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Ecommerce Enablers Provide A Client With Whatever It Takes To Sell Successfully Online

Ecommerce enablers provide a one-stop solution to help brands execute their digital strategies through services like content production, web optimization, marketing, technology integration, fulfillment and delivery. They aim to help clients sell successfully online by providing whatever is needed to support online sales. Popular examples in Southeast Asia include aCommerce and iCommerce. Marketplaces like Lazada and Shopee are platforms for sellers but are not enablers themselves. Enablers integrate the various pieces required for ecommerce success, including marketplaces, payment systems, marketing platforms and delivery. Choosing the right enabler requires assessing their experience, client portfolio, digital capabilities and scope of services. Brands must also ensure their own organizations are

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100 views

Ecommerce Enablers Provide A Client With Whatever It Takes To Sell Successfully Online

Ecommerce enablers provide a one-stop solution to help brands execute their digital strategies through services like content production, web optimization, marketing, technology integration, fulfillment and delivery. They aim to help clients sell successfully online by providing whatever is needed to support online sales. Popular examples in Southeast Asia include aCommerce and iCommerce. Marketplaces like Lazada and Shopee are platforms for sellers but are not enablers themselves. Enablers integrate the various pieces required for ecommerce success, including marketplaces, payment systems, marketing platforms and delivery. Choosing the right enabler requires assessing their experience, client portfolio, digital capabilities and scope of services. Brands must also ensure their own organizations are

Uploaded by

debmatra
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as RTF, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Very simply put, ecommerce enablers are service providers that help a brand

execute its digital strategy through a one-stop solution. This solution


encompasses content production, web platform optimization, performance
marketing, technology to integrate all digital channels, all the way to customer
care, fulfillment and/or delivering it to the end customer’s doorstep.

Ecommerce enablers provide a client with whatever it


takes to sell successfully online.
Popular examples in Southeast Asia include: aCommerce, iCommerce, etc.
Lazada, Shopee, 11street are not ecommerce enablers, they are the platforms for
businesses to sell on. Sure, they might lend a brand an account manager who
periodically checks in but their goal is to push for lower product prices and
exclusive channel promotions.

The marketplace is neither charging the business for this service or providing
special treatment – if a better performing merchant comes along, it catches you
later.

This is why Alibaba’s Tmall has its own list of Tmall Partners – specialised
agencies that build functional stores for businesses on the Tmall platform. Tmall
itself is not the enabler.
The same goes for marketing platforms such as MailChimp, payment gateways
like Paypal and delivery companies like Kerry Express or NinjaVan – they may
not be ecommerce enablers but they are important pieces of the ecommerce
supply chain.

This distinction is vital to the growth of ecommerce in Southeast Asia, especially


as most global brands – Samsung, Unilever, L’Oreal, etc. – are choosing to
outsource their ecommerce BUs to other experts.

Why? Because inhouse teams aren’t sure how to structure themselves. Over 65
percent of global marketers feel teams are “somewhat integrated” or “broken out
by channel”. For ecommerce to work, Marketing needs to align with Sales, and
Service.
But ecommerce isn’t a magical band-aid capable of fixing all problems –
especially not corporate silos.

Aื FMCG industry leader recently asked me, “what is something you would do to
improve my brand’s digital strategy?”

My reply?

“Establish internally what the business wants from ecommerce, who’s in charge
of this division and the resources the business is willing to dedicate before even
bothering to bring on an enabler. Without internal alignment, it becomes one
inefficient mess and everyone ends up pulling hair.”
After working with some of the world’s top brands – Unilever, Microsoft, Reckitt
Benckiser, Payless, Samsung – I’ve been fortunate enough to see how these well-
oiled machines function and why it doesn’t necessarily work for ecommerce.

The beauty of digital is that it’s instantaneous, which is the complete opposite of
how decisions are made in these enormous corporations. It’s new, it’s disruptive.

Online moves quickly and requires constant care because a store that never
sleeps means inventory, pricing, recommendations, customer support need to be
up to date 24/7. It gets even more complicated when the ecommerce enabler
needs to manage a brand.com and a marketplace shop-in-shop (SIS).
What often gets overlooked by brands is the shift in power.

Dangling more visibility over the thousands of grey market and official sellers on
its site, a marketplace will push aggressively for more deals, more exclusivity,
more vouchers, now, now, yesterday, while the brand pushes back with the same
tenacity, touting “channel conflict”, and scrambling to squeeze funds from other
departments.

The brand finally ends up throwing paperwork at the problem two weeks past the
deadline.

Who wins?

No one.

Certainly not the enabler.

How is it in 2018, we still don’t know how to do


ecommerce?
As a marketplace, its job is to offer the best deals and shopping experience to
customers to grab market share. It does this by subsidizing prices, and by
nudging its merchants to sell more and offer exclusives.
As a brand, its job is to sell to as many customers as possible, keep its
distributors civil, maintain brand consistency across channels and mitigate the
amount of friction between departments. It does this by offering the same
promotions to each channel partner, allocating resources in a democratic fashion
and following processes to a tee.
As an ecommerce enabler, its job is to work with its client and ecommerce
partners (marketplace, 3PL, payment gateways, etc.) to increase GMV by
optimizing digital channels. It does this by executing on behalf of the brand a
strong digital strategy, which sometimes means bartering with the marketplace
for more visibility for its clients.
Ecommerce enablers are by far nowhere near perfect. Imagine a marriage
counsellor trying to find compromise between two hot-headed and egotistic
partners refusing to budge but still looking to have a long term relationship.

Oh, and sessions aren’t once a week, it’s an uphill climb everyday. This
respondent hit it on the head when describing what they did not like about its
enabler.

“Not mature business yet.”


While the concept of ecommerce is not new in the world, the
execution, talent and best practices are still nascent in Southeast Asia.
Customers in APAC need education on ecommerce, a company’s ecommerce
team in APAC needs education on how to work with other departments, and
marketplaces in APAC are still figuring out how to be more like Alibaba and
Amazon, two companies with over 10 years operating experience.

An ecommerce enabler is supposed to have all the answers. While a challenge to


take on, especially in Southeast Asia, it’s a hot business with a lot to gain, and
probably why ecommerce enablers have popped up all over Southeast Asia and
India.

And it’s been somewhat positive for respondents using an enabler as majority
would recommend it to a friend or colleague.

“Getting an ecommerce enabler should definitely be considered, regardless of


what stage a business who wants or is doing ecommerce is in.”
“Allows me to focus on my core business capability and rest assured online
segment is still moving along.”
Now what?
Now that the distinction has been made between a marketplace, a payment
gateway, a marketing tool and an ecommerce enabler who ties them all together,
a business needs to decide whether it needs marriage counselling.

Is it more cost effective to invest and build a team to manage digital channels
inhouse or outsource it to a third-party partner? The survey respondents listed
reasons why they work with an enabler:

“Aligned with brand principal interest and cost effective”


“Short time to market, revenue growth”
“Strong communications, effective operations”
Now you’ve identified you need one, how do you choose an ecommerce enabler?

 Assess the experience of its leaders – do they have a strong track record in high-performing
digital businesses?
 Assess the existing clientele – are you in a similar tier/size/industry?

 Assess the company’s own digital footprint – their performance marketing will be telling of
the performance marketing they do for you

 Assess the scope of work – is the enabler incentivized to sell more for your business?

And now take a look at your own business and decide whether it’s ready to
commit to ecommerce. Is there an efficient approval process in place for resource
allocation and commercial sign off for digital channels? Is there a C-level
stakeholder responsible for P&L?

If not, time to move fast because in the digital world, it’s either give all or risk
losing a lot.

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