Summary: Singapore-based Momoteapots
shares some pointers on how to handle the logistics and marketing behind
a blogshop, and explains the benefits of resisting the change to a
dot-com Web site.
[CASE STUDY] Unlike many other blogshops who have migrated to a
dot-com Web address, Singapore-based blogshop Momoteapots has resisted
the move, based on cost calculations and customer feedback.
The blogshop's co-founder
Serene Chow told ZDNet Asia in an interview that customers preferred
using the LiveJournal site because of the more personalized customer
service offered, such as chronological dialogue format that made it easy
to browse.
It also allowed for more personal interaction, as compared to an
automated invoicing system on big brand online shops such as Nasty Gal
and ASOS, she added.
Chow explained there was also high costs in migrating to a dot-com
Web site with proper online store features, which can typically go up to
S$20,000 (US$14,660).
Co-owned with a good friend from school, Matthew Ang, Momoteapots
today has approximately 1,000 transactions a month and launches new
collections every two weeks. It had started out in 2007, when Chow, a
university student, used it as an online platform to rid her wardrobe of
old clothes and earn extra allowance.
With the blogshop scene being very saturated at the moment, we are often challenged to think out of the box to keep improving ourselves and keep ahead of competition," she said.
ZDNet Asia spoke to Chow to find out more about what it takes to run a blogshop. Source: Momoteapots Q: How do you source for your clothes?
Chow: We get
our supplies of female apparel in Singapore and abroad. We make sourcing
trips within Asia monthly to scour for clothes with the latest designs
for our blogshop. We have also begun manufacturing our own designs, by
working with middlemen and suppliers here.
At the moment, we work with a few trustworthy and reliable suppliers,
since it is difficult to find a single supplier who is good at
manufacturing every single apparel. For example, one supplier may be
better at manufacturing blazers while another may have a niche in making
dresses, so we will choose to work with both.
We meet our local suppliers weekly to order designs. Locally, off the
rack stuff can take one day for delivery while our self-manufactured
designs can take up to three or four months to arrive. How do you market your products? On average, one or two
Momoteapots' manufactured designs arrive every week, along with readily
available pieces from suppliers. With these pieces, we try to pick out
which designs we want to showcase as part of a collection based on
"what's hot".
We will then do a photoshoot mostly indoors, and occasionally we will
have themed ones to inject some fun. I still model for the site, and
the images are then edited by us--which helps save costs.
Preview pictures will be uploaded on the blog's social media page, and we will also announce the latest collection through our e-mailing list.
This is a good way to hype up the interest and buzz for a collection,
as customers anticipate the upcoming designs. It also gives them some
extra time to consider purchasing a particular piece. p>We will then
prepare for the online launch by listing the measurements, writing out
item descriptions, and doing up the inventory. How is invoicing and payment done? Customers who are
interested in buying a particular item will leave a comment on the post,
noting the item of their choice and their e-mail address.
With this "invoice", a customer will then be given 24 hours to make
their transfer via ATM fund transfer or Internet banking, and then
inform us of the transaction details. If they do not or are
uncontactable, we will "blacklist" the e-mail address, and give them
lesser priority on their next order.
Invoicing on a blogging platform, as compared to a dot-com site can
be troublesome and inefficient because you have to go through every
single comment to create an invoice. The up side is they get a more
personalized invoice from us as compared to a generic automated invoice
from a dot-com side.
We consider a collection a success when at least 70 percent of the
stocks are sold, which happens in almost all of our collections. What other efforts do you make to get to know your customers? Knowing
our customers is very important to us as it puts a face behind those we
correspond with online. Similarly, when our customers get to know us,
they may feel more comfortable buying from us in the future.
We hold private sale events once or twice a year only for customers
who have signed up for our mailing list. At this event, the customers
get first-hand previews of upcoming designs and priority access to our
sale items.
With our online success, we have also opened a brick and mortar store.
The brick-and-mortar stores can give our online customers an
additional outlet to shop with us, and reach out to a wider customer
base. There are still customers who hesitate shopping online with us as
they worry about quality and fit.
New or potential customers will now have more faith in our products
when they have the opportunity to touch, feel or try our designs.
Summary:Originally hosted on free blog sites, blogshops now becoming regular online stores while retaining more personal customer relationships and here to stay, experts say.
The business model of blogshops is changing to resemble that of online stores and a sustainable one to go by, according to industry experts, who note these businesses exude greater professionalism yet maintain their niche in developing intimate customer relationships. Consumers, however, remain mixed toward online shopping.
As the blogshop industry matures, blogshops are also becoming more professional with a shift to dot-com Web sites, Leonard Tan, CEO of PurpleClick Media told ZDNet Asia in an e-mail. They now also offer standardized payment modes and clearly state terms and conditions.
Elaborating, Freda Kwok, senior consultant of BluGrapes, noted that many blogshops are migrating from free hosted Web log sites to a "full dot-com Web site" as a result of a large customer base and a growing volume of transactions, which require a more sophisticated navigational portal and greater backend support in terms of order processing, inventory and logistics.
In addition, these e-tailers are also hiring "relatively high-profile models" who are well-known in the "blogosphere" and moving away from bulk purchasing from suppliers to in-house design and manufacturing in order to carry their own brand and labels, she said in her e-mail.
