The desire for home furnishings and design among consumers has significantly increased as life gets better and better. The majority of consumers still prefer to choose and purchase products in physical stores and showrooms, but online furniture shopping is an increasing tendency. Additionally, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on consumer purchasing habits has changed how people purchase, which has greatly aided the development of the furniture eCommerce market.

The enormous potential of eCommerce for furniture

BusinessWire estimates that the size of the furniture eCommerce market in 2021 was valued at USD 27.74 billion and that it would increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.4% from 2022 to 2030 to reach USD 40.74 billion.

Recent findings made by Maddyness include the following intriguing details:

• The value of the worldwide furniture eCommerce market exceeds $200 billion.
• Online sales account for more than 90% of the growth of the furniture industry.
• According to estimates, 8 out of every 10 consumers who purchase furniture have made an internet purchase at least once.
• One in three consumers prefers to buy furniture online.

The advantages of eCommerce implementation for the furniture business

Catching up with market changes

The furniture sector has experienced a significant decrease in sales over the past few pandemic years, along with many other industries.

People are compelled to reduce their social interactions during the social withdrawal period. They now spend more time working, living, entertaining, and teaching at home. In light of the unpredictable changes of the pandemic, the necessity to clean and renovate the dwelling has therefore substantially increased.

Due to limits on leaving the house, online shopping at the time had become not only a need but also an urgent method of purchasing in place of in-person purchases. That serves as the springboard that gives eCommerce its spectacular development and propels it into other industries like fashion, grocery, wine, and even furniture.

These two elements highlight the “cake’s” enormous potential and aid many furniture companies in realizing and swiftly implementing eCommerce for market revolution and sustainable development.

Expand the business scope

Due to the Internet’s rapid expansion and the burgeoning online shopping trend, which is gradually replacing traditional offline shopping, the adoption of eCommerce will benefit furniture manufacturers by providing a new sales channel and attracting a big number of potential clients (at stores, and showrooms).

eCommerce implementation will also help to broaden the market for businesses by improving the circumstances for marketing campaigns to be more successful.

Enhance customers’ online shopping experience

When firms use technology to improve customer experience in eCommerce, furniture shopping will happen more quickly.

In the digital age, for instance, visual experiences from VR/AR technology, 3D product visualization, and 360-degree photography are very popular, gradually replacing in-store shopping while still being fully informed and realistic visualization of products, thereby increasing customer satisfaction during online shopping.

eCommerce enables businesses to quickly and effortlessly tailor the experience for customers by gathering, evaluating, and synthesizing the consumption behavior of each target group. Typically, this is done with the capabilities listed below: Products have seen, similar product recommendations, etc.

eCommerce provides clients with a seamless experience in addition to an intuitive one across a variety of channels, including social networks (Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Zalo, etc.), eCommerce platforms (Shopee, Lazada, Tiki, Sendo, etc.), eCommerce websites, mobile apps, etc.

The interesting story of big guys

IKEA – The iconic furniture retailer, enters eCommerce to boost online sales

IKEA, or Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd, is the world’s largest furniture retail enterprise and specializes in delivering minimalist-styled assembled furniture, household appliances, and accessories.

IKEA was established in 1943 in Sweden by Ingvar Kamprad, who started his business at the age of 17. IKEA swiftly gained global dominance with 392 locations across 48 nations.

With the goal of offering furniture with a lovely style and wide application while keeping the price low so that as many people as possible can purchase the goods. The majority of the departments, from marketing and sales to supply chain and warehouse, share this goal.

Everybody works together to keep IKEA’s “vital” competitive edge intact so that the company can publish catalogs with thousands of products offered at long-term stable prices.

Despite being the largest furniture retailer in the world, IKEA has lagged behind eCommerce trends, according to the Financial Times. This well-known retailer started “renovating” its sales technique only when it encountered numerous internet rivals. 

The biggest barrier that makes it difficult for IKEA to adjust its previously successful business model is the maze-like arrangement of store layouts to create an engaging experience of sightseeing, interior shopping, or requiring customers to drive to the store and assemble the components to make their own furniture.

But IKEA has unimaginably succeeded in launching an e-commerce website by fusing cutting-edge technology with a well-organized marketing plan. In particular, IKEA specifically uses VR/AR technology, which is seen as a new eCommerce trend and is favored by many firms, to improve users’ online purchasing experiences.

IKEA thereby covers the sales void left by the prior on-site furniture business model, but the gap won’t truly be felt until the Covid-19 pandemic and social separation restrictions are in place.

From this point, IKEA expands its consumer base both online and offline, and sales are progressively encouraged to increase significantly.

Additionally, IKEA’s eCommerce website incorporates Instagram posts of photographs of IKEA furniture goods that consumers customize, share, and tag with the hashtag #IKEA.

This not only helps this brand connect closely with Instagram users, increase its reputation and strengthen the loyalty of existing customers but above all, quick access to a large diverse customer base from the Internet in general and Instagram in particular thanks to the popularity and influence of this social network on young consumers.

Nha Xinh – The veteran warrior in furniture eCommerce

Established in 1999, Nha Xinh is a well-known furniture brand in Vietnam. It has two sizable showrooms, one each in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

As a manufacturer and supplier of living room, bedroom, dining room, and kitchen furniture with an Asian design aesthetic that favors coziness, friendliness, and simplicity above sophistication and luxury, Nha Xinh is a specialist in this field.

Nha Xinh’s website belonged to the “long-lived” row in the Vietnamese eCommerce village when it was created and launched in 2007, a period in which Vietnam was still getting used to utilizing the Internet to progressively integrate with the rest of the world.

Nha Xinh’s eCommerce website has survived many years of market ups and downs while maintaining its inherent simplicity, intimacy, and sophistication.

Product categories are arranged clearly and harmoniously in each room to make it easy for customers to search, choose products that suit their needs, and get a sense of the room’s overall layout.

Customers can choose from a variety of options because the room’s layout is available with furniture and includes a detailed price. If they prefer, they can even select a combination of the interior and decor of the room without having to spend a lot of time figuring out how to combine each item because Nha Xinh already did it.

Additionally, Nha Xinh’s website has a unique section called “360-degree store” that uses 360-degree technology to let customers view the company’s interior products from a distance in an accurate manner from every nook and cranny of the room and every angle of the product, along with comprehensive information and price lists for each item.

Additionally, Nha Xinh’s “Inspiration Corner” catalog offers a wealth of thoughts and ideas to assist clients in designing their dream living space. Nha Xinh gives home design recommendations in a variety of styles, from elegant, and gentle to strong and personable depending on the individual’s preferences.

Therefore, Nha Xinh is more than just an eCommerce site that sells furniture; it is also a handbook that provides customers with never-ending design ideas.

Noi That Hoa Phat – The giant is committed to winning the eCommerce race

Hoa Phat Furniture was founded in 1995 and over the course of over three decades has made a positive impact on Vietnamese consumers’ perceptions of quality products and exquisite design while fulfilling a variety of needs for office furniture, home, household furniture, and medical furniture.

With a consistent growth rate of 20–25% each year, the brand is getting stronger and reaffirming its position as Vietnam’s top supplier and manufacturer of furniture.

