Facing the boom of Mobile Commerce, businesses now have two choices: to build an eCommerce app to adapt to this boom or to ignore it and gradually fall behind. 

According to Insider Intelligence’s forecast, mobile commerce market sales will reach $534.18 billion in 2024, of which two devices contributing to this incredible number are smartphones and tablets. Smartphones alone account for 87.2% of mobile commerce sales. These figures are the most convincing answer to the above consideration: Yes, businesses need to build an eCommerce app.  

The Process of Creating An eCommerce App

Building an eCommerce app requires a lot of effort and serious work because it is a complex process with many stages and the involvement of many relevant. Below are 8 summarized implementation steps that will help businesses understand the building process of an eCommerce app to make their business operation more effective. 

Identifying Objectives

The first step of the process is to determine the objective of the eCommerce app, including deciding which products will be sold through the app and identifying the target audience. This way, businesses can build an app that meets their needs and quickly achieves the objective.

Businesses should do market research to understand their target audience’s needs, preferences, and behaviors in various ways, such as through surveys, interviews, etc. It helps them define the app’s features and the marketing strategies to promote it. Moreover, businesses should find the app’s unique selling points that differentiate it from its competitors, making it easy to attract potential customers and stand out. 

Define Must-Have Feature Set

After identifying the objectives, the business proceeds to the next step: identifying the vital features of the eCommerce app. Here are some recommendations:

• Product Catalog: The app should include a catalog of the business’s products, clear product images, detailed descriptions, and comments about products. 
• Search function: Not only websites, but eCommerce apps also need a search bar to help customers easily search for products they are interested in.
• Shopping cart: The shopping cart feature allows users to add products to their cart, view the list inside, and add or remove items from the cart.
• Payment integration: To help the payment process run smoothly, businesses can integrate multiple payment methods to provide customers with various options such as cash on delivery (COD), credit/debit cards, eWallets, etc.
• Social media integration: This integration not only helps customers log in quickly but also encourages them to connect with the business on social media platforms.
• Push notification: For eCommerce apps, push notifications play a crucial role as a communication channel with customers and support businesses in marketing campaigns.

Select Platform and App Type

• Select platform (iOS/Android)

The selection of a platform for building an eCommerce app depends on many factors, including target customers, budget, development stage, necessary features, expansion needs, etc. iOS and Android are two popular platforms in today’s market. In most cases, businesses will build eCommerce apps on both platforms. However, those with limited resources, start with one platform first and then expand to the other later. 

Additionally, if a business is targeting customers in the European and North American markets, iOS would be the right choice because iOS dominates these markets. However, because Android has a superior market share in Asia, businesses with plans to penetrate the Asian market should consider choosing Android.

• Select App Type (Native app/Hybrid app)

Any business looking to build an eCommerce app will have to choose between a Native app and a Hybrid app. Developing a Native app refers to building a specific app for a specific platform (iOS & Android), using the respective programming languages of the platform – Swift/Objective-C for iOS and Java/Kotlin for Android. Native apps can provide great performance and user experience as they are optimized for the specific platform the app is built on. However, building Native apps can be costly and time-consuming. 

Developing a Hybrid app involves building a single app that works on both iOS and Android platforms, using web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Hybrid apps can speed up the development cycle and be less expensive in terms of budget and time compared to native apps. However, Hybrid apps cannot provide the same performance and user experience as Native apps.

Therefore, the choice between developing a Native app or a Hybrid app depends on the budget, development process, and the desired user experience. If the business has a surplus budget to invest in user experience, then developing a Native app is a good choice. However, if the business needs to bring its eCommerce app to the market quickly but has budget constraints, then it should focus on developing a Hybrid app.

Related Reading: Native App & Hybrid App: Key Differences, Pros & Cons

In-house or Outsourced App Development

In the next step, businesses decide whether to use an in-house team or collaborate with a specialized agency, which depends on the budget, experience, expertise, and resources. Below are some pros and cons of the two options: In-housing and Outsourcing. 

In-house development team

Pros:

• The team will control the entire development process.
• The in-house team can communicate and make decisions directly.
• The in-house team will deeply understand the project and the business goals.

Cons:

• It can be expensive in terms of budget and time to recruit, train, and maintain an in-house development team.
• If the in-house expertise and resources are insufficient, it may take a long time to build the app, affecting the product launch process.

Development partner (Outsourcing):

Pros:

• The business benefits from a partner with a lot of experience building eCommerce apps.
• The eCommerce app development process may be faster than an in-house team because the partner’s expertise is proven.
• Saves budget and time in recruiting, training, and maintaining an in-house team.

Cons:

• It takes a lot of time for the business analysis phase so that the partner can understand the business operations and goals to make decisions on the app development.
• The communication and decision-making process between both parties may be difficult due to geographic distance.
• If choosing the wrong partner, the final result may not meet the requirements of the business.

Create UI/UX Design 

The UI/UX design of an eCommerce app refers to creating a visually appealing and user-friendly interface to help users easily search for and purchase products. Here are some suggestions for businesses to consider when designing the UI/UX for eCommerce apps:

• The design should reflect the image and brand value.
• The design should be simple to enhance user experience and easy navigation.
• Use high-quality product images and keep file sizes small to minimize load times.
• Consistent design throughout the entire app, including colors, fonts, etc.
• Ensure the design is responsive and performs well on various screen sizes.
• Use clear and intuitive navigation systems to help customers find out what they need on the app.
• Collect user feedback and make necessary adjustments to improve UI/UX design.