"Although [high-profile] models are pricier and more costly to feature, they lend a hand toward sealing the status of the blogshop as a coveted brand," Kwok pointed out.
"There was a period where customers grew weary of seeing similar designs across the various blogshops. By having their own designs, blogshops [can] seal their particular fashion style attracting like-minded repeat and loyal customers."
Love & Bravery, for one, does not consider itself a blogshop because it no longer operates from a blog.
"We buy and pay a significant cost for server space to set ourselves apart from fly-by-night blogshops," owner Eunyce Yap told ZDNet Asia in an e-mail. "Our site is kept simple [in terms of] layout and we are careful not to clutter it with promotions that are so common on other sites."
Blog structure limiting When quizzed on the definition of blogshops, Kwok explained that they used to be online shopping sites that operated out of free blog services such as Blogspot and LiveJournal. These storefronts started in 2007 and "hit [their] high point" between 2009 and 2010. As they lack a "shopping cart" system, they utilized the comment capabilities of blog services for orders.
Tan added that these blogshops had low barriers to entry with "hassle-free setup" and minimum development costs. They were also associated with flexible payment options not restricted to online payment systems, and higher business risk withless security for buyers and sellers. Issues such ashacking incidentsorbusiness cheats could arise, he noted.
Their views echo the business values of blogshopHer Velvet Vase, which owners say it has evolved to adopt features of both a regular online store and a blogshop. "We have the efficiencies of a fully comprehensive online catalogue and online shopping cart system, yet retain the personable service of a blogshop," Clare Chan and Magdalene Chan, co-owners of the store, told ZDNet Asia in an e-mail. "Our customers are able to enjoy the best of both worlds."
The sisters added that the concept of blogshops is still young but has already evolved into a competitive industry and they would be "left hanging high and dry" if they were slow to adapt or innovate, or do not have appropriate products and marketing.
Creativity, tools needed to sustain online buying With the growing ease of online shopping with consumers more accepting of online transactions, blogshops are here to stay, Kwok of Blugrapes said. Overseas online sites such asASOS,Go JaneandForever 21are already popular with the Internet-savvy crowd and similarly blogshops can appeal with uniquely manugfactured items, she added.
Blogshops also have an "enhanced social aspect" whereby many of them operate alongside social media platforms such as Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and even personal blogs by the owner, Kwok noted. These multiple touch pointsallow users to know and engagewith the brandon a "more intimate" level, and hence develop a stronger sense of loyalty, she added.
Looking at consumer preferences, it also "seems" that having multiple cheaper options appeals more compared to having a few high street or branded articles, she said. "It's this regard for choice, coupled with the affordability of [blogshop items] with impressive quality at times, that will make this a sustainable business."
However, Kwok stressed that only a few existing blogshops are thriving today.
Tan added: "Sustainability woulddepend on how innovative and smartblogshop owners are to further fine-tune their e-store in its buying process and landing pages. "More importantly, [they need] an in-depth understanding of driving targeted traffic to their sites using analytics and optimization tools to analyze visitor behavior and enhance conversions."
Tan advised that online channels and tools should be completely understood and utilized to complement each other, from online pull advertising, online push advertising,search engine optimization (SEO)and e-mail advertising tosocial media.
Consumers ZDNet Asia spoke to, expressed mixed reactions on whether they enjoyed their shopping experience with blogshops, despite the evolution of the blogshop business model.
Entrepreneur Lee May Ling noted that she still experienced purchases that looked different from what had been presented on the Web site and "what [she] saw was not what she had".
Lim Pei Qian, an account manager concurred, noting that the clothes often do not fit well on her petite frame, given that the models used by blogshops are tall.
Others had beef with the quality, range and purchasing process. Model Shn Juay, for one, commented that the fabric used for apparel she buys off blogshops is "lousy".
Tiffany Low, a graduate from Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, described herself as a consumer who is "always looking for new and adventurous styles to try". She said it was disappointing that blogshops generally offered "safer choices [which] appealed [only] to the mass market" and hence "lack creativity and exclusivity".
Regular shopper Lim May-Ann added that there was "no regulated manner" when it came to placing orders even with those who had shopping cart systems. "Consumers still often pay through Internet banking before the item will be sent out," she said. "[They are] absorbing all the risk and must pay extra for registered mail if they want the item [to be] 'accounted' for."
On the other hand, media producer Melissa Yuen revealed that she enjoys shopping with blogshops because she could avoid "battling the crowds in malls" and she "can shop anytime, anywhere".
Research officer Joy Lim added that some blogshops have talented individuals who design their own clothes and shoes, and therefore have an edge over physical shop brands, which tend to mass produce. "If more capable designers start online stores with apparel far more attractive than the mainstream ones, more [of us] will definitely choose to go to blogshops more," she said.
Multiply is to online selling what LiveJournal has been to blogshopping in Singapore. This is a mirror article to the one a few weeks back about how re-purposed social selling has changed LiveJournal. SO now we see how social media platform providers are beginning to respond to the blogshopping phenomenon which is now arguably fueling growth of these social media sites.
