There are plenty of emerging technologies worldwide, each in different industries, from education, retail, construction, and eCommerce. One notable example of innovative advancement is the GigaCloud Technology of GigaCloud Tech – a company specializing in tech-based logistics. Companies like GigaCloud Tech help individuals and big companies scale their logistics faster through a more cohesive plan. Learn more about this cutting-edge technology and apply what you’ll learn to your business.
Table of Contents
What is GigaCloud Technology?
How does the Online Marketplace work?
The Online Market Community
Characteristics of a Good Logistics Partner
Effects of Warehousing on Businesses
The Bottomline
What is GigaCloud Technology?
GigaCloud Technology is an online trade platform accessible to suppliers, buyers, and sellers worldwide. When buyers and sellers cannot meet and conduct business, inadequacy in the market develops. Buyers are unable to purchase the goods and services they need, and sellers are unable to curtail their sales. This is where the GigaCloud Technology Marketplace comes in. The platform allows an all-in experience for both buyers and sellers to exchange goods and services at the prices they offer. GigaCloud Technology is designed to provide a solution for buyers and sellers by streamlining the process of exchanging goods and services.
With over 17,000 twenty-equipment units (TEU) processed daily, GigaCloud Technology helps thousands of businesses in different industries. The platform guarantees speedy transactions with fool-proof service for all types of items, such as heavy equipment, construction parts, and small-box items. The process GigaCloud Technology covers includes product publishing through fulfillment tracking – this way, businesses will no longer experience the difficulties of courier tracking and quality control.
GigaCloud Technology also offers warehousing through its logistics services. The platform is built to serve the needs of its consumers by providing a network where buyers and sellers can access their delivery and storage needs. In case you are a supplier, and you need both warehousing and marketplace services, you can tag your business for both these offers. You can list your products or services on the GigaCloud B2B Marketplace and acquire the instantaneous exposure you need with your target audience. You can also garner the attention of resellers who would gladly resell your products or services. You can create countless offers, marketing strategies, and personalized listings on the platform as you list your products or services. Your business is entirely your own, and nobody can stop you from succeeding.
While you’re at it, you can also have your items shipped through the courier service of GigaCloud Technologies, connecting you with your buyers through a fast-paced process. As an entrepreneur, one of the joys you will experience is discovering new ways to grow your business and become a better version of itself. As you venture into deciphering new solutions for your business, you’ll achieve the triumphs of entrepreneurship, whichever industry you belong to. And hey, even if GigaCloud Technology is a company based abroad, don’t lose hope – because there’s one at your fingertips! Shoppable Business is the Philippines’ first digital procurement platform, ready to serve and help you achieve your business goals.
You can check out the website of Shoppable Business for their different offers and services. Just to give you a brief overview of the countless services they offer, they have an online marketplace that connects you with your target market within seconds. If you’re a seller, you will find this tool one of the handiest features you can find on a platform. On the other hand, if you’re a buyer, you can also easily browse through the different products and services you’re looking for. As buyers ourselves, we want to ensure that the product we will be purchasing is of the highest quality and is authentic. Have no fear because Shoppable Business has a brand registry program that certifies its sellers and buyers that only original products will be listed and sold through the platform.
Shoppable Business is the Philippines’ pilot digital procurement platform that offers an online marketplace, logistics, an e-wallet, and countless online tools that sellers like yourself can make use of at absolutely no cost. No subscription fees and other charges whatsoever; with Shoppable Business, you’ll never have to worry about falling victim to hidden charges and hefty subscription plans. Check out the Shoppable Business page here, or say hello at [email protected].
Why Join Shoppable
Earlier, we mentioned the new face in town – Shoppable. And since it’s a startup eCommerce company, we still have to hear who and what Shoppable is. What do they specialize in, and why should we join one of the country’s newest innovative eCommerce startup companies – Shoppable.
- It’s FREE – It’s free to start selling on the Shoppable platform. As long as you’re a legally registered business, you’ll be able to list products for free on Shoppable. You only pay a commission if an item sells on the platform, and you get paid.
- Expand your Customer base – Through Shoppable, you’ll reach thousands of new customers for free. Think of Shoppable as your marketing arm that you only pay when you have a sale.
- Get your eCommerce Store – Increase sales by digitalizing your product catalog and reaching customers worldwide. Print catalogs are dying, costly, and not environment friendly – digital is the future. Sellers can get their eCommerce store on Shoppable Business, which can be given to any client.
- Procurement Technology – Enable your customers to pay you online through Bank Transfers, Credit Cards, Over-the-Counter Payments, Recurring Payments, and more. Easily track and manage orders, payments, and shipping through the Shoppable platform.
- Shipping Technology – Shoppable has integrated directly with multiple shipping couriers, enabling you to provide same-day to next-day delivery to your customers.
- Compliance – Sales invoices and 2307’s required? Don’t worry; Shoppable has got you covered! The platform keeps sellers fully compliant, never worrying about missing documents.
- 3PL & Fulfilment Services – Need additional manpower? Shoppable can provide you with warehousing and fulfillment solutions to expand your brand to different locations enabling you to deliver products faster to your customers.
- Real Buyers and Real Products only – We vet and interview sellers that join the platform, so you will be assured that all of the products and transactions are authentic and legitimate.
How does the Online Marketplace work?
