Sync and Sell on Multiple Marketplaces With Market Plus
Browse the smartphone of any Filipino in the metro and you’re sure to find Shopee or Lazada in their list of apps. These online marketplaces which have become household names in the Philippines are some of the top apps in the market, giving Filipinos all over the country access to online shopping in a time when many are stuck at home. Having discovered the convenience of ecommerce, Filipinos have been unable to resist shifting their shopping online, whether they’re buying essentials, food, clothes, medicine, or even plants. Many have come to enjoy indulging in some old-fashioned retail therapy as well especially in these trying times and when it’s now become so much more within reach. Just a few taps away are all the gorgeous, innovative, and even quirky products one can imagine.
Shopee and Lazada have stepped up to meet the demand of millions of Filipinos and have risen as two of the biggest B2C online marketplaces in the Philippines. Statista reports 54.6 million web visitors for Shopee PH and 38.3 million web visitors for Lazada PH per month during the first quarter of 2021 alone. These two marketplaces becoming this big and this successful in such a short amount of time is a testament to how ecommerce has become an undeniable part of people’s lives.
Online shopping is the name of the game. With more than half of the Philippine population having access to the Internet in 2020, ecommerce has gone to heights it has never before reached. Now that safety is a priority, online shopping has gained even more of an edge, offering contactless shopping and cashless payments. Shopee and Lazada are thriving, showcasing a myriad of items from thousands of enthusiastic online sellers and coming up with different promotions ranging from discounts, rewards, raffles, free shipping, and even play-to-win games that get people hooked and ready to spend.
“With more than half of the Philippine population having access to the Internet in 2020, ecommerce has gone to heights it has never before reached.”
Nothing is perfect, especially in business
However, no matter how good something is, there will always be a downside. For online marketplaces, it is getting customers to distinguish a business’s brand. On online marketplaces, all types of sellers are hosted: brand owners, resellers, and even one-time or experimenting sellers. The extremely large pool of sellers and the countless items they offer often lead customers to care less about who’s selling. This negatively affects brands who want to make a name for themselves. It’s like being in a crowded public market where everyone is shouting to be noticed that in the end, no one really gets heard or recognized. This is especially true for brands that have not yet been verified or have just started their business and are yet to be discovered.
In business, especially one that is primarily online, one of the easiest ways to build your brand is to have your own ecommerce website. By having a website for your online store, you are able to present yourself as an individual entity. Not only that, but you can also offer customers a personalized experience unique to your brand since you have the controls of the website from layout, images, marketing, and promotions.
“…one of the easiest ways to build your brand is to have your own ecommerce website.”
Yet, in most cases, having your own website means having to do all the hard work involved in finding an audience or a market that is willing to come to visit and browse your products. As a result, many starting business owners choose to forego branding and making a website. They would rather make accounts on online marketplaces rather than miss out on the millions of potential customers that use them.
Now, you might ask, do you really always have to choose between branding and visibility? Is there no perfect solution?
There are no missed opportunities with Cafe24 Market Plus
When you make a website with us at Cafe24, you not only gain access to a global ecommerce platform, you are also able to sync your marketplace accounts to your website through Market Plus. You will be able to simultaneously upload your products in multiple marketplaces all in one place, saving you time and effort, which in business means saving money. Ultimately, this also means that you gain both the advantages of having your own online store website and having accounts on popular marketplaces like Shopee and Lazada. You will be able to build brand recognition and legitimacy for your business and have the huge sales that result from being able to sell to marketplace users. Whether you’re a big-name retailer or a start-up, you’ll have a visible and profitable place in the online market with Market Plus.
Experience seamless tracking of inventory and other transaction details
When handling multiple online stores and marketplace accounts, store management can become overly complicated and disorganized. This can lead to misplaced orders, lack of inventory, and a longer waiting period for your customers. Not only can these give you a headache, such errors ultimately lead to a poor user experience that can affect your future sales.
Who says having a business is easy?
Well, we do.
With Market Plus, you can access your online stores and marketplace accounts’ inventories in one dashboard and effortlessly track which items are still available, low in stock, or out of stock. It makes managing your supply so much easier. At the same time, by giving you the complete details of your inventory, it gives you important insights into how well your products are performing. With this feature, you can stock up on your best-selling items and start finding ways to promote your least popular products.
And it doesn’t stop there. You can also view your transaction details from multiple marketplaces on Market Plus. You will be able to see all the orders in your different accounts and view each of their status and details including payment, payment method, shipping status, and whether or not they have been modified.
You can even export order details in CSV form should you need it. You can forget about manual inputting and all the stress it entails.
Market Plus makes managing products painless and uncomplicated. The seamless organization of information helps you save time and focus more on other important aspects of your business such as strategy, marketing, and promotions.
Integrate Market Plus into your business
Becoming a successful entrepreneur may not be so simple, but at least upgrading your business with Market Plus is. It is a service offered by Cafe24 to all its users as part of its mission to help entrepreneurs reach their highest potential and gain market advantage.
Below is a step-by-step guide on how to integrate Market Plus into your online business.
- Open your Cafe24 store admin dashboard and click the Market Plus tab on the left panel.
2. Click the General Settings tab then click Marketplace Accounts.
3. Click the Sync toggle switch of the marketplace where you have an account you want to sync products with.
4. Input the necessary information.
5. Choose a product information template. Once a marketplace account is added, a default template appears which can be edited to form new templates.
And that’s it! After you’re done setting your accounts and templates, you can begin transferring and syncing your products.
You can do individual product transfers or bulk product transfers, depending on your preference. You can also easily search for products you want to transfer and sync to your marketplace accounts by filtering your products by name, code, price, store of origin, category, marketplace where they have not yet been transferred, date added, and status.
Learn from history for better business strategy
As an added bonus, you can view your history through Action Logs. You will be able to see your previous actions in Market Plus including the type of transfer you did to which product, the task details and results, transfer date, import request date, import date, and many more. These logs are made available so you can easily track what happened in your stores and marketplace accounts to avoid any issues that have the potential to hamper your business. The logs will also give you insights into the effect of each action on your business, whether good or bad, so you can improve your business strategy.
Extend your reach
When it comes to sales, reach is everything. Even the best product armed with advanced and innovative features cannot thrive in the market if it cannot reach its customers. That is why marketplaces have become such a huge hit with starting businesses given their sheer number of users. And this is also why Cafe24 has made it possible for its users to connect to marketplaces with Market Plus.
However, Market Plus is not the only way Cafe24 broadens your market as it also connects you with overseas customers. It allows you to receive payment using Paypal, which has millions of users all over the world, and Paymentwall, which gives your online business a wide range of local and global payment options. It also offers language translations so you can market your products clearly and convincingly towards other nationalities should you wish to expand and grow. With Cafe24, you can build a brand that customers can reach.