Build the MVP

In eCommerce app development, MVP stands for  Minimum Viable Product, which is typically a condensed version of the app that is launched to the market before the official launch of the full app. Building an MVP for an eCommerce app usually focuses on developing the core features and ensuring those features work effectively before adding additional features.

As listed, the most crucial core features may include a product catalog, search bar, shopping cart, payment methods, etc. When releasing an MVP, the business must ensure that it is error-free and meets the needs of the target customers. The goal of an MVP is to understand the customer’s thoughts on the product, minimize risk, and allocate resources effectively before launching the full product to the market.

Gather Feedback

After building and releasing the MVP, businesses should collect feedback from users through various channels such as social media, surveys, or reviews on the App Store or Google Play to gather their opinions on the experience when using the eCommerce app. Moreover, businesses should carefully review the feedback and use it to make decisions about how to improve the app. In particular, they should prioritize the most important issues users are facing and resolve them quickly. 

Refine and Launch the app

After gathering and reviewing user feedback, businesses can will refine the app and conduct a second round of testing to ensure the app performs well and the improvements have enhanced the user experience. Once the refining and second round of testing is done, businesses can release the product to the market and run marketing campaigns to reach target customers. However, the business needs to closely monitor the performance of the eCommerce app and regularly collect feedback from customers while continuously improving to meet the ever-changing demand of users and maintain a competitive advantage in the market. 

3 Things To Keep In Mind 

Security

It is a top priority factor that businesses should put their minds to when building an eCommerce application. When users download, register an account, and start using the app, their private data such as login information, personal information, and payment information will be stored on the system. Therefore, businesses should comply with general regulations related to security issues and provide customer information as well as deploy secure payment gateways, and use SSL encryption or two-factor authentication to protect user data of the eCommerce app.

Stability

The stability and reliability of an eCommerce app are crucial for a business to provide an incredible user experience. Customers typically prefer apps that run smoothly without any bugs or errors. However, releasing a flawless eCommerce app without any bugs is unrealistic. Therefore, businesses need to conduct thorough testing to identify and fix any issues before launching, while also regularly maintaining and updating the app to improve its performance and prevent or correct any errors that may arise.

Scalability

This is the ability of an eCommerce app to handle increasing traffic, user volume, and shopping transactions without affecting the performance or functionality of the app. When getting started, businesses should predict the app’s future growth and place to build an app that is easily scalable when necessary. Moreover, businesses need to plan for the addition of advanced features to meet expansion needs.

In summary, security, stability, and scalability are three factors to consider when building an eCommerce app. By focusing on these three factors, businesses can provide customers with a safe, reliable, and scalable app that corresponds to the development of the business.

Above is the general process of 8 steps for building an eCommerce app with some important notes during the implementation. With years of experience implementing eCommerce for businesses from many countries, SECOMM understands the difficulties businesses will face when implementing eCommerce apps.

Contact us today for a free consultation.

According to data compiled by Forbes Advisor, global Mobile Commerce sales reached $415 billion in 2022 and are expected to reach $710 billion in 2025. 

In fact, Mobile Commerce dominates the eCommerce industry, accounting for about 73%, and the use of eCommerce apps is growing faster than any other type of app on the market, with an annual growth rate of 54%. This shows that eCommerce apps contribute significantly to sales on mobile devices and implementing eCommerce apps is considered the right path for every business in the mobile commerce era. 

Boost Brand Awareness

Increasing brand awareness is one of the benefits that eCommerce apps bring to businesses. Since most customers spend hours on mobile devices (e.g smartphones), it’s easier for brands to connect with them through eCommerce apps. However, to fully leverage the other capabilities of eCommerce apps, brands need to provide a rich and high-quality mobile app experience. As Statista has noted, about 32%-34% of app users will uninstall if the app is difficult to use or has too many unwanted ads. 

Offer Personalized Shopping Experience

eCommerce websites help deliver personalized shopping experiences with algorithms and support tools but eCommerce apps enable businesses to offer personalized special incentives or promotional programs right in the app without having to access the websites via browsers on desktop or mobile. As a result, among various methods, business owners can combine push notifications, and instead of sending the same push notification to all app users, they can send personalized notifications based on user behavior. 

Increase Conversion Rates

As mentioned, customers tend to love and prioritize shopping on eCommerce mobile apps instead of eCommerce mobile web. Therefore, the conversion rate of the mobile app will be higher than that of the mobile web. The graph below indicates the different conversion rates between the mobile app and mobile web. 

Mobile app users view products more than 286% and add items to the cart at a higher rate of 85% compared to mobile web users. Moreover, the graph shows that the conversion rate of mobile apps is over 130% higher than that of the mobile web. Naturally, when the conversion rate increases, it will lead to an increase in sales revenue and profits.

Increase Average Order Value 

Building an eCommerce app not only boosts brand awareness, enhances customer experience, and improves conversion rate but also increases the average order value (AOV). This is the average dollar amount customers spend each time an order is placed on the eCommerce app. 

Customers prefer shopping on eCommerce apps because it’s convenient for them to browse through products and make purchases. Therefore, they have more opportunities to browse through a wider range of products. This enables businesses to apply cross-selling and upselling techniques, suggesting complementary products to encourage customers to make additional purchases. As a result, the increased AOV drives up revenue and profits. 

