Are You Using THE ONE Proven Tactic to Boost You Black Friday Sales By Up to 320%?
It’s that time of the year again!
Did you know that there are less than 4 days before the biggest sales period of the year? Both Black Friday & Cyber Monday are set to rake in the lion’s share of sales this season as holiday shoppers scour the web for the best deals.
So is your eCommerce store ready for the year end shopping galore? What have you prepared to OFFER your customers?
New merchants ask us all the time about choosing the right payment gateway to pair with their online eCommerce solutions, and the truth is there is no standard answer. We can usually help a merchant decide based on what their priorities are, such as cost, application time, or withdrawal time. So here is a eCommerce payment processing comparison to get you started.
Trust is a vital concept when it comes to social psychology in eCommerce. Trust appears wherever risk, uncertainty and dependency exists, and is something online shops strive to earn from their shoppers. Consumers trusting an online retailer is important in establishing transactional behavior.
It is a weighty concept that is often taken for granted because we believe we understand it, despite the range of definitions it carries. To consumers, doing business with an eCommerce merchant represents a step into the unknown thus creating positive trust-beliefs will help result in positive intentions (sales) from consumers.
According to findings in “The Science of Shopping Cart Abandonment” by Charles Nicholls: 74.6% of new shoppers will not return after abandoning a shopping cart, and so persuading shoppers to complete a purchase on their very first visit is of utmost importance for long-term survival, and why nurturing initial trust is so crucial in this step of the journey.
As Andrea Petersen stated in her Wall Street Journal piece:
“It seems that trust equals revenue, even online.”
Each party of an eCommerce transaction looks to eliminate risk and uncertainty by finding ways to increase trust. We acomplish this by building beliefs about the beneficial characteristics of the vendor. These characteristics can be applied to beliefs about the competence, benevolence, integrity and predictability of an online store.
1. Belief in competence is when a shopper believes that the merchant possesses the ability to deliver goods or services as promised, whether it is in terms of volume, delivery time, pricing or quality. Shoppers also want to know you are an expert who has the necessary skills to provide a convenient solution, and that you are dynamic– able to meet challenges that arise without excuses.
We see this come up a lot in the world of eCommerce. Belief in your competence leads to a positive action towards your business, and that trust carries so much weight that when broken it leads to anger, frustration and reputation damage within the online community. On the flipside, if that belief is reinforced by actual competence, the goodwill generated has the potential to spread like wildfire, leading to more belief and further positive actions.
2. Belief in benevolence is when a shopper believes the merchant is caring, morally conscious, responsive and is capable of goodwill towards him or her. A merchant that cultivates the belief of benevolence would not have the perception of taking advantage of the shopper by feeding their fears (eg. the fear of missing out), rather is one that acts in their best interest, that the service is not a scam, and is always willing to communicate matters with the client.
3. Belief in integrity is when shoppers trust that a merchant is honest, credible and reliable in their dealings by being truthful and upfront about things like pricing and delivery times rather than forgoing the truth in order to make sales. Merchants that demonstrate integrity accept the responsibility of the good-faith placed upon them and is the standard bearer of fulfilling promises and ethical obligations, like keeping client information secure.
4. Belief in predictability doesn’t actually have positive or negative values associated with it. It means that a shopper has the belief that your actions are consistent enough to the point that he/she can predict your behavior in a normal transactional situation, regardless of whether your actions are good or bad.
A customer may have high belief in the predictability of Amazon to fulfill delivery of an order within 5 days. A high level of belief in predictability would also forecast that a confirmation email and invoice will be sent immediately after purchase. Having belief in the predictability of an online merchant also means that the merchant’s readiness to handle a client’s needs will never alter over time.
These four beliefs complement each other and often one lead to another depending on the buying stage of a customer and what their current relationship is with your brand (fresh, has heard of you before or has conducted business with you before). The most important one is always the one that addresses the current fear of a customer and facilitates positive behaviors.
If a customer fears being scammed, then their integrity belief is the most important. If the customer fears getting a bad deal like paying a higher markup price, then benevolence belief takes precedence. Fear that credit card details might be inadvertently stolen during the checkout process will rely on the competence belief that your technical ability to prevent such theft will address this issue.
Belief in these characteristics leads to trusting intentions, which is when a customer shows the intention of relying on the merchant despite being unable to control the merchants actions. The amount of belief a shopper has will affect their readiness to perform trust related internet behaviors compared to traditional shopping instances, since online shoppers have less control over their experience such as handing over sensitive personal information, or not being able to immediately determine the quality of a product or service.
These behaviors are actions like sharing sensitive information, adding products to cart or making a purchase by completing the checkout process, and are a natural consequence of their trust in or beliefs about the online store.
Rather than allowing customers to bumble haphazardly through the trust-intention-action process, there are of course things merchants can do to guide them through it to assure them that their beliefs are in safe hands and their intentions will have positive results.
A privacy policy lets your customers know that you are ethical when it comes to collecting their personal information (integrity). As such they are more likely to be open to sharing their personal information with you (intention). When a customer is more willing to share information then they are naturally more likely to act on it (behavior).
