2014 – 2015
Established in 2014, SECOMM – Saigon Ecommerce Solutions has specialized in providing ecommerce development solutions based on the top-leading platforms: Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce, WordPress,… in the Australian market.
To be the trusted leader in full-service e-commerce solution providers.
Specializing in eCommerce, SECOMM provide tailored solutions with quality-first to help industry-leading brands in digitalizing business from the inside out.
Established in 2014, SECOMM – Saigon Ecommerce Solutions has specialized in providing ecommerce development solutions based on the top-leading platforms: Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce, WordPress,… in the Australian market.
Officially partnered with Built With Digital Company to put the objectives in strengthening SECOMM position as well as developing end-to-end solutions for Aussie Clients.
Made a significant breakthrough with Changi Airport Group in Singapore and Optergy in the USA market.
Focusing specifically on the Vietnam market with potential e-industries to help businesses ride out the storm of the COVID-19.
Has officially become a new member of VECOM (Vietnam Ecommerce Association) and VINASA (Viet Nam Software and IT Services Association) to shorten the path to accompany Vietnam businesses. We simultaneously innovate and transform ourselves to become a full-service ecommerce solution provider.
Your problem is our problem. Your success is our success.
and change to adapt
Chase perfection in every work
We work with passion
Being Creative is always a must in daily tasks as well as providing solutions to our clients projects.
Every Secommer keeps themselves self-motivated in improving knowledge and quality.
We Secommers always keep our promises to SECOMM and their clients
We conduct in-depth analysis to deepen every small stuff of your business, from business challenges, industry-particularly to domestic market issues, to thoroughly approach your business needs.
A comprehensive business approach is the best way to develop fully-tailored solutions standing out from the rest that work in any complex system.
For nearly ten years as technical experts, we have worked with plenty of complicated projects in both home and foreign markets, which were great opportunities to strengthen our valuable capabilities.
Long-term growth is our criterion. We deeply understand quality helps businesses stay sustainably in the market. We think our tailor-made solutions with quality-first are ultimate for your business.
Facing the boom of Mobile Commerce, businesses now have two choices: to build an eCommerce app to adapt to this boom or to ignore it and gradually fall behind.
According to Insider Intelligence’s forecast, mobile commerce market sales will reach $534.18 billion in 2024, of which two devices contributing to this incredible number are smartphones and tablets. Smartphones alone account for 87.2% of mobile commerce sales. These figures are the most convincing answer to the above consideration: Yes, businesses need to build an eCommerce app.
Building an eCommerce app requires a lot of effort and serious work because it is a complex process with many stages and the involvement of many relevant. Below are 8 summarized implementation steps that will help businesses understand the building process of an eCommerce app to make their business operation more effective.
The first step of the process is to determine the objective of the eCommerce app, including deciding which products will be sold through the app and identifying the target audience. This way, businesses can build an app that meets their needs and quickly achieves the objective.
Businesses should do market research to understand their target audience’s needs, preferences, and behaviors in various ways, such as through surveys, interviews, etc. It helps them define the app’s features and the marketing strategies to promote it. Moreover, businesses should find the app’s unique selling points that differentiate it from its competitors, making it easy to attract potential customers and stand out.
After identifying the objectives, the business proceeds to the next step: identifying the vital features of the eCommerce app. Here are some recommendations:
The selection of a platform for building an eCommerce app depends on many factors, including target customers, budget, development stage, necessary features, expansion needs, etc. iOS and Android are two popular platforms in today’s market. In most cases, businesses will build eCommerce apps on both platforms. However, those with limited resources, start with one platform first and then expand to the other later.
Additionally, if a business is targeting customers in the European and North American markets, iOS would be the right choice because iOS dominates these markets. However, because Android has a superior market share in Asia, businesses with plans to penetrate the Asian market should consider choosing Android.
Any business looking to build an eCommerce app will have to choose between a Native app and a Hybrid app. Developing a Native app refers to building a specific app for a specific platform (iOS & Android), using the respective programming languages of the platform – Swift/Objective-C for iOS and Java/Kotlin for Android. Native apps can provide great performance and user experience as they are optimized for the specific platform the app is built on. However, building Native apps can be costly and time-consuming.
Developing a Hybrid app involves building a single app that works on both iOS and Android platforms, using web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Hybrid apps can speed up the development cycle and be less expensive in terms of budget and time compared to native apps. However, Hybrid apps cannot provide the same performance and user experience as Native apps.
Therefore, the choice between developing a Native app or a Hybrid app depends on the budget, development process, and the desired user experience. If the business has a surplus budget to invest in user experience, then developing a Native app is a good choice. However, if the business needs to bring its eCommerce app to the market quickly but has budget constraints, then it should focus on developing a Hybrid app.
Related Reading: Native App & Hybrid App: Key Differences, Pros & Cons
In the next step, businesses decide whether to use an in-house team or collaborate with a specialized agency, which depends on the budget, experience, expertise, and resources. Below are some pros and cons of the two options: In-housing and Outsourcing.
Pros:
Cons:
Pros:
Cons:
The UI/UX design of an eCommerce app refers to creating a visually appealing and user-friendly interface to help users easily search for and purchase products. Here are some suggestions for businesses to consider when designing the UI/UX for eCommerce apps:
In eCommerce app development, MVP stands for Minimum Viable Product, which is typically a condensed version of the app that is launched to the market before the official launch of the full app. Building an MVP for an eCommerce app usually focuses on developing the core features and ensuring those features work effectively before adding additional features.
As listed, the most crucial core features may include a product catalog, search bar, shopping cart, payment methods, etc. When releasing an MVP, the business must ensure that it is error-free and meets the needs of the target customers. The goal of an MVP is to understand the customer’s thoughts on the product, minimize risk, and allocate resources effectively before launching the full product to the market.
After building and releasing the MVP, businesses should collect feedback from users through various channels such as social media, surveys, or reviews on the App Store or Google Play to gather their opinions on the experience when using the eCommerce app. Moreover, businesses should carefully review the feedback and use it to make decisions about how to improve the app. In particular, they should prioritize the most important issues users are facing and resolve them quickly.
After gathering and reviewing user feedback, businesses can will refine the app and conduct a second round of testing to ensure the app performs well and the improvements have enhanced the user experience. Once the refining and second round of testing is done, businesses can release the product to the market and run marketing campaigns to reach target customers. However, the business needs to closely monitor the performance of the eCommerce app and regularly collect feedback from customers while continuously improving to meet the ever-changing demand of users and maintain a competitive advantage in the market.
It is a top priority factor that businesses should put their minds to when building an eCommerce application. When users download, register an account, and start using the app, their private data such as login information, personal information, and payment information will be stored on the system. Therefore, businesses should comply with general regulations related to security issues and provide customer information as well as deploy secure payment gateways, and use SSL encryption or two-factor authentication to protect user data of the eCommerce app.
The stability and reliability of an eCommerce app are crucial for a business to provide an incredible user experience. Customers typically prefer apps that run smoothly without any bugs or errors. However, releasing a flawless eCommerce app without any bugs is unrealistic. Therefore, businesses need to conduct thorough testing to identify and fix any issues before launching, while also regularly maintaining and updating the app to improve its performance and prevent or correct any errors that may arise.
This is the ability of an eCommerce app to handle increasing traffic, user volume, and shopping transactions without affecting the performance or functionality of the app. When getting started, businesses should predict the app’s future growth and place to build an app that is easily scalable when necessary. Moreover, businesses need to plan for the addition of advanced features to meet expansion needs.
In summary, security, stability, and scalability are three factors to consider when building an eCommerce app. By focusing on these three factors, businesses can provide customers with a safe, reliable, and scalable app that corresponds to the development of the business.
Above is the general process of 8 steps for building an eCommerce app with some important notes during the implementation. With years of experience implementing eCommerce for businesses from many countries, SECOMM understands the difficulties businesses will face when implementing eCommerce apps.
Contact us today for a free consultation.
According to Statista, by 2023, there will be approximately 6.9 billion smartphone users worldwide, which will lead to the emergence of mobile apps to enrich user experience. That is why many businesses find ways to build and develop mobile apps to interact with their customers. However, with many platforms and devices around, mobile app development can be a complex and costly process. There are two most popular types of mobile apps including Native Apps and Hybrid Apps.
Both apps have their own advantages and disadvantages, so businesses should consider their demand and resources to choose the right type of app.
Native app is a type of mobile application that is developed specifically for a particular platform or operating system, such as iOS or Android. Native apps use different programming languages depending on the platform they are built on: Objective-C or Swift are the main programming languages for iOS, while Java or Kotlin are the main programming languages for Android.
In addition to outstanding advantages, Native apps still have some limitations to be aware of:
Native apps will be suitable for businesses that want to build mobile apps with high performance, diverse features, and a focus on user experience. However, this choice requires a lot of development and maintenance costs, as well as significant time and effort to be put in.
Hybrid app is a type of mobile application built using web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and then packaged in a Native app container. This allows hybrid apps to run on multiple platforms or different operating systems, including iOS and Android.
Frameworks for developing hybrid apps include React Native, Flutter, Xamarin, and Ionic.
In addition to the advantages mentioned above, hybrid apps also have some drawbacks that businesses need to consider when building them.
Hybrid apps are a good choice for businesses that want to create a mobile app that works on multiple platforms and devices, with a faster development time and lower costs than native apps. However, hybrid apps still have many limitations in terms of performance, user experience, etc. Therefore, businesses should consider this before deciding to build a hybrid app.
Facing the rapid development of mobile apps, quickly building a proprietary app is an urgent mission for every business. With the set of advantages and disadvantages summarized of the two most popular types of applications today: Native app and Hybrid app, the decision will depend on the purpose of each business.
SECOMM has gained many years of experience implementing eCommerce for many customers in many countries, understanding the difficulties and challenges each business faces when deploying mobile applications.
Contact us today to receive a free consultation.
