In this ArchersTalk session today, Mr. Hau Nguyen – Delivery Manager of Hermes team at Kyanon Digital, will share some E-commerce knowledge as well as his working experience in that field. Hopefully, this article will not only provide you useful information about E-commerce trends, but also help you to gain understanding of E-commerce development methods for businesses.
1. Can you introduce yourself?
Hello everybody, my name is Hau Nguyen, and I currently work as a Delivery Manager of Hermes team at Kyanon Digital. I have more than 10 years of working experience in the E-commerce industry, and have accompanied the company in great projects, in which customers are grand supermarket chains and shopping malls in Singapore and Vietnam.
In particular, there are two types of E-commerce: E-Commerce Exchange and Online store. At Kyanon Digital, the majority of customers are corporations’ online stores with the purpose to build the most optimal and user-friendly sales website/app.
Team Hermes has undertaken many projects from reputable clients in Southeast Asia, typically in Vietnam and Singapore.
3. Based on your experience, in the E-Commerce development process, what are the difficulties that customers often have to face?
When businesses shift to E-commerce development, which is an unfamiliar field, it is possible to experience hardship without having experts’ consultation. In addition, it is essential that business managers are directly involved in the E-commerce business transition process. Since then, corporations will have a stable foundation to require all their departments to approach E-commerce form.
As an expert working in the E-commerce field, the Hermes team at Kyanon Digital always makes an effort in consultation, and delivers the best solutions to customers. Based on the business goals and pain points of individual audiences and different customer groups, the team’s solutions are always personalized as much as possible. Since then, the Hermes team will accompany customers from the stage of market analysis and research, to product processing as well as product launching, and the stage of monitoring products’ “health indices” after launching the project. It is a long process that requires cooperation and support from both parties. Hermes team is proud that our E-commerce solutions have become more popular to reach new partners and customers.
Here are some current E-commerce trends in 2022.
4.1. Omnichannel
Omnichannel has shown its advantages for businesses to approach their customers on many platforms and different environments; from online to offline market. As time goes by, customers will not only have higher requirements in user experience, but also demand better convenience of service, so Omnichannel will certainly be a prominent trend in the coming period.
4.2. Apps Mobile
Mobile apps are trending for online purchases to many consumers because of their significant convenience. However, there is still much confusion for corporations to make an approach, satisfy customers, and increase purchase conversion rate. The penetration of smartphones and the Internet is increasing gradually, which is the reason why E-commerce businesses need to consider App as an inevitable trend.
4.3. Improved personalized shopping experience
Personalizing customer experience when shopping online places importance on increasing satisfaction, so E-commerce platforms have been actively applied at the moment. Consumers demand to have better assistance in order to find the products they need faster. They appreciate a personalized experience that will recommend related or similar products that they are searching for.
As recorded by Remarkable Commerce, 80% of users tend to buy products from brands and E-commerce platforms with personalized elements and attractive offers. Conversion rates on platforms with this feature have also shown an increase up to 20%.
4.4. Chatbots, AI
Due to the rapid change of the technology market, Chatbot or AI are becoming more efficient in approaching business operations. According to Chatbot Magazine, 25% of customer services will be integrated with AI virtual assistants by 2020. Along with that, a research conducted in 2018 shows that 34% of customers feel more comfortable and convenient when communicating with chatbots while shopping.
Major social platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, Instagram… now have billions of users globally. In particular, TikTok is currently the most downloaded application on Apple’s App Store, having users spend more than 50 million USD per year.
With the rapid development of technology, these social platforms are also forced to have constant improvements. The integration of online commerce features contribute to create beneficial conditions for businesses to sell on these platforms. At the same time, their users can also purchase products from their partner retailers without leaving the app.
Since the pandemic, people have spent more time at home, making social media become the center of most daily activities. It has been shown that more than 90% of social media users access their favorite platforms by using mobile devices. In which, up to 54% use social platforms to research and purchase products.
4.6. Selectively invest in technology solutions
Having a solid technology foundation is the key factor influencing developing E-commerce platforms quickly and sustainably. However, not all technology solutions and support tools are suitable and effective for business. Heavy reliance on third parties is one of the reasons that makes an E-commerce platform less stable and customizable. In order to resolve this matter, businesses need to find new and more complete, multi-tasking technology solutions.
5. For developing an E-commerce platform for business, what preparations are necessary?
The first thing should be prepared to develop an E-commerce platform for business is to determine precisely what your E-commerce platform needs. When listing requirements, break them down by factors:
- Front-end requirements.
- Integrated management system.
- Customer management.
- Directory management.
- Architecture and security.
- Performance/scalability.
- Mobile platform integration.
Then you need to build the required feature list. Once you have identified which features should be created, it is necessary to present a budget for the E-commerce platform, including:
- E-commerce platform costs.
- Maintenance fee.
- Transaction fee.
- Hosting costs.
- Consulting fee (if any).
The next step you should research for an E-commerce solution. Consider which E-commerce platform is the best choice for your product and business. While most E-commerce platforms are flexible enough to support different types of products, there are certain solutions that are more ideal for specific types of goods or industries. The consulting team at Kyanon Digital will provide information that helps you decide the most suitable solution for your business.
The final step is to compare, evaluate and make the final decision. At that moment, you will have enough knowledge about what features each solution can offer. What you should do is compare each platform to choose the best solution for your business, which can be done by collating quotations and using the information you have gained.
6. What are your thoughts on the future of E-Commerce?
Buying and selling online have become more accessible than ever thanks to the advancement in technology and the development of available markets. The E-commerce industry is expected to grow by nearly $11 trillion between 2021 and 2025.
As online businesses emerged and thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic, the global trend towards digitization has accelerated at a spectacularly growing pace. Even when traditional businesses began to re-open, the growth rate of the E-commerce industry continues to increase.
New online stores keep arising every day, and it is estimated that there are approximately 12–24 million E-commerce websites globally. This growth in E-commerce means more brands are competing for customers. As a result, digital advertising has become more costly and less profitable than ever. Rising costs force brands to promote long-term relationships with their customers.
Branding is a contributing factor in attracting and keeping customers. If there are fewer barriers to entry, it is understandable that there are more online retailers. Businesses are overcoming the competition by investing in branding, which increases long-term customer value as well as conversion rates in the short-term, and attracts out-of-market buyers in the long-term. Since then, paying attention to websites and apps building, where customers can directly visit the company’s products, has become an urgent priority.
According to the Vietnam E-commerce Map’s top 12 statistical data in the first quarter of 2022 (iprice.vn), it is quite unexpected that standing next to the big giants are E-commerce exchanges like Shopee, The Gioi Di Dong, Dien May Xanh with monthly website visits nearly equal to, and even beyond, famous and long-standing E-commerce platforms like Lazada, Tiki or Sendo.
Vietnam E-commerce Map’s top 12 statistical data in the first quarter of 2022 (iprice.vn)
Through this ArchersTalk session, Kyanon Digital hopes that the above information will help you gain understanding of current and future trends of the E-commerce industry, as well as how to stimulate the E-commerce development of businesses. Thank you Mr. Hau Nguyen for sharing useful information and personal experiences with everyone, making contributions to the growth of sharing knowledge culture at Kyanon Digital.
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ABOUT ARCHERSTALK
ArchersTalk is a series of knowledge-sharing events related to technology and programming at Kyanon Digital, where the company’s members (Archers) will share practical knowledge in their working process as well as experiences to help other team members within the company, or outsiders that interested in the subjects, to gain new perspectives and thoughts to apply to their current work.
