The Changing Customer Journey in Singapore

COVID-19 has changed how many customers shop — forcing businesses to adapt to the changing customer behavior to remain competitive.

With strict restrictions and regulations once the circuit breaker (CB) began in Singapore, consumers had to shift their spending habits to fully purchase online. The retail sector was one of the most hard-hit industries that saw a 46% decline in sales due to the significant drop in foot traffic. 

However, the e-commerce industry was thriving as online sales outpaced in-store sales — resulting in online retail making up about 12% of total retail sales.

Even with the CB period long over, the lines between offline and online sales are now blurred. Consumers are back to visiting physical stores, but they still make the final purchase online. Comparing prices and reading online reviews are now the norm and influence a consumer’s purchasing decision.

With our team in Singapore, we held our first ever physical workshop with over 50 participants. Alongside our partners Exabytes and EasyParcel, we discussed how tapping into multiple sales channels can maximize your profits, how to stand out among the digital noise, and how to thrive in the new business landscape.

Attracting New Customers Costs 5 Times More Than Retaining Them

Naturally, attracting new customers is at the forefront of many business sales strategies. You get more customers, you get more money. 

While that is true, acquiring new customers is actually much more expensive (it costs five times as much) than retaining existing customers. Furthermore, returning customers spend 67% more on average as compared to new customers. 

But, pinpointing who your repeat customers are, where they come from, and how much they spend with you is easier said than done. After all, the customer journey is no longer linear — they can come in from different sales channels, both online and offline, and it’s getting harder to track them.

How can you identify who your most prized customers are and where they’re coming from?

How EasyStore Helps Businesses to Adapt Digitally

1. Multiple sales channels

Online sales are not slowing down even with COVID-19 restrictions eased. This means platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and Shopee are more important now than ever in helping your business propel forward. 

That said, managing multiple channels simultaneously can be a challenge even for the most seasoned business owners. This can cause disconnection, errors, and neglect of certain platforms. 

With EasyStore, businesses can easily manage sales across different sales channels. This is so that you can generate more revenue on different platforms without compromising the quality of your marketing efforts or overstretching your resources. 

You can also merge your online and offline sales channels with EasyStore’s point-of-sale (POS) system. This feature automatically syncs and updates your inventory, SKUs, orders, and customer details across all channels. 

2. Centralized dashboard

With EasyStore, you can easily manage your business across multiple platforms on one single dashboard. You get an overview of all your sales figures, inventory, and customer data in one place, without having to toggle between all the apps. This helps you better streamline business processes and market to your customers.

3. Data reporting

Reporting is one of the most important processes for any business as it gives you valuable insight into business performance. You gain a wealth of information regarding customer behaviors, sales figures, and product inventory. 

Having such data on hand is extremely useful when it comes to marketing and retargeting campaigns. You’ll be able to better optimize your efforts to increase sales and generate more revenue.

To add on, with all the customer information at your fingertips, you’ll be able identify who your repeat customers are and which channel they shop the most from. This eliminates the guesswork so you can send tailored marketing promotions and offers to encourage them to make more purchases. 

4. Popular online payment methods

One of the most common reasons for cart abandonment is the lack of payment options. In this digital age, where online payment is becoming the norm, it’s essential that your business keeps up to speed to provide customers with their preferred payment options.

That said, EasyStore integrates with several payment services such as HitPay, FavePay, Atome, and GrabPay. By presenting more options aside from the usual credit card payments, you provide the added convenience and encourage your customers to purchase from you. 

Cut Through The Digital Noise

With more organizations running their business online, this also means more ads vying for your customer's attention. How can you cut through the digital clutter to capture your customers’ attention and generate more sales?

While there’s no perfect answer to this (as it really depends on your business and customers), Kean Shin from Exabytes shared some useful tips during the workshop to reduce your cost per conversion while maximizing your ad exposure:

• Review high-converting keywords and search terms: It’s essential to constantly review your ads and pause non-converting keywords. Keeping your ads relevant is what will get them to the forefront of your customers’ search engines and social media feeds. 

• Evaluate the best time to show your ads: This greatly depends on the platform and your audience. It’s best to review when is the best day or time that your ads drive the most traffic and generate conversion. Then, set a higher bid adjustment during those time frames.

• Always A/B test: You wouldn’t know what your customers like to see unless you run 2 different ad visuals to find out the better cost-per-action (CPA). 

• Include a strong Call To Action (CTA): Oftentimes, customers need to be told what to do and what’s the next course of action. Including an enticing CTA encourages users to click through your ads and land on your website. 

• Create a simple yet effective landing page: Once you’ve already got a customer on your landing page, your next step is to make sure they don’t leave. Keep your landing clutter-free and impactful. You also want to make sure that the checkout process is quick and easy so they don’t drop off.

Conquer International Deliveries with EasyParcel

One major advantage of taking your business online is that you’re opening more doors to the outside world — meaning you could potentially be attracting international customers. 

The problem many businesses face comes with logistics — how can they deliver their items to customers in the quickest and most inexpensive way? 

EasyStore integrates with EasyParcel to help manage your local and international deliveries. The logistics company ships to several countries outside of Singapore like Hong Kong, the United States, Taiwan, and Australia. Furthermore, they work with several courier service providers such as NinjaVan, Singapore Post, Qxpress, and UPS.

Charles from EasyParcel also shared some things to take note of when shipping internationally, such as:

• Being aware of the prohibited items restricted for shipping

• The different types of documentation that may be required, like an FDA document or a Materials Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) form

• The volumetric and actual weight of the parcels

• The taxes and duties that have to be paid during the delivery process

Knowing that your parcels are being well taken care of with minimal costs and hassle gives you more time and resources to focus on more important business activities.

Conclusion

In the rapidly changing digital landscape, businesses must quickly adapt to the needs and demands of customers to remain competitive. 

COVID-19 has proved that businesses cannot only focus on selling offline, and vice-versa. Using a solution like EasyStore, you’ll be ready to adapt to the current and future trends to constantly grow your business. With the variety of sales channels available such as the POS system, TikTok, and Facebook, you’ll be able to effectively manage your business operations without a hitch. 

As you continue to grow your business, whether locally or internationally, we’ll be guiding you along your e-commerce journey. We’ve started to expand our operations to Singapore, so we’ll be hosting more workshops and webinars to give as much help to our aspiring Singaporean merchants! 🎉