According to data compiled by Forbes Advisor, global Mobile Commerce sales reached $415 billion in 2022 and are expected to reach $710 billion in 2025.
In fact, Mobile Commerce dominates the eCommerce industry, accounting for about 73%, and the use of eCommerce apps is growing faster than any other type of app on the market, with an annual growth rate of 54%. This shows that eCommerce apps contribute significantly to sales on mobile devices and implementing eCommerce apps is considered the right path for every business in the mobile commerce era.
Increasing brand awareness is one of the benefits that eCommerce apps bring to businesses. Since most customers spend hours on mobile devices (e.g smartphones), it’s easier for brands to connect with them through eCommerce apps. However, to fully leverage the other capabilities of eCommerce apps, brands need to provide a rich and high-quality mobile app experience. As Statista has noted, about 32%-34% of app users will uninstall if the app is difficult to use or has too many unwanted ads.
eCommerce websites help deliver personalized shopping experiences with algorithms and support tools but eCommerce apps enable businesses to offer personalized special incentives or promotional programs right in the app without having to access the websites via browsers on desktop or mobile. As a result, among various methods, business owners can combine push notifications, and instead of sending the same push notification to all app users, they can send personalized notifications based on user behavior.
As mentioned, customers tend to love and prioritize shopping on eCommerce mobile apps instead of eCommerce mobile web. Therefore, the conversion rate of the mobile app will be higher than that of the mobile web. The graph below indicates the different conversion rates between the mobile app and mobile web.
Mobile app users view products more than 286% and add items to the cart at a higher rate of 85% compared to mobile web users. Moreover, the graph shows that the conversion rate of mobile apps is over 130% higher than that of the mobile web. Naturally, when the conversion rate increases, it will lead to an increase in sales revenue and profits.
Building an eCommerce app not only boosts brand awareness, enhances customer experience, and improves conversion rate but also increases the average order value (AOV). This is the average dollar amount customers spend each time an order is placed on the eCommerce app.
Customers prefer shopping on eCommerce apps because it’s convenient for them to browse through products and make purchases. Therefore, they have more opportunities to browse through a wider range of products. This enables businesses to apply cross-selling and upselling techniques, suggesting complementary products to encourage customers to make additional purchases. As a result, the increased AOV drives up revenue and profits.
Some data on cart abandonment has been reported by Ruby Garage:
One of the top reasons for that is the long and confusing checkout process. eCommerce apps will help businesses reduce cart abandonment with the optimized checkout process. When customers buy products, relevant information will be stored in the app’s system, so they don’t have to re-enter their information but complete the purchase with a few taps. In addition, businesses can also shorten the checkout process to improve cart abandonment rates by integrating various payment methods into the mobile app.
For every eCommerce business, increasing sales revenue is a valuable achievement. However, it’s crucial to point out how many regular customers contribute to this success. According to the Harvard Business Review, the cost of acquiring a new customer is more expensive than retaining and satisfying an existing one, ranging from 5-25 times higher. But, if the customer retention rate increases by just 5%, profits can increase from 5% to 95%. As a result, businesses need to put their minds to existing customers.
There is a 50% chance that customers will return to an eCommerce app within 30 days of their last purchase. In other words, businesses can increase customer retention and loyalty with their eCommerce app in several ways, including
With the incredible benefits of mobile eCommerce apps, businesses are increasingly motivated to quickly build their app to enrich the customer shopping experience while capturing the Mobile Commerce trend.
With years of experience in implementing eCommerce for many businesses in many countries, SECOMM understands the difficulties and obstacles in developing eCommerce apps.
Contact us today for free advice.
The significant increase in the number of smartphone users has contributed to the rise of Mobile Commerce trends worldwide, including in Vietnam. It’s time for retailers to focus on supporting their customers in searching and shopping through mobile devices, in addition to eCommerce websites.
Many businesses across various sectors, from shopping, healthcare to food, have performed very well in this strategy by becoming pioneers in embracing Mobile Commerce trends in Vietnam.
The SHEIN app is known as one of the most successful eCommerce apps in the world today, and now it has become the most downloaded mobile app in the shopping category in 2022 with 229 million downloads and installs from both Google Play and the App Store.
In the Vietnamese market, SHEIN is also highly rated by users for their shopping experience on the app. In the latest update, SHEIN added a discount program for some fashion items of up to 70%, as well as fixing some bugs and improving performance to provide users with a better experience.
Download the SHEIN app: Google Play | App Store
When entering the Vietnamese market in 2019, Uniqlo quickly captured and responded to the local consumers’ fashion shopping trends, which made the brand very popular. The Uniqlo VN app stands out with many necessary functions for a consistent shopping experience between mobile devices and other channels. In order to attract more users, Uniqlo will offer a 150,000 VND discount voucher for anyone who downloads the app and signs up as a new member.
Although the Uniqlo VN app is highly rated for user experience, the brand still keeps updating and improving its features. In the latest update, Uniqlo has improved the quality of product image display and adjusted the accurate display of the number of products available in-store.