When Hoa Phat Furniture changed its name to The One Furniture in the year 2022, it left a lasting impression on the industry. The brand name change is linked to adaptable changes in strategy. The company focuses on enhancing the stature, appearance, and image connected with the growth of the nation, helping to instill a variety of ideals into society.

Hoa Phat Furniture (now The One Furniture) invests extensively in technology infrastructure to streamline the production and supply process at the same time as it aspires to expand throughout the area and the world. One might say that The One Furniture has carried on the brand’s good core principles and improved upon them in order to better suit the current market trend.

One of Hoa Phat Furniture’s greatest successes to date is the effective use of 3D printing technology in production, which has helped the company create a number of new products like the Smart Safe; sofa and chair folding in the Italian style while also reducing production costs and speeding up prototyping and increasing product accuracy.

Hoa Phat Furniture concentrates on creating an eCommerce website to reach many potential clients that have a habit or preference for online buying, in addition to being adaptable and prompt with changes in strategy.

The firm creates websites using the WooCommerce framework, a well-known and dependable open-source platform used by many companies to implement eCommerce.

Compared to the previous version of Hoa Phat Furniture, The One Furniture’s new website (noithattheone.com.vn) features a more simplified, gorgeous, and contemporary interface (noithathoaphat.com.vn).

Additionally, the business supports the growth of well-known social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and TikTok to broaden brand awareness, attract more customers, and enhance coverage.

Plus, the business offers a wide range of shipping and payment choices to accommodate the various needs of clients, making online buying at The One Furniture or Hoa Phat Furniture as convenient as it can be.

It is clear that the growth of the furniture market has been hastened by the speed at which eCommerce is developing.

Today, numerous local and international furniture companies participate in and offer the greatest shopping experiences to customers through the effective implementation of an eCommerce website, including IKEA (Sweden), Nha Xinh, and Hoa Phat Furniture (Vietnam).

From there, companies may quickly connect with a wider pool of Internet users and generate conversions through efficient marketing strategies.

However, business leaders need to carefully and comprehensively take into account the growing customer expectations and rapidly shifting market trends, not to mention specifically describe a systematic and precise business strategy for taking the most advantageous actions in the short and long term.

Completing that difficult task will take a lot of time and resources. As a result, many furniture companies opt for a more straightforward approach to the issue, enlisting the assistance of a highly qualified and dependable unit.

SECOMM has many years of expertise in effectively executing eCommerce for numerous customers in various countries. We specialize in offering free consultation services with qualified eCommerce implementation solutions.

Contact us right away for free counsel and assistance.

Creating an eCommerce website is a critical step in assisting businesses in spreading their brands and increasing their ability to reach potential customers on the Internet, thereby increasing revenue and profit. However, developing a business website is a complicated process with many aspects, particularly with eCommerce websites.

Businesses must consider everything from user experience to operational performance and many other aspects of the site. Here is a summary of the key factors of an eCommerce website that businesses and website developers should consider before getting started.

SEO and website performance optimization

According to Think with Google research, if a web page takes up to 5 seconds to load, the likelihood of a user exiting increases by 90%. As a result, businesses must prioritize optimization and ensure that their eCommerce website is always operational.

Furthermore, businesses must pay attention to optimizing SEO so that the website has the highest possible ranking on search engines using specific techniques and strategies if they want to maximize revenue on their brand websites. One of them is the strategy of incorporating keywords into the eCommerce website’s content, as well as description, title, and image information.

When adding an “alt text” description to an image, many businesses forget that customers can find their website through image search. This is also a significant flaw that results in a significant loss of potential customers.

Furthermore, in the early stages of e-commerce website deployment, businesses should consider hiring SEO experts. They can launch the website with the necessary meta tags, organize the page structure and internal links, create content strategies, design recommendations for cross-device-friendly functionality, improve page load speed, and many other critical aspects.

Marketing strategy fulfillment

A good marketing strategy may benefit the first orders offline and online, particularly in eCommerce. Creating an early marketing strategy assists businesses in identifying the features that must be included in developing eCommerce systems.

For example, when businesses want to add the option to share a promotion campaign to social networks or push notifications on mobile apps from an eCommerce website, it will be more effective if this is part of the Marketing strategy and is planned to be implemented during the development of the eCommerce website rather than proposed to be developed after the website has been launched.

Multi-devices compatible website

According to the World Bank, two-thirds of adults worldwide use digital payments, with this figure expected to rise from 35% in 2014 to 57% by 2021. Although users prefer to make purchases via mobile apps, businesses can still increase conversions if the eCommerce interface is easily adaptable to the mobile web.

For example, after releasing a more optimized responsive design, Walmart Canada successfully increased website conversions by 20% and improved mobile order growth by 98%.

Furthermore, businesses must ensure that customers from all over the world can easily access and shop on their eCommerce website using any available browser.

As a result, businesses will conduct cross-browser testing using Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, and other browsers to find and fix errors, ensuring customers have a great shopping experience on your website using any browser, any device, and anywhere. Businesses can hire a qualified third party to assist them, or they can conduct their own testing using a few available help tools.

Implement Omnichannel 

In the digital age, “Omnichannel” is becoming increasingly popular and is an essential communication strategy between businesses and their customers. Every business should adopt an omnichannel strategy to connect with customers, increase traffic, drive sales, and survive the changes of the times.

As a result, implementing Omnichannel enables businesses to synchronize all sales channels for easier data management and increased eCommerce business efficiency. At the same time, Omnichannel provides customers with a seamless experience, allowing businesses to sell omnichannel and increase conversion rates.

When implementing Omnichannel, businesses can use Omnichannel platforms and systems (ETP Group, NEF, GoSELL) or choose one system as the data center for the entire system, such as an eCommerce system (Magento), ERP (Odoo, SAP).

Omnichannel implementation process:

• Step 1: Data collection: Customers, Sales (Sales), Marketing,…
• Step 2: Analyze data to identify issues for improvement to implement Omnichannel effectively.
• Step 3: Create customer journeys and align campaign messages across sales channels.
• Step 4: Check, evaluate and optimize Omnichannel

Diversify the registration of user accounts

Most eCommerce websites require customers to create an account before making a purchase. This allows businesses to store the customer’s purchase history, delivery address for demographic analysis, purchase behavior assessment, sales analysis, and incentive to buy next time through Marketing campaigns.

Regular customers, in particular, will be willing to do this to reap the benefits of having an account on the website, such as quickly saving information for the next purchase or receiving notifications about upcoming big promotions. However, not all customers want to register for an account to purchase products.

Therefore, businesses must provide options for customers who want to buy goods without registering an account, such as requiring customers to log in with a social network account or fill out a small payment form with their name, email, phone number, and address to complete the purchase process.

The eCommerce website system will automatically create an account and submit guest email login information in both cases.

Add filtering and advanced search functions to the website.

Even on websites that do not sell anything, users frequently use the search bar. For businesses with eCommerce websites, the search bar must provide advanced search functionality.

The image search feature, for example, allows users to upload a photo of a favorite item and have the eCommerce website’s search engine return products that are the same, nearly identical, or similar to the product the customers are looking for.

If users don’t know what to look for and need some suggestions, they should browse the website’s product categories. In these cases, the multi-layered product catalog function is extremely useful. In other cases, customers already have search objectives; a search bar with advanced support functions will also assist customers in finding the products they require with a few clicks.