Not having a privacy policy in place on your online store can help you lose customers while being upfront about how you collect, store, and share personal data will allay the fear customers have about how their data is collected and used. They tend to be long walls of text filled with legalese that in a way discourage people from reading them.
Twitter has a very clear and well formatted privacy policy laid out which you can find here. Making it easily accessible for the average user shows transparency, which is a concept closely related to being trustworthy.
As the saying goes: those with nothing to hide hide nothing.
Trust seals & SSL certificates suggest that a site provides technical security for payment forms to prevent middleman interventions or network eavesdropping.
Koray Özpolat at the University of Rhode Island hypothesizes that the four factors surrounding the effectiveness of trusts seals are cart value, retailer’s sales volume, shopper experience and number of other trust seals displayed:
Cart Value
Trust seals are more effective towards the completion of higher value shopping carts.
The value of a shopping cart simply means how much the total value of the products in the cart amounts to. Higher value purchases are more risky and thus entail a higher level of risk-aversion thus providing information pertinent to security and privacy helps reduce perceived risk.
Retailer Size
Online retailers with a smaller sales volume benefit more from the presence of the trust seal than larger online retailers.
This is tied-in with an online store’s reputation. Someone who has never shopped on Amazon.com would have less concerns about the ability of the company to protect their information, becuase it is a well established marketplace that has served millions of customers worldwide. As such smaller eCommerce sites would be required to take even greater measures to address these concerns. Customers would naturally feel less comfortable shopping at your store if it is new or relatively unheard of.
Past Experience
The effect of trust seals diminish the more frequently a user shops at a particular online store.
It means that trust is being developed over time, and with the benefit of having completed successful transactions before, the need to be convinced of trustworthiness is gradually eliminated as the customer updates his or her perception of the merchant.
Varied Trust Seal
The impact of trust seals on completing the checkout process has diminishing returns as the number of displayed trust seals increases.
In other words, displaying all the trust seals you can get your hands on won’t do much to convince your customers to make a purchase past the first few unique or synergetic ones, such as a seal that addresses security together with seals the address identity and privacy. Having multiple seals that address the same concerns is pointless.
In terms of shopping cart abandonment, the research found that the optimal number of seals to display is only 2 and that there is a reverse effect (u-turn) on trust with an increasing number of seals. Hence it is crucial to avoid information overload when displaying trust seals as it may cause confusion or skepticism.
What’s interesting is a particular result from a study published by Christian Holst suggesting that the perception of security is more important to online shoppers than its actually technical security ability. The trust seals are often nothing more than certification of a site or company about its customer relations or business practices, whereas SSL seals are what suggest technical security on the site.
Image: Baymard Study
There are many places you might display your security certifications and credentials, on your front page, on a product page, or on the footer, but the most important location to build trust is at the checkout process, the page where a customer will enter their payment details. It is at this point that a person has the most alarm bells going off, so it is here that it becomes of utmost importance to build confidence in the ability to protect one’s privacy.
It should be standard practice by now for an online business to be engaging with customers, both individually and as an community. From a trust perspective, it also manages to convey that you are a merchant possessing the positive belief characteristics mentioned above, that it is benevolent, competent, honest and predictable. These positive traits solidify customers trust which lead to positive trust behaviors.
Interaction can occur through any channels your site has available, such as social media, email, phone, video calling, or even a support system on the site itself. It involves customer service, feedback, marketing and general socializing.
A great example of customer-facing eCommerce is Dell’s built-to-order model, which was once a thing Alienware did. With this model they were able to build stronger and deeper relationships with their customers.
This is interaction as well, since analyzing how your customers interact with your store (you) and understanding their shopping behavior and decisions can give you valuable data about how to better serve them. It can help you improve your design, user experience, content, and set pricing, which lead to increased shopping cart completion rates.
By building a good reputation a merchant is able to bring about purchasing behaviors. Improving reputation will also improve beliefs because reputation is the anecdotal evidence/rumour that the merchant has positive characteristics, while trusting beliefs are first-hand, and as stated above, lead to intentions.
The trend now is to prominently display customer testimonials as social proof about a good service rendered, and it is standard to have customer reviews on product pages, as these constitute a secondary reputation, that of the product you sell on your store.
Brand recognition happens naturally, but should also happen through your own efforts with marketing campaigns. Consumers are also more likely to trust merchants that actively advertise their marketplace as it shows an investment in growth. It is unlikely that shoppers want to have business dealings with companies they think are in it for the short-term, as this will hamper an important part of transactions, which is after sales support.
Links to a reputable site can provide the extra push to assure customers that you run a reputable site. Quality outbound links suggests that you run a good company because you are good company, by way of transference.
The initial trust a shopper has for an unknown store will be more strongly influenced by a better known domain when there is a connection (hyperlink) between the two. This transference of trust can be achieved in many ways, not just by linking to other domains, but also by connections to influential individuals within online communities such on social networking sites and forums.
On online marketing forums such as the Warrior Forum, vendors and affiliates gain reputation by being active in the hyper-niche communities found within, creating trust and favourable reputations, allowing each other to cross promote their services, confident in the knowledge that each other are in high reputation standing among the public. After all, nobody wants to affiliated with shady dealers or those with a poor reputation – whether by perception or concrete.