Download the Uniqlo VN app: Google Play | App Store
Hasaki not only has nationwide brick-and-mortar stores and an eCommerce website but also develops a mobile app to offer its customers enriched shopping experiences and attractive incentives.
By using the Hasaki app, customers can conveniently search and purchase products anytime, anywhere, track their order status, and make appointments for spa and clinic services at the store. One thing that makes Hasaki special is the free delivery within 2 hours for all customers, whether shopping at the store, eCommerce website, or mobile app. Despite getting much critical feedback for usage quality, Hasaki is still very receptive, fixing bugs and optimizing performance in the recent updates.
Download the Hasaki app: Google Play | App Store
After rebranding, the Big C supermarket chain has been renamed Go!. As a result, the mobile app of this business is now called Go! & Big C. Customers who shop on the app will enjoy many benefits, including:
The Go! & Big C app is regularly updated to improve the online shopping experience for customers. In the most recent update, the developer has improved the payment function, fixed bugs, optimized performance, and image display capabilities.
Download the Go! & Big C: Google Play | App Store
Con Cung is one of the first childcare brands to develop its mobile app to provide customers with a consistent shopping experience across different channels, including physical stores, mobile apps, and eCommerce websites.
The Con Cung app has received very positive reviews from users on both Google Play and App Store for user experience, product quality, and promotional programs. However, the brand still maintains the practice of testing and improving certain features such as displaying detailed driver’s information when customers place orders for the 1-hour delivery service and fixing bugs related to payment via eWallet.
Download the Con Cung app: Google Play | App Store
Dien May Xanh is a big player in the Vietnamese home appliance industry that has successfully captured the market trend and quickly developed a mobile app to reach the huge smartphone user base in Vietnam – approximately 69 million users.
In addition to massive promotional programs on special occasions, Dien May Xanh also provides customers with discounted payment programs using various methods such as Buy Now Pay Later, QR Code, etc. All of these are carried out quickly and easily both on the website and the mobile app.
Download the app: Google Play | App Store
The Vietnamese mobile commerce market has witnessed the entrance of another famous cosmetics retail brand, LixiBox. Similar to Hasaki, LixiBox also continuously updates its app to enhance the shopping experience of customers.
Moreover, the brand offers many special incentives to attract users such as a 20% discount for the first order placed on the app, a referral program where customers can receive 500,000 VND, a magazine section where users can update the latest beauty trends right on the app, and a LixiBox Feed section where customers can share their experiences on products and services.
Download the LixiBox app: Google Play | App Store
When the Long Chau mobile app was launched during the Covid epidemic, it quickly received support from customers everywhere because they could buy medicine and healthcare products online and have them delivered to their door, while also earning reward points for their next purchase. In addition, the app has a call and message feature that allows users to contact pharmacists online for free in-depth advice and support. Furthermore, Long Chau is the first pharmacy to pioneer the Buy Now Pay Later service with 0% interest, helping patients and customers find a new convenient way to make purchases.
User experience is a particularly important factor that Long Chau focuses on, and the app regularly releases updates. These updates include optimizing the login function, improving the payment function, integrating payment via eWallet, synchronizing order status on the website and app, suggesting reordering, and more.
Download the Long Chau app: Google Play | App Store
Pharmacity is a mobile app developed by the convenient pharmacy chain – Pharmacity in 2018. Similar to Long Chau, the Pharmacity app was created to provide customers and patients with a convenient and fast shopping experience, along with online consultation services from a team of highly specialized pharmacists.
In its latest update, Pharmacity has improved and added some features, including a gift program for first-time users who download the app and sign up as members.
Download the Pharmacity app: Google Play | App Store
In 2021, the famous beverage brand The Coffee House officially launched its mobile app with the same name, aimed at providing customers with the experience of ordering drinks for delivery or picking up at the store, along with many reward point programs for attractive incentives.
After two years of development, the new version of The Coffee House app features a completely new interface and many special features designed to enhance the customer experience both on the app and at physical stores.
Download the app: Google Play | App Store
Mobile eCommerce apps are one of the rising trends in mobile commerce. As a result, developing mobile shopping apps is the first smart move to achieve sustainable growth in the booming era of mobile commerce.
Contact SECOMM now for advice on how to implement and develop the best strategies to dominate the Mobile Commerce market.
The global pandemic has created an unprecedented boost for the eCommerce industry, forcing business leaders to go for digital transformation whether they want to or not. However, there are still many businesses that are hesitant and encounter difficulties while embracing it.
In addition to selecting an eCommerce platform and building a website, they can leverage incredible marketing channels to develop an eCommerce marketing strategy.
eCommerce Marketing, also known as Electronic Commerce Marketing, is the practice of using various marketing channels such as social media marketing, content marketing, SEO, or email marketing to increase the efficiency of eCommerce operations. To be more specific, eCommerce Marketing does the following:
The purpose of eCommerce Marketing is to enhance brand awareness and boost sales. Therefore, if a business doesn’t have an eCommerce Marketing strategy, then it’s really hard for their eCommerce website to generate conversion despite the beautiful interface and well-built functional system.