As they recognize the significance of this industry, they are starting to take steps to develop these platforms into social commere structures. What this presents to blogshop owners is that it offers an option for them for growth and legitimacy. Whereas previously blogshops had to convert to shopping carts to gain acceptance, they now can remain hosted on these sites while gaining a measure of recognition as e-commerce destinations as more proper selling tools like shopping carts and payment facilities are enabled. Thus it is possible for blogshops to now be permanently hosted on social sites like this.
After establishing itself in Indonesia earlier this year, one of the world’s largest social networking sites wants to expand its workforce by four times and bring 100,000 local merchants into the site by the end of this year.
Multiply, which combines social networking and an online marketplace, has about 2 million active users in Indonesia and more than 35,000 merchants on its site. It brings in about 20 million unique visitors each month, about 7 million of which come from Indonesia.
“We just released Multiply Commerce on May 10, and within a week there were already 1,000 transactions happening through our payment gateway,” Daniel Tumiwa, the country manager for Multiply Indonesia, said on the sidelines of the Multiply Commerce launch on Wednesday.
“This year is the time for online transactions to take off in Indonesia,” he said. “On average, we have about 2,000 new merchants every month who upload about 50,000 new products per month.”
Multiply, launched in August 2004, was started as a social networking site for families and friends before Facebook existed.
Once users began utilizing the site to sell their products online, though, it decided to expand into an online marketplace. In September last year, the Myriad International Holdings unit of Naspers Limited acquired a controlling interest in Multiply.
It established a subsidiary in Indonesia last March and currently employs 37 people. The company plans to move to a large office in South Jakarta next week, in line with its plan to hire 150 employees by the end of this year.
Peter Pezaris, co-founder and chief executive of Multiply, visited Jakarta in February and said the US company was committed to make Indonesia its anchor market.
“By next year, Indonesia will be our biggest office, even bigger than the one in the US,” Pezaris said. Multiply’s office in Jakarta is its third after the US and the Philippines.
According to Daniel, more than 90 percent of the transactions in the site took place offline.
“I don’t know exactly how many transactions happened so far, but based on our internal survey, the average value per transaction is about Rp 150,000 [$17.50],” he said.
“One of the keys of ecommerce is trust and recommendations,” said Andy W. Djiwandono, vice president for marketing and business development at Multiply Indonesia. “That is why we established ‘trusted seller.’ ”
Although users can register as members for free, the company provides several options for premium accounts.
“At first I was selling stuff in Multiply just for fun. Within a short period of time, my business grew and now I am more serious about selling baby products and eco-friendly products,” said Anita, one of Multiply’s sellers who joined the site about two years ago.
Most of the sellers on the site, Daniel said, are women and people trying to earn extra income despite already working full-time jobs.
Multiply’s revenue streams come from advertising, premium memberships and commissions for each transaction completed through its payment gateway.
“We charge 3.9 percent for every transaction that is using our shopping cart,” Daniel said, adding that the most popular payment system was KlikBCA.
The site also supports other bank transactions and credit card payments through PayPal.
Another article:
Blogshopping is HUGE in Indonesia, although it is not called blogshopping.
Social shopping site Multiply has announced plans to relocate its global headquarters from Boca Raton, Florida, to Jakarta, Indonesia, according to a report from Daily Social.
The move is a rare example of a company choosing an emerging market over the US, as it is typically made the other way round, but there is much sense to the reshuffle which will bring the company closer to the majority of its users.
The service, which is reportedly the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia, has “more than 100,000 online merchants across the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam”, and CEO Peter Pezaris explains that the move is driven by increased opportunities:
We chose Jakarta because the opportunity is so large. It’s such a fast growing economy. So many people are using Multiply in Indonesia, it’s such an important market for us.
Multiple is not new to Southeast Asia and its existing Jakarta office houses more than 50 of its 126 global staff, while it also has a presence in the Philippines. Indonesia is its largest market, as it told the Jakarta Globe, and statistics from last year showed it drew 7 million monthly visitors to its 34,000 Indonesian sellers. These number are now likely to be significantly higher, particularly given that the company saw 2,000 new sellers from Indonesia joining each month.
In addition to the move, which was announced on location in Indonesia, Multiply is giving a nice perk to customers by waiving all shipping cost and transaction fees until March. It also has news for Indonesia, where it is expanding payment options to allow XL Tunai customers to make transactions via mobile operator XL Axiata, and Prima ATMs are also supported.
The company is not shy on making bold moves and it actually began life as a photo sharing social network which rivalled Facebook and others.
On noticing that its personal pages feature were increasingly being used to build online shops, it revamped its offering with the introduction Multiply Marketplace and moved down a completely new avenue as a social shopping service.
It has placed significant emphasis on Indonesia in the past and it ran the beta version of Multiply 5.0 exclusively in the country, before a wider pilot in Southeast Asia preceded the global launch of the enhanced platform in June 2010.
In spite of its pivot, Multiply’s photo sharing service still remains popular and, according to the company, it is the second largest social network in Southeast Asia — behind Facebook, of course — while it has “millions of additional users” in the US, Brazil and India.
The relocation of Multiply’s global office will be completed over the next 12 months, during which a number of personnel and positions will be relocated to Indonesia, the company said.