Reputation is also strengthened when there is a link between your online store and a physical location, which we cover in the next item.
Having a proper channel to receive inquiries and complaints goes a long way in creating trust. It shows your users that there is a real person running things, and that you are available to be contacted should the need arise.
Some businesses choose not to disclose any contact details whatsoever, instead having a contact form to direct queries. Whether this might be a good practice for your business is something only you can determine by understanding your customer base. Others businesses are fully transparent, and it seems to work for them.
The amount of information you are willing to share is totally up to you, however a Contact page should be the bare minimum, then adding social media links, email and then live chat support as the need arises. You may also want to add business hours and your address if it is applicable.
Being active in updating the content of your store instils a sense of comfort whereby a customer knows that he/she is not in a deadzone. Fear of being in an abandoned site will obviously lead to phenomenal bounce rates. Updating your inventory or updating the product information helps your store stay fresh and alive.
Consider creating a content strategy for your products by mapping out time-periods for content updates. Several merchants I work with now choose to have a content cycle for individual products, which means not uploading all the content right away, but doing it over a period of time. For example uploading the product and details right away, then in week 2 adding a long-form product description or even a dedicated blog post about it, and in the third or fourth week uploading a video of the product as either a review, a tutorial, or the now very popular unboxing video format.
Even if your store features products with slow development cycles, you can work around this by generating blog content and being active on social networks about your regular operations or by events, expos or roadshows you attend. These updates also have the benefit of conveying to your customer that you are a creator and community participant, not solely a profit maker- or: Benevolent.
The social psychology of trust in eCommerce is about putting yourself in your customer’s seat, figuring out where your customers will have gaps in trust, then patching those gaps up. Empathizing with your consumers and their trust needs requires taking action on providing information to ease them into a trustworthy relationship with you.
As you can see, understanding the fears and pain points of your eCommerce users is paramount in increasing conversions. Trust exists differently for different people at different stages of their buying journey.The tactics mentioned above will alleviate common fears most customers have when encountering a new online shopping store. They work in tandem by gradually reducing risk-aversion and increasing belief in not getting ripped off.
The Bottom Line:
Shoppers need to trust you to provide them with a reliable, safe and convenient service before they will ever conduct online business with you.
If you found this post useful, please consider sharing our eCommerce blog with those who will also benefit from it. Do also comment with your thoughts/examples/horror tales below, or if you want a more private conversation you can reach me via Email. Thanks!
InstanteStore is proud to be part of Project Merdeka this year as our nation celebrates it’s 59th birthday.
Project Merdeka is a collection of deals offered by local Malaysian startups to celebrate Merdeka which is Malaysia’s Independence Day or Hari Kebangsaan.
Merdeka. It means ‘independent’ in the Malay language. Boldly proclaimed 7 times by our first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman on 31st August 1957 at the Merdeka Stadium signalling the end of British colonial rule over our land.
Malaysia has since grown as a nation by leaps and bounds.
One of the biggest challenges faced by online sellers is sales conversion. With so much effort put in to build an online store, it needs to be worthwhile for your online business to take off.
Here are some crucial and practical tips to retain and grow your customer base.
Setting up your payment method is a piece of cake with InstanteStore. We’ve got plenty of options for you to choose from!
So you’ve finally gotten your online store all set up. It was quite a feat but your store has now been populated with products, you’ve tested it out and you’re happy with the overall look of your site (yay!).
Now start using these 20 ecommerce features to help you sell online.
Customize Abandoned Cart Feature
Make sure you configure your abandoned cart first as your store will begin to receive traffic and exposure from all the SEO efforts and blogging that you’ve been doing.
If you’re not sure about whether you’ve set up your store’s SEO properly, please check out these practical ecommerce tips for first time sellers which covers the overall work needed to get your store ready to sell online.
Being able to reach customers who have made it all the way to your store’s checkout process is a priority.
To find out the steps on how to set up your abandoned cart email, please view there’s a gold mine in your abandoned cart orders.
Offer Discount Coupons
Create some discount coupons as a way to reward first time buyers who sign up or register at your store to purchase something. It’s a great way to encourage them to complete their first purchase at your store.
You can offer different types of discount coupons ranging from percentage to dollar value or even free shipping with our ecommerce shopping cart.
Put yourself in the shoes of your customers and decide which is the best that you can offer them to complete checkout.
Offer Gift Certificates
Look at the yearly calendar and mark down the different holiday seasons or special occasions where you can offer discounted gift certificates to customers who could purchase them to give away as gifts.
Gift certs can be made available all year round but remember to set a reasonable validity time frame.
Creating a digital gift certificate is easy with our ecommerce solution.
A reasonable validity time frame is a way to encourage customers to utilize them soon.
Send Out Newsletters
Collect all those emails of customers that have registered in your store as you’ll want to send them periodic newsletters of your latest products, promotions and blog posts (which contains useful advice that will teach and add value to your customers).
Make it worth sharing to their other friends by including some discount codes for first time signup and purchase.
Creating newsletters is an easy process provided you’ve planned out your outline and have prepared all the relevant links and images.