Reduce Cart Abandonment

Some data on cart abandonment has been reported by Ruby Garage:

One of the top reasons for that is the long and confusing checkout process. eCommerce apps will help businesses reduce cart abandonment with the optimized checkout process. When customers buy products, relevant information will be stored in the app’s system, so they don’t have to re-enter their information but complete the purchase with a few taps. In addition, businesses can also shorten the checkout process to improve cart abandonment rates by integrating various payment methods into the mobile app. 

Improve Customer Retention and Loyalty

For every eCommerce business, increasing sales revenue is a valuable achievement. However, it’s crucial to point out how many regular customers contribute to this success. According to the Harvard Business Review, the cost of acquiring a new customer is more expensive than retaining and satisfying an existing one, ranging from 5-25 times higher. But, if the customer retention rate increases by just 5%, profits can increase from 5% to 95%. As a result, businesses need to put their minds to existing customers. 

There is a 50% chance that customers will return to an eCommerce app within 30 days of their last purchase. In other words, businesses can increase customer retention and loyalty with their eCommerce app in several ways, including

• Leveraging customer data to provide personalized shopping experiences;
• Using push notifications as a means of communicating with customers;
• Offering exclusive incentives to encourage users to download and use the app;
• Building a loyalty program to encourage people to return to the app, shop, and interact more to earn reward points.

With the incredible benefits of mobile eCommerce apps, businesses are increasingly motivated to quickly build their app to enrich the customer shopping experience while capturing the Mobile Commerce trend.

With years of experience in implementing eCommerce for many businesses in many countries, SECOMM understands the difficulties and obstacles in developing eCommerce apps.

Contact us today for free advice.

ChatGPT is a new popular AI-powered tool. With the ability to generate human-like text, ChatGPT has a variety of applications in healthcare, education, entertainment, and even in the eCommerce world.

In this article, we will share the top 5 use cases of ChatGPT that business owners can leverage to accelerate their eCommerce.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-training Transformer) is a large-scale language generation model developed by an AI company called Open AI, which was formed in 2015. ChatGPT is regarded as one of the most advanced language models available today since it can produce human-like text. It can be used for a variety of tasks, including answering questions, creating essays, emails, poems, and even programming. 

You can simply use ChatGPT by visiting OpenAI’s website to create an account. Once you’ve logged into your OpenAI account, on the ChatGPT side of the website, you need to read through and accept ChatGPT terms. Then, you can start your conversation with it by asking questions. 

Because it is still in the research and feedback-collection stage, it is free to use. But as of February 1, 2023, the OpenAI company launched a new version of ChatGPT Plus in the US for $20/month, while keeping the free version.

How does ChatGPT work?

ChatGPT runs in a language modeling architecture called Generative Pre-training Transformer (GPT), specifically GPT-3. This type of AI model is trained on vast amounts of information from the Internet, including websites, books, articles, and so forth. 

It is fine-tuned using reinforcement learning. Meaning that ChatGPT “learns” from information found on the Internet as well as the user input. Due to Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF), ChatGPT is unique. 

RLHF enables human AI trainers to build conversation models in which humans act as both users and AI assistants, according to OpenAI. That helps ChatGPT learn new information rapidly and grow more intelligent. 

The key differences between ChatGPT and Search Engines

ChatGPT is a language model to generate conversation with the end users, whereas Search Engines index web pages on the Internet to help users find what they desire. ChatGPT can understand and respond to input information quickly. But, it does not search on the Internet for the information, instead, it uses the training data to generate a response. 

Another difference is that ChatGPT’s information update speed is still slower than that of search engines. Some search engines like Google can access the latest information but ChatGPT can only access data up to September 2021. Thus if you ask ChatGPT who is Miss Vietnam 2022, it would not be able to answer while Google could give you an immediate answer in just 0.6 seconds.

5 ways for using ChatGPT in eCommerce

Using ChatGPT helps increase revenue and enhance eCommerce business operational effectiveness. Here are 5 great ways to use ChatGPT in eCommerce.

Create product description

Because an eCommerce website has different product categories, writing a unique description for each product takes a lot of time and resources. ChatGPT can be used to automatically generate compelling product descriptions. This can save time and effort for business owners while still providing customers with high-quality information about the products. Moreover, this language model can create SEO-optimized descriptions that improve product visuality. 

For example, a fashion retail brand has launched a new sportswear collection. ChatGPT will generate descriptions focused on moisture-wicking, comfortable fit, and the full range of motion and flexibility. It not only informs customers about the technical aspect of the product but also encourages them to shop with compelling and persuasive words.

Create product recommendations

ChatGPT còn được các doanh nghiệp thương mại điện tử sử dụng trong việc đưa ra đề xuất cá nhân hoá sản phẩm. Bằng cách sử dụng dữ liệu khách hàng và lịch sử duyệt web, ChatGPT có thể đưa ra các đề xuất sản phẩm phù hợp cho từng khách hàng cụ thể. 

Ví dụ: Gần đây có một khách hàng tên Mỹ đã mua một chiếc áo thun thể thao tại cửa hàng, doanh nghiệp có thể sử dụng ChatGPT để đưa ra đề xuất sản phẩm tương tự mà khách hàng này có thể quan tâm. Từ việc gợi ý sản phẩm phù hợp và cá nhân hoá có thể giúp tăng mức độ tương tác và doanh số bán hàng.

Generate social media content

Another way to use ChatGPT is to generate engaging social media content. 

For example, a company can use ChatGPT to generate promotional posts on social media platforms to introduce features and benefits of products engagingly and excitingly. Posts can include a caption, image, or video to highlight the advantages of that product. By leveraging the power of ChatGPT, businesses can promote their products and reach new customers on social networking sites effectively.

