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Ultimate Guide for Vietnamese Firms to Deploy O2O Commerce
ULTIMATE GUIDE FOR VIETNAMESE FIRMS TO DEPLOY O2O COMMERCE
06/07/2023
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According to data compiled by Statista, over 82% of retail sales take place in brick-and-mortar stores. Within that, more than 81% of customers have spent time researching products online before deciding. This demonstrates both online and offline business activities must be aligned for the optimized overall operation. That means you, as a business, need to consider implementing an O2O commerce strategy in line with your business goals and capabilities.

Define objectives

To establish objectives, it’s important to determine your vision for O2O commerce implementation. It represents the future look that you aim to achieve, and then you will set specific and measurable goals. You can also use SWOT to make sure you understand your strength, weakness, opportunity, and threats. 

Ultimate Guide for Vietnamese Firms to Deploy O2O Commerce - Define objectives
Ultimate Guide for Vietnamese Firms to Deploy O2O Commerce – Define objectives

Clear objectives will keep you focused on what is important, minimize risks, and achieve O2O commerce success.

Plan the strategy

Next is to work with your team to develop O2O strategies to achieve the established objectives. 

You can use performance analysis software to measure and analyze, identifying pain points and touchpoints throughout the purchasing journey. This way, you can determine which O2O model to implement and which channels are suited for the chosen model. 

After choosing your business model, you will select resources to facilitate O2O commerce. 

Ultimate Guide for Vietnamese Firms to Deploy O2O Commerce - Plan the strategy
Plan the strategy

Here are 3 great ways to pool resources:

Number 1. Plan to build your in-house team for both online and offline sales channels

Pros: You can manage and shape your team to develop the business the way you want

Cons: It requires significant costs and time to recruit and train your in-house team, making your market entry to be slower than the competition. 

Number 2. Collaborate with an O2O-experienced developer

Pros: You can learn a lot from your partner

Cons: It’s not easy to find trustworthy and professional partners with expertise that suits your needs. 

Number 3. Facilitate the O2O commerce with an expert developer along with building the in-house team to maintain it.

Pros: You can quickly develop the O2O system and control it in the long run

Cons: It takes time to find a trustworthy vendor, as well as the costs to recruit and train your in-house team.

Those approaches can help you in effectively outlining your O2O commerce plan, encompassing aspects such as budget allocation and implementation timeline.

Optimize the offline commerce system

Typically, businesses that implement O2O strategies are those that already have an existing offline business system. However, to effectively fulfill O2O orders you must optimize your offline commerce capabilities. The optimized offline system will strengthen your O2O operations with some management software such as POS, CRM, ERP, and PIM instead of using manual management processes relying on paperwork or Microsoft Office tools (Word, Excel, OneNote, Access, etc).

Ultimate Guide for Vietnamese Firms to Deploy O2O Commerce - Optimize the offline commerce system
Optimize the offline commerce system

POS (Point of Sale) is where the buying and selling transactions take place. A POS system combines hardware and software to create a complete transaction process. Some popular POS systems include Magestore, mPOS, VNPAY, and KiotViet. 

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is software that helps plan and manage all operations of a business. Some world-renowned ERPs include Odoo, Sage, TomERP, Oracle, and SAP. 

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a software that allows you to manage information and interaction of your existing and prospective customers. CRM helps you to collect, store, and analyze customer data to improve customer interactions and enhance sales capabilities. You can use CRM tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, Zoho, and Pipedrive. 

PIM (Product Information Management) is a system used to store and manage your business’s product information in a centralized manner. Product information includes technical specifications, descriptions, images, videos, size and color information, multilingual product descriptions, and other relevant information needed by marketers or sales staff. There are some popular PIM solutions including Pimworks, Salsify, Akeneo, and Inriver.  

Depending on the current level of digitization in your offline operations, you can consider upgrading existing systems, transitioning to different platforms, or implementing additional suitable software solutions. 

Develop the online commerce system

Select platforms

Typically, building the online commerce system including websites, and apps, you can choose between 2 types of platforms: SaaS and Open Source.

Ultimate Guide for Vietnamese Firms to Deploy O2O Commerce - Select platforms
Select platforms

SaaS (Software as a Service) platform is a service delivery model where the website system is provided as software. In this model, data is stored on the provider’s server, and the platform is responsible for handling technical issues for the business.

Some popular SaaS platforms:  Haravan, Shopify, and BigCommerce.

  • Pros: Easy to use, quick development time, high security, 24/7 customer support
  • Cons: Increasing development costs over time, businesses have limited ownership of source code and data, limitations in functionality and customization, and scalability.