Our ecommerce software makes it easy for merchants to create and send out newsletters to their subscribers and registered customers.
You can have a test copy sent to your email to see what it looks like first before blasting it out to your subscribers and customers.
Sell on eBay
Select some of your products to sell on eBay. Post them easily from your store to your eBay account if you want your product to be available in the marketplace.
InstanteStore is integrated with eBay so all you need is an eBay account to link your store and start posting some of your products direct to eBay.
You don’t have to post your entire store’s products on eBay. Only selected ones will do.
Sell Wholesale
Offer special wholesale pricing to customers who wish to purchase in bulk from you. We offer 3 different types of wholesale feature. Pick one that’s suitable for your online business.
If you have plenty of wholesale customers, our personal wholesale feature allows up to 9 different pricing tier per product.
That way, you can allocate different pricing to different customers depending on the different quantities that they want to purchase from you. These tier prices are not available to normal buyers.
Put Products On Sale
Put your store’s products on sale. Customers love a good sale. Do your price comparison with competitors taking into account shipping and tax to see whether you can match their pricing or offer a better deal for customers.
According to Nielsen, 41% global average of consumers will switch brand, retailer and service providers if there’s a better price offered. Makes sense as people are always looking for value.
Besides, who wants to pay more when they can get a similar product or service at a lower price.
All small business shopping cart software will enable you to put your products on sale.
Ours will even allow you to put entire categories or your whole store on sale.
You’ll have complete control and can even upload the On Sale image of your choice.
Cross Sell Your Products
Always add some similar or related products as cross sell.
That will serve as relevant suggestions to customers who are looking for the same type of products in case the initial product was not exactly what they were looking.
Configure the cross sell feature and cross sell layout to match the look of your store.
Being able to offer cross sell on both your product page and final checkout page will help to increase conversion.
Switch To Mobile Friendly And Responsive Templates
Google announced last year that mobile friendly sites will rank higher in search results.
To find out whether your site meets Google’s mobile friendly criteria, just enter in your URL in the mobile friendly test.
It makes sense as your site should load fast and properly across all devices so that users will get to what they’re searching for fast.
You’ll also want to make sure your site loads fast enough to meet Google’s Page Speed Insights :
If you need help configuring your store’s site but don’t know how to get it done, please contact us and we’ll help you out.
Switch On Ratings And Reviews
Switch on ratings and reviews so that you can share your customers’ positive shopping experience on your store.
Having positive customer ratings and reviews is part of a good ecommerce solution onboarding process to convince customers of the quality of your products and shopping experience.
Our small business ecommerce software allow merchants to set their own review settings.
Merchants can even upload a list of offensive or censor words as part of the filtering process.
Sell On Facebook
Pick some of your most popular products and sell on Facebook.
Just follow the setup Facebook Social Store steps to make your products available for purchase on Facebook. Customers get to complete the checkout within Facebook without being bumped around to other sites.
Offer Reward Point System
Give customers an incentive to redeem free products from your store via a reward point system.
It needs to be attainable as a way of rewarding loyal customers.
Keep the conversions simple and intuitive as you want to give a very good first impression to customers that you’re rewarding them from the very start.
Just activate the reward point system and decide which reward type you would like to set for your entire store.
Setting up a reward point system is fast and easy. Just be sure to inform customers of your reward point conversion rates upfront.
Offer Free Shipping
Did you know that 77% of online shoppers say that free shipping remains the most important option during checkout??
Customers are usually attracted to free shipping. It will encourage them to spend more to qualify for free shipping.
Any shopping cart software for small business will allow merchants to configure and offer free shipping to their customers.
You could increase your online sales just by changing your shipping strategy.
Set Up Your Social Media
Link your social media accounts to your store and turn on social media sharing so that customers can easily share what they like or what they’ve purchased from your store.
Social recommendation by trusted friends will definitely go a long way to market your products for you.
Offer Or Sell Downloadable Products
If you’ve got some really awesome advice, tips or how-to instructions on a particular subject which you think your customers will find really helpful, you can offer that as a free or paid downloadable product.
It can be in the form of a pdf file or document which users can download from your site.
Be creative as downloadable products are not just for those who are selling digital products, photography and software files.
Downloadable products could also be digital files, serial numbers and license keys.
Our ecommerce shopping software allow merchants to upload their text file of serial numbers or license numbers easily.
When a buyer makes a purchase, the number will be marked as purchase automatically so there will be no duplicate purchase.
Use The Content Slider
You’ve got awesome products that you want to highlight and bring visitors’ attention to. Put them on your main page using a content slider.
Customers who are interested in a particular product can go straight to the product page by clicking on the respective slide.
Feature Certain Products
Configure your store to show certain featured products which could well be your best sellers and products that you want to draw customers’ attention to.
These featured products will normally appear on the main front page of your site.
Add these featured products easily and arrange their sequence on your store.
You can configure them to appear on every single page of your site to keep the customers’ focus on the products that you wish to promote to them.
Offer Affiliates
If you need help getting the word out about your product or services, you can offer affiliates to influential sites or bloggers.
It’s a win-win as you get to promote your site and product on their site and they get paid for successful referrals.
