Tips for Selling Online for MSMEs in the Midst of a Pandemic
A number of local MSMEs share tips or tips on selling online in the midst of a pandemic by utilizing the lokapasar network (marketplace) which is considered very helpful. Songket PaSH manufacturer Kiagus Adit from Palembang revealed that although sales had declined by 60 percent at the beginning of the pandemic, the use of tokopedia platform made sales stable again.
Not only that, the owner of the Medan Salted Fish business Tanoto Frans also said that now more than 85 percent of his business sales come from Tokopedia. Its monthly turnover has now reached hundreds of millions of rupiah.
As successful MSMEs in e-commerce, Frans and Adit also shared tips for selling online in the midst of a pandemic. “I was the first to choose a product. The product we have to choose is really good, which is really guaranteed quality,” Frans said during an online discussion, last week.
Second, he said he understood the consumer. The third dares to try, and the last is to continue to innovate.
Adit also provides some tips for MSMEs who want to start trading through e-commerce.” First find out the most selling product and then do a competitor analysis to determine the price. Then create brand awareness. One of them is by advertising through available features such as TopAds or pairing cheaper prices,” adit said.
Adit also explained that speed in responding to customer chat is also the key to success in selling online. Because, customers will be more happy if they can immediately get a response from the seller.
Meanwhile, for people who are still hesitant to sell in the midst of a pandemic, Adit and Frans advised that the most important thing is to start to sell “After we start, balance it with the existing features of Tokopedia. Because I believe the features provided by Tokopedia must be useful all,” adit added.
Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) feel the benefits of selling online in e-commerce applications during the Covid-19 pandemic. Some can even turnover hundreds of millions. Songket PaSH manufacturer Kiagus Adit stated, although sales had declined by 60 percent at the beginning of the pandemic, the use of the Tokopedia platform made sales stable.
“Our turnover can now reach tens of millions of rupiah every month. The way I do is to analyze competitors to determine the selling price, “he said virtually, Thursday (09/16/2021). “After that create brand awareness, one of which is by advertising through available features, such as TopAds, or put a cheaper price. Speed in responding to customer chat is also key, “continued Agus.
The same thing was conveyed by the owner of the Medan Salted Fish business, Tanoto Frans. Frans currently empowers dozens of fishermen in Medan through reseller MSMEs. He mentioned, more than 85 percent of its sales revenue comes from Tokopedia.
“Our monthly turnover now reaches hundreds of millions of rupiah. In selling online we must carefully choose the right supplier so that the quality of the product is always guaranteed because the supplier will be a long-term partner of the seller.
We must also understand the needs of society and not stop innovating,” Frans said. AVP of Product Tokopedia Puput Hidayat revealed, his party is committed to providing assistance to MSME actors.
The assistance is in the form of educational materials provided through the Seller Education Center, Seller Lightning School to social media. In addition, there are also through various programs so that MSMEs reach more people, such as Bangga Buatan Indonesia, TokoMart, Collection of Select Stores (KTP) and many more.
“These initiatives also boosted the categories of Health and Self-Care, Fashion, Beauty, Mother and Child and Children’s Fashion and Automotive Into several categories with the fastest increase in transactions in Tokopedia during the second quarter of 2021,” said Puput. Puput also mentioned, with support to MSME products, the Tokopedia platform is considered to provide such great benefits to the MSME ecosystem.
Starting from opening access to the national market, providing support to local products or MSMEs to providing assistance and education to sellers. On the other hand, Tokopedia’s internal data noted that there are now more than 11 million sellers on its platform who are almost 100 percent MSMEs.
Puput added, MSMEs that are able to adapt and have digital channels will be more resilient to pandemics. These MSMEs can successfully maintain business while maintaining the availability of jobs through the use of technology platforms online.
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About Boxme: Boxme is the premier E-commerce fulfillment network in Southeast Asia, enabling world-wide merchants to sell online into this region without needing to establish a local presence. We deliver our services by aggregating and operating a one-stop value chain of logistic professions including: International shipping, customs clearance, warehousing, connection to local marketplaces, pick and pack, last-mile delivery, local payment collection and oversea remittance.