Currently, most brands and content creators take advantage of the popularity of social media as the first step for connecting and serving their target audience with content that interests them. eCommerce businesses can do the same by using engaging content and images to grab the audience’s attention and direct traffic to their website.
In this case, the eCommerce website interface must have a high level of visual appeal, especially showcasing prominent products to create inspirational shopping. Moreover, businesses can implement social commerce to directly sell products on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and so forth.
This is an effective marketing channel that brings long-term results for eCommerce businesses as well as a sustainable branding tool for their brands. Currently, various types of content are widely used, including
The goal of content marketing is to answer questions, provide information, promote the brand, suggest and guide customers in choosing products, and even entertain them. With optimized content, customers will quickly find out the website and the business can increase the conversion rate. Moreover, the business can leverage that content for the next eCommerce marketing campaigns.
SEM includes both Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and paid advertising. While SEO requires marketers to understand Google’s ranking algorithm to optimize their content to meet Google’s evaluation criteria, SEM relies on various campaigns such as pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, display campaigns, or product advertising campaigns like Google Shopping Ads.
On Google, PPC campaigns ensure that potential customers will see the link leading to the brand’s website when they enter search terms that match the selected campaign keywords. That is the reason why eCommerce businesses frequently utilize Google Adwords and run PPC campaigns to advertise their product pages.
This way enhances the chances of searchers clicking on the link and making a purchase decision before leaving the eCommerce website, leading to a notable increase in conversion rates.
A reliable influencer can be a brand’s ‘best friend’. The introduction or endorsement of an influencer can help businesses quickly increase sales, optimize marketing ROI, and raise brand awareness. In addition, Influencer Marketing leverages the trust in an individual’s persuasive abilities and self-confidence to influence and encourage their followers to make purchasing decisions.
Influencer marketing is a highly effective eCommerce marketing channel in that eCommerce brands are more likely to continually find ways to collaborate with influential individuals to drive recognition and emotional shopping for specific products or services
This is one of the oldest categories of Digital Marketing. Today, in the eCommerce world, email marketing still plays a very special role that enables businesses to automate campaigns toward targeting subscribers from different segments or stages in the customer journey
However, businesses should be careful in selecting and categorizing the target groups in their email list, to send the right content to the right target audience. This way, businesses can maintain the trust of potential customers at a time when privacy and personal data security have become increasingly important to Internet users.
Therefore, they should be cautious in building their email list if email marketing is a part of their eCommerce marketing strategy.
With all things considered, if there is no eCommerce Marketing, eCommerce websites are virtually unknown. The only way for a website to gain brand recognition, attract more online customers, and generate consistent and regular revenue is to effectively implement target marketing activities.
With a wealth of experience successfully implementing eCommerce for many customers in various countries in recent years, SECOMM understands the difficulties and obstacles businesses face when undertaking tasks related to eCommerce marketing strategy.
Contact SECOMM today to receive free support and consultation.
According to the latest data compiled by Statista, as of January 2023, the number of global smartphone users is 6.92B people, increasing by 4.2% annually. In Vietnam alone, this number is around 69 million users, whereas, in the US, Pew Research Center estimates that about three-fourths of Americans own a smartphone. These data demonstrate that smartphones have become common devices, and the demand for owning and using smartphones is significantly increasing.
In addition, the Internet has long ceased to be a high-end infrastructure for countries. Therefore, people today tend to prioritize using mobile devices like smartphones to browse the web.
Typically, Brands tend to establish a strong presence in areas with a wide pool of potential customers, so the emergence of Mobile Commerce quickly gained acceptance and became one of the key business strategies of many enterprises.
Moreover, the appearance of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 became a great boost for eCommerce in general and Mobile Commerce, in particular, to explode strongly.
During that period, the smartphone became the shopping companion of users as 79% of users used their smartphones or other mobile devices to shop online, as reported by OuterBox. Despite the eventual end of the pandemic, the Mobile Commerce growth trend is projected to continue as mCommerce retail sales hit $415 billion in 2022, and are predicted to reach $710 billion by 2025.
Mobile Commerce or Mobile eCommerce, abbreviated as m-commerce or mCommerce, is also known as Thương Mại Di Động in Vietnamese. This term was first coined and used by Kevin Duffey at the Global Mobile Commerce Forum in 1997, which means “providing direct eCommerce capabilities to consumers, anywhere, through wireless technology”.
Simply put, it is a business model in which all online monetary transactions are conducted on mobile devices such as shopping, banking, eWallet transactions, ride-hailing, food delivery, hotel reservations, etc.
eCommerce or electronic commerce is a relatively broad concept that refers to the buying and selling of goods and services over the Internet. Meanwhile, Mobile Commerce is a branch of eCommerce or the mobile version of eCommerce, specifically referring to electronic commerce transactions carried out on mobile devices.
Furthermore, the eCommerce shopping experience depends heavily on desktops and websites, making it less mobile-friendly and inconvenient for customers. On the other hand, with Mobile Commerce, customers can easily bring their devices with them anywhere, allowing businesses to provide personalized shopping experiences that help customers make quick purchasing decisions.