Diversify payment methods and delivery costs

Because online shopping and payments are becoming incredibly popular, it is critical to provide the appropriate payment options when developing an eCommerce website. According to the Payment Methods Report 2019, many shoppers abandon shopping carts because of delivery costs (55%) and complicated checkout processes (26%).

As a result, depending on the product and market that the company is targeting, the company will select a payment method that is appropriate for customers, products, and regions. The most popular payment methods in North America, according to Hostgator, are PayPal, Amazon Pay, Google Pay, Apple Pay, Visa or MasterCard, and so on.

MoMo, Zalo Pay, Shopee Pay, Visa or MasterCard, and others will be particularly popular in the Vietnam market.

Furthermore, businesses should consider delivery costs because this is one of the primary reasons why customers abandon the purchasing process. Businesses can deploy flexible free shipping offers on special promotions, or if customers are required to pay shipping fees, the system should provide detailed information to avoid confusion and create a bad customer experience.

Integrate with the content management system 

A content management system (CMS) allows you to centrally store and manage your written, visual, and document content. Businesses can change or add information, and the changes will be reflected on the eCommerce website. CMS can also help staff respond more quickly to customer feedback.

Improve customer service 

Most Internet shoppers are Millennials, Gen Y, and Gen Z. These generations value personalization, such as personalized recommendations, recommendations, or solutions from the support team.

Many eCommerce businesses are trying to meet this, the customer care department will help buyers solve problems during the purchase, payment, delivery, returns, complaints, and so on.

Furthermore, businesses should add a contact section to their eCommerce website with a hotline number or email that can be easily clicked or linked to the Facebook Messenger application, Zalo, live chat for orders, and general support chat for those who prefer this method of communication.

Improve the eCommerce website’s safety and security

Businesses will be responsible for storing large amounts of user data and product information on an eCommerce website, so safety and security are the most important factors for any eCommerce website. Any negligence can put the company in danger of permanent data loss, and customer information can be stolen and sold.

Google and other search engines will flag an eCommerce website if it is deemed unsafe and has poor security, such as no SSL certificate and HTTPS protocol. This is considered a warning or recommendation for Internet users to be cautious about accessing websites that lack the above two components, as a result of which businesses will easily lose a large number of potential orders, causing marketing disruption and affecting the brand’s reputation.

Furthermore, businesses must register an eCommerce website with the Ministry of Industry and Trade at the eCommerce Management Portal to demonstrate the website’s transparency following Vietnamese Government Decree 52/2013 ND-CP.

The 10 essential factors listed above are those that businesses must consider when implementing eCommerce. In reality, even when businesses use WordPress, the Woocommerce plugin, or a SaaS platform like Shopify, it is not easy to create an eCommerce website with full features that work well to attract customers. If your business decides to hire a website development company, that company must be capable of creating a comprehensive eCommerce website in terms of both design and functionality.

With many years of experience implementing eCommerce in many countries, SECOMM provides free consulting services with professional eCommerce solutions.

Contact us today for free support and advice!

As eCommerce becomes a new trend that encourages a slew of brands to enter the market, selecting the right eCommerce platform to build a successful eCommerce website becomes critical. While Shopify is the most popular SaaS platform, Magento is the top choice in the open-source platform, and the WooCommerce plugin has won the trust of many brands due to its outstanding features and ease of use.

What is WooCommerce?

WooCommerce is a free WordPress plugin that allows brands to set up an eCommerce website by adding eCommerce functionality to an existing WordPress site. This plugin can transform a regular WordPress website into an eCommerce website with all the necessary features and easy customization with just a few clicks.

The benefits of using WooCommerce 

It’s free to get started

Price is an essential factor to think about when selecting a platform for implementing eCommerce. Popular platforms on the market today have prices ranging from free to several thousand dollars per year, making it even more prominent and preferred by businesses because this plugin is entirely free to download and install.

As a result, any business can benefit from its features without committing to costly support contracts or software licenses.

The flexibility of the open-source platform 

It is an open-source plugin built on the WordPress CMS that gives users complete control and allows them to easily customize their eCommerce website to their specific needs. WooCommerce, in addition to being suitable for a variety of businesses serving different customer segments, also provides long-term scalability, giving businesses of all sizes more flexibility in deploying eCommerce.

Integration with WordPress

The seamless integration between WooCommerce and WordPress brings many benefits to this plugin because of the availability of the large WordPress community throughout the years. WooCommerce can take advantage of the platform’s massive ecosystem of plugins, themes, guides, and other unique features.

Yoast SEO, for example, has long been a well-liked plugin with numerous international translations, ease of use, and advanced SEO support. Since WooCommerce integrates with WordPress, Yoast SEO also integrates with WooCommerce.

Especially when a business has a website on the WordPress platform and needs to turn it into an eCommerce website, WooCommerce will make it easy and seamless, so users do not have to start over with a brand new platform.

Providing qualified-standard content management 

Content Marketing is the key to an effective eCommerce website. If businesses are looking for an eCommerce platform built on the world’s most popular content management system (CMS), WooCommerce can fulfill that expectation.

When the WooCommerce plugin is integrated into WordPress, many content management options, including Blogs, Landing Pages, Product Descriptions, Email Marketing, and SEO plugins (Yoast WooCommerce SEO), will help sellers optimize content for search.

Providing in-depth analytics

Integrated analytics is another advantage of the plugin because the more you learn about customers and how they interact with your eCommerce website, the more you can adjust to meet customer expectations. For example, businesses can use sales data to learn about customers, thereby establishing a customer persona to increase sales in the future.

Furthermore, it provides a comprehensive WooCommerce analyzer displayed in a clean and user-friendly interface. Businesses can then easily integrate WooCommerce with third-party analytics services such as Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and others.

The downsides of using WooCommerce 

Technical maintenance support

When using this plugin, the user is responsible for keeping the eCommerce website up-to-date, accessible, and functional. In fact, there is some support from the hosting company and the WooCommerce community, but it does not allow users to simply call for technical assistance.

Plugins will notify users of security updates, but users must install and handle problems themselves. In fact, hosting companies will support this. Still, users need to have a bit of technical knowledge to facilitate the process of supporting related issues to avoid affecting the performance of the eCommerce website.

This disadvantage stems directly from the fact that businesses have complete control over the eCommerce website system’s source code and data. Maximum authority entails maximum accountability. Although businesses continue to receive support for WooCommerce issues, compared to other eCommerce platforms such as Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, etc., WooCommerce still has many shortcomings in the technical maintenance support process.

Speed and Security 

With the constant increase in unauthorized access (Website Hacking), website speed and security are more critical than ever. Speed and security are significant advantages for SaaS platforms such as Shopify and BigCommerce. At that point, your eCommerce website is housed in the infrastructure of these platforms, and a team of technical experts will continuously monitor and resolve any issues that arise to keep the website running smoothly.

Similar to a technical maintenance situation, WooCommerce essentially leaves the user responsible for the speed and security of the website despite the wide range of 3rd party support options.

Although speed and security are not an issue for some new businesses deploying eCommerce websites, this is still a significant drawback of this plugin when businesses are responsible for many issues ranging from technical maintenance to website speed and security, especially if the eCommerce site is on the verge of rapidly growing from hundreds to thousands of hits.