The SaaS platform is often a popular choice for startups or SMEs (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) due to its reasonable cost and implementation time. 

The Open Source platform refers to software with publicly available source code that can be used by anyone free of charge. Open-source platforms are the optimal choice for businesses to develop comprehensive websites and apps. 

Some notable Open-source platforms include Magento, WooCommerce (a plugin for WordPress), and OpenCart. 

  • Pros: High customization and scalability, diverse critical features and utilities, you have ownership of source code and data. 
  • Cons: Not user-friendly, high development costs, lengthy implementation time. 

The Open-source platform is the perfect choice for enterprise-level businesses requiring complex customization due to its high flexibility and scalability.

In addition, you can also build your store on popular eCommerce marketplaces such as Shopee, Lazada, Tiki, Sendo, and Amazon. Marketplaces give you a great opportunity to reach out to a wide pool of potential customers and increase sales. Moreover, using eCommerce marketplaces helps you save costs on ads, shipping, and customer relationship management (CRM).

To succeed on marketplaces, you will need optimized store pages and an effective strategy. It’s easier said than done, however, relying on eCommerce marketplaces in the long run may result in a loss of control over customers and their data. Marketplaces will have their own policies regarding customer data management and contact information making it difficult for you to directly access their customers and may lose these potential customers to your competition. 

Overall, to effectively implement O2O commerce, you can choose to develop an online system alongside your offline system or proceed with it after getting the offline system done. 

Create UI/UX design

After choosing the platform to build the O2O e-commerce website and app, you will create the UI/UX design that aligns with your brand’s characteristics. 

Ultimate Guide for Vietnamese Firms to Deploy O2O Commerce - Create UI UX design
Create UI/UX design

There are 3 recommended approaches:

  • Using pre-built themes: This helps you save theme costs. Both SaaS and Open-source platforms offer a variety of themes ranging from $300 to $500.
  • Customizing based on pre-built themes: This approach allows you to customize the theme to suit your development needs. 
  • Create the UI/UX design from scratch: This helps you to develop your brand image uniquely and creatively compared to the majority of competitors. It may incur higher costs compared to using pre-built themes but the “tailored” design will meet the market needs and your business’s requirements. 

Develop critical functions for the digital system

Ultimate Guide for Vietnamese Firms to Deploy O2O Commerce - Develop critical functions for the digital system
Develop critical functions for the digital system

After you’ve done with your design, it’s time to develop some critical functions for both eCommerce website and app implementation. Below are a few suggestions:

  • Catalog Management: involves managing categories, functions, prices, and product images/videos to optimize your operations.
  • Sales Management: focus on managing order information, and being aware of customer shopping behavior.
  • Marketing Management: integrating features such as URLs, meta tags, and internal links to optimize SEO, and combine with other effective marketing campaigns to boost sales. 
  • Content Management: All about generating and optimizing engaging content for CMS, including text, images, banners, widgets, templates as well as blogs, and branded content, v.v
  • Customer Management: All about storing, managing, and analyzing customer data and segmentation to boost your marketing strategy and optimize the customer online experience.
  • System Management: All about managing and assigning permissions to administrators to operate, secure, and maintain the eCommerce system. 
  • Store Management: All about using inventory management tools at main stores, branches, and warehouses to ensure an efficient supply chain. 
  • Cart and Checkout Management: All about the shopping cart and payment information.
  • Analysis and Reporting: All about analyzing and measuring the performance of the eCommerce system to help you make decisions based on data. 

Testing

Testing serves as a vital undertaking to help you uncover any lurking bugs that may emerge within a website and app, all in the pursuit of aligning the entire system seamlessly with the precise demands of your business. By doing testing, you will not only grant a comprehensive overview of your project but also provide the means to evaluate targets and even proactively manage risks as you navigate the realm of eCommerce.

Ultimate Guide for Vietnamese Firms to Deploy O2O Commerce - Testing
Testing

There are several testing methods:

  • White-box testing: In white-box testing, the code and algorithms are examined. Testers access the source code to perform the tests. 
  • Black-box testing: This method tests the system’s functionality based on specific requirements.
  • Gray-box testing: It combines black-box and white-box testing. 

In general, conducting testing based on test scenarios is an important step that helps you ensure quality and provides a solid foundation for a smooth operation.

Legal Registration and Launch the app

Ultimate Guide for Vietnamese Firms to Deploy O2O Commerce - Legal Registration and Launch the app
Legal Registration and Launch the app

Declare with the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade

The final step to developing the online capabilities is to complete the legal procedures to make sure your eCommerce operation is legit. You can follow the step-by-step guide in the eCommerce Management Portal. 