Thanks to the popularity of smartphones in every consumer’s life, related trends are on the rise such as mobile shopping, mobile payment, and social commerce.
Mobile shopping apps are becoming more and more popular and are the most prominent trend in mobile commerce. Many retail brands across various industries are investing in building and developing their own eCommerce apps such as the fashion industry, the cosmetic industry, and so forth. This not only helps businesses increase their conversion rates and sales but also makes the shopping experience easier and more convenient for customers, as they will be able to search for products and complete purchases right on the app.
In addition, the outbreak of the Covid pandemic and the establishment of social distancing measures in 2020 marked the beginning of the boom of shopping apps. As stated by the Mobile Shopping Report 2021, global usage of shopping apps increased by 40% in Q1 2021.
In the effort to develop sustainably amidst the pandemic crisis, the SHEIN app with nearly 15.5 million global users played a significant role in contributing to the company revenue of $9.81 billion in 2020.
As of 2021, SHEIN’s mobile app reached 43.7 million users and became the second most downloaded app in the world after Shopee. In 2022, SHEIN’s user base grew to 74.7 million and officially became the most downloaded mobile app globally in the shopping category with over 229 million downloads and installations from the App Store and Google Play
The usefulness of smartphones not only lies in online shopping but also makes transactions and payments more convenient and easy during the peak period of the pandemic. In addition to Mobile Banking applications, users have a special preference for mobile wallet or eWallet applications.
In the Vietnamese market, when it comes to eWallets, people immediately think of MoMo. However, MoMo is not only known as a typical eWallet but also an incredible super application.
To date, MoMo has built a platform that provides about 400 different types of services in many fields such as consumer finance, insurance, money transfer, payment, entertainment, shopping, dining services, and charity donations, etc. The number of MoMo users has increased significantly in recent years, from 10 million users in 2019 to about 31 million users in 2022, and the company’s next target is at least 50 million users.
In addition to making their mobile shopping apps, selling on social media platforms is also one of the widely applied strategies. The popularity and large user base of social media are a solid foundation for the development of Social Commerce and a playground for merchants of all sizes. Social Commerce is a form of online selling through social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
Selling on social media will help brands reach the existing large user base and utilize influencers for their marketing campaigns.
For example, the vegan cosmetics brand Cocoon does this through TikTok Shop. Cocoon is known for its environmentally friendly and animal-testing-free products, and they opened a store on TikTok and collaborated with famous beauty vlogger Ha Linh, which brought them a lot of success. It not only boosted their sales but also reached nature-loving, animal-loving, and young customers on TikTok.
As mentioned, the global number of smartphone users is estimated to reach around 6.9 billion by 2023, which is a driving force for the development of Mobile Commerce. Anyone who owns a smartphone has the potential to become a customer. As a result, implementing Mobile Commerce will help businesses reach this enormous user base, nurture and generate conversions.
In addition, with the mobility of Mobile Commerce, smartphone users with internet access can shop anytime, anywhere, even on the go without being dependent on a fixed location. Especially when visiting a store to shop, instead of paying in cash or by card, customers can now pay through eWallets such as MoMo or VNPay, etc.
Currently, businesses are very focused on personalized customer experience, which is particularly important in the Mobile Commerce world. A smartphone is a personal item that each person carries out personal activities throughout the day. Moreover, in the online shopping trend, customers highly value brands that provide them with a personalized experience because it demonstrates the brand’s concern for its customers. As a result, the more businesses focus on details and personalization in their messages and promotional programs, the better.
For Mobile Commerce, push notifications are an effective solution. Mobile Commerce apps help businesses track and collect user data including personal information, social media accounts, interests, current location, purchase history, viewed products, etc. After that, they can combine and analyze the data to send appropriate messages to the right target audience through push notifications.
Recent studies have shown the effectiveness of push notifications in connecting with customers and notifying them about new products and special incentives.
Push notifications are one of the strategies implemented to provide personalized shopping experiences and bring satisfaction to customers. The more satisfied customers are with their shopping experiences, the higher the likelihood that businesses will increase customer retention rates and maintain their loyalty.
The demand for a personalized shopping experience is increasing among customers, as well as the need for a consistent shopping experience across multiple channels, from online to offline stores. According to a study by MasterCard, customers who have a multi-channel shopping experience with a specific retailer tend to spend 250% more than the average. The fashion brand Macy’s has stated that the value of multi-channel shoppers is 8 times higher than that of those who only shop on a single channel.
Moreover, smartphone users tend to use their devices while shopping in offline stores for various purposes, as Retail Dive‘s survey has listed in detail:
Therefore, by implementing Mobile Commerce, businesses can provide customers with a multi-channel shopping experience.
Mobile Commerce is exploding thanks to the boost from the Covid pandemic. Even though the pandemic has passed, the impact of Mobile Commerce on the development of eCommerce businesses is still significant. If businesses plan to approach Mobile Commerce in 2023, it is a wise decision.
Contact SECOMM today to learn more about Mobile Commerce and the best solutions to get started.