Growth and Scalability  

Because it is a WordPress plugin, it will operate in accordance with WordPress functions. Meanwhile, WordPress functionality is not explicitly designed for eCommerce but rather is based on the flexibility of open-source code. This means that when a user exceeds a certain query threshold, the way WooCommerce works is broken.

For example, when a large number of shopping carts are added, or checkout occurs at the same time, or when too many users visit the website simultaneously, overload occurs, making the operation of the eCommerce website difficult. This is difficult because the WordPress system and the WooCommerce plugin are no longer compatible. 

If your eCommerce website is still small and growing, this is not a problem; problems can still be quickly resolved. However, as the size of your website expands and grows rapidly, this is a disadvantage in terms of both performance and cost that businesses must consider before proceeding.

In a nutshell, WooCommerce is a fantastic plugin that many businesses would love to choose when deploying an eCommerce website. However, besides the outstanding advantages, there are still certain downsides, so businesses must carefully consider and compare with other platforms before starting out. 

With many years of experience implementing eCommerce in many countries, SECOMM provides free consulting services with professional eCommerce solutions.

Contact us today for free support and advice!

Today, for businesses of all sizes, eCommerce websites play an essential role in reaching and buying products for a wide pool of potential customers on the Internet.

Thus, choosing the right platform to build an eCommerce website is incredibly important. A good eCommerce platform will make it easy for businesses to provide Omnichannel experiences, personalize customer experiences, offer a variety of services, products, and more to increase conversions and drive online sales.

Some commonly mentioned platforms for building eCommerce websites are Magento, Woocommerce, Bigcommerce, etc. Definitely, each business will have its considerations, but one platform that always appears as a top choice is Shopify. In spite of the fact that the platform is highly rated, businesses should still weigh the pros and cons of this platform before making a final decision.

As a result, SECOMM has prepared this review, helping businesses understand what Shopify is, how it works, implementation costs, and especially the pros and cons of using this platform to build a comprehensive eCommerce website.

What is Shopify?

Before becoming one of the most popular eCommerce platforms globally, Shopify started as an online ski store called Snowdevil in 2004. Later, the company transformed into an eCommerce platform named Jaded Pixel.

In 2006, It was officially founded in Ottawa by young programmers Tobias Lutke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake. Since then, the platform has gradually affirmed its position as a reliable and fastest-growing eCommerce platform in the last two years when most companies faced many difficulties because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Up to now, the number of Shopify users has increased significantly. As reported by StoreLeads, there are currently about 2 million websites using the platform to build and develop online businesses. In the second quarter of 2022, the number of newly opened stores reached 150,928, an increase of 10.8% compared to the same period in 2021. In Vietnam alone, there are about 2,000 websites using the platform in operation, up 9.8% in the second quarter of 2022 over the same period in 2021.

Total revenue in the second quarter of 2022 reached $1.3 billion, up 16% over the same period in 2021, corresponding to a compound annual growth rate for three consecutive years of 53%. Gross profit in the second quarter of 2022 increased by 6% to $655.6 million compared to $620.9 million in the second quarter of 2021 (According to Shopify’s report).

While it is one of the most popular and user-friendly eCommerce platforms available today, businesses still need to determine if this is what they need to expand their business, all the advantages and disadvantages of the platform, mostly the cost issue.

Pros of using Shopify for an eCommerce website

Cost-effective Deployment

For a start, businesses can enjoy a 14-day free trial without a credit card requirement. When the free trial ends, businesses are encouraged to opt for one of the solution packages with suitable features and appealing promotions.

Table list of price, and features of Shopify solution packages.

First and foremost, because it is a SaaS platform, the cost to get started is usually quite low. Despite the fact that businesses must pay monthly fees, transaction fees, theme fees, and extension fees, Shopify is still significantly less expensive than open-source platforms such as Magento, WooCommerce, and others.

The development of an open-source platform necessitates the assistance of experienced programmers and takes a long time to deploy, whereas the SaaS platform is the inverse. That is the reason why starting with a SaaS platform, specifically, Shopify, will save businesses both time and expense.

Another cost highlight is that SaaS platforms, in general, and Shopify in particular, require an ongoing monthly fee rather than a one-time purchase fee to use the platform. This reduces the risk of businesses investing too much money in the platform but not meeting their expectations during the implementation process.

Furthermore, the Shopify platform is appropriate for different-sized businesses in the market. The Starter, Lite, and Basic packages are appropriate for SME businesses engaged in eCommerce. Shopify, Advanced, and Plus packages are ideal for large-scale businesses that require advanced features to run an effective eCommerce website.

Ease of Use

The only way to adapt to the ever-changing market and quickly reach a wide pool of potential customers is for businesses to deploy eCommerce websites as soon as possible to avoid being left behind in the competition of the digital transformation race. One of the important factors when building an eCommerce website is choosing the right platform.

In particular, the top goal to consider when choosing an eCommerce platform is the ease of use. If a platform takes users too long to learn and implement or makes users dependent on external support, then the platform is not easy to use

Shopify has an easy-to-use interface for users with little programming knowledge. Moreover, Shopify is a SaaS eCommerce platform with a pre-designed system that offers hosting, interface, features, and technology infrastructure maintenance, allowing businesses to easily build and operate the website system with just drag and drop without worrying about technical issues.

Simple steps to get started with the eCommerce website implementation with Shopify:

1. Choose from one of the solution packages depending on the business needs
2. Choose a business domain
3. Choose an appropriate theme and template
4. Choose essential features
5. Optimize the eCommerce website and add products
6. Go-live

24/7 Available Customer Support

This is one of the most crucial factors influencing users’ decision to use Shopify. Difficulties and obstacles are inevitable when building an eCommerce website, so Shopify has assembled a reliable and trusted team to assist users.

As a result, if your business requires assistance, assistance is available 24/7. Businesses can reach Shopify via email, chat, and a hotline worldwide. What’s more, users can access community forums and useful documents for developing eCommerce websites on this platform, mostly through the Shopify Support Center.

Security and Data Backup

The Shopify platform runs on PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) compliant servers, allowing merchants to accept credit card payments. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption is enabled on all Shopify websites to secure visitor data, while a backup system allows businesses to store and save data regularly by exporting data to a CSV file.

As an outcome, the platform encourages the addition of an advanced backup solution from the Shopify Store, such as the Rewind app, as it is seen as a lifesaver if users accidentally delete content such as products or images or a video demonstration. To keep your eCommerce website secure, simply back up your data on a regular basis and use a strong enough admin password.

Variety of Themes

The interface is the appearance of a business’s eCommerce website. The more appealing the website interface, the more likely it is to retain customers, attract more visitors, as well as generate more conversions.

Shopify understands the importance of a website interface, so it has made a host of available themes, both free and paid, suitable for a wide range of businesses and fields, making it simple for businesses to choose from.

The free Shopify themes are ideal for startups, small and medium-sized businesses, and individuals. Businesses can customize their eCommerce website according to their needs and brand features by using features such as responsive web design, product filters, and product color display templates.

However, free themes have some downsides, including a limited number of themes, limited design, and a lack of advanced and specific features, which makes website customization difficult.