Our affiliate feature is quite comprehensive so you could configure and specify how and when you want to pay your affiliates.
Create your own affiliate banners or our designers can come up with something creative and amazing for you.
Create Auto Responder Campaigns
You’ll need a few to cater to the different visitor response to your site.
This will require you to customize your email messages that can be automatically sent out at specific time frame to different customer segments.
Use Free Live Chat
Being able to communicate with your customers directly to answer any question they may have about your product is important.
You could also find out what are their needs and interest to recommend different types of products and suggestions to them.
There are many different types of live chat software in the market. Some are free while others are chargeable.
Our InstanteStore Live Chat Software is absolutely FREE for anyone to download and use. And when you’re offline, customers can easily send you an email direct from the chat box.
This is one of the ways to improve communication without having to speak over the phone.
Start Selling Now
Utilize all these features with our ecommerce solution software to help you sell online. Treat these features as your arsenal and implement them on your store.
Some may work better than others but make the necessary changes and adjustments as you go along.
Constantly work on promoting your site and products to your target customers and existing customers.
The important thing is that you start selling now with all these features so that you can tweak them better to suit different shopping seasons and occasions.
Don’t have a store yet? Start building your store with a free 15 day trial on InstanteStore.
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If you’re anything like me, you’re always wondering what the best new products to sell online in Malaysia are.
Competition is intense. We have several leading online marketplaces featuring a wide range of product categories. It does seems as though eCommerce in Malaysia is full with no space left for new or smaller merchants to thrive.
It’s not true though.
If you want to learn the basics, check out this article by StartupBros. It details a step-by-step process of finding profitable products to sell online.
Here is a list of 23 products that are currently trending in Malaysia to help with your store. I’ve also included sourcing information.
These products are growing in demand, and I’ve ensured they don’t have high competition (yet).
Get started by clinking on a link to go to that category, or just scroll through and see the entire list!
Related: New to online selling? Check out these Practical Ecommerce Tips For First Time Sellers
Counter-clockwise watches? Why not, say the innovators at MEM Watches, a company based in Seri Kembangan. Thus so we have the +CLOCKWISE products. The idea is fresh, and the public have taken a liking to the quirkiness of it all.
I’ll refrain from suggesting any particular model to sell, as I am unable to find evidence for individual models. Suffice to say that the Ocean Pair for men & women & the Karlene for ladies are the most popular. Consider checking with them directly.
As any smart watch company should, they have lines for both men & women, called Adam & Eve. They also have a range of wall mounted clocks called “Walltickers”. Walltickers! I’m liking this company.
It is actually well established in Malaysia. Have a look at the huge list of regional distributors and contact detailshere.
The three cleansers by Safi in the Rania Gold line are very popular right now. They cater to the mid-20’s market in the highly competitive anti-aging niche. Yet somehow, despite the impressive amount of interest, there is little online competition. That is always a good sign when looking for new products to feature in eCommerce stores.
Safi does have a wide range of products you may want to check out, but purely from a statistical point of view, the Rania Gold line is your bet best to start with.
Get in contact with distributor Wipro Unza to get supply information.
In the flood of Korean born cosmetics, Duoya mascara (also Korean) certainly hasn’t gone unnoticed by the local public. The brand itself is rather new & trendy in Malaysia, having been brought in mid/late 2015. It’s getting a lot of attention from popular beauty bloggers for it’s ease of use, and there is adequate support for eCommerce merchants by the distributor, who is even offering drop shipping.
This is a product that is very new in Malaysia but the accessibility for merchants is really pushing the product to the fore, so much so that the brand name itself has already been identified as an advertising keyword on Google, albeit still a very, VERY cheap keyword. Even more good news is the low competition for a significant monthly search volume.
Two options to reach the sole distributor, Norafurla: Facebook or Instagram
Naked – in case you didn’t already know – is a term the cosmetics company has given for a colour palette that is neutral. This has become incredibly popular and been copied by many other brands to help consumers create a look that seems natural. Consumers are enjoying the Naked line as it provides neutral palettes that are anything but boring, from the palest champagne to the grittiest gunmetal, it’s all there. It’s almost local customization, but not quite.
I won’t suggest any particular model to target, as there is a wide range (Naked 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Naked Basics, Smoky, Flushes) of products in the Naked series, and we’re only covering the eyeshadow palette here, there is still the concealer, cream, balm and foundation, BUT I do know a trending product line when I see one, and this definitely fits the bill.
Contact Loreal via email for supply detaisl: lormy.info@loreal.com
In case you’re just tuning in: compact cushions are a type of sponge that users dab onto skin with an applicator. The sponge is filled with goodies that contain anti-aging ingredients, UV protection, moisturizer, and skin-whitening. The MISSHA magic cushion is one of such compacts, and don’t mistake this for some in now-out-soon trend. Lancome validated this market by coming up with their own line, called the Miracle Cushion.
They first launched a case in 2014 that was such a miss they had to put on the brakes, releasing an updated version almost a year later, which as you can see has worked wonders with the public.
This is the Line Friends variant of the Magic Cushion. As much as the Magic Cushion compacts are trending, the Line Friends versions are almost completely overshadowing them. They’re essentially the same product, just with impish designs celebrating the collaboration with Line Friends. Given that consumers can get the same thing with a special edition design, who wouldn’t want to, right?