11.11 Online Shopping Festival JNT Express Delivery Experience Increases
J&T Express saw a significant surge in shipments at 11.11 shopping festivals this year compared to 2020. The number of J&T Express shipments at this year’s 11.11 shopping festival reached 16.5 million packages. That’s a 1.5-fold increase compared to last year. For information, on a normal day, the delivery volume of J&T Express from an average of 2.5 million packages per day. J&T Express CEO Robin Lo said that this year there was an increase of about 50 percent compared to 2020. This increase was predicted by J&T Express. Therefore, it has also prepared delivery services carefully in anticipation of a surge.
The main preparation for us is human resources (HR) and an adequate fleet. We do the addition of power and unit capacity so that operations are still able to run normally and efficiently. The speeding up of shipping traffic at the 11.11 shopping festival is still dominated by packages from spending in e-commerce which reached 70 percent. As is known, the Covid-19 pandemic made people’s behavior change. One of them, in shopping.
People prefer to shop online to meet their daily needs. For example, shopping through e-commerce. This can not be separated from the development of technology that encourages the volume of online buying and selling transactions. J&T Express, robin said, also supports the availability of delivery services to meet the needs of the community and help sales for small and medium-sized micro enterprises (MSMEs).
To support the growth of shipping, J&T Express uses air freighters and order systems via application. In addition, J&T Express also provides cash on delivery (COD) services. This service can be used by customers who want to make cash payments. For information, J&T Express already has 4,000 outlets consisting of Drop Point and Collection Point throughout Indonesia. This is done to reach all regions in the country. J&T Express also provides a VIP platform for sellers who regularly make deliveries. Thus, they can be helped in sending packages, especially during the moment of online shopping festival or National Online Shopping Day (Harbolnas) on December 12, 2021.
Not only that, J&T Express’s latest service, J&T Super, continues to be developed gradually. Until now, J&T Super has been available in 30 cities in Indonesia. This service is able to support the increase in shipping transactions, especially in major cities, such as Surabaya, Yogyakarta, and Jakarta. Although gradually recovering and decreasing the level of Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM) in some regions was imposed, the Covid-19 pandemic is still a threat to the community.
Therefore, J&T Express continues to implement health protocols to ensure the comfort and safety of customers and employees. All J&T Express employees have also been vaccinated. The cleanliness of equipment and warehouse sorting did not go unnoticed by J&T Express. Thus, package delivery is expected to be processed safely, both on ordinary days and peak season, such as Harbolnas.
J&T Express Shipments Reach 2.5 Million Packages Per Day
A number of strategies are also being prepared. Among them are presenting a variety of services to meet the needs of customers such as J &T Eco, which is a more economical service and J&T Super which provides more premium and fast service. As the demand for logistics services continues to increase, J&T Group expanded its business by launching the development of a new company, J&T Cargo. Robin ensures the capacity of cargo aircraft can fit up to 15 tons.
He said the service will focus on delivering packages of large sizes and volumes, where J&T Cargo will reach shipments to all regions in Indonesia.
The service presents a type of cargo delivery with a fast and efficient Service Level Agreement (SLA) with an estimated delivery time of 1-3 days.
With the presence of these innovations, JNT Express is optimistic that the volume of shipments can double in 2021 when compared to last year.
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About Boxme: Boxme is the premier E-commerce fulfillment network in Southeast Asia, enabling world-wide merchants to sell online into this region without needing to establish a local presence. We deliver our services by aggregating and operating a one-stop value chain of logistic professions including: International shipping, customs clearance, warehousing, connection to local marketplaces, pick and pack, last-mile delivery, local payment collection and oversea remittance.
The Most Effective Online Selling Tips for Finding Customers!
The development of online business or selling online has indeed increased quite well over the past few years. For consumers also to look for goods ranging from head to toe also all can be found easily online.