Perhaps you’ve been thinking about how you can launch your business online. You’re wondering how you can penetrate a market that is so vast and populated, and you’ve got a list of ideas you want to try out, but you can’t pinpoint where to begin. Well, you’ve come to the right place at the right time! Since eCommerce is one of the fastest growing and highly competitive industries in the world, you’ll have to bring an action plan with you. You can’t just join any online marketplace without a plan; it’ll scare you and have you running on your toes.
Figuring out where you should place your business online is a complex decision to make. Joining an online marketplace is where buyers and sellers get connected and begin their transactions. Sellers in the online marketplace list their products or services online, and the platform does all the work to bring their listings to the right customers. If you were to place your business in a specific location while paying rent and other governmental taxes, you’d have the number of your expenditures increase. However, when you use an eCommerce platform to list your products and services, you’d double up on sales because you can reach a global audience. The online marketplace easily connects you with the right customers for the products or services you are selling. For example, if you are a construction company looking to find buyers interested in availing of your services, you can easily find them through the eCommerce platform. Conduct hassle-free business-to-business transactions every day without having to travel from one place to another.
The online marketplace will be in charge of all the technical aspects you used to worry about. Included in the list of these technicalities are payment channels, e-wallets, online advertising, conversions, and a lot more. While others worry about employing more people for these technical works, you can worry less about this by placing your business online. Once you begin venturing into the eCommerce business, you’ll observe how unconventional it is compared to the traditional store. In online marketplaces, you have things like vouchers, discount codes, cashback perks, flash sales, and countless others.
If we look at the figures on how the online marketplace has been doing in recent years, you’d be surprised to know that a whopping $1.47 trillion was spent on online marketplaces. Simply put, customers have switched to using online marketplaces more than regular physical stores. One of the primary reasons for the growth of online marketplaces is the easy and fast connection people get. If you think for a second about wanting to buy an ergonomic chair, you can do so within seconds. Look it up online, and you’ll have different options to choose from. On the side of the seller, you’ll also instantaneously gain access to a larger market than you would if you had only decided on operating through a physical storefront. The network effect of online marketplaces is incomparable with the traditional stores we started with.
Diving deeper into this phenomenon called the “network effect,” buyers and sellers are brought together to exchange transactions in the trade industry. Buyers get the items and services they need, and sellers obtain the sales they work for. The online marketplace incorporates all the necessary aspects of online purchasing and selling. The emergence of online marketplaces makes the everyday transactions of businesses easier because buyers and sellers alike can work together through stronger connections and faster engagement. Think about it, when you work with an eCommerce platform to manage and list your business, you’ll also gain access to a more comprehensive logistics system. No more courier issues for you! Say you have an eCommerce business for office supplies, and you want to bring your products closer to your customers; you can easily conduct business-to-business transactions on a plural scale.
The Online Market Community
You can broaden your business’s scope and market reach by knowing the online community of buyers or sellers. Sure it can seem a little overwhelming at first, and you don’t know how to start, but everybody starts at one point. Take your chance, and don’t miss out on the grand opportunity of reaching a larger market. You can say that the correlation between vendors and customers directly impacts each other. New customers also emerge when new vendors are in the online marketplace. Besides this, you can also count on saving costs because you no longer have to allot money for warehousing. For others who have a physical store, they still spend a couple of thousand dollars for warehousing and logistics; for you – who decided to operate in the online marketplace, this is nothing to worry about.
As a business owner, you need to be prepared for battle. Conduct thorough market research before you begin operating your business. Know the trends and how you wish to go about your marketing strategies. Know which route works best for the product or service you are offering. Alongside this, you’ll also need to identify the needs of your customers. If your customers have problems, you must have the solutions that they can at a reasonable price. Businesses like yours need to grasp the industry you are participating in and the audience you are trying to impress. Besides getting to know your audience, you must also familiarize yourself with your competitors. They’re out there, some may seem like unlikely competitors, but they’re just right under your nose. So, keep a close eye on the different businesses you will come across as you begin your online business.
Research the industry you are in. Be well-versed in the demographics, size, fads, trends, acceleration, stagnancy, and economics of your industry. While you’re at it, see that you are researching accurately, using tools and original supporting materials that will be used as your guide in the business. Don’t just look up the different industries on Wikipedia and trust that everything on it is a hundred percent true and without flaws. Once you’ve gotten to know your market and competitors, create your business model. Include information about your business goals and what you are working to achieve in the next few months and years. Consider thinking about whether or not you will be charging extra fees or how you will go about your branding and social media engagements. Identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Define your niche in a way that accurately represents your business.
- What will your brand look like?
- Which colors will you go with?
- How can we entice our target audience?
- Will we offer discount vouchers, codes, and other marketing strategies?
- How much will we allot for online advertisements?
The questions shared above are practically the general ideas that you will come across when you’re operating a business. There are other questions that you will have to respond to and some that you have to come up with on your own. It is important that you are familiar with these patterns. You don’t have to be perfect and don’t have to get everything right all the time; it is only integral to figure out how you can thrive in the online marketplace through a comprehensive plan of action.
Characteristics of a Good Logistics Partner
Some businesses still on the hunt for their logistics partner experience difficulty finding out whether or not the courier company they will be choosing is the right one to go. Choosing the right logistics partner for your business will become part of the make or break of your brand. After all, you don’t want to receive countless angry customer complaints. It is good to learn from these types of customers however, as much as possible, we want to avoid bad publicity.
A good logistics partner stands out even without trying. One thing you should keep in mind is closely analyzing the history and background of your logistics partner. Be keen on marