Many people are confused when they first start doing e-commerce. They don’t know how to plan their own stores and what products to make. There are many products on the market. Some people say that balance bikes are easy to make, and some people say that 3C electronic product accessories are easy to make. I heard that others have made a lot of money. Should I follow suit and sell the same products when choosing products? In the end, they don’t sell well, and I don’t know what went wrong.
We often only see the side of others selling well, and may not understand the experience behind it. Whether a product sells well or not is often related to many factors: whether market research has been done in the early stage, whether the price is suitable for the Southeast Asian market, whether the product pictures are attractive enough, whether Southeast Asians have demand for this product, whether the product has after-sales guarantee, etc. Therefore, on an e-commerce platform where products are king, you must find a product that suits you and avoid blindly following.
(I) Determine market user needs and popular trends
The living habits, purchasing habits, and cultural backgrounds of buyers in different regions of Southeast Asia are different. It is impossible for a product to be suitable for buyers in all regions. For example, clothing for the Philippine market should be a few sizes larger than that for the Vietnamese market; accessories for the Thai market should choose exaggerated and brightly colored styles. Therefore, before selecting products, you can check which products are popular on the e-commerce platform, or you can find local popular discount forums (Google can help us) to see which products are the most popular on these discount websites. After analysis, we will get a more correct direction for product selection.
(II) Determine whether the product is suitable for cross-border logistics transportation
Cross-border logistics transportation has the characteristics of long transportation time and many uncertain factors. During transportation, there may be sudden weather changes, customs detention, and long logistics turnover routes. The logistics cycle in different countries and regions varies greatly. The fastest delivery time is 4 to 7 days, and the slowest takes 1 to 3 months to deliver. During the long transportation, the package will inevitably be squeezed, thrown, etc., and may also experience temperature changes from winter to summer. Therefore, when selecting products, factors such as the shelf life and degree of compression resistance of the product should be considered. Due to the high cost of cross-border logistics, when selecting products, it is also necessary to consider whether the logistics costs generated by the corresponding weight and volume are within the acceptable range.
(III) Determine the source advantage
If the first two conditions are met, it is also necessary to consider whether you have a source advantage. For entry-level sellers, if there are large-scale industrial belts or large wholesale markets in their area, they can consider looking for ready-made sources of goods directly from the market. If there is no supply advantage, consider looking for sources online. For sellers who have a certain sales base and have accumulated sales experience, when they can preliminarily judge which products have high market acceptance, they can consider looking for factory resources and place a small number of trial orders for products that they are more confident of. For experienced sellers with financial strength, they can try pre-sales first, and then place production orders after confirming market acceptance, which can reduce inventory pressure and financial pressure.