The Line Friends collaboration extends to beyond the cushion compact line, but the Line Friends cushion compact trend mirrors that of the generic Magic Cushion line so that’s a sure win!
Click here for supply.
Originally from Korea, Innisfree was brought to Malaysian borders as recently as 2015, and it has been growing in popularity ever since. The brand is known for it’s green eco stand, and it leverages the social & community work it does as a way to get noticed by the public. That gives it an edge over millennials who are increasingly looking for worthy brands to be attach loyalty to, where there is visible community building and social conscience.
The most popular product they have to offer Malaysians appears to be facial masks, specifically the Squeeze Mask series.
Get your Innisfree products here or via email: cs@innisfree.com.my
What’s this? A sudden surge in public interest? Could this be the holy grail of getting the jump on a new product? I’d say so! That’s over 700 searches in its first month alone!
I’ve gone through a dozen or so new Korean cosmetics and skin care offerings, and the 7 Days Mask is the only one that I’ve found that is this close to the beginning of a surge in demand. It’s so new in fact that the official page doesn’t even have English as a language option yet. Almost all the interest so far has come from Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, but only supply is bottlenecking interest from different parts of Malaysia.
No one is advertising this product yet, probably because only one eCommerce merchant is actually offering this product in Malaysia, which is of course mainly due to the fact that this is such a new trend. It won’t be long before everyone else catches on though, so go ahead and get yours here.
Hiruscar is another product distributed and marketed by DKSH, of which I think they are doing a very good job, especially recently. The product is gaining a lot of traction thanks to on ground & digital marketing efforts, with roadshows and competitions bearing the brand name.
You’ll notice the ad price being higher than others on this list, and the reason is simple. This is a product in the highly lucrative but also highly competitive EVERGREEN niche of acne solutions. Yet despite being so popular, there is barely any competition in the marketplace for this product specifically. That’s a grabbable opportunity if I ever saw one.
No surprise that it is already being carried by popular stores like Guardian, Watsons & Lazada, although the game far from over. Use your smarts – advertise (paid or otherwise) the fact that you carry this product and corner the market on it. It isn’t hard to pull off considering barely anyone else is actively advertising it, banking instead on customers going to them for the product. It still isn’t an expensive investment, but given the niche it’s in, that’s certainly not going to be the case forever.
Contact DKSH for supply.
Pomade has become a breakout trend since 2013, gaining massive worldwide popularity with the help of superstars like Zayn Malik to back up its use for styling hair. It doesn’t end there though! The industry picked up on its popularity immediately and has grown so huge there is even a pomade eyebrow styler (as far as I can tell!) available .
Convinced yet? Then let’s move on to choosing a brand to represent this increasingly popular product. Despite having a range of options like Layrite, Upppercut & Imperial, I’ve narrowed the choice down to the best ONE, in terms of online trend, search volume and potential. The other brands do have volume and commercial intent for sure, and there can’t be very much harm in stocking a few different brands, but none have come close to the results I’ve gotten when I came across:
It’s become such that if you’re in Malaysia looking for pomade, you need look no further than Suavecito, who have become very popular thanks to the ability to market themselves and their competence in creating high quality products. Like quite a few other brands I’ve listed here, they are big on community & social work, and are very active in their local communities.
This attitude has yet again shown to be very favourable to a new age of consumers who are increasingly attaching loyalty to brands that show initiative in engaging with communities, and are able to demonstrate social conscience. They consistently market themselves, getting themselves in front of people at events and roadshow, and this has helped consumers identify with the brand image and what it stands for.
There is widespread demand for the brand in Malaysia as well as commercial intent, but as of 2016 still very low competition. They also have a newer line of products specifically for women like hairspray & hair clips, but I have not found enough evidence to support including any in this list, short of making a brief mention, which I’ve now done.
You can get in touch with the sole distributor for Malaysia via
email: Pixiedust Trading pixiedusttrade@gmail.com
or phone: 010-8023236 / 0111-5400442
That’s right: It’s DRY! Did you even know about dry shampoo before this? I’ll admit I only found out about it in 2015, but the very idea of washing my hair with a dry substance intrigued me and according to the charts, I’m definitely not alone.
Dry shampoo is actually not a new thing, however as a trend it has only recently begun to gain traction. It is marketed as a product for the trendy working crowd who clearly have no time for standard liquid based shampoos and need a quick fix. As you can see, it hit a spike in popularity in June 2009 and has been gaining a steady following ever since.
Batiste, the UK born dry shampoo company is quickly spreading its reach, with new distribution locations & marketing campaigns being created all the time in many new regions.
Their ability to create mass appeal has made them something of an industry leader in this niche, contributing to spikes in brand interest as well as significantly higher average yearly increase in interest.
There are a number of SKUs to choose from, but if I had to choose ONLY ONE I’d go with Blush, which is the most popular among consumers in other more established regions.
DKSH is the local distributor for Batiste.