In fact, free themes are great for launching an eCommerce website. Premium interfaces, also known as paid themes, will be more suitable for large-scale businesses or businesses on the rise, with an average cost of around $140-$180/theme.

Shopify’s paid themes include advanced integration features such as live chat support, newsletter popups, upsell features, faster page loading, and much more. Thereby, businesses can run an eCommerce website automatedly and smoothly.

The Cons of using Shopify for an eCommerce website

Not Easy to Keep Track of Expenses Incurred

The cost of using Shopify, besides the notable pluses, the platform has a small but enough minus to make some businesses hesitate to start.

In addition to the monthly fee for using the enterprise platform, businesses must pay for other costs such as themes, applications, extensions, marketing features, sales, and SEO on a monthly basis with no long-term possession.

For example, to use the Free Shipping & Hello Bar application that offers free gifts, free shipping, or other types of promotions, users will buy for $8.95/month, which means ongoing monthly in regards to other expenses, businesses will pay an additional $8.95 for this app until it is no longer used. 

When there are small expenses incurred each month, it is difficult to control cash flow for large-scale businesses that have to manage and operate many websites at the same time.

Meanwhile, open-source platforms require a one-time purchase fee rather than an ongoing monthly fee. Although the features are not yet available and take a long time to program, businesses can possess those features for eCommerce websites in the long run. Thereby, it makes cash flow management more convenient and effective.

Difficulty with Content Marketing

It is a great way to promote your eCommerce website. Users can use Shopify to blog and optimize SEO, drive free traffic, and improve brand positioning.

However, this blogging feature on Shopify is not as user-friendly as WordPress. Some of the criteria Shopify can improve regarding blogging and content writing include:

• The outdated editor.
• The blog layouts are inflexible
• No categories force users to use tags
• Cannot add related blogs
• Cannot embed products in blogs
• Not easy to integrate third-party add-ons

This will be a barrier for businesses when using Shopify to promote eCommerce websites by optimizing SEO if the content is a core element of the business’s marketing strategy.

Limited Customization

Another limitation of Shopify is that the platform’s interface is customized using the Shopify Liquid setup. Meanwhile, many website developers are already familiar with the PHP programming language to customize the themes and templates of the website, it is a common technique used by WordPress.

Therefore, users who do not have much experience in programming will face many obstacles when using Shopify’s tools to customize the interface of the eCommerce website.

However, businesses of all sizes can still use other useful Shopify features like Shopify Themes, Shopify App Store, Shopify Blog, 24/7 support team, and more to set up an eCommerce website quickly and effortlessly.

Cannot Possess Source Code and Data 

Because the entire business’s website system is hosted on Shopify’s server, the ownership and control of the website source code will belong to Shopify, not the business. Similar to other SaaS platforms such as BigCommerce, Squarespace, Wix… Shopify has a Lock-in feature, which means that when converting a website from one platform to another, businesses will no longer be able to use the old website source code and have to rebuild from scratch on a new platform.

Similar to the source code, business data is also stored on Shopify’s servers, so data ownership and control are quite limited. This makes it difficult for businesses to connect data among internal departments or users’ personalization, etc. Especially when switching platforms, data loss or misalignment is often unavoidable.

Shopify will not assist in the event that businesses stop using the platform for any reason. The only asset businesses can keep and take away is a CSV report containing website information.

Hence, before starting an eCommerce website on the Shopify platform, businesses need to carefully consider the benefits and disadvantages of stopping using it to conclude whether Shopify is the best fit for business in the long run. 

Going by this article,  Shopify is one of the eCommerce platforms that many businesses would love to choose when deploying an eCommerce website. However, besides the outstanding advantages, there are still certain downsides, so businesses need to carefully consider and compare with other platforms before starting out. 

With many years of experience in implementing eCommerce in many countries, SECOMM provides free consulting services with professional eCommerce solutions.

Contact us today for free support and advice!

Trends in consumer shopping are shifting from offline to online, especially among the younger generation—an important factor impacting the new economy. Building an ecommerce website is crucial for the success of ecommerce businesses in today’s digital economy. So, what should businesses do to build a professional ecommerce website?

Define the goals of the ecommerce website

Objectives:

Businesses need to determine the purpose of the website and the priority of each goal to plan the development of the website according to each stage:

• Increase revenue: Add a sales channel to boost sales activities.
• Brand positioning: Build a brand to establish a strong presence in the ecommerce market.
• Marketing support for the business: Use tools like Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel to analyse customer behaviour, build a suitable Ecommerce Marketing strategy, reach more potential customers, and increase conversion.
• Enhance user experience and interaction: Support payment services and backend services to increase interaction, support, and provide customer advice more efficiently.

Requirements:

The ecommerce website needs to have a powerful configuration, a professional interface, and a diverse system of functions to meet the growing needs of customers. When designing the website, businesses should pay attention to:

• Website performance needs to ensure page load speed, large storage capacity, and compatibility with all devices.
• The interface is considered the face of the brand when customers visit the website. To create a good impression and keep them engaged, the interface must meet basic criteria:
  • Professional and brand-image-conveying interface.
  • Scientifically designed structure, compatible with customer behaviour.

Example: The structure of some common pages of an effective e-commerce website:

• Home page: Program banners and product or service categories.
• Product category page: General description of the category and products in the category.
• Product detail page: Description of product attributes, images/videos, prices, promotions, inventory information, customer reviews, and suggestions for similar products.
• Account registration page: Request basic information (Name, Email, Phone, Gender).
• Account management page: Personal information, password changes, order status.
• Shopping cart page: Avatar, product name, quantity, price, discount code.
• Checkout page: Order information, payment, shipping, invoice generation.
• Contact page: Hotline, email, business branches, contact form.

To maximize the customer experience, the ecommerce website needs to integrate features that support personalized customer experiences, aligning with their shopping behavior.

Example: Some common features:

• Product category management: Unlimited product quantity, multi-level category navigation, custom filters, and extensions supporting SEO indexing.
• Sales management: Order control, payment, shipping, staff responsible for handling.
• Customer management: Update customer information, register/log in through social media accounts such as Facebook/Google.
• Marketing management: Set up supporting tools like Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Google AdWords.
• Content management: Integrate SEO tools, customize menu layouts, CMS content.
• Inventory management: Use management tools to process orders, inventory management, and distribution systems.
• Reporting and Analysis: Analyze sales activities to assess customer insights, forecast business results, and propose business strategies.

Determine the time and budget for implementation

Depending on the goals and complexity of the e-commerce website, determine the time and budget. To accurately determine the time and budget, businesses should seek advice from experienced and professional units.

Choose an ecommerce website development platform

Each platform has its advantages and disadvantages. Businesses need to consider choosing a website development platform that is suitable for their e-commerce business strategy. Some popular platforms include:

Magento:

• Pros: Open-source platform specialized for e-commerce, versatile, highly customizable.
• Cons: High development costs, requires expertise and experience during implementation.

Suitable for businesses investing in the long term, saving budgets in the long run.

Shopify:

• Pros: Easy to use, many ready-made interfaces and widgets, 24/7 support.
• Cons: High costs (ongoing high cost), unstable website speed.

Suitable for building simple and less customized e-commerce websites.

OpenCart:

• Pros: Simple, easy to use for businesses, many templates.
• Cons: Limited features, poor security, suitable for building e-commerce websites for new brands entering the e-commerce market with limited budgets.

