If you are looking to start selling on Shopee, Lazada, Qoo10, Amazon or other e-commerce, you may be overwhelmed by tons of new things to learn and a large number of competitors.
Trust us, selling online is easy and you can start off part-time, using bits and pieces of your free time to start learning and building an online business. Doing a business from scratch is not easy, and the good news is:- online e-commerce is easy to start with low capital and a low requirement of hours needed.
This is an easy way to learn how to exit the rat race as an employee and start being a Boss.
Where or which platform should I start selling? Shopee or Lazada or Qoo10?
The correct way to do e-commerce is, to start selling EVERYWHERE. Sell on all platforms, as you need only a small amount of effort to list the exact same items and use the same graphic you had designed (or paid freelancers to make for you).
You do should start selling on the first, most popular platform, and slowly expand to other platforms when you have time. I have been selling in Singapore ecommerce since 2014, here are my current sales volume in 2022.
Ecommerce Platforms in Singapore ranked based on sales volume
- Shopee.sg
- Lazada.sg
- Qoo10.sg
- Amazon.com.sg
- Your own Website
That’s it. Start selling on Shopee first, get some sales rolling, and expand next to Lazada. Once you are comfortable handling these 2 platforms, go to Qoo10 and start selling in Q10.
There are many who would say that Qoo10 is way beyond its peak, and customer traffic there is low compared to others.. However, profit is profit. Earning a little more is better than not earning that extra bucks. Qoo10 is an established market and will definitely fight back for its market share.
The returns would be much lower in Amazon SG and selling on your own website, so do hold back on these once you are more skilled and have more free time.
How to start selling on Shopee / Lazada / Qoo10?
Here is a simple guide:-
- Open an account with Shopee / Lazada / Qoo10. You do not need a company, a solo proprietorship to start, you can register as long as you have a local NRIC or FIN.
- Start getting your source of products from either taobao or local shops/ distributors. You can even offer local shops to do dropshipping for them if you are able to find traditional suppliers who have no experience in online commerce.
- Start listing your products on the platforms.
- Make sure you sign up with a proper delivery partner (NinjaVan, Qxpress, ShopeeXpress, RoadBull, PickUpp, UpParcel etc) and get your bubblewrap, carton boxes, polymailers, etc ready.
- Optimise your listing
- Once sales start, pack and send to your delivery partners.
- Start doing paid marketing to improve sales.
If you prefer to learn via courses and coaches with skillfuture subsidies, click Selling on Shopee Lazada in Singapore with SkillFuture.
3 Important Features to start selling well on Shopee/ Lazada
You need to make sure you do these 3 very well organically, so that your products are able to show up well on searches on the shopping marketplace.
- Title of the product listing
- The main graphic listing
- Descriptions
Just these 3 essential features will improve your click-through rate (CTR) whenever people search for your products.
Title of the product listing- make sure keywords are inside
Make sure that key essential words are inside, this is so important and yet neglected.
For example, if you are selling drones, do not just include the word “drones”, but make sure other related keywords like- aerial, radio, RC, unmanned aircraft, portable, foldable, mini, pro, etc etc.
Another example: I used to sell Salmon oil. But no one ever searches for salmon oil, what I missed out on was that people search for “Fish oil”. I changed my tile to have Fish Oil at the front of the sentence and my sales jumped.
Main Graphic Listing
Have small badges, such as “Local seller”, “Free Delivery”, Best Sellers and etc. They work well to increase click-through rates.
Add in a few typed words that exclaim the benefits of the items you are selling, NOT the features. For example, if I am selling drones, instead of saying the battery is 200,000 mAh, I should instead write in the graphics:- “Fly more than 50 minutes”.
Instead of saying the drone weights 300g, I can say that “Lightweight” or “Portable”
These small texts proclaiming the benefits of your products will scream for your prospects to click on your product listings rather than your competitors.
Descriptions
Technical details should be left at the last part of this. Instead, at the front, you should write out the benefits of having this product, and the joy it will bring to the customer.
Enjoy flying these long-lasting drones.
Take high-definition videos and photographs during your trip.
Travel light with this drone on your favourite holiday!
Leave the technical details at the back of the descriptions, and end with a call to action: Get your item today before sales end!
Do Shopee Adverts work to increase sales?
Shopee Adverts are based on Pay Per Click or PPC. You only pay when a prospect clicks on your advert. Hence, showing it to a thousand views does not cost you anything if no one clicks on it (which is still bad, btw, if no one clicks, you do not get any sales).
However, if someone clicks and yet does not buy anything, you still have to pay for it. Hence, your descriptions must be great and your offer enticing so that once people enter, a good number of them proceed to add to the cart and buy. We call these a conversion rate.
If your click-through rate or CTR is bad, it means your graphic avatar or descriptions are not ideal, or your keywords for PPC are set wrongly. Do improve on these.
If your click-through rate is high, but your conversion rate is bad, meaning you are paying for prospects to visit and yet leave without buying, check your descriptions properly. Is it a mismatch between the title to your product offer? Or are your competitors offering a better deal? It is common for a prospect to click on two or many more products on an e-commerce platform before deciding which to buy.
How much should I pay for PPC on Shopee or Lazada?
As a general guide, your expenses should be no more than 10% of the total GMV (Gross Market Value) of the product sold. You can go higher if your products have higher profit margins, or if you are facing a competitive market for your products.
As for specific value per keyword, it depends on your specific products, and how other competitors are bidding for them. There is no magic bullet on what amount to bid. Sometimes, some competitors overbid for illogical reasons.
For my marketing expenses on Shopee / Lazada, I only have 1 golden rule:- Do not lose money on any sales.
Should I use automated or manual keyword selection for my PPC Shopee Ads or Lazada Ads?
If you are experienced and wish to spend time/effort on it daily, then manual keyword allows you to hands-on and monitor your CTR, Conversion Rate, etc carefully. You will definitely spend more than usual at the beginning as you understand how it works, but eventually, you should get a higher return than the automated system offers.
I personally opt for “automate” rather than manual, as it adjusts automatically, and helps me save time and effort to monitor the keywords. I have more than 30 products on keyword adverts for PPC, so the manual is going to take up a chunk of my time daily. However, for some competitive products, I do keep a close eye on it.
Discover or Search for Shopee Ads?
Search advert is more relevant as the prospects are directly searching for that product you are selling. As such, the PPC cost is a lot higher as the chance of bringing in sales is higher. Definitely switch on search advert, even if you have a low budget. Setting a low budget or low threshold for your keywords may mean you get some sales opportunities when others are not bidding.
Discovery Adverts are displaying your products when the prospect is not searching directly for it, the click-through rate is very low, and the costs are very low too. Most people tend to ignore Discovery Ads as they bring in much less sales. Due to the low costs, you can still venture into this.
Is it too late to start selling online on shopee lazada qoo10 amazon?
This is a common myth, with many saying that the eCommerce marketplaces are too saturated.
Look around you, are there many chicken rice stalls, why are there increasing number of chicken rice stalls (and roasted duck, mala xiang guo etc etc). There are more and more people eating out because of population growth, preferences not to cook at home etc. And there are always existing food sellers who exit because of retirement, found new careers etc etc.
ecommerce is still a tiny proportional of the whole retail sector, and it is barely making a dent yet. With delivery options getting more established (government support for collection points at HDB void deck etc), and lower barriers, there will be more and more people shopping online.
If you like to learn more, with SkillFuture subsidies, do visit and search for skillfuture courses on selling online here.