 Generate email marketing campaigns

Running email marketing campaigns enables eCommerce businesses to build relationships with their customers, advertise their products and boost sales. By sending personalized ideal emails to customers and prospective customers, businesses can earn customer loyalty and encourage repeat purchases. 

ChatGPT can be used in your email marketing campaigns targeting specific customer segments to achieve the desired results.

Example: Jennifer is a regular customer of a sports fashion company. Now the company launches eco-friendly sneakers with a minimalist design. The company uses ChatGPT to compose content for email marketing campaigns to introduce Jennifer to new products and ideal incentives for loyal customers.

Enhance customer service

eCommerce business owners can use ChatGPT to handle customer requests in a personalized way. It could be responding to inquiries about order status, product availability, shipping fee, or return concerns. By providing ChatGPT demographic information such as age, gender, and interest, it will immediately generate text for a specific customer in a specific case. That helps increase customer engagement and conversion rate. Businesses will free up time and workload for the team to focus on more important tasks. 

For example, if a customer named Jennifer asks for a return process, ChatGPT can generate a response with detailed information including requirements and time for return. 

The downsides of using ChatGPTin eCommerce

Like every AI-powered tool, ChatGPT has its downsides when used in eCommerce. 

Firstly, although ChatGPT helps generate content for marketing campaigns quickly and automatically, it still can’t compete with the original writing by humans. If people depend too much on ChatGPT, their writing will become robotic and clunky which might affect their marketing campaigns the most. 

In addition, as mentioned above, ChatGPT is trained by reinforced learning. This leaves room for issues since the information ChatGPT “learned” might not be accurate, hence generating wrong answers for users.

Last but not least, businesses should use ChatGPT with caution. They might want to clarify the information given by ChatGPT carefully before using or publishing their content, which could harm the businesses’ reputation when incorrect or misleading information is used. 

Every business owner today can use the five most effective ways to use ChatGPT in eCommerce to stand out from the crowd. Yet, it’s not easy to use it properly and make it an important factor of eCommerce business without being dependent. 

Talk to SECOMM now to get started.

According to Research and Markets, the global gamification market was valued at over 10 million USD in 2020 and is expected to reach more than 38 million USD by 2026. 

Gamification is a creative marketing strategy that has recently grabbed the attention of eCommerce business owners who are looking for ways to enhance customer engagement and achieve sales targets. In this article, we will discuss the ways Gamification empowers eCommerce. 

What is Gamification?

Gamification hay trò chơi điện tử ứng dụng hoá, gọi tắt là Game hoá là thuật ngữ chỉ việc lồng ghép khéo léo cơ chế của trò chơi điện tử vào hoạt động marketing một cách sáng tạo, ấn tượng nhằm đạt được mục tiêu marketing đã đề ra.

Gamification is the application of typical elements of game playing to other areas of activity to help businesses achieve their marketing goals. 

Gamification emphasizes entertainment, making it a fantastic tactic for boosting brand loyalty and encouraging engagement with products or services. In recent years, eCommerce businesses have been accelerating the use of Gamification in the online shopping experience. Because customers today have more options, they also have higher expectations for their purchasing experiences. If an online store offers unique and enjoyable shopping experiences, customers are more likely to make a purchase quickly. Gamification will help eCommerce businesses stand out from the crowd.

Why apply eCommerce Gamification?

Increase Customer Engagement

Businesses can increase engagement by integrating Gamification into eCommerce websites and making shopping fun and interactive. Recent studies show that the eCommerce Gamification strategy will increase customer engagement by 47%. 

Games usually ask players to complete tasks to earn reward points or to win the game (e.g sharing the game on social networks, inviting friends, browsing products, and adding to carts). If the game has some discount codes or vouchers, it will attract more players. That way, an eCommerce business can deliver its brand messaging directly to customers without pressuring or urging them into buying. An enjoyable shopping experience leads to an increased conversion rate. 

Boost Sales

eCommerce Gamification strategy will help businesses boost sales if used effectively. When customers are engaged with the game, they are more likely to win discount codes and use them for later purchases which will make sales increase significantly.

In 2021, Domino’s Pizza,  one of the world’s leading pizza brands, increased its sales revenue by 30% with the help of Gamification. This company developed a game called Pizza Hero, in which users will make their pizzas on mobile devices. They can then click “Make an order” to order their pizza creation at a discounted price.

Enhance Brand Loyalty

For brands, retaining customers and turning them into loyal customers is important. Gamification can help enhance brand loyalty by creating interesting experiences that encourage repeat visits. If a brand offers points or badges for reaching milestones, customers excited about earning rewards will be more likely to come back and play again. Whenever customers have shopping needs, they will recall and choose that brand.

The drawbacks of Gamification

Although Gamification helps increase customer engagement, boost sales, and enhance brand loyalty, it still has potential drawbacks that eCommerce businesses should keep in mind before implementing it. 

Developing amazing games requires creativity. Basic games like Quiz or Spin The Wheel are easy to create. These game experiences are too common among users so it’s unlikely to generate conversion. Hence, every business needs to get professional advice from creative agencies to design and develop engaging games that catch the eyes of users. However, it costs a lot of time and budget. 

For example, creating a game with a variety of sound effects, images, videos, or personalized animated elements that enrich the user experience will increase the cost of implementation. 