Retails has miraculously recovered from the global pandemic and is expected to make a breakthrough in the years ahead. One of the ways to embrace eCommerce is the O2O model, which combines online and offline operations.
One of the big challenges of physical stores is how to raise brand awareness among potential customers who are far from the store location. Using online-to-offline marketing strategies can increase the public’s awareness of a business’s brand. That way, businesses will be able to reach an influx of customers and boost their awareness of the brand and its products which then lead to higher sales volume and massive revenue.
Despite the rapid development of eCommerce, brick-and-mortar stores still maintain stable sales because many customers still prioritize visiting stores to shop. A recent study indicates 46% of responders said they preferred shopping at a brick-and-mortar store because they want to touch, feel and try the products physically before making purchases. Another interesting fact is customers are likely to spend more money while in the store.
For example, a man comes to a bookstore to buy a notebook, then he looks around and decides to buy some more pens. In case he buys the notebook online, he may only buy it. Thus, the O2O Commerce model is a good choice as businesses can not only use online channels to raise brand awareness but also overcome the limitations of offline channels to earn massive revenue.
The incredible combination of online and offline channels makes the customer shopping experience more seamless and interesting. Online platforms enable consumers to contact brands easily and immediately. When they want to ask for a product’s details, they can send a message through Facebook Messenger or a chatbot on an eCommerce website and the supporting team will answer their questions instantly.
Based on the customer’s data, businesses can offer product recommendations via online channels or the next time customers visit physical stores. In another case, if businesses run ad campaigns, they can notify their customers via online channels, which will help them to reach a larger audience with their online ad campaigns instead of just informing customers when they walk into the store.
BOPIS is not a brand-new way to shop but has been around for a while. Merchants that provide this service can attract online shoppers to visit their brick-and-mortar stores. This way, customers will browse the eCommerce website to search for products, buy them and get notifications when the products are ready to pick up in the physical store. It’s convenient for customers to select a specific time to come to check and get their orders at the store. Merchants gain benefits too with amazing cross-sell and up-sell opportunities.
Although BOPIS is great, it may not be every customer’s choice as not everyone likes to go to the store to pick up the products, instead people prefer home delivery rather than the in-store pick-up option. Sometimes, shopping at the store also causes many inconveniences, for example, finding a parking lot to go to the store in a densely populated area, picking up the goods, and returning to the car, seems time-consuming and annoying for busy people.
To solve this problem, merchants can self-deliver if the store location is close enough and convenient for the delivery process to be fast and efficient. Otherwise, collaborating with delivery companies like Giao Hang Nhanh, Giao Hang Tiet Kiem, and so forth, is a good choice when the business resources need to be increased.
Suppose a customer bought a product online but when receiving it, he realized it didn’t fit his demand. There was a store nearby, so he decided to return the product he bought there. But when he arrived, the staff there didn’t accept his return request because they had no clues of that purchase in the store’s system.
Therefore, he had to return his order to the carrier and wait a long time before receiving his refund. That will make consumers wonder whether they should keep shopping with that merchant next time. Thus, in-store return has become a fantastic offerable solution for customers to avoid the hassle of returning goods. This method simplifies the return process for shoppers and merchants because returns and refunds are processed simultaneously, which means better customer service and a much faster return to stock.
Loyalty Program is another great way to encourage customers to engage with the O2O shopping experience.
This is one of the popular types of loyalty programs. Every business can assign points to any items or user activities. While purchasing or joining any engaging program, customers will easily earn points afterward for later exchanging gift cards, vouchers, and even actual money which then encourages them to go back to spend more in order to get benefits from the gifts. As a result, reward points will boost sales and increase brand loyalty.
Gift cards can be used not just as gifting options but also as a powerful tool to get customers to spend in their outlet. Customers can use gift cards immediately or save for later purchases, or even give it to relatives and friends. As a result, relatives and friends are likely to become potential customers of the brand soon.
The first thing to do is identify the main objectives. If businesses haven’t built their online presence, they should do it immediately due to the rise of online shopping. If businesses already have their online presence (eCommerce website, mobile app, marketplace), it’s important to adjust their O2O Commerce strategy to increase sales online, offline, or both. They should also consider using some measurable metrics to ensure these objectives are appropriate and achievable.
Next is working with a team to raise ideas for the O2O Commerce strategy. Here are a few suggestions:
Then use these data to decide which strategies to try.
Once deciding on strategies to deploy O2O Commerce, businesses will use collected data to measure the success of those strategies and make the next business decisions. Looking back on the initial objectives when evaluating and adjusting the O2O marketing and business strategy, then considering the additional objectives if the original ones have been achieved.
Founded in 2014, SECOMM is specialized in providing O2O Commerce solutions. Over the years, SECOMM owns a massive fortune of O2O commercial projects with major domestic and international customers such as, Annam Gourmet, Trentham Estate, etc.