BigCommerce:

• Pros: Supports payment features and integrates various marketing tools.
• Cons: Limited annual revenue. Standard package: $29.95/month, revenue limit: $50,000/year.

Suitable for building e-commerce websites for new businesses with relatively low revenue.

WooCommerce:

• Pros: Simple, easy to use, many templates.
• Cons: Cannot be edited for a unique style, suitable for building e-commerce websites for new businesses and small-scale enterprises.

Choose an ecommerce website design unit

When building an e-commerce website, businesses need to collaborate with units based on certain criteria:

• Deep experience in e-commerce: Number of years of experience, quantity, and quality (type of projects, complexity, etc.) of completed projects.
• Professional team: Solution consulting staff, IT staff, customer service staff.
• Clear process from business analysis, proposed solutions, development, testing, and maintenance.
• Available system.
• Efficient handling and support.
• Commitment to warranty and maintenance.
• Upgrade and maintenance services for the e-commerce website.

Some ecommerce website design units in Vietnam include:

• Magento: Secomm, SmartOSC, MoniGroup, Co-well Asia, etc.
• Shopify: Webico, Meowcart, Duyalex, etc.
• BigCommerce: Itexpress, Websolution, etc.

Purchase domain name and hosting

Criteria for choosing a domain name: Short, easy to remember.

Criteria for choosing hosting providers:

• Examine the configuration: Disk Space, Bandwidth, Parked Domain, CPU, RAM, FTP accounts, MySQL accounts, dedicated IP, etc.
• Support services: Data backup, 24/7 live chat support, submitting a ticket to resolve issues.

Develop the ecommerce website

Coordinate with the development unit to ensure a smooth development process. Businesses should regularly update the project progress according to the approved solution. Simultaneously, update changes and coordinate with the cooperating unit. During the User Acceptance Test (UAT), businesses should test according to a checklist to ensure that the website development process meets expectations.

During the development process, businesses also need to work with payment and shipping units to provide services for the ecommerce website. When signing contracts with payment units, attention should be paid to security, compatibility between the website platform and the payment platform, and service fees. Some common online payment gateways in Vietnam include Paypal, Ngan Luong, VNPay, Airpay, and e-wallets such as Momo, ZaloPay. When cooperating with shipping units, businesses should consider the quality of services, shipping staff, packaging, and storage of goods to avoid affecting the user experience

A website is a powerful tool for supporting ecommerce (Electronic Commerce) business, serving as a bridge between businesses and customers in the online shopping market, facilitating the entire process of buying and selling goods, and boosting sales. Therefore, building an ecommerce website is crucial for the ecommerce business of a company, requiring not only serious investment but also a long-term strategy.

However, there are still many ecommerce websites facing certain issues that need to be addressed promptly! Here are some common problems:

Low Page Load Speed

To evaluate the speed of a website, tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, WebPageTest, Pingdom Speed Test, Uptrends, etc., can be used.

Scores range from 0 to 100, where 0-49 indicates relatively low speed, 50-89 indicates average speed that needs improvement, and 90-100 indicates excellent speed.

Slow page load speed affects user experience, conversion rates, customer retention, and SEO ranking.

Causes:

• Large product catalogues and diverse products with various attributes.
• Numerous high-resolution images.
• Increasing data in customer information, marketing, content, product catalogue, sales, and operations.
• Hosting quality and configuration issues.

Solutions:

• Compress or resize images, choose efficient image formats (e.g., jpg or .webp instead of .png).
• Utilize browser caching to reduce data load time, optimize the database by minimizing CSS, JavaScript, and HTML, and use tools like CDN/cache to reduce the time to retrieve large amounts of access data.
• Choose hosting providers with suitable caching memory, and web server configurations (Apache/Nginx/PHP/MySQL…), and use CDN to save bandwidth.

Unprofessional Ecommerce Website Interface

Issues with graphic design, colour schemes, inconsistent images and fonts, lack of brand representation, and non-optimal website structure affect the professionalism of the interface.

Consequences:

• Unattractive and unimpressive website interface.
• Reduced professionalism in the eyes of customers leading to decreased customer return rates.
• Decreased user experience, ineffective product search, suggestions, and quick purchase.

Causes:

• Insufficient research on consumer behaviour during the website structure design.
• Lack of expertise in evaluating the aesthetic appeal of the ecommerce website.

Solution:

• Use tools like Google Consumer Surveys, Facebook Audience Insight, and Prisync for market research, customer research, and competitor price tracking.
• Explore design trends such as Dark Mode, Gradient, 3D, and Lai Landing pages.
• Collaborate with experienced interface design providers for an attractive and brand-aligned ecommerce website interface.

Suboptimal Product Categories

Poorly structured product categories and incomplete product information negatively impact the user experience.

Issues:

• Lack of detailed and organized product categories.
• Incomplete product information related to attributes, images, videos, inventory, pricing, promotions, etc.

Consequences:

• Difficulty for customers to search for products.
• Inability to suggest relevant products.
• Prolonged decision-making time for customers, affecting sales.

Solutions:

• Establish a layered category structure, apply filtering and sorting features, and supplement detailed information for each product.
• Implement SEO campaigns for the ecommerce website, including keyword research, category content planning, proper robots.txt configuration, optimized website structure, and URL optimization for category pages.

Lack of Features to Enhance the Shopping Process

Websites should support customer search, and provide convenient and quick shopping processes.

Issues:

• Lack of effective features for searching and suggesting suitable products.
• Inefficient processes in cart addition, checkout, and payment.

Consequences:

• Incomplete shopping experience for customers.
• Slow and complicated purchasing processes lead to reduced conversion rates and revenue.

Causes:

• Absence of a strategic plan for deploying features according to customer buying behaviour.
• Suboptimal implementation by developers.

Solutions:

• Develop a comprehensive strategy with costs and timelines for integrating features into the business model.
• Collaborate with experienced solution providers to ensure successful integration.

Lack of Synchronization with Other Business Systems

Failure to link sales channels (social media, ecommerce platforms, ecommerce websites) with internal business systems like CRM, and ERP for synchronization can lead to misinformation and management difficulties.

Issues:

• Inconsistent information across sales channels.
• Challenges in managing customer, product, order, and store data.

Consequences:

• Impacted online sales due to uncontrolled product/service data.
• Lack of centralized data for reporting, analysis, business forecasting, and customer care activities.

Causes:

• More critical issues in the current ecommerce website system.
• Lack of a suitable strategy regarding costs and time for implementation.

Solution:

• Devise a plan including costs, timelines, and testing methods for the integration of data synchronization functionality into the ecommerce website system.
• Seek solution providers with experience, industry knowledge, and comprehensive services from consultation to development, maintenance, and optimization.

When deploying an ecommerce website, Magento is the top choice of platform that businesses are aiming for, including global giants like Nike, ASUS, HP, and Burger King, as well as leading Vietnamese enterprises such as Canifa, CellphoneS, Trung Nguyen, and CGV Vietnam.

With outstanding advantages ranging from a diverse ecosystem and flexible customisation capabilities to absolute security, Magento is considered the ‘ultimate boss’ among ecommerce website development platforms today.

So, what are the superior points of Magento?

