In recent years, Southeast Asia has become a popular choice in the cross-border e-commerce market. E-commerce in the region has grown rapidly over the past 5 years. However, e-commerce suffered a blow in the early days of the epidemic. Many platforms banned the sale of sensitive and anti-epidemic goods, and Google also banned promotion, causing many cross-border e-commerce sellers to find themselves in trouble. Therefore, many sellers have turned to the channel of independent websites to “help themselves.” Unlike mature markets such as Europe and the United States, Southeast Asia, an emerging e-commerce market, is full of opportunities and challenges. Therefore, more and more independent website sellers have chosen the Southeast Asian market. Let’s find out whether the Southeast Asian e-commerce market is suitable for independent website sellers to settle in?
Currently, the proportion of Chinese sellers in the Southeast Asian independent website market is relatively low, which leaves huge room for future growth and provides opportunities for sellers. Compared with platform sellers, independent sellers can fully control profits and product premiums, and do not have to worry about being charged related fees by third-party platforms. Operating costs are relatively stable and controllable. However, collecting payments remains a challenge. Online payments in Southeast Asia are still in their infancy and less mature. Most online payments require cash on delivery, that is, COD mode. In addition, the e-commerce infrastructure in Southeast Asia is relatively backward, especially logistics infrastructure. Retrograde transportation conditions bring high operating costs, which reduces profit margins and is not conducive to customer repurchase. At the same time, the region’s geographical and cultural fragmentation, the diversity of religious beliefs, languages, cultural customs, and its many islands have also brought about the trouble of last-mile delivery.
Independent sellers who want to gain a foothold in Southeast Asia must first face the problem of product selection. Consumption preferences and needs vary widely across countries. For example, the Vietnamese e-commerce market prefers electronic products, while Filipino men have strong purchasing power, the market for 3C electronic goods is large, and the demand for household products is also strong. Thailand’s online shopping expenditures are mainly concentrated on electronic products, clothing and beauty products, while Indonesia’s Prefer maternal and infant products and clothing. In addition, the products prohibited from sale vary from country to country. For example, Singapore bans the sale of e-cigarettes, while other countries have no such regulations. Although their consumption level is not high, consumers in Southeast Asia prefer lower-priced products, which may not be suitable for independent websites. Therefore, sellers must put more effort into product selection.
When engaging in independent station business in Southeast Asia, logistics selection is also very important, because most COD models are not yet mature. If the customer insists on cash on delivery, the seller must choose a logistics provider that can provide him with a flexible COD remittance cycle. For example, the seller can choose to pay back weekly, every two weeks or monthly. Since Southeast Asia is very close to China, the timeliness of air, land and sea transportation is relatively fast, and most logistics channels include double clearance and tax, so express delivery is not a wise choice. Sellers can choose to build their own overseas warehouses or cooperate with local third-party overseas warehouses. For example, they can choose to ship the goods directly to JD.com’s overseas warehouse in South Korea, and then the overseas warehouse will provide COD services to ship the goods to customers. In this way, customers do not have to worry about finding COD logistics. If the customer rejects the goods, they can return the goods to the overseas warehouse and put them on the shelves for sale again, avoiding the situation of losing money and goods.
The above introduction is relevant knowledge about whether the Southeast Asian e-commerce market is suitable for independent sellers to settle in. The Southeast Asian market is currently in the development stage. Although there are some challenges, there are also many opportunities. If independent website sellers want to take root in the Southeast Asian market, they must be fully prepared and not give up easily in order to achieve success.