But, although the opportunity on business is wide open to anyone, not all experience success as expected some fail, some succeed. For the success achieved is also not as easy as flipping the palm of the hand.
Therefore below we will discuss the right online selling tips so that we can get success more easily.
Recognizing the Selling Value of the Product
Of course, many of you as business owners or businesses wonder about the advantages of the products you have? Surely things that often appear such as whether the price is affordable or whether the quality is good enough, of course, the thought that most often comes to our mind.
Now we change the pattern to, what are the advantages of our products that are not owned by competitors? With such a pattern will certainly make you think harder, because there means you will look for answers related to the selling value of products or unique selling points (USP).
By understanding and knowing about the unique selling point that we have, of course, it will have an important role as a differentiator of your business with competitors. To find what Unique Selling Point we have you can position yourself as a prospective consumer. Think about what you really need whether about the product or even in terms of service?
When you have found some USPs that you think are good, then the next step can adjust the USP to consumer tastes, consumer habits to emerging trends. By combining these things, then later the results will be appropriate and appropriate with consumers.
Create Your Own Online Store Website/Blog
Of course, there are those who think there is no need to create their own online store because now many marketplaces or e-commerce that provide and make it easier for people to sell online, then why make it yourself?
This marketplace is relatively easier to use and does not take a long time to create an account and start your business. But, precisely with the ease that makes this marketplace has many competitors that of course make you will scramble for potential customers and finally make us put the cheapest price to take a long time to build a reputation through ratings and reviews.
However, after doing the process your brand is still not well known. They certainly only remember the marketplace they use compared to your product brand. Therefore it is important to have your own website to further introduce your brand and products.
Learn and Understand Data
Data is one of the most important things in business. By studying data related to business, especially related to sales data and data related to promotional efforts.
The first is related to sales data, where this data can automatically be withdrawn through the CMS used. From this data you can find out which online sales are the best-selling, which products are most preferred until when your sales are declining.
After the data is collected, then you can do product research to overcome all problems and develop the business through data.
Use Content Marketing
Content marketing is a promotional technique that will rely on content creation. This content must be relevant, understand the consumer, useful and certainly can attract an audience in the long run.
The more informative and interesting the content of the content, the more likely it will be to be found by consumers. But, the information provided through this content must also not only be informative and interesting but, it must be optimized using SEO or Search Engine Optimization.
Why use SEO? If you want to optimize your business online SEO is a must-do to be able to attract many consumers. In addition, Google will also prioritize informative articles and SEO Friendly in order to be given the highest ranking.
Active on Social Media
One of the most powerful online selling tips is this. Although we already have a website and blog to market our products or services, do not forget to still use social media to promote it again. Why still use social media? From here you can communicate better to potential customers. After communicating, of course, prospective customers will feel closer to the seller.
As we know that the power of social media in an era like now is indeed very powerful where many people rely on social media for many needs ranging from just exchanging information to shopping online.
Therefore, when you want to sell online make sure to use social media well if done properly and appropriately, then this social media can be the ‘best weapon’ in developing your business.
For those of you who have more budget, through social media also you can use advertising on a paid basis to reach a more targeted audience.
Give Promo
Who doesn’t love promos? Everyone loves discounts. That’s the reason why you should use promos as your marketing strategy.
This promo is very powerful when used for those who just have a business where the focus is on finding the attention of prospective consumers. However, when giving this promo needs a stage that must be done not as long as it provides promo.
The original purpose here is to provide promos without regard to costs and income that are not compared so that it does not make you profit but instead makes you buntung.
Of the many tips and tricks of selling online above not all you have to do, just how to adjust the online sales tips above according to your business. Hopefully the online selling tips above can help you grow your business!
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About Boxme: Boxme is the premier E-commerce fulfillment network in Southeast Asia, enabling world-wide merchants to sell online into this region without needing to establish a local presence. We deliver our services by aggregating and operating a one-stop value chain of logistic professions including: International shipping, customs clearance, warehousing, connection to local marketplaces, pick and pack, last-mile delivery, local payment collection and oversea remittance.