Most successful Gamification campaigns

Starbucks

Among brands that have had success using Gamification, Starbucks would be the first one mentioned. Coffee brands usually offer vouchers or loyalty cards to encourage customers to return next time. Breaking out of the old rut, Starbucks developed a special game for its customers – “Flip the Cup”, in which the player chooses his favorite drink and could use one hand to flip the Starbucks cup. Each time, the player has 10 flips and each successful flip gets 10 points. Then, with the points achieved, the player can choose to play again or download vouchers. This exciting experience boosted engagement by 90% and the number of downloaded vouchers exceeded the targets by 110%.

Domino’s Pizza

As mentioned above, Domino’s Pizza first entered the market in 2012, and that same year the company also launched Pizza Hero, the first game that gave pizza lovers a new way to order. In case they don’t know what to order, they can shake their mobile devices to ask the app for suggestions. Especially, users can customize their pizzas, find coupons, place orders at a nearby store, and track order progress right on their devices. 

By using this strategy, Domino’s was able to boost online sales by 30% and achieve $1 billion in the US market alone. Pizza Hero received 140,000 downloads in the first two weeks after its debut, propelling it into the top 15 Lifestyle ranking on Google Play and the iTunes Store. Moreover, Pizza Hero and Domino’s Pizza both won the praise of Forbes, the most prestigious magazine in the world.

Gucci

Gucci has taken eCommerce Gamification to a new level. Gucci Arcade is one of the fashion giant’s Gamification strategies to attract the attention of Generation Z. It offers customers amazing games to engage with such as Gucci Bee and Gucci Ace. This experience helps Guccis reach a wide pool of potential Gen-Z customers.

Gamification is a strategy that strengthens the development of eCommerce. It has become popular in the world as well as in Vietnam. Every business owner needs to seriously recognize its potential and plan for rapid implementation. 

Talk to SECOMM today to get expert advice on eCommerce Gamification.

​​​​​​According to CommonThread, the global cosmetics eCommerce market size is valued at 483 billion USD in 2020 and grew to 511 billion USD in 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.75%. The market size is anticipated to surpass 716 billion USD by 2025 and reach 784.6 billion USD by 2027.

The amazing growth rate of the online cosmetics sector demonstrates both the industry’s enormous potential to grow and its significant contribution to the global economy. Cosmetic companies must encourage the development of eCommerce websites to enter the market rapidly and take control of it in order to keep up with the economic trend as a whole.

It takes time to develop an online store for cosmetics, and SECOMM has detailed and analyzed the two key stages of the process.

Stage 1: Basic cosmetics eCommerce website development

Targeting

The first important thing a cosmetic business needs to do is to set goals and prioritize those goals in the short and long term. 

In the short term, promotional activities, monitoring, analyzing, and measuring the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, especially user experience should be the top goals that need to be promoted.

In the long term, cosmetics eCommerce businesses should focus on increasing brand recognition and online business capabilities of their products.

At this stage, businesses do not have much data to analyze and evaluate for the whole process, so they can listen to a lot of advice from specialized eCommerce implementation consulting units with a lot of experience in long-term consulting to get the right list and priority of goals for both this period and beyond.

Platforms selection

In today’s market, there are two types of platforms that are dedicated to building eCommerce websites, including SaaS platforms and Open Source platforms.

SaaS platforms

Service as a Software (SaaS) is a service-based software application distribution model for eCommerce business purposes.

In other words, the provider creates and maintains software to help build an eCommerce website and the business will pay a certain cost to use this service.

With SaaS, the entire website system is hosted on the provider’s server, so ownership and control of the source code and data will belong to the provider.

This means the SaaS service provider will be responsible for handling and fixing technical problems arising during the cosmetic eCommerce implementation. 

• Pros: Easy to use, fast deployment time, good security, 24/7 customer service.
• Cons: The cost of building an eCommerce website increases over time, businesses cannot own the source code and data, and the functions and capabilities of customization and expansion are limited.

Some of the popular SaaS platforms today are: Shopify, BigCommerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, etc

Open-Source platforms

An Open Source platform or an open source platform is software with a widely released source code that allows users to download, modify and upgrade necessary features for eCommerce business purposes.

The platform is often developed by a community of developers rather than a single company.

Moreover, this will be the ideal platform for implementing complex eCommerce website systems, specific to many fields including cosmetics thanks to in-depth customization functions.

This means that businesses need to cooperate with professional eCommerce website builders or develop a team of highly qualified internal staff to operate the website effectively.

• Pros: Customizability, flexible extension, diverse features, and add-ons, businesses own the source code and website data. 
• Cons: The cost of building an eCommerce website is high, the implementation time is long and it is not easy to use.

The most prominent Open Source platforms on the market today: Magento, OpenCart, WooCommerce (WordPress Plugin), etc. 

At this stage, businesses should choose a SaaS platform to start with to familiarize themselves with the eCommerce business as well as save budget for more important investments such as marketing,…

Then, when entering the second stage, the business scale has now grown and expanded, and switching to the Open Source platform is now necessary and reasonable to achieve the goal of eCommerce growth.

Web interface design

After choosing a platform to build a cosmetic eCommerce website, the business will design the website interface so that the standards of UI/UX are met in order to optimize the website, showing the characteristics of the brand and cosmetics industry.