Razer released the Chroma edition of their best-selling gaming mouse – the Deathadder – almost two years ago. Chroma is simply what they are calling the RGB features, which is illumination from over 16 million colour choices. In short it can light up like a photoshopped rainbow.
While the Deathadder series were incredibly popular before, now that the full colour illumination is is standard, the series seems to have been adopted with renewed enthusiasm. Overall interest has yet to take a hit since launch, and considering the price point compared to other comparable options, I don’t see interest waning anytime soon.
Get your supply from Ban Leong Technologies.
Want to give your customers some options? Adding the Rival by Steelseries to your product list will do just that. It’s the rival to the Deathadder in every way, in terms of price, specs and size. Although it didn’t see a very promising beginning, interest in the model has been increasing and I don’t doubt it is here to stay.
The bonus here is that they have a Dota 2 version of the Rival! Yes, you’ve no doubt heard about the most popular, most lucrative eSports game in the world. Everyone has – thanks to Valve hosting multi million dollar prize pool competitions.
That’s the highest volume of searches of all the products featured on this list and mindbogglingly with such low commercial competition. Granted it isn’t a product you can buy – it’s a game – yet it entices its players to spend HUNDREDS of dollars on merchandising.
Players & fans spends significant amounts of money on thing like plushies, jerseys and best of all, in game cosmetic items. It’s not hard to imagine someone looking for a gaming mouse would be interested in buying the Dota 2 variant, especially since the everlasting promotion is that it’s the same price as the regular model.
#winning!
Look to get supplied by local distributors Nation Tech.
Mechanical keyboards are sort of an anomaly. Most people who were around during the 80’s & the 90’s probably owned one at some point. They went out of fashion around the turn of the century as membrane keyboards were cheaper to manufacture and there was not a huge demand for the far superior mechanical types.
However popular gaming has seen a resurgence of mechanical keyboards, with all the top brands having mechanical models. Their usage has extended beyond gaming and to office use as well as the range of usage types (typing, gaming, casual, office) have been marketed well. Though they don’t come cheap, people are also becoming aware of their lifespan and quality.
Interest in mechanical keyboards is definitely increasing, thanks to great marketing, superior product quality, lifespan, as well as bragging-rights. Here are the best to target.
Ducky is one of the brands that only manufactures mechanical keyboards, high quality stylish ones at that. They have great yearly showings at CES & Computex in Taiwan – where they are based – and this has given them worldwide recognition in the world of keyboard manufacturing.
Malaysians are not strangers to the scene, and there is significant demand for these types of keyboards as well as the whole range of Ducky products, especially this little fella which is popular for office & travel use. I recommend both the Mini as well as the Shine 5 to begin selling on your eCommerce stores.
The Shine 5 is the latest in the line of Shine keyboard line, so there no debate here. There’s no point in going for the older models as they are out of production even if there may be lingering demand for those models.
The Mini is definitely a niche product, a compact keyboard that can be easily used on the go. That said there is a wider demand for it than one would expect. I know several people who use it as their primary office keyboards, never letting them see the light of day, so it probably also serves a space saving need, doing it with style while also maintaining the functionality of a full keyboard.
You can contact the distributor here, and rejoice for they also offer drop-shipping!
Following the popularity of the Deathadder Chroma mouse mentioned elsewhere in this post, Razer then went on to release their signature mechanical keyboard, updated with- you guessed it- Chroma lighting!
Also an affordable and stylish design, the Blackwidow upgrade is enjoying similar popularity amongst PC users:
There is a greater demand for the Blackwidow Chroma compared to the other keyboards featured here, and that is largely down to the Razer brand itself, which has a significant worldwide following.
Get your supply from Ban Leong Technologies.
Zotac is an nVidia graphic processing unit (GPU) manufacturer based in Macau, recently coming into the spotlight with the most affordable mid range options, and VERY fancy high-tech high end models that have been receiving favourable reviews. The brand has been inching towards brand recognition in Malaysia to join the likes of Gigabyte, ASUS & MSI.
Consider that PC video gamers are a huge market in Malaysia, that graphic cards power more than just video games (visual design, CAD, server farms) and this is a very safe bet, even more so since the distributor Cyntrix Tech also offers drop-shipping for online merchants!
The models to market will be the GTX 970 & GTX 960 as these are the low-mid range options that cost from RM600 – RM1,500. Although with drop-shipping involved you can and probably should choose to sell the highest end models, just don’t expect daily demand for them since they cost anywhere from RM3,500 – RM5,000.
The GTX 960 is by far the the more accessible of the two options due its is entry level pricing. You’ll notice that the search volumes per month are pretty consistent but it does have a higher commercial intent price tag than most, which is to be expected given the nature of computer hardware.
Still, if you were to advertise according to these numbers, assuming only 2% conversion rate and 5% click-through rate, that’s an advertising cost <RM10 for two sales worth >RM1200! Time to get on it then.
A step up from the previous GPU is the GTX 970, thus a logical product to include in your store.
Conversely, the 970 has nearly double the search volume for a much lower advertising cost. This tells me that either A) the searches are more about information gathering rather than buying, but possibly B) there aren’t many other vendors ready to advertise the product. Once again with drop-shipping this isn’t an issue.