In particular, SECOMM provides a variety of services to support businesses to improve their competitiveness and dominate the retail market in the digital age including Solution Consulting, Core-team Building, and O2O System Development, including:
Business System
Administration System
Customer Experience Management System
Data system
Want to learn more about O2O Commerce as well as the best solutions to win the retail industry? Contact SECOMM now for a free consultation.
Despite the significant impact of Covid-19, the fashion industry is still on a roll, with the potential to reach $1 trillion globally by 2025 (according to Statista) thanks to eCommerce.
According to the IDEA 2022 research, the fashion eCommerce business in Vietnam is a highly competitive area, with up to 69 consumers using the eCommerce channel for every 100 fashion shoppers.
With the high potential of this commerce business, developing an eCommerce website is a must for success, necessitating the search for a platform on which to build a specialised eCommerce website for the fashion industry.
Businesses can use the following platforms to deploy fashion websites: Big Cartel, Haravan, Shopify, Woocommerce, and Magento.
UI/UX is a criterion that businesses frequently establish when creating an eCommerce website in order to develop a comfortable interface for a group of users who are passionate about fashion and maximise the capacity to engage with customers.
To meet the eCommerce business demands of fashion enterprises, organizations require a comprehensive functional system ranging from basic to complex, which includes:
To provide clients with a comprehensive shopping experience, fashion enterprises may frequently combine a number of payment options, shipping services, management software, and business analysis tools to enhance the e-commerce business system.
Numerous common payment options available today must be integrated into the website, including:
Often, firms at the start of a fashion business will not focus on the capacity to develop eCommerce websites in the future since platforms that enable this function are typically scarce. But, in terms of strategy, investing in a platform that supports this function can help organisations gain a competitive advantage over competitors in the market.
Haravan is a well-known SaaS eCommerce platform in the Vietnamese industry, offering a variety of options for both enterprises and individuals. Haravan is used by a variety of websites, including Juno, Biti’s, Maison, and others.
Pro:
Cons:
→ Rating: 2/4
Haravan is suitable for start-up furniture businesses or SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) with operations mainly in Vietnam.
Haravan is considered to have a reasonably low and diverse eCommerce website implementation cost for various businesses:
Tuy nhiên, doanh nghiệp nên suy xét khi sử dụng Haravan trong dài hạn vì chi phí giấy phép sử dụng và các tiện ích mở rộng sẽ ngày càng tăng theo thời gian sử dụng.
However, businesses should consider when using Haravan in the long term because the cost of licenses and extensions will increase over time.
Shopify is a SaaS ecommerce platform favored by the international ecommerce business community because of its fast implementation time and reasonable starting cost.
Pro:
Cons:
→ Rating: 2/4
Shopify is considered suitable for start-ups or SMEs with global operations.
Starting an eCommerce business using Shopify is quite inexpensive at beginning, with several options:
Nevertheless, the long-term cost of utilising Shopify will rise owing to rising costs for extensions, yearly usage fees, and % per transaction on the system.
The typical time to develop an e-commerce website is 1-7 days or more, depending on the system’s complexity.
Big Cartel is a platform that assists in the creation of specialised eCommerce websites for the fashion industry or for art goods such as ceramics, paintings, and photographs. Big Cartel is used by several websites such as Atakontu, Indikidual, and others.
Pro:
Cons:
→ Rating: 2.5/4
Big Cartel will be appropriate for startups, SMEs, or new e-commerce participants that need to handle the complicated “issue” of fashion eCommerce.
Website setup expenses are modest, with few possibilities for solution packages such as Haravan or Shopify:
Big Cartel allows you to develop a fashion e-commerce website in as little as 1-2 weeks, depending on the system’s complexity.
WooCommerce is an open source platform, as a WordPress plug-in introduced in 2011 and allows businesses to use completely free. Popular websites using WooCommerce in Vietnam include Hai Trieu, Orchard, etc.
Pro:
Cons:
→ Rating: 3/4
WooCommerce is suitable for fashion businesses who are used to WordPress before and are in need of developing an eCommerce system.
Because it is an open source platform, fashion firms can use it for free; nevertheless, businesses must pay development costs while utilising the platform, such as:
An eCommerce website will take longer to create than the previous three platforms since it must be constructed from the ground up, which will take at least 1-3 months.
Magento is an open source platform with 2 versions: Magento Open Source (free) and Magento Commerce (paid). Some websites are using Magento such as Canifa, Hoang Phuc International, OnOff, etc.
Pro:
Cons:
→ Rating: 4/4
Magento is appropriate for a wide range of fashion business types, including B2B, B2C, and B2B2C, as well as a wide range of business sizes, including startups, SMEs, and huge corporations. Nevertheless, because the cost of deploying Magento is sometimes very high, Magento is favoured by major organisations.
Magento Open Source, like WooCommerce, is an open source platform, therefore it is free to use; nonetheless, businesses must consider the following costs:
Businesses will be working directly with Magento’s development team for Magento Commerce, thus they will have to pay licence fees as well as certain additional charges such as:
A complete Magento project typically requires 3 to 6 months of deployment time, with some projects requiring up to a year. The reason for this is the complicated functioning structure and the lack of Magento experts.
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