This is a mandatory requirement set by the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade for individuals or organizations having online businesses to fulfill their obligation to register/notify within the specified timeframe. 

Publish the app on Google Play and App Store

To publish the applications on these platforms, you need to follow these steps:

  1. Register a developer account on the App Store and Google Play
  2. Create your developer profile and register the app
  3. Create and submit the app, including necessary information such as name, description, images, videos, and other features. You must ensure the app complies with the regulations and requirements of these platforms.
  4. Check and confirm the app registration. When the app is approved, you can start promoting and managing it on the platforms. 

By pushing the app to Google Play and the App Store, you take one closer step to mobile users.

Measure performance

After facilitating your O2O commerce system, it’s time to take a look at the collected data to measure its performance for further critical decisions. Several tools can be integrated into your business system such as Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, TikTok Tracking Pixel, and more.

Ultimate Guide for Vietnamese Firms to Deploy O2O Commerce - Measure performance
Measure performance

Moreover, you can integrate BI (Business Intelligence) tools, which are intelligent management reporting systems, to gather large amounts of data from various sources and use them to make predictions. Some popular BI tools include Magento Business Intelligence, Tableau, Power BI, and Looker.

Optimize customer experience

Having the analysis and reports in place, you can now develop appropriate strategies to optimize customer experience. Some popular strategies include Loyalty Program and Omnichannel.

Ultimate Guide for Vietnamese Firms to Deploy O2O Commerce - Optimize customer experience
Optimize customer experience

The Loyalty Program is a marketing strategy designed to encourage customers to continue to shop associated with the program. This enriches customer shopping experience and keeps them engaged with your brand. 

Omnichannel is a multichannel sales approach that focuses on providing a seamless shopping experience by marketing and selling on all channels where potential customers are present, from mobile devices, social media, and eCommerce websites to brick-and-mortar stores.

O2O Commerce Solution at SECOMM

Established in 2014, SECOMM is a company specializing in providing O2O commerce solutions. Over the years, SECOMM has accumulated a vast portfolio of O2O commerce projects with large domestic and international clients such as Annam Gourmet, Trentham Estate, and much more.

Regarding O2O commerce solutions, SECOMM offers a diverse range of services to help businesses enhance their competitive capabilities and dominate the retail market in the digital age. These services include Solution Consulting, Team Development, and O2O System Development including:

O2O Commerce Model

eCommerce System

Developing an O2O commerce system to provide a comprehensive experience for customers:

  • Deploying eCommerce websites on platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento, etc
  • Building eCommerce Apps using platforms, technologies, and frameworks such as Flutter, NodeJS, ReactJS, Ionic.
  • Building and managing online stores on popular eCommerce marketplaces such as Shopee, Lazada, Tiki, Sendo, and Amazon.

Management system

Deploying and integrating management tools and software to efficiently operate business activities for the enterprise.

  • ERP: Odoo, Sage, TomERP, Oracle, SAP, etc.
  • CRM: Salesforce, Hubspot, Zendesk, Zoho, etc.
  • POS: Magestore, mPOS, VNPAY, KiotViet, etc.
  • PIM: Pimworks, Salsify, Akeneo, Inriver, etc.

Customer Experience System

Building and integrating platforms to support businesses in enhancing customer experience.

  • Mobile Applications: Flutter, NodeJS, ReactJS, Ionic, etc.
  • Loyalty Programs
  • Omnichannel Commerce

Data System

Integrating tools to support the analysis and reporting for the business operations.

  • Data analysis and reporting: Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, Tiktok Tracking Pixel, etc.
  • Business Intelligence: Magento Business Intelligence, Tableau, Power BI, Looker, etc.

To learn more about the O2O commerce model as well as the best solutions to conquer the retail market, please contact SECOMM today for a free consultation.

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Unblock The Full Potential of The O2O Commerce Model
UNBLOCKED THE FULL POTENTIAL OF THE O2O COMMERCE MODEL
24/03/2023
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After Covid, eCommerce is on the rise and is expected to continue to thrive stronger and more resilient than ever. Global retail eCommerce sales reached $4.9 trillion in 2021, as stated by Statista. By 2025, this figure is projected to increase by 50% to approximately $7.4 trillion and there is no sign that the growth of online shopping will slow down anytime soon.

The expansion of eCommerce has raised concerns among physical store owners and urged them to embrace eCommerce quickly to avoid being left behind. It’s simple for businesses with a large budget, but other small and medium-sized businesses will not be able to move their entire operations online. Thus, the O2O Commerce model is the solution worth considering. Its popularity has been raised since 2021 and is expected to reach retailers soon. 

What is O2O Commerce?

