MARKETPLACES

Giving you access to over 340 million internet consumers in South East Asia

Selling domestically is a great starting point. And if you’re a smaller online retailer, it might represent the furthest extent of your shipping ambitions. But there’s an entire world out there, and enormous opportunities for trade – particularly as overseas markets develop over the coming years and decades.

Unfortunately, accessing these markets isn’t always straightforward. But that’s where we can help – with more than six years of experience in the 3PL industry, we’ve encountered just about every problem that comes with shipping to different markets. We’ve got the experience and expertise necessary to help you get the best from your overseas trade, and we’ll help you establish links with the world’s most promising regions.

Take Southeast Asia. This part of the world is home to more than three hundred and forty million internet customers – a match, population-wise, for the USA. Growth here in the e-commerce industry sits at around fifty percent, compared with a rate of just 16% in the UK. With such rapid change underway, millions of Indonesians, Malaysians and Thais look set to suddenly find themselves with a disposable income to match their internet connection. It’s the perfect time, in other worlds, for forward-thinking firms to establish themselves in the region.

Southeast Asia will be the next major boom market for ecommerce in Asia Pacific, according to Mark Woo (Google’s head of ecommerce, travel and financial services). He said, “China is at the peak at the moment, with the majority of sales happening through the mobile web and mobile applications.” “India is hugely dominated by a couple of large players — Flipkart and Amazon. Japan and Australia are hugely mature markets, probably more mature than the UK and the US in terms of ecommerce penetration and e­commerce savviness by consumers. This really leaves us with Southeast Asia as the next frontier.”

By 2020, 40% of the world’s ecommerce will be conducted through marketplaces.

There are 4 main factors driving the growth of ecommerce in Southeast Asia:

  • GROWING MIDDLECLASS: from 190million in 2012 to 400million in 2020 (source: Nielson)
  • INTERNATIONAL TOURISM: local consumers travelling abroad expands brand consciousness, and foreigners traveling from Europe / N America to exotic locations who want to experience more of Far Eastern culture.
  • ECOMMERCE LEADERSHIP: regional marketplaces giving local consumers increased access to products from other parts of the world, eg Alibaba’s leadership through Tmall, Lazada and other regional marketplaces.
  • DEMOGRAPHICS AND INTERNET PENETRATION: large and growing populations with increased use of technology will accelerate cross-border trade.

It’s also worth considering closer, more developed markets. The UK’s exit from the EU, whether you see it as a good thing or a bad thing, is certain to complicate trade arrangements in the short term. It’s therefore worth consulting with experts in logistics to ensure that business will proceed as smoothly as possible through the transition. The expertise we provide will help your business to prosper during this interesting time.

With Asos announcing recently a 36% increase in overseas revenue to £1.19billion, “As a net exporter, the collapse in the value of sterling since the Brexit vote has helped the group’s international sales rocket and allowed it to plough more into price cuts”, said Nick Beighton (CEO)
When selling to disparate marketplaces, wherever they might be, we need to consider a trio of different factors:

Cross-border Logistics
Shipping across borders can be a very profitable enterprise. But it’s also one that throws up its share of challenges. There are tariffs to consider – which diminish the feasibility of any transaction. Then there are non-tariff barriers like customs and infrastructure, which can impede a package’s progress from one market to another. Of course, some markets are more open than others. But in a world where customer expectations are rising every year, it’s vital that these problems are worked out wherever you’re shipping to – and we can help you to do precisely that.

Fulfilment and Delivery
Once your packages have crossed the necessary borders, they still need to be delivered to their final destinations, in much the same way that your domestic packages do. We’ll help you put into place the structures that’ll ensure this happens – and that any failed deliveries can be identified and diagnosed.

Marketplace Listing and Carrier Management
Information about the market you’re shipping to is also crucial. With so many different, disconnected factors to consider, you’ll want a cohesive means of listing and assessing them quickly in order to make decisions about your business’s future overseas. That’s where marketplace listing and carrier management software can really make a difference.

Marketplace listing will help you reach more consumers, whilst Amazon and eBay dominate the European and N American marketplaces, there are more than 500 marketplaces globally. In Southeast Asia, in addition to Flipkart and Amazon, we can show you how to easily access the industry specific marketplaces such as Zalora which is dedicated to fashion.

Carrier management will enable you to manage the delivery of your items to your customer. With the need to effectively manage multiple delivery networks to various countries, having the right tools to allocate delivery rules, book parcels, track parcels and manage a returns process under one program is a real challenge that ecommerce businesses face every day. We have a carrier management platform that has access to over 400 delivery networks, where you can use your chosen delivery network, or use our rates if they are they are more favourable.

We’ll implement such software into your business, helping you to make the right call when you’re dealing with overseas trade.

Bringing both parts of targeted marketplace listing (ie access to customers) and effective carrier management (ie enabling the delivery) with help accelerate your business to new heights.