A ecommerce platform functions from basic to advanced

Magento possesses all the features for a complete ecommerce website:

• Category Management: Control all data and functions related to products, categories, attributes, pricing systems, inventory, images, and videos.
• Content Management: Develop and optimise content for CMS pages (Content Management System), store images, customise themes, and website design.
• Sales Management: Control and operate sales processes, orders, payments, and shipping.
• Marketing Management: Support the building and implementation of marketing programmes with available support tools.
• Customer Management: Manage and collect customer information to enhance the user experience.
• Inventory Management: Continuously meet goods supply for the supply chain with inventory management tools and shipping route navigation.
• Reporting: Exploit data through reporting features on the system to improve and enhance business efficiency.
• Analysis: Support tracking and measuring system performance through integrated tools such as Google Analytics, Facebook Pixels, and Google Tag Manager.

In addition to the basic features of a complete ecommerce website, Magento also owns a diverse system of extensions with many advanced functions in themes, products, marketing, optimal payment solutions, shipping, etc. to meet every operational need and ensure sustainable development of ecommerce for businesses.

When building an ecommerce website, Magento also supports businesses to integrate and link third-party services for efficient ecommerce website operation, such as:

• Payment: Support all forms of payment, from COD, card payments, and e-wallets to online payment gateways, helping businesses diversify the payment experience for customers.
• Shipping: Easily integrate with many shipping units and popular shipping tracking applications to optimise the shipping process for customers.
• Management and operation software: Support the integration of back-office software such as ERP, CRM, POS, etc. to operate human resources more efficiently.
• Business intelligence (BI) analysis tools: Support the integration of business analysis tools such as Power BI, Tableau, and Looker… to improve business strategies for enterprises.
• Omnichannel: Unify all sales channels on the same Magento system to process and control data and seamlessly handle business processes from offline to online.

Furthermore, Magento also has a global technical support community, including many rich experts and professional developers to meet all the requirements of businesses.

High customisation and scalability

The Magento ecommerce website platform possesses all the advantages of open-source software with flexible customisation capabilities to operate the ecommerce website more effectively.

• Customisation: Owning and controlling the entire source code makes it easy for businesses to customise code sections in the system, enabling them to build innovative and improved solutions according to the specific business characteristics of each enterprise.
• Scalability: Magento allows businesses to expand from one website or store to many different websites or stores on the same system. Besides, Magento supports language and currency conversion, helping businesses expand their market to many countries.

High security

High security is also a superior advantage of Magento compared to other ecommerce website platforms, helping businesses minimise potential risks from data systems and transaction processes on the system. 

Some outstanding points of Magento’s security features include:

• Regularly control the system, propose security solutions, and improve website performance.
• Enhanced security for administrators.
• Advanced security for user accounts.
• Ability to block unauthorised bots and codes.

With the advantages of having all ecommerce website functions, from basic to advanced, high customisation capabilities, and high security, Magento is the top choice for businesses when deploying an ecommerce website system. However, issues related to costs, time, and the requirement for a highly specialised technical team make it challenging for many businesses to implement an ecommerce website system with Magento.

Contact SECOMM now for FREE CONSULTATION SUPPORT!

Frequent monitoring of metrics in business allows a deeper understanding of customers and quantifies important aspects of the business. Particularly in ecommerce (Electronic Commerce), measuring these indices is even more crucial as they assist businesses in assessing existing risks and opportunities in the market.

MEASURE ECOMMERCE: SALES

Gross Profit Ratio (GP)

Indicates how much profit is generated for every dollar of revenue.

Formula: Gross Profit Ratio (%) = Gross Profit / Revenue

Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)

The value of goods sold or consumed during a specific period.

Formula: Cost of Goods Sold = Beginning Inventory + Additional Purchases During the Period – Ending Inventory

Average Order Value (AOV)

The average amount a customer spends when shopping on an ecommerce website.

Formula: Average Order Value = Revenue / Number of Orders

Revenue Per Click (RPC)

Average revenue based on the conversion rate each time a customer visits an ecommerce website.

Formula: Revenue Per Click = Revenue / Number of Visits

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

The value a customer contributes to a company over their entire lifetime.

Formula: Customer Lifetime Value = (Transaction 1 + Transaction 2 + Transaction 3 + …Transaction n) x Average Profit Margin

Purchase Frequency

Indicates the average number of times a customer purchases within a specific period.

Formula: Purchase Frequency = Total Orders / Total Customers

Time Between Purchases (TBP)

Measures the time between consecutive purchases by a customer.

Formula: Time Between Purchases = Purchase Frequency / 365

Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate (CAR)

Measures the number of customers who added items to their cart but did not complete the purchase.

Formula: Cart Abandonment Rate = 1 – (Completed Transactions / Carts with Products) x 100

Cost of Acquiring Customer (CAC)

The cost associated with persuading consumers to purchase a company’s products or services.

Formula: Cost of Acquiring Customer = Total Cost / Number of New Customers

Repeat Purchase Rate (RPR)

Indicates the likelihood of customers returning to make a second or subsequent purchase.

Formula: Repeat Purchase Rate = Number of Repeat Purchases / Total Number of Purchases

MEASURE ECOMMERCE: MARKETING

Website Traffic

Refers to the total number of visits to an ecommerce website.

Traffic Source

Identifies the primary sources directing traffic to your website.

Time on Site (TOS)

Indicates the average time a visitor spends on the website.

Average Session Duration

The average time users spend in a single session.

Formula: Total Session Duration / Number of Sessions

Page per Visit

Measures the level of content engagement, indicating how deeply users explore information on the website.

Formula: Pages per Visit = Number of Pages Viewed / Visits

Bounce Rate

The percentage of single-page visits where visitors leave without clicking on any other content.

Formula: Bounce Rate = Total Bounces in a Period / Total Visits in that Period

Click Through Rate (CTR)

The rate at which customers view and click on a business’s advertisements.

Formula: Click Through Rate = Number of Clicks / Number of Impressions

Engagement Rate

Indicates the number of people who interacted with a company’s content through various ecommerce channels such as the business’s ecommerce website/app, ecommerce platforms, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc.

Formula: Social Media Engagement = Number of Interactions / Number of Followers

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

The Internet marketing model is where businesses pay a fee each time their ads are clicked.

Formula: Pay-Per-Click Cost = Advertising Cost / Number of Clicks

Conversion Rate (CR)

Measures the ratio of potential customers who become actual customers by making a purchase.

Formula: Conversion Rate = Number of Conversions / Total Ad Interactions

As consumer shopping trends shift from offline to online, owning an ecommerce website (EC) is almost a prerequisite for successful business operations. Despite its importance, many businesses are still unsure where to start to build an effective EC website.

Here is a step-by-step journey to building an EC website from basic to advanced for businesses to refer to!

PHASE 1: BUILDING A BASIC ECOMMERCE WEBSITE

When entering the ecommerce market, businesses often build a basic-level ecommerce website to minimize time and budget for website development and gradually adapt to market changes.

Choose a platform to build the website

Businesses can use free website-building tools with ready-made interfaces and features to create a website through simple drag-and-drop operations, without investing too much time and budget in website development and programming. Some popular platforms include Sapo, Haravan, Nhanh.web.