What started as a social networking platform for photo and video sharing has evolved into a social shopping site that connects the sellers in a virtual world with eager spenders. Multiply 5.0, the photo-sharing social network turned robust e-commerce platform, is currently in the works and is being tested in Indonesia.
The beta version of Multiply 5.0 is initially available at Indonesia.multiply.com and according to the Multiply blog, the new platform will integrate an e-commerce catalog store, shopping cart and payment system designed to simplify the process not only for buyers but inventory and order management for sellers as well. Multiply’s high-resolution photo upload facility will still be present.
There is still no official date when Multiply 5.0 will be released to the public, but Multiply Indonesia will put the various facilities and features in the new version to the test in the real world.
Multiply recently expanded in Jakarta, Indonesia, which is expected to be the second largest office after its main headquarters in Florida, USA. Multiply Indonesia has 34,000 sellers network (with 2,000 new sellers every month) and is being graced by 7 million visitors each month.
E-commerce application providers would love for blogshop owners to adopt their applications, but the fact is that many established and successful blogshops have done well keeping to their blog format.
As the following article notes, the key difference is that blogs are not designed to support a business. Yet, it remains amazing how they have become the standard platform to start businesses for the many amateur online entrepreneurs in this part of the world.
Everyone wants to sell something nowadays, be it the young girl out of school, the small-time entrepreneur who works from home or the working professional who seeks side income. With the influence of the Internet coupled with the availability of various platforms and tools today, anything ranging from clothing to multi-vitamins and pets can be sold online, all from the comfort of the home without having to step outside anymore.
There are two ways that online entrepreneurs use to market and sell their wares. The first is to set up a blogshop and the other is to set up a hosted website with a shopping cart feature. A blogshop is a site that runs from a blog, usually Blogger or WordPress. In this instance, the URL of your blogshop will be either blogshopname.blogspot.com or blogshopname.WordPress.com, depending on the blog platform that you are using.
Of course, you could also use your own .com domain name on the blogshop which will make your blog look more professional and the blogshop address easier to remember and type.
On the other hand if you have a website hosted, you will have a simpler domain name which is easy to remember and easy to type. Both a blogshop and a hosted e-commerce website have its advantages.
Why Blogshop is Good?
Convenient and Easy to Setup
Setting up a blogshop is easy. Just select the blog platform (Blogger.com or WordPress.com) you want, think of a name, check its availability, register it and you’re good to go. The setup is immediate and you can start posting photos and details of your items right away. Also, you don’t need to have any technical knowledge of maintaining a website. Thus, you can post, update and edit your blog anytime you want to.
Blogger and WordPress are FREE
Blogging on Blogger or WordPress, as you all know, is free. By setting up a blogshop, you save on several fees that you have to come up with by having a hosted website. First, there is the domain name, which you need to register prior to having your website. There is also the website hosting fee as well as the need to purchase a shopping cart software (although there are free shopping carts available). You save on all these by running a blogshop!
Quick and Straightforward Communication with Customers
Visitors are able to inquire, give feedback or place orders by leaving comments on the blog posts. There is also the option of installing a chat box where blogshop owners and their customers can communicate easily. However, there is not much control on how these chat boxes will display and will work, because they are designed for general use and not specifically for doing business online.
However, I think that a hosted website with a shopping cart gives a business leverage because of the following reasons.
Why a Hosted e-Commerce Site with Shopping Cart is Better?
Delivers a Brand Image and Easy Access
For starters, having your own domain name represents your business well. It is easy to access and remember your website, besides giving customers confidence in your business. Having your own domain indicates that you mean business. To me, I wouldn’t have confidence in dealing with blogshops. With the simplicity in setting a blogshop up, they are just everywhere and I don’t know if the person behind them are serious about the business, reliable or trustworthy.
Real-time Credit Card and Paypal Payments
This is one great advantage that a blogshop doesn’t have. A hosted website powered by a shopping cart software is able to accept credit card transactions through a payment gateway such as 2Checkout and iPay88 (Malaysia’s most popular online payment gateway that accepts credit cards, Paypal, Maybank2u and many others). The site can also integrate PayPal easily. Having a shopping cart gives your business an edge because customers are not only able to pay for large purchases easily but are also able to shop online in a more secure manner with the SSL and other security measures.
Better Business Management
Most shopping cart software come with a myriad of features that were created to make business management a breeze. These features include the real time calculation of sales tax, discounts, and shipping cost. Orders, catalogs, inventory and shipping orders can also be managed at ease with the assistance of the shopping cart.
Delivers Auto-responders
With auto-responders, you can send automated replies and emails to your customers, affiliates, suppliers and prospects easily. By defining an auto-reply and creating multiple mailing lists, your emails will go out automatically to the intended recipients. You can even improve the deliverability of the emails by engaging a third-party auto-responder service. Just imagine if you have to manually send these emails without this auto-responder feature. Most of your time will be spent on emails instead of focusing on your business!
Search Engines Optimized Pages
Do you know how to get more traffic from Google or other search engines? The average entrepreneur out there most likely doesn’t have this knowledge and using Blogger or WordPress doesn’t help much. But you don’t have to worry about having SEO pages if you have a shopping cart because it provides a search engine friendly environment that will lead to a better ranking on popular search engines such as Google, Yahoo! Search and Bing.
