feedback, be it good or bad. You can learn a lot of things, such as which products your customers love, which products you can improve on, and how you can elevate your customer service. Ultimately, this also helps you establish a good relationship with your customers. 

Practice effective communication

Misunderstandings with your team or your customers can cause a lot of problems. One way to avoid them is to always communicate effectively. This means being an active listener, being truthful and transparent, and communicating with empathy. 

When you improve the way you communicate, you can help boost employee productivity and further nurture your relationship with customers and partners.

Consider challenges as learning opportunities

It can be frustrating when you encounter difficulties in your business. This can come in the form of canceled orders, cash flow problems, or miscommunication among team members. But any challenge or failure can be a great learning opportunity. Instead of dwelling on how things went wrong, try to see how you can use the experience to your advantage.

How can you make up for the incident? What processes can you further improve? How can you avoid this problem in the future? By learning from the challenges you encounter, your company can grow into an even better version of itself.

These are just some of the New Year’s resolutions that you can follow this year. What’s important is making sure your resolutions are aligned with your company’s goals, whether that’s finding the perfect warehousing services in the Philippines, growing your customer base, or building awareness on your brand.

If you’re looking for an E-commerce partner who can help you scale this 2022, then choose Payo!

Payo is the leading E-commerce enabler in the Philippines whose goal is to make E-commerce simple for online merchants. Payo offers everything you need to succeed in E-commerce, from Warehousing and Last Mile Management to Live Customer Support and Cash on Delivery Integration. 

If you want to thrive in today’s E-commerce landscape, you can sign up with us today or send us a message at [email protected]. We’ll reach out to you as soon as you do!

Christmas is the most exciting time of the year, and this festive season calls for gatherings, sumptuous feasts, and of course, gift-giving. Most Filipinos have probably completed their shopping list by now, and if you’re an online store owner, it is a crucial time to be there for your customers.

You might already have a holiday strategy in place to amp up sales, whether it’s through marketplace optimization or holiday content creation. But with more people going online to shop this year, you should also have a strategy to spruce up your online store. Don’t worry though, because you can still get your store ready in time for the holidays with these tips!

Level up your online store

Get your customers in the holiday spirit by tweaking your E-commerce website. Pick a nice holiday theme and be as creative with it as you can. Include some eye-catching visuals so that your customers will be encouraged to navigate your page. 

But creativity aside, online Christmas shopping should be about efficiency. One way to guarantee that is to make your website holiday traffic-ready. Be sure that your product photos are loading quickly and that their descriptions are accurate and readable to keep your customers interested.

Design festive marketing content

Creating updated, timely, and original content will help drive traffic to your store. Show off your creativity by coming up with Christmas-themed blog posts, sending holiday e-mailers, or posting festive social media cards. You can even explore Christmas-related memes if you want to attract more Filipino shoppers!

Place your holiday promos front and center

Give your customers more reasons to splurge by supplying them with deals and promos. This is a foolproof way to help boost your sales because who doesn’t love a great deal, right? 

Be sure to announce your promotions early to hype up your customers. Also, put these promos front and center on your shopping platform to entice your customers to browse and shop.

Engage with your customers

Filipino shoppers rely heavily on customer service. Having quick and effective customer service will leave good impressions on your customers and help you make them repeat buyers. 

You can also use E-commerce Automation to your advantage, specifically by using chat bots or automated responses. Just don’t lose sight of how important the human touch is when it comes to customer service.

Partner with a reliable warehousing company

With delivery volumes expected to surge this Christmas, choosing a reliable warehousing company is essential. Remember that in this season of gift-giving, customers are expecting to get their items quickly and in a hassle-free manner.

There are several warehousing services in the Philippines to choose from these days. But you must consider one that has multiple warehouses because this will give you a wider coverage area, ultimately helping you reach more customers without making them wait long for their packages.

Follow these five tips and watch your store thrive in the coming days. Want to take your holiday readiness up a notch? Then partner with Payo!

Aside from getting one of the Philippines’ best warehousing services, you can also level up your online store with Payo’s marketplace optimization solutions. Plus, Payo can take care of providing Live Customer Support to help you connect with customers this holiday season and beyond. Before you know it, you’ll be having countless of happy shoppers!

To know more about our services, you can sign up with us today or send us a message at [email protected]. 

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, but it’s also the busiest if you run an online store. By now, everything should be set for your brand — holiday promotions, store inventory, even your fulfillment service in the Philippines — but it’s always good to double-check everything.

That’s why we’ve come up with seven things that are crucial for you to tick off your business’ holiday checklist:

Your marketing strategy

How you sell your brand is as important as the products or services you provide. You might have the best products, but no one will know unless you market them right. Now’s the time to double-check if your marketing strategy is still relevant, and if it translates well in the content you plan to put out.

Remember to also prioritize personalization — customers want to feel that your business truly cares for them. You can do this by putting customized notes on orders or providing different packaging options they can choose from. 

Your online store design

Help customers feel jolly and festive by revamping your online store’s look. You can do this by adding some holiday themes, colors, or elements to your website. You should also display your holiday promotions front and center. The more exciting they are, the better. Don’t be scared to get creative, but do remember to always stay on brand!

Your website’s user experience

One of the most important things to do is ensure that your website can handle increased traffic. Test your site speed if possible, as well as how your website responds to a high volume of visitors and transactions. A slow website, or one that just keeps crashing, discourages customers from buying your products.

You should also make sure that your third-party integrations work smoothly, and that the customer checkout process is seamless, easy, and secure. Having amazing promos and design elements is useless if customers can’t complete their purchases. 

Your holiday schedule

A big part of running a business is transparency. This means updating both your team and your customers on your holiday schedule. This helps your employees fix their personal plans, and gives your customers an idea of when your shop will be open.  

If you plan to be open all throughout the holidays, make sure you set meetings with your team to discuss how to go about it. Remember, your customers aren’t the only ones who have holiday plans. 

Your holiday activities and giveaways

One of the best parts about Christmas? The amount of holiday cheer you can give, be it through gifts or greetings. You can do this by hosting a virtual party with your team, preparing holiday cards and gifts for your partners, celebrating with customers through giveaways or promos, or even all of the above! Whatever your approach is, plan it ahead of time to avoid any last-minute problems. 

Your store inventory 

Do you have enough inventory for the upcoming holiday rush? If you don’t know the answer to that, now is the time to check. You can go about this by reviewing data from the past year or two and seeing how your holiday sales were then. You should also consider which items are more in-demand than others, especially for gifting.

By predicting the demand for the holidays, you won’t be blindsided by inventory shortages, which can negatively affect your overall sales.

Your logistics service

Your responsibility to your customers doesn’t end once they’ve completed their purchase; you also have to make sure their packages get to them safely. That’s why it’s important to partner with reliable courier services here in the Philippines. It’s also wise to partner with a company that can cut down your shipping time, which is something that can definitely make your customers happy. 

Need some help over the holidays? 

If you need a partner to help make E-commerce easy for you this Christmas, and even all throughout the year, then choose Payo! 

Payo is an E-commerce enabler that can solve different logistics challenges for you. No more worrying about Warehousing, Fulfillment, and Last Mile Management — we can take care of all that! Additionally, we only work with the best courier services in the Philippines, which ensures that your packages are in good hands. You can rely on us to ship your products smarter, faster, and cheaper. 

So what are you waiting for? Sign up today or message us at [email protected] to see the difference!