Advantages

• Various ready-made interfaces suitable for different industries and sectors.
• Basic features provided, such as managing product data, prices, images/videos, sales tracking, payment, shipping, marketing, customer management, inventory management, and reporting/analysis.
• Diverse payment methods: COD, card payment, e-wallet.
• Integration with common shipping services: GHN, GHTK, Ninja Van.

Reasonable initial deployment costs with a contract based on usage time.

Disadvantages

• Additional costs may be incurred to use extensions or develop new features for the system.
• Limited customization capability, making it challenging to create a unique brand identity.
• Low flexibility: Difficulty integrating with third-party systems or CRM, ERP, BI…

Design the interface and build functional systems on the chosen platform

Businesses use ready-made templates on the platform and customize them to fit the brand image, industry, and consumer preferences. The chosen platforms offer basic features, and businesses only need to select suitable functions and set them up on the website.

Provide payment and shipping services

• During the ecommerce website development process, businesses need to work with service providers to offer payment and shipping services.
• Common online payment gateways in Vietnam include Paypal, Ngan Luong, VNPay, Airpay, and e-wallets like Momo, ZaloPay.
• Reputable shipping providers in Vietnam include Giao Hang Tiet Kiem, Giao Hang Nhanh, VNPost, ViettelPost.

Complete legal procedures with the Ministry of Industry and Trade

According to Government Decree 52/2013/ND-CP, individuals or organizations that own ecommerce websites for selling goods must notify or register with the Ministry of Industry and Trade on the Ecommerce Management Information Portal.

PHASE 2: TRANSITION TO A SPECIALIZED ECOMMERCE WEBSITE PLATFORM

After using a basic ecommerce website for some time, businesses gradually realize the need to develop an independent, in-depth, and uniquely designed ecommerce website to promote a sustainable ecommerce journey.

Developing a specialized ecommerce website requires both experience and substantial investment in costs and time. However, this is a cost-effective solution for long-term business plans and a suitable transition for a separate and comprehensive ecommerce system.

Choose a platform to build the website

At this stage, businesses can choose specialized e-commerce platforms like WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento, which are scalable and customizable to maximize the requirements of:

• Open-source e-commerce platforms allow flexible customization according to needs.
• Support customization of the interface to match the brand’s unique style.
• Own a diverse range of functions from basic to advanced.
• Easily integrate with popular shipping and payment providers.
• Manage multiple systems such as CRM, ERP, BI on one screen.
• Easily develop specialized e-commerce functions, especially features related to industry-specific characteristics, brand development, and optimizing customer experience.
• Actively update and quickly develop new features and technologies.
• Flexible and easy integration with in-house systems and third-party systems such as payment, shipping, ecommerce platforms, CRM, ERP, BI…

However, implementing a specialized e-commerce website may face some difficulties:

• High costs and prolonged deployment time.
• Require a skilled and experienced IT team for effective implementation.

Select a website development service provider

When building an ecommerce website on specialized platforms, as it requires time, costs, and high expertise, businesses often collaborate with service providers for ecommerce website development. Afterward, businesses can build an in-house team or continue working with the provider to maintain website operations.

Some service providers for deploying specialized ecommerce systems include SECOMM, SmartOSC, Co-well Asia, Isobar, Magenest.

Develop the ecommerce website

During project deployment based on the agreed solution with the development provider, all factors related to the quality and effectiveness of the website need to be optimized and tested before handover. Especially crucial functions include:

• Category Management: Control data, functions, attributes, prices, inventory, images, and videos of products.
• Content Management: Develop and optimize content for CMS pages, store images, customize themes, and website design.
• Sales Management: Control and operate sales processes, orders, payments, and shipping.
• Marketing Management: Support building and implementing marketing programs using tools like Omni-channel Marketing, Auto Mail.
• Customer Management: Manage and collect customer information for personalized user experiences.
• Inventory Management: Ensure a continuous supply of goods through inventory management tools and shipping direction.
• Reporting & Analysis: Exploit data and measure performance on Google Analytics, Facebook Pixels, Google Tag Manager.

Operate and maintain the ecommerce website

To maintain seamless online-to-offline business operations, the website needs continuous maintenance, care, and updates.

• System Maintenance: Control and monitor all resources on the system to optimize performance.
• Hosting: Web App system, server management, and 24/7 monitoring.
• Cloud: Enhance accessibility and data storage across the entire website system.

Grow the ecommerce website

Implement activities to increase sales operations on the website and stimulate online sales.

• Omni-channel: Set up a sales system, marketing, and data management on the ecommerce website, social networks (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Zalo…) and e-commerce platforms (Shopee, Tiki, Lazada…).
• E-commerce Marketing: Analyze and plan comprehensive marketing based on core channels (Content Marketing, Social Marketing, Email Marketing, SEM…).
• SEO: Analyze and optimize website structure, and research specific keywords to build a long-term SEO strategy.

The journey from building a basic to an advanced ecommerce website helps businesses adapt to market changes over time.

Ecommerce website has been a companion for businesses facing COVID-19 challenges in 2020-2021. Efficient utilization of ecommerce (EC) not only helps businesses adapt to changing user and market dynamics but also enables them to seize opportunities and excel in the fiercely competitive landscape. Some successful standalone EC websites include thegioididong.com, bachhoaxanh.com, and fptshop.com.vn.

What is the formula for the success of these businesses?

This success hinges on the ability to have a broad vision and a strategic approach at the management level. Building a dedicated EC website is not just about establishing offline stores; it involves developing and optimizing an EC system that aligns with the business, brand, and users. Building a successful brand website offers various benefits, from brand positioning, cost savings, maximizing revenue to owning all data and controlling the game.

Brand Positioning

A dedicated EC website serves as a medium to convey the brand image and connects businesses with customers in the online market. By owning a dedicated EC website, businesses can easily convey messages, establish specialized marketing campaigns, provide accurate information, and promote the brand to get closer to customers.

Maximizing Revenue

Operating on a website, businesses are not limited by time and space. Business transactions can occur 24/7, regardless of location. Actively updating and upgrading the system’s features based on user characteristics, business needs, and industry specifics ensures an optimal user experience and facilitates a more convenient and faster purchasing process.

Minimizing Costs

In addition to enabling direct access and sales to customers, eliminating intermediary costs, establishing an online store (brand.com) is an optimal solution for minimizing various expenses such as rent, personnel, and equipment. Moreover, the automated business process with E-Payment, E-Logistic, E-Invoice functions on the website helps save costs related to personnel and paperwork.

Data Ownership and Control

Building a dedicated EC website means owning a unique “playing field,” reducing dependence on data from EC platforms, social media, or other business systems. With this data, businesses can conduct in-depth data analysis, make business predictions, and develop appropriate directions for the business.

With these superior benefits of deploying a standalone EC website, many businesses have quickly embarked on building an online store for their brand. However, to truly own a successful website that meets specific requirements, similar to Vinamilk, Thế giới di động, Canifa, businesses need a suitable strategy and significant time and investment.

How to build anecommerce website tailored to your business?

With extensive experience in building numerous standalone ecommerce websites for businesses across various sectors, SECOMM fully understands the challenges encountered during the e-commerce deployment process that businesses are facing.

Contact SECOMM to receive consultation on building your own ecommerce website!