What Shopping Cart do you Recommend?
We strongly recommend CS-Cart shopping cart. It is a really good shopping cart software which is very affordable yet features-rich. CS-Cart is suitable for any online e-commerce sites, such as a fashion or clothing site, a website selling mobile phones, a watches site, and many others.
For more details, check our complete CS-Cart review.
What about Web Hosting?
Now that you have chosen a good shopping cart software, what about the web hosting? We recommend GreenGeeks. Their Eco Site hosting plan costs as low as $4.95 monthly and it comes with a whole lot of features designed for an e-commerce website. On top of that, you can use a discount coupon which will get you $30 discount instantly!
Check out details on our GreenGeeks review.
Editor’s Advice
A blogshop is convenient and needs little effort in maintaining but as its name indicate, they were meant to be just blogs and do not have any features that support a business. Someone who is just starting to dabble in online business and intends to keep it as an additional source of income can remain using blogshops hosted on Blogger or WordPress.
However, if you are serious about being an online entrepreneur, a shopping cart on a hosted website is the better bet for you for the reputation and features that it carries for your business.
I am sick of the (admittedly few) people who complain that the pricing of Summerdoll designs is too high and should be lowered to those of "blogshops". I shall replicate here my reply to an email I received, in which I was told:
"Just a feedback, being an avid online shopper, I think your dresses are priced way too high (as compared to other blogshops who also self-manufacture)!"
Otherblogshops? (I also scoff at the term "self-manufacture" coined by blogshops.)
My reply:
"Hi xxxxxxx,
Thank you for your feedback. I would like to explain that the pricing is due to the following reasons:
1)www.summerdoll.com.sgis not a "blogshop". It is a website whereby shoppers may shop and make their purchases immediately due to the shopping cart facility. The website costed about $3000+ to build and about $280 every year to host.
2) Apparel on the multiple blogshops found here only come in one size, a "free" size, which is not consistent and varies from design to design. (Have you considered why they only "self-manufacture" them in a "free" size? Perhaps they are not really designed and sewn by them but rather *gasp* cheap mass market clothes bought from China/Bangkok?) Moreover, fabric used is usually the inferior kind manufactured in China which is thin/see-through and was dyed with inferior dye, leading to much lower cost of fabric but also much lower quality in the apparel. Such apparel often shrink/run in the wash (for a good example, look at the poor quality of Forever21 clothes). In contrast, fabric used to sew my label designs are imported from Japan and Korea, which cost more but are of higher quality.
3) It costsmuchmore to design and sew your own unique apparel than to buy ready-made clothes from China/Bangkok.
4) Unlike a "blogshop" which does not have any overheads, I had a boutique in Holland Village for a year and my new boutique in Millenia Walk will be ready in June 2010. Pricing does factor in the cost of rent, and prices of apparels on the website have to be consistent with store prices. Prices of all brands with physical shops are always higher than "blogshops", no matter which brand, due to the honest fact that rent has to be paid. (The few shops in Far East Plaza, Orchard Central and Wisma which sell dresses at $29.90 all sell dresses which are made cheaply and are of EXTREMELY poor quality. Maybe teenagers do not mind wearing cheap thin see through dresses made by the hundreds but other women do mind.)
The benefit to shoppers is that they are able to try on all designs before purchase, unlike purchasing from a "blogshop" where, if one is honest with oneself, most of the purchases are usually unsatisfactory/does not fit/of inferior quality/was not what you expected/looked nice in the photo but not on you. Most die-hard blogshop shoppers will never admit this but this is the feedback their mothers give me, that most of the purchases end up not worn/thrown away.
5) Lastly, Summerdoll customers are more discerning shoppers who would rather own a few good quality dresses, of which only less than 20 in each design is sewn, than a hundred poor quality mass market dresses, where each design is sewn in the hundreds and chances are high you will bump into another woman wearing the same apparel. (It also costs much, much more per dress to sew very few rather than hundreds in each design.)
I hope you will understand that I do not earn a higher margin per dress compared to these blogshop owners. Due to the direction in which I have chosen to go, I do not compete with blogshops for the teen market."
I do not wish to be harsh with my reply but honestly! I am just so sick of having to explain the obvious! I have decided that life is too short and I will just say whatever needs to be said.
Another thing which I have just remembered while typing this entry, I have extremely satisfied customers from Shanghai who shop at my shop. The feedback I receive from them repeatedly is that the idea that it is much cheaper to buy dresses in China is a misconception, and that only the lousy quality apparel are cheap in China. They tell me that dresses in China of similar quality to my designs cost more in China than in Singapore, which is why they always wait to do their shopping at my shop when they are here in Singapore.
I may regret this entry tomorrow and remove it. Then again, I may not.
(Out of curiosity, do other local designers also receive emails telling them that they are too expensive, you know, "compared to other blogshops"? I would love to see the look on their faces. I mean, you guys do realise that Summerdoll designs are much cheaper compared to other local designers, right?)