O2O or Online-to-Offline Commerce Model is a business strategy that draws potential customers from online channels to make purchases in brick-and-mortar stores. This model aims to create a seamless shopping experience at all stages: before, during, and after purchasing.

Unblock The Full Potential of The O2O Commerce Model-What is O2O Commerce
What is O2O Commerce?

How does O2O Commerce work?

O2O Commerce combines online and offline business models. Its objective is to increase product awareness online, allowing customers to search for what they need before visiting a physical store to make a purchase. There are some O2O strategies that businesses can try including Buy Online Pick-up In-store (BOPIS), In-store Returns, Home Delivery, etc

For example: 

  • A man wants to buy a shirt from a particular fashion brand;
  • He searches for it online and goes to the web store that sells the product he is interested in;
  • Then, he chooses the shirt’s size and color, applies a discount code, and makes a purchase;
  • He goes to a local store and picks up the shirt by providing his information;
  • He tries on the shirt he ordered in the store to check its quality, size, and comfort. If he is not satisfied with the product, he can return it and get a refund.

That way, the customer can both take advantage of the discount code for the shirt, and try it on at the nearest store without having to wait for delivery. Moreover, he can completely return the shirt immediately and go to another store if he is not satisfied.

Home Delivery is also another popular strategy in the O2O world. It will take a few hours or a day. So, the man can buy his shirt online, select the home-delivery option and wait to get it. In another case, when going to the store to pick up the shirt, he sees and likes a jacket but needs help finding the right size or favorite color. He simply places an order online while in store and that desired jacket will be delivered to his door.  

Unblock The Full Potential of The O2O Commerce Model-How does O2O Commerce work
O2O Commerce Model

The differences between O2O and Omnichannel

Unblock The Full Potential of The O2O Commerce Model-The differences between O2O and Omnichannel
Omnichannel vs O2O

The example above may confuse the O2O commerce model and the Omnichannel commerce model. Although they both facilitate a more seamless shopping experience among channels, their main goals are quite different. While Omnichannel aims to integrate all sales channels in one ecosystem, O2O aims to bring potential online customers to physical stores to make purchases. Both strategies are designed to bridge the gap between online and offline sales, but O2O prioritizes a specific buying journey instead of multiple touchpoints in Omnichannel commerce.

Case studies

Unblock The Full Potential of The O2O Commerce Model-Case studies
Brands that have successfully implemented O2O Commerce

Topshop

One of the brands that understand what they are doing to connect in-store shopping with online shopping in a tight way is Topshop. By partnering with eCommerce website ShangPin to open retail stores in malls, with giant iPhones decorated in Topshop style, customers can access “The Mobile Adventure” by scanning a QR code to view and try on virtual Topshop fashion products in the store. Then they share their look on social media and place an order.

Unblock The Full Potential of The O2O Commerce Model-Topshop
Topshop

Tommy Hilfiger

When it comes to fashion, Tommy Hilfiger has shown his agility when deploying the O2O model. In 2015, the brand launched digital showrooms, pioneering the fashion industry’s digital revolution. In 2016 they launched a chatbot through Facebook Messenger and in 2017 they launched the Hilfiger Club app with a loyalty program of personalized special offers and invitations to the brand’s events. All of that gives customers a good reason to come to the store. 

Unblock The Full Potential of The O2O Commerce Model-Tommy Hilfiger
Tommy Hilfiger

99 Ranch Market and WeChat’s Shake

In recognition of the significance of an O2O commerce strategy, WeChat introduced a “Shake” feature that enables mobile users to connect to a nearby local business by shaking their phones. The retailer’s unique offers are then all accessible, encouraging customers to engage in the in-store buying experience.

Soon after, the 99 Ranch Market, a chain of Chinese-American supermarkets, benefited from the popularity of WeChat’s “Shake” feature and the rise of O2O among the Chinese community in the US. Customers can play a “beacon shake” game the company has created, which is activated by in-store beacons and gives them the chance to win a variety of prizes and coupons for their subsequent purchases. 

Unblock The Full Potential of The O2O Commerce Model-wechat
99 Ranch Market and WeChat’s Shake

The O2O Commerce model is an incredible idea with great potential to change both online and offline sales in the eCommerce era. While customers can shop both in-store and online, brands can optimize engagement, conversion rates, and average order value.

Today, when customers’ expectations for online shopping are similar to offline shopping, one condition for physical stores to survive is to build their online presence quickly. The O2O strategy is about leveraging both online and offline channels, thereby enhancing brand loyalty, and providing a seamless Online-to-Offline shopping experience at all stages: before, during, and after purchases. 

Want to know more? Contact our experts to learn more about O2O Commerce and how to implement it in your business. 

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