An essay about the Singaporean Blogshop Phenomenon

From: http://www.singaporeblogshops.com/?tag=blogshop

A Look at the Singapore Blogshop Phenomenon…

Posted on March 23, 2012

This is a long belated article on looking at the Singapore Blogshop phenomenon, it’s a common topic often discussed in forums, but SingaporeBlogshops.com hope to bring an objective, experienced view on this subject that’s close to every Singaporean girl’s heart 

Online shopping might have started in the U.S., but the idea of a blogshop certainly took its roots in sunny Singapore. Who would have thought that the most entrepreneurial of spirits lie in young teenage girls barely out of college who not only have thorough market understanding (no doubt due to their own fashion exploits) and sharp business acumen? (from years of shopping experience..)

The combination of these factors + internet savvy-ness led to a burgeoning of online blogs selling ladies apparel beginning sometime in the mid 2000′s.

Value Proposition

What makes blogshops a viable business among the myriad of other shopping options (and Singapore being among the countries with greatest variety and value for money)

1. Lower prices – and then some, blogshops offer some of the lowest priced apparel thanks to its near zero capital requirements. Without a physical store front costing a bomb in rental, blogshops are able to offer prices that are as low as 30% – 50% of retail prices of similar products, a money-saver for compulsive shoppers such as… every female human being.
2. Style – You’ve got to admit it, with thousands of discerning shoppers and years of experience, a good number of major as well as new blogshops have come to develop their own fashion sense and style, that appeals to young Singaporean female online shopping population. And it is no surprise as many of the blogshop designs take inspiration from famous designer brands while adapting them to be suitable to Singapore girls’ taste and sizes. Such custom-made style for Singaporeans may appeal more than other international brands where we often see problems such as – too big sizes, low (working clothes) necklines, and colour shades not very complementing on our Asian skins. Blogshop styles eliminate all of these and cater perfectly to the likings of our local ladies, which is why a typical first-time experience of a virgin blogshop shopper is often characterised by expressions such as “Completely overwhelmed”, “i found heaven”, “where have you been all my life”, “oh my g… EVERYTHING is nice..”.  Tell me if i’m wrong. :p
3. Convenience of Internet Shopping – this is a valid point especially for busy college students and young working ladies. Despite the belief that shopping is a secondary background activity, there is never enough time for shopping. All us girls would know. Sometimes, endless hours of browsing do not yield a single satisfactory loot, our futile search ending when our tired feet finally give way to resting over a Starbucks frappe. Where else can you cover a range the stretch of Orchard Road in a fraction of the time, tiring only your fingers in clicking a mouse?
4. Quality.. for some.. – A debatable point, as the quality of online wares range from third world to world class, as varied as goods you’ll find anywhere else. It is up to good judgement and experience to sieve out the best quality from the worst, but once you do, many will vouch that the quality of some blogshops is truly comparable to brick and mortar boutiques you find anywhere else. On the other end of the spectrum, many may be discouraged from shopping online ever again from one bad experience. What can we say, we stand to believe that established blogshops survive because they have adhered to certain quality standards as do other businesses elsewhere, and that Singaporean shoppers are discerning shoppers and we seek the best value for money be it online or offline. Trust the masses.

What’s Lacking in Blogshopping

1. Physical feel – I think many will concur that nothing can beat walking into a store and actually seeing the piece of dress and trying it on to see how it would look. Let’s face it, not all of us have the gorgeous model figure that’d make every dress look good – some cuts are flattering to us, some are not and many of us still prefer to try on dresses to see how we’ll look in them.
2. Quality control – Ties in with above point. For physical shops we can always see for ourselves whether a piece of clothing is worth its price. For blogshops, we need to trust pictures and descriptions, which may not even be accurate. A lot will depend on the authenticity and reputation of the individual blogshops. Sometimes, we just have to “give it a try”, and maybe make some losses in the learning process. (I know I have garnered my fair share of online shopping junk :p)
3. Extreme sizes – Have you noticed that about 80% of blogshop items are “free size”? Well, in Singapore’s context, free size = S size usually. It’s kinda sad for us slightly larger built ladies. I mean, I’m “medium-built”. Medium has the meaning of average right? Small is small, large is large and medium is in the middle so average right? So why is free size not average size? Haha.. I don’t know. (sorry, sour grapes). So if it’s hard for the medium-built ladies, it is even harder for the L sizes and XL sizes as well as the XXXS size ladies to find suitable items online. We can’t blame the blogshops as they need economies of scale in mass producing the more common sizes, and will face inventory issues if stocked up with the less common sizes, however this lack of sizing does disappoint a lot of hopeful ladies…

New Market Entrants and Barriers to Entry

One thing great for the consumer in the blogshop market is its high competitiveness. We all know that more suppliers is good for the consumers right as prices are driven to a cost-price low. With its low overheads and virtually zero-capital requirements, blogshops have extremely low barriers to entry and attract many young startups everyday. The starting and ending of these new blogshops, while small, do add up to create a highly competitive market with competitive prices for consumers albeit at the risk of having to trust newer blogshops with little reputation. Established blogshops and nevertheless, not rattled by this background “noise” as their loyal base of customers trust them for consistent quality and service.

Evolution

The irony of the matter for blogshops is, for many popular, well-established blogshops, usually they embark on the journey of stepping over to the “dark side” – commercialized websites and brick and mortar stores, precisely the opposite of characteristics that make blogshops special in the first place. However kudos to them many have managed to keep the best essense of blogshops – great designs and low prices, while combining them with the convenience of shopping cart checkouts and the benefits of a real life storefront. It is still early in the game to see if in the end high overheads will force them either to raise prices or back to purely online business again in a vicious cycle that pervades all businesses to a certain extent

The future of blogshopping

As with other small boutique businesses, the greatest threat to Blogshopping is commercialization and monopoly in the hands of few major players. While the economies of scale would mean greater cost savings, at the same time variety of style, uniqueness and the whole open entrepreneurial spirit will be threatened. It is the perpetual problem of whether the long or short tail of the demand curve could prevail – for the consumer, we hope that it’s the long tail of course, however sadly speaking in our search for lower prices we are also the ones who support the increasing success of major players, widening their market share.

I think the blogshop phenomenon in Singapore is a very unique and special phenomenon that reflects so quaintly the cultural and social characteristics of the modern Singapore girl/woman. It is an innovation, by girls and for girls. I do hope that this uniqueness can be protected and preserved for as long as possible, because goodness knows that after a taste of blogshopping, I can’t live without it 

An Article by Chloe Kuo, Editor of SingaporeBlogshops.com