It never fails to amaze me how quickly the world of online shopping is expanding. What started off as scattered blogshops grew and formed a massive network with huge varieties. Our own MOFSD gets loads of action, too! With over 2000 blogshops listed, coming and going meant a lot of cleaning up all the time. And now, our lovely online entrepreneurs have even kicked it up a notch by bringing us sophisticated dot com e-boutiques!
What is the difference between a blogshop and an e-shop, you ask? Well first would be their lovely, easy to navigate websites! Nothing says professional quite like a well organized customer information database and a fully functional shopping cart. The products are also of much higher quality and, as they are often imported, you’ll be able to find something a little different.
There are a few e-shops out there, and many more are certainly coming up. But here are, in my opinion, some of the trendiest and most well established ones.
This e-boutique is fabulous for those looking for classy sophisticated pieces. From bodycon skirts to fitting blazers, this is the place to find wardrobe staples. Though the apparels are often in very neutral colors like beige, black, white and brown, they still come off looking absolutely gorgeous! You can even find work appropriate pieces here, which we all know is a bit of a challenge when shopping online. The best part about this website? Despite its high-end appearance, most of the pieces are actually surprisingly affordable!
Another must-see would have to be The Pop Look. The overall style of this e-boutique leans more towards boho and vintage inspired. Expect to find cute prints, sweet lace and pretty frills. Aside form that, the owners of The Pop Look have even made an effort to take care of all of a woman’s fashion needs by providing us with staples such as Nu Bras. A one-stop shop, so convenient!
Despite its name, there is certainly nothing ugly about the Ugly Duckling Closet! Just like the two mentioned above, this e-boutique has its own unique sense of style. Here, you can find all things cute, quirky and sometimes even outrageous! The photographs are fabulous, too. Different pieces are often paired together, with hairstyles and accessories thrown in. The entire website is a fashion inspiration! Definitely worth a look.
This next one on the list is a little different because it’s an e-boutique that sells only bags! Not boring everyday handbags though! Gin and Jacqie’s exclusive designs are gorgeous, long lasting and extremely practical. Expect to find lovely laptop cases that in beautiful designs with padding for protection. Their best sellers? Bag organizers! I absolutely adore those. They’re designed in such sensible ways with compartments for just about anything you could possibly think of to keep in your handbag. Saves you the trouble of constantly rooting around in your handbag! Prices are a little high but definitely worth every penny.
And finally, we have our very own Emma Shoppe, which truth be told is more of a web-mall than an e-boutique. Designed specially for your convenience, Emma Shoppe provides you with large varieties of apparels (for men and women), designer items, home decor products and even gifts! The clothing section features designers from both Malaysia and Hong Kong, so you have plenty to choose from. Many of our items are unique so you never have to worry about not standing out! Aside from that, you can also look forward to a large array of beautiful bouquets (delivery service provided!), super cute iPhone covers, practical storage solutions and all sorts of other awesome stuff!
I am absolutely loving this expansion of dot com boutiques. I simply find them so much more reliable! I hope you enjoy these gorgeous e-shops.
In doing this project, I have come across a number of different types of online commerce sites. Here is a listing of these sites. There are probably some others, like Etsy, but I will have to figure out how to categorize them before listing them here.
EC site/Dotcom
EC site + brick store
EC site + blog
Blog only (non-EC)
Blogshop
Blogshop + brick store
Blogshop + blog
C2C auction store
C2C auction site + EC site
C2C auction store + brick store
C2C auction store + blogshop
Facebook store
Facebook store + EC site
Facebook store + blogshop
Facebook store + brick store
This means blogshops are just one type of Internet outlets that can be used for e-commerce. As the Web evolves, new ones emerge, as can be seen by the rising popularity of Facebook stores.
How are all these different from each other? I would need to write up some attributes of each so that we can see the distinguishing features, so that their respective uses and relevance in different contexts can be established. This will enable an better understanding of why so many types of retail outlets exists and why different ones are popular or embraced in different contexts.
I am sick of the (admittedly few) people who complain that the pricing of Summerdoll designs is too high and should be lowered to those of "blogshops". I shall replicate here my reply to an email I received, in which I was told:
"Just a feedback, being an avid online shopper, I think your dresses are priced way too high (as compared to other blogshops who also self-manufacture)!"
Other blogshops? (I also scoff at the term "self-manufacture" coined by blogshops.)
My reply:
"Hi xxxxxxx,
Thank you for your feedback. I would like to explain that the pricing is due to the following reasons:
1) www.summerdoll.com.sg is not a "blogshop". It is a website whereby shoppers may shop and make their purchases immediately due to the shopping cart facility. The website costed about $3000+ to build and about $280 every year to host.
2) Apparel on the multiple blogshops found here only come in one size, a "free" size, which is not consistent and varies from design to design. (Have you considered why they only "self-manufacture" them in a "free" size? Perhaps they are not really designed and sewn by them but rather *gasp* cheap mass market clothes bought from China/Bangkok?) Moreover, fabric used is usually the inferior kind manufactured in China which is thin/see-through and was dyed with inferior dye, leading to much lower cost of fabric but also much lower quality in the apparel. Such apparel often shrink/run in the wash (for a good example, look at the poor quality of Forever21 clothes). In contrast, fabric used to sew my label designs are imported from Japan and Korea, which cost more but are of higher quality.