​​So, businesses can choose one of the following three ways to design an eCommerce website interface:

• Using the available interface: This way helps businesses save interface costs compared to the other two ways. Both SaaS and Open Source platforms provide a variety of UI/UX interfaces with prices ranging from $300 to $500.
• Customizing based on the available interface: Almost the same as the first way, but businesses will customize the interface to suit the needs of brand development.
• ​​Using a self-designed interface: Companies can start thinking about designing their own website interface right immediately to develop a brand image that is unique and more creative than rivals. Even while this is more expensive for businesses than adopting an already-existing interface, the “tailor-made” design interface will match the industry-specific requirements and expectations of the company during the eCommerce deployment phase

Usually, in stage 1, businesses should only use the available interface or customize based on the available interface because the basic functionality system needed, most of the interfaces provided are already there.

Functional system development

In the first stage, businesses should prioritize developing the basic functional system needed for a complete cosmetic eCommerce website, specifically including: 

• Category management: Manage product categories, functions, prices, images/videos to optimize business operations.
• Sales management: Manage order information, understand and analyze customers’ shopping behavior effectively.
• Marketing management: Integrating features such as URLs, meta tags, and internal links to optimize SEO, combined with effective marketing campaigns to achieve sales goals.
• Content management: Build and optimize content for the CMS system from text, images, banners, widgets, and templates to brand content, blogs, etc.
• Customer management: Store, manage and analyze customer information and customer groups, thereby improving marketing effectiveness to optimize the online shopping experience.
• System management: Manage and decentralize administrators to operate, secure and maintain the eCommerce website system.
• Store management: Use inventory management tools at branches, stores, and warehouses to ensure a continuous and efficient supply process.
• Cart and checkout management: Manage customer shopping cart and payment information.
• Analysis and reporting: Analyze and measure the performance of the eCommerce website system, thereby giving the next business strategy.

Functional system development

Legal procedures finalizing

The final step of building a basic eCommerce website is completing the necessary legal procedures for the website to be allowed to operate legally.

Businesses can follow the simple registration steps as instructed at the eCommerce Management Portal.

This is a mandatory requirement of the Ministry of Industry and Trade for every individual or organization that owns an eCommerce website to sell goods and to perform the registration/notification obligation on time.

Stage 2: Advanced cosmetics eCommerce website development

Re-targeting

Along the business development journey that comes with the constant change of consumer behavior, business goals, and strategies need to be adjusted and re-established to match the current context of the eCommerce market. In addition, at this stage, businesses also have problems, data, and insights about online users, so setting goals will be easy.

In the short term, businesses can prioritize finding and attracting potential customers and growing online sales with effective marketing.

In the long term, a cosmetic business can consider the goal of expanding the market segment by identifying the target market segment and making a marketing strategy in accordance with the product characteristics and the direction of the business in the second stage. 

In addition to short-term and long-term goals, businesses need to focus on considering the time and cost of investing in the cosmetic eCommerce website system because, at this stage, the cost and investment budget will often be large. much more than the basic construction phase above.

eCommerce platform switching

In the beginning, cosmetics businesses are advised to develop their initial eCommerce websites using SaaS platforms. However, the restricted capability and customizability of SaaS won’t be able to satisfy that expectation given the second phase’s objectives of growth and scalability.

To create more specialized cosmetic eCommerce websites at this moment, companies can think about moving to Open Source platforms with respected names like Magento, WooCommerce, etc.

Some suggested criteria to consider when choosing an Open Source platform:

• ​​Support to design eCommerce website interface based on UI/UX standards.
• Provide functional systems from basic to advanced and specific to the cosmetic industry.
• Flexible customization, high extensibility, integration with third-party services, and a variety of add-ons.
• High security.

Besides that, businesses should be aware of the costs associated with switching from a SaaS platform to an Open Source platform, the time required for staff to learn on the new platform, the danger of data loss, and any issues that may occur.

Resources selection

Unlike the basic eCommerce website building stage, in the second stage of the implementation process, businesses need to choose resources for development. Businesses can build an internal team or seek support from a specialized developer.

The business will hire and train skilled and specialized IT people on the chosen platform for internal team growth. In this case, it will require a lot of time and money from the company, but it will aid in better resource management, control, and active adjustment to develop the eCommerce website system in accordance with the original aim.

Businesses frequently work with a variety of firms to find “true love” in their collaboration with eCommerce website developers. As a result, businesses will receive the eCommerce websites they need as expected, the collaboration process will go smoothly, and businesses will gain more expert knowledge and website development experience from a partner, which will point them in the right direction in terms of the cosmetic eCommerce industry’s development trends.

These are the criteria that businesses should consider when choosing: In-depth knowledge and experience in eCommerce and the cosmetics industry; professional working team; clear and detailed working process; ability to quickly handle problems that arise during website development.

Web interface re-design

Businesses are not required to update the website interface while switching platforms. Redesigning the website interface to work with the Open Source platform, however, is today recognized as a wise company development approach that was introduced simultaneously with the deployment of advanced eCommerce websites.

Similar to the previous period, businesses have three options for designing e-commerce website interfaces, including using the available themes, customizing based on the available themes, and designing their own interface.

Usually, at this step, businesses should choose method 2 or 3 to design the interface to ensure the uniqueness of the brand and the specificity of the cosmetic eCommerce industry.

Upgrade the system with advanced and industry-specific functions

In addition to the basic functions that have been built for the eCommerce website system in stage 1, businesses should concentrate on developing a system of advanced and specific functions for the cosmetic industry in the later stages. 

Today, several well-known cosmetic brands embrace AR (Augmented Reality) technology to improve the customer experience. Customers can now download the AR software, activate the camera, and sample the goods online rather than going physically trying it on in the store to see whether it will fit their face.