*Keep in mind that all the information included here is brand specific – ZOTAC. A search conducted for merely GTX 960/GTX 970 would yield results where the volume would be in the thousands, without significant increase to cost. So we are presented with the opportunity of targeting shoppers who are not looking for any particular brand and offering them this option right off the bat.*
The volume of average monthly volume is slightly lower than most of the other products featured in this list, but the upside is that getting the right message in front of the right people will ensure high conversion rates, and being on the bandwagon early on will eliminate the need to penetrate market saturation from the big name competitors mentioned above. There usually is no right time to market to the graphics card niche as there is consistent demand all year round.
Get in touch with the folks at Cyntrix Tech for product sourcing.
Designed in the Netherlands & manufactured in China, Phanteks is becoming rather well-known in the PC casing market for their quality products as well as stylish designs.
The Enthoo Pro is not as cheap as other available options but it doesn’t aim to be. What it offers is style, customization and durability to sort of an exclusive club of PC users who want to splash the cash on something that will be more than just a workhorse.
As you can see interest for the Enthoo Pro has grown very high, though I’m certain most physical retailers haven’t even caught on to this gem. It remains something of a secret, one I’m sure the brand wishes to change with all haste. Sell these and you’ll be riding a wave that for the time being is without any opposing force to speak of, there is no foreseeable push-back, and people are always going to NEED computer casings.
As the brand recognition grows, so will the demand. It’d be better to be on that wave rather than chasing it. Get your supply HERE.
Gone are the days when Bluetooth was synonymous with clunky, awful-quality hands-free sets. Nowadays Bluetooth speakers are kind of the rage. Think about how many people enjoy good quality audio, but aren’t audiophiles per-se. Heck – even audiophiles would enjoy these speakers! They receive audio transmissions with the kind of clarity you’d expect from high end systems.
Being a somewhat new niche product category, the majority of shoppers haven’t fixated on a particular brand or model just yet. This is great! Look at the interest over time and you’ve got a world of opportunity here. I’ve singled out the two most promising ones in terms of both interest, as well as the product specs themselves.
Comparatively the volume isn’t much to shout about, though this is a popular brand amongst those in the know, and the Solemate Mini is actually hugely popular in Europe and Australia.
Luckily there is a big enough following of the brand here in Malaysia, and though consumers have yet to make the link from “Bluetooth speaker” to “Jabra Solemate” (or any other popular BT speaker product for that matter), it is happening and once it is in full swing this will be one of the go-to products.
Notice the increase in monthly search volume leading up to April 2016. It appears that the foundation has been laid, eCommerce merchants could be the ones to make it explode.
Get hold of the local Malaysian distributor HERE
JBLs latest model Flip model – the 3 – is sure to be a consumer favourite. From a consumer perspective I think they’ve hit the nail on the head when designing it: compared to other JBL BT speakers, this one has more than two colour options, something consumers love (just ask PSVita, Lego, and rainbows).
JBL is actually widely supported in Malaysia, but being part of the upcoming niche, the BT speaker range hasn’t quite taken off yet. Still, there’s a killing waiting to be made here, so go ahead and contact the distributor for more information.
These marvelous creatures don’t come cheap. Consumer-wise, probably only the highest level enthusiasts would shell out for one of these drones, but as a professional tool DJI (not to be confused with Dow Jones Index) manufactures the worlds best drones for a variety of industries, including filmmaking & photography, agriculture and conservation. Regardless, there is increasing interest in the Phantom 4, as well as the ever-important commercial intent.
If we take into account the fact that people are still searching for DJI Phantom in general, there is actually a significant amount of traffic heading towards the Phantom 4, especially considering the Phantom itself is no longer in production, and the Phantom 4 is actively being marketed in it’s stead.
You may obtain stock from March Equipment Store.
Short of a “Children of Men” scenario, baby products are always going to be in demand as the human race continues to propagate its existence. The product that stands out among the crowd in the evergreen baby product niche is this little leaf shaped baby swayer.
Nuna is a Dutch brand whose products are being imported to Malaysia, with emphasis on high safety standards. The price tag on their range of products – from carriers to push-carts strollers – is higher than the Malaysian market has been accustomed to. Yet in the digital age this is a trend that is changing, as more parents are looking for products for their children that conforms to rigorous safety standards.
The Leaf is also quite unique in the local market, drawing quite a bit of attention from consumers. It is one of the few non-battery operated options available, and the marketing which focuses on this heavily, has shown to be on point.
This presents an up-sell opportunity with the Leaf wind which is an electrical accessory for the Leaf to continuously automate the baby swaying process. It’s all brilliant!
You can see the demand is clearly there, so get on it by sourcing some Leafs for your store: Nuna Malaysia Distributor
I’m including the brand itself because it has only recently been growing in popularity, so there isn’t much information to go on which the best products to stock are, or even where to source them.
I know is that there is significant demand for the brand with low competition and cheap advertising costs.
If you have information on where to get supply for their products in Malaysia do share it. I’m sure everyone will appreciate the help.
Starting an online business requires a good business strategy with a lot of planning. Knowing what needs to be prepared when setting up an online store and how to go about it is crucial to help you get your ecommerce business off the ground.