3) It costs much more to design and sew your own unique apparel than to buy ready-made clothes from China/Bangkok.
4) Unlike a "blogshop" which does not have any overheads, I had a boutique in Holland Village for a year and my new boutique in Millenia Walk will be ready in June 2010. Pricing does factor in the cost of rent, and prices of apparels on the website have to be consistent with store prices. Prices of all brands with physical shops are always higher than "blogshops", no matter which brand, due to the honest fact that rent has to be paid. (The few shops in Far East Plaza, Orchard Central and Wisma which sell dresses at $29.90 all sell dresses which are made cheaply and are of EXTREMELY poor quality. Maybe teenagers do not mind wearing cheap thin see through dresses made by the hundreds but other women do mind.)
The benefit to shoppers is that they are able to try on all designs before purchase, unlike purchasing from a "blogshop" where, if one is honest with oneself, most of the purchases are usually unsatisfactory/does not fit/of inferior quality/was not what you expected/looked nice in the photo but not on you. Most die-hard blogshop shoppers will never admit this but this is the feedback their mothers give me, that most of the purchases end up not worn/thrown away.
5) Lastly, Summerdoll customers are more discerning shoppers who would rather own a few good quality dresses, of which only less than 20 in each design is sewn, than a hundred poor quality mass market dresses, where each design is sewn in the hundreds and chances are high you will bump into another woman wearing the same apparel. (It also costs much, much more per dress to sew very few rather than hundreds in each design.)
I hope you will understand that I do not earn a higher margin per dress compared to these blogshop owners. Due to the direction in which I have chosen to go, I do not compete with blogshops for the teen market."
I do not wish to be harsh with my reply but honestly! I am just so sick of having to explain the obvious! I have decided that life is too short and I will just say whatever needs to be said.
Another thing which I have just remembered while typing this entry, I have extremely satisfied customers from Shanghai who shop at my shop. The feedback I receive from them repeatedly is that the idea that it is much cheaper to buy dresses in China is a misconception, and that only the lousy quality apparel are cheap in China. They tell me that dresses in China of similar quality to my designs cost more in China than in Singapore, which is why they always wait to do their shopping at my shop when they are here in Singapore.
I may regret this entry tomorrow and remove it. Then again, I may not.
(Out of curiosity, do other local designers also receive emails telling them that they are too expensive, you know, "compared to other blogshops"? I would love to see the look on their faces. I mean, you guys do realise that Summerdoll designs are much cheaper compared to other local designers, right?)
Dream come true. > Three sisters pool their resources to launch their own label, Mimpi Kita by Soo Wern Jun
from left) ... Amirah Hanis, Nurul
Afidah and Fatimah Ani Syahirah.
NOTover the top, not over embellished and neither are they over emphasised. If you have had enough of tacky and excessive details seen on your outfit, it is probably time to update your wardrobe to create head-turning fashion statement with selections at Mimpi Kita. Just that and no funky or quirky name? Yes, it does translate as "our dream" and it is a dream come true for three sisters, namely Nurul Afidah Zulkifli, Amirah Hanis Zulkifli and Fatimah Ani Syahira Zulkifli, who started their online boutique in late 2008. Although all three girls do not have formal education in fashion designing, their span of creativity stops at nothing especially when they have inherited artistic abilities from their father who is an architect and mother who has a talent in designing her own clothes.
"It has always been our dream to own a boutique like this where we get to explore on designing our own fashionable collection of clothes, shoes, bags or accessories even. We have tried making almost everything but have decided to focus more on a clothing line and a leather handbag line too," expressed Nurul, 28, who has a masters in electronic engineering and is heading her two sisters in the designing team.
Initially only operating as an online boutique selling mostly casual wear and home decorative items, Mimpi Kita was a mere hobby and leisure time-based business. It was only a space for the sisters to rant their creativity before it grew to have more shoppers purchasing from their blogshop. They also received requests to transform the business into a full-fledged boutique. This got the sisters thinking seriously and they started to plan out a more fashion and designer-driven clothing collection.
"We finally found a space we can call our boutique this year in February. Work is done at ease as now we have a workshop where our seamstress can work on custom-made or tailored orders. Mimpi Kita will be entering its second year now specialising in casual wear, traditional or festive wear and most recently we have ventured into bridal wear where we cater to full Malay wedding ceremony attire," added Nurul.
The majority of boutiques which we come across would most likely be equipped with self-designed accessories as well, but maybe not this one. Not that they are not capable of it, but the sisters instead have decided to channel their focus on handbags.
"We’ve tried making accessories, but the production process was too tedious and time consuming. So, we opted to out-source the accessories. Our handbag line, Hush, is a collection which features only leather varieties which include water snake skin, python skin, lamb skin and several other types of leather selected based on the bag designs. Up to date, we have made 30 pieces of bags and we’re coming out with more," explained Amirah, 26, a business graduate.
Inspired by ideas based on each sister’s individuality, the label’s design direction follows traits and attributes which are reflected on the types of outfits, cuts and even fabric choices. Calm and toned elements represent Nurul, colour vibrancy belongs to Amirah and playful notes reflects the 23-year-old Fatimah who is the youngest of the three sisters. All three of them may have different design directions, but Mimpi Kita’s clothing line always emphasises a modern and edgy twist.