The Kylie Virtual World application, for instance, offers users an engaging product experience. Users of the newly released Kylie Cosmetics items, such as eye cream, foundation, and lipstick, can sample the product out in 360 degrees by using their phones to scan the QR code.

eCommerce website system maintenance

A sophisticated eCommerce website system demands a great deal of experience and effort to operate and maintain. This is the procedure of continuously maintaining, updating, and upgrading the entire system to aid firms in foreseeing and resolving problems (for example, sudden increase in traffic from the promotions that stimulate shopping).

That supports sustained and persistent online sales growth, which is important for eCommerce businesses in general and furniture eCommerce in particular as they compete for a market share of this “pie,” which is “delicious” but can be challenging to consume.

eCommerce acceleration

Furniture eCommerce enterprises readily accomplish growth above and beyond expectations by putting into practice efficient business and marketing strategies.

Therefore, the entire process—from planning through implementation—must be structured with effective, practical solutions that have been demonstrated to work. Implementing Omnichannel, eCommerce Marketing, and SEO optimization are some suggested methods for eCommerce enterprises to accelerate growth.

eCommerce business optimization

​​The journey of developing an eCommerce website ends with measuring, analyzing, and optimizing eCommerce business activities.

Businesses can use analytics tools such as Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel, etc., to track, update and measure website performance metrics as well as the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

From there, the eCommerce business strategy for the next stage of development will be carefully and methodically planned thanks to clear and detailed reports & analysis.

The journey of building a cosmetic eCommerce website with two stages from basic to advanced has been outlined in detail with meticulously analyzed implementation steps. Businesses in the industry can refer to it to draw their own development journey in this potential field.

With many years of experience in successfully implementing eCommerce for many customers in many countries in recent years, SECOMM understands the difficulties and challenges in the process of implementing an interior eCommerce website.

Contact SECOMM today for free support and advice.

Consumer demand for beauty and health care is rising as the quality of life gradually improves. The fact that so many individuals are involved in commerce has also contributed to the cosmetics industry’s reputation as one of the most important sectors in the modern economy.

Additionally, the rapid growth of eCommerce following the pandemic is gradually emerging as a successful business strategy and a crucial step in the digital transformation of every industry, including the cosmetics industry.

The market size for cosmetics sold online is estimated by CommonThread to be $483 billion in 2020 and expand to $511 billion in 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.75%. The market size is anticipated to surpass 716 billion USD by 2025 and reach 784.6 billion USD by 2027.

How do cosmetics firms benefit from eCommerce?

Keep up rapidly with the market shift

In the past pandemic years, the global economy has witnessed a sudden decline in sales in many industries, including the cosmetics industry.

People are compelled to reduce their social interactions while social distancing mechanisms are in effect.

At this time, people’s psychology will be more concerned with keeping an eye on and caring for themselves. Due to the unpredictable changes of the pandemic, there has been a sharp rise in the need for skincare, hair care, and body care products to enhance spiritual life.

Due to restrictions 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 a springboard for eCommerce to take off and spur significant growth in other industries like fashion, grocery, wine, and even cosmetics.

These two elements highlight the enormous potential of this “cake,” assisting several cosmetic companies in realizing and swiftly implementing eCommerce for both sustainable development and market revolution.

Scale up the business

Using eCommerce as a solution will allow the cosmetics industry to shift from offline to online (O2O) business models rather than allowing their businesses to “get lost” in the crisis of the global pandemic.

Additionally, if businesses still do not have a competent eCommerce website to introduce and sell products to customers who love to shop online ​​in the age of digital transformation, they will quickly lose many potential customers to rivals.

This is especially true for a highly competitive industry like cosmetics, but several firms, including Hasaki, LixiBox, Watsons, Guardian, etc., have embraced the trend early and are now the market leaders in cosmetic eCommerce.

Furthermore, early eCommerce development will also provide benefits that will make marketing efforts more successful, broadening the economic opportunities for businesses.

Enhance customer’s shopping experience

​​Businesses must consider customers’ purchasing experiences when launching eCommerce websites, and not just for the cosmetic industry.

Thanks to the use of contemporary technologies, which are quite popular in the cosmetics industry, the purchasing procedure will be swift, and effective, and bring customers satisfaction when they choose to buy cosmetics online.

For example, a 360-degree intuitive vision, virtual reality (VR), or augmented reality (AR) technology (AR).

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.

Best cosmetics eCommerce sites that really stand out

Kylie Cosmetics

One of the most successful cosmetic brands that has a significant global media impact is Kylie Cosmetics. When it comes to Kylie Cosmetics, it’s tough not to give Kylie Jenner credit.

She’s the youngest female millionaire in the US and has been hailed as a business genius by prominent publications like Forbes due to her success in the saturated cosmetics industry.

​​When Kylie Cosmetics was founded in 2015, it generated an astonishing $ 420 million in revenue in its first 18 months. It is predicted that by 2022, net sales will have reached $ 1 billion.

The sensible business strategy, in addition to the founder’s reputation, focuses on utilizing the “gold mine” of eCommerce and launching social media marketing campaigns, which are the factors that contribute to that respectable revenue block.

As a result, the company used Shopify, a platform that specializes in creating websites for the top online retailers in North America, to develop its eCommerce website.

With pink and white as its primary colors, the website’s design is incredibly clean and uncomplicated. The layout of the website centers on showcasing the company’s products.

