AESTHETICS are everything, especially when selling online.
This was the advice of the chief operating officer of Lazada Philippines, Carlos Barrera, to small businesses that are starting to engage their consumers in the online platform.
“I think the biggest challenge is having good quality pictures. E-commerce is very, very visual. They have great products that sell offline, but they just have to edit their pictures a bit to make sure they’re appealing to customers,” Barrera said during the launch of Mentor Me On Wheels on Monday, Nov. 19.
Lazada is an online selling and shopping platform in Southeast Asia that allows buyers and sellers to do transactions on the internet.
Barrera said micro, small and medium entrepreneurs can market their products on Lazada, free of charge.
He said the economy in the country is going digital, and for entrepreneurs to thrive, they should start shifting to e-commerce.
“Everyone should go digital today because this is unstoppable. E-commerce is the easiest way for entrepreneurs to have access to capital, market and mentorship. For a small business, this is also the efficient way because it’s very affordable in terms of capital,” he said.
According to Barrera, e-commerce in the Philippines makes up only two percent of the entire economic ecosystem, but it makes up 20 percent in the markets of its Southeast Asian neighbors.
“You don’t have to set up a big business. You just have to upload a few products, and try it out. I assure you that with just a few pictures, you can already see that customers are buying from you without you having to pay rent or hire employees,” he said.
Barrera said that they have sellers that can earn P30,000 to P40,000 by spending just two to three hours a week on their site.
He said that through this platform, their company helps business owners grow on social media.
“The Philippines has so much potential, and there are a lot of small entrepreneurs. We don’t want to charge any commission because our objective is to grow with them, and we think it’s so early, so we want to make it easy for everyone to try,” he said.