"We are in many ways glad that we three have different characters which complement each other to strike a balance in terms of design direction to keep the clothing label interesting and ever evolving. Customers who are interested can either drop by our boutique located at 21, Jalan Telawi, Bangsar or call us at 03-2284 8302 for custom-made or tailoring bookings," stated Fatimah.
Custom-made clothing includes baju kurung, dresses, tops and skirts where prices vary according to the materials chosen. Customers can also drop by the boutique to select their preferred cloth or bring their own. If you are not looking for custom-made services, ready-to-wear is also available at the boutique. Prices start from RM80 onwards.
This is an interesting site based in Walnut CA, USA. Although the site does not identify where it is located, its Face book page has this description of its business:
U.S. based online retail store specializing in Asian inspired fashion / accessories from Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China ♥
The site is not a blog platform, but it has a FB page and it sure feels like a blogshop!
This has a blogshop feel to it- it has forms to fill in, and categories, etc, but it takes credit card, etc. It ships to US, Canada and Asia so its place of origin is kinda hard to determine.
If the costs to host an online store is so cheap now, why do people still hang on to their blogshops? Pay a little and you could have shopping cart facilities, as well as the professional ambience of a proper dotcom.
I visited an online fashion fair last week where small businesses with an online presences only came together bazaar-like at the shopping mall to promote their goods. I was quite surprised that even though these are probably serious entrepreneurs, since they took time, money and effort to participate in fairs like these to promote their store, that a lot of them, though with net presence, do not run a proper online store. A lot of them are still running blog shops. While blog shops work, they don’t give a sense of seriousness to the business, in my opinion.
I managed to talk to a few business owners and they said they are not willing to fork out too much on their web hosting. Well, if they use promotional codes, they wouldn’t have to pay the full price. I have on hand a netfirms.com promotion code that would save a new Netfirms hosting subscriber up to 33% on business web hosting.
I personally feel that if an online store is hosted professionally, it would make a tremendous difference from the customer’s point of view. It would give visitors confidence to shop. Granted, a business hosting package is more expensive than running a blog shop but then one can really see the difference in terms of sales.
A key difference between a blogshop and a conventional e-commerce site or dotcom is the shopping cart. Actually, many blogshop owners refer to regular e-commerce sites as shopping carts. Blogshops do not have shopping carts, so the ordering and checking out process usually requires other means, like through an email which can be laborious and time consuming.
This article talks about the advantage of having a shopping cart.
It is interesting that in my interviews with blogshop owners last weekend at the MOFEW 2010 event at Mid Valley, it was mentioned that many Malaysian online shoppers actually are not familiar with the mechanics of using online purchasing facilities like the shopping cart. They say that this is a reason why blogshops work so well in our SEA context.
3 Key Shopping Cart Features Not Found On Blogshops
Blogshops have sprouted like mushrooms after the rain with more and more people seeking to make some extra cash on the side. However, for every person that buys something from a blogshop, dozens more give it a pass. Security, transition from product browsing to checkout and the general user-friendliness of a blogshop cannot compete with that of a proper shopping cart.
In this article, we shall look at 3 key shopping cart features that are not found on blogshops that can help improve conversion rates.
Cross Selling
Cross selling is a free online shopping cart feature that is available in practically all good shopping carts like InstanteStore. Effective cross selling can improve revenue by as much as 50%. Take a look at the experts: Amazon.com. Certainly they have invested a large amount of resources in complex algorithms that continually ensure that their cross selling combinations are fully optimized. But their investment has proved to be a wise one and they continue to reap the rewards.
Of course, cross selling via a website shopping cart solution is far from complex because it does not have to be. The average merchant only has a few hundred products in his or her store, not millions. I would venture a guess that the average estore does not get 500 million visitors a month either.
The key to formulating a successful cross sell combination is to actually to test out a few combinations. Of course, merchants can also take the easy way out and set the cross sell feature to automatic if time does not permit. Even in that mode, sales can improve by up to 14%. That’s not bad for something that’s available for free and can be activated simply by checking on a checkbox.
Easy Checkout
Shopping online is all about convenience. Checking out on a single page is another feature that improves conversion. The less steps and pages customers have to go through in order to complete a purchase means the less customers you’ll lose along the way. People’s attentions tend to drift or they may change their minds the longer it takes to complete their order, so the briefer the checkout process, the better.
Many blog shops do not even have a Buy Now button or a link to a proper store so shoppers have to exchange a few emails before a purchase can be completed. Saying that, sending credit card details via email isn’t exactly safe.
Aborted Orders Automatic Email
Studies have shown that aborted orders can still be converted if followed up on within 24 hours. Conversion figures go as high as 30%. Blogshops do not have an aborted orders list and therefore do not have a feature that sends out email automatically to try to convince those customers to complete their order.
Summary
Having a blog is a great way to channel traffic to a proper online store. The limitations of a blog are obvious as a venue to shop. Sure, you can still make a few sales, but think of the many more you could have made if you had a proper store offering a proper online shopping environment, supported by tried and proven shopping cart features.
Source: Momoteapots
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