Also, this is a part of Kylie Cosmetics’ business strategy, which includes releasing collections of cosmetic products like lipsticks, eyeshadow, and eyebrow pencils with limited design and manufacturing to appeal to customers’ FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).

It is not surprising that Kylie’s new collections or cosmetics Cosmetics are continually “sold out” every time it is published because this is thought to be a very intelligent strategy of Kylie Cosmetics, completely different from other well-known cosmetic firms.

The business also utilizes social media platforms that are hugely popular in the US, like Instagram, Youtube, and Snapchat, to create content to market brands and products and engage with a huge audience across three platforms before driving traffic to the eCommerce website and generating conversions.

The company’s inventiveness and innovation are also on display in offline events that draw customers to free product samples. Here, the company wins over even customers who have reservations about the product’s quality, which greatly increases sales.

Since Kylie Cosmetics established its first traditional cosmetic retail store in 2018, customers may now purchase cosmetics from this cult brand at Ulta Beauty locations around the US.

Indeed, Kylie Cosmetics started off quite shrewdly and went on to tremendous success by keeping up with market changes by building an online business model at first, that is, selling through an eCommerce website and relying primarily on social media for promotion.

Guardian

Since entering the Vietnamese market in 2011, Guardian has grown to be a very well-known and recognizable brand among consumers of cosmetics. This brand is a part of the Dairy Farm Group, a company that manufactures and distributes health and beauty products in Asia.

Since its start, Guardian has made ongoing improvements to encourage millions of followers to lead healthy lifestyles and offer a trustworthy, high-quality purchasing experience at the finest rates and services.

With a system of more than 100 outlets “encompassing everywhere,” this retail chain is delighted to be a place to shop for cosmetics “for everyone” who can “purchase everything” and simply select appropriate items.

A clever business strategy and significant investment in successful marketing efforts are the only explanations needed to understand Guardian’s success.

When first entering the Vietnamese market, Guardian specifically pushed to quickly expand its business chain, focusing on cities with high purchasing power, with 80% of stores located in Ho Chi Minh City, the rest in Hanoi and some other major cities such as Da Nang, Can Tho, Bien Hoa, and Vung Tau.

Because at the time, online channels were not really well-known and powerful enough for this business to keep an eye on.

As a result, the company successfully raises the level of brand recognition with extensive coverage from the Guardian orange white wave, taking into account the characteristics of the cosmetics and beauty care industry, which require customers to have a direct point of contact, learn from, and test.
By 2019, the company began its journey toward digital transformation by combining offline and online (O2O) business models in parallel, and simultaneously, deploying Omnichannel.

It is even more critical for Guardian to immediately implement potential sales channels like marketplaces, applications, fast delivery services like GrabMart, and eCommerce website operate side by side with a chain of 105 retail outlets in strategic locations due to the pandemic’s dual effects, which include changing market trends and altering consumer buying habits.

The orange and white colors and quick page loads make the Guardian website’s design stunning. Additionally, Guardian offers enticing incentives in the shipping policy, such as free fast delivery within 4 hours with orders from 349,000 VND, to encourage online shoppers.

The company’s unique product catalog, which is prominently shown on Guardian’s eCommerce website and features items like shampoos, shower gels, and hand sanitizers, is another standout.

The foundation for helping Guardian dominate the cosmetic retail market and leave a lasting impact on customers is a deliberate investment in developing a multi-channel ecosystem.

Hasaki

​​Modernity and growth come with invisible pressures that have an impact on everyone’s life as people struggle to keep up with the “standards” of the times.

However, that does not result in a drop in the demand for beauty and self-care, on the contrary, it is always rising, with a diversity of sufficient options to match customer expectations.

Vietnamese women are among the most beautiful in Asia, but, due to the responsibilities of work pressure and family, they occasionally neglect to care for and love themselves.

Because of this, Hasaki Beauty & Clinic was established with the desire to become a reliable beauty and spiritual care destination for Vietnamese women.

The Hasaki store system, which was introduced in 2016 and now has 76 locations across 29 Vietnamese provinces and cities, has steadily established itself as one of the top retail chains for real cosmetics. Hasaki is dedicated to offering real cosmetics at discounted pricing, living up to its motto of “True Quality – True Value”.

Along with system expansion, Hasaki also works on creating an eCommerce website with features appropriate for the cosmetics industry and always enhancing and upgrading the system to provide customers with the greatest online shopping experience.

The Magento platform was used to build the website, and the interface is attractive with green serving as the primary color tone for the entire eCommerce website and app system. Customers can check current promotions and conveniently look up order details when accessing the Hasaki website.

Additionally, the “handbook” section at Hasaki has a wealth of knowledge on cosmetics and skin care tips that each customer may learn and arm themselves with before making a purchase decision. Since then, the process of beauty restoration is safe and effective.

Similar to Guardian, Hasaki encourages people to order online with NowFree 2h and take advantage of free shipping rules.

As a result, Hasaki will provide free delivery to customers within two hours of receiving orders of 90,000 VND in 29 provinces and cities where the company has locations, including on Saturday and Sunday. Customers will benefit from free national shipping on orders that are at least 249,000 VND.

Therefore, Hasaki has sparked a “green craze” among many beauty fans and is now gradually competing with the country’s top cosmetics brands thanks to its quick recognition of market trends and broad perspective with an efficient marketing mix strategy.

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 cosmetics companies participate in and offer the greatest shopping experiences to customers through the effective implementation of an eCommerce website, including Kylie Cosmetics (USA), Guardian, and Hasaki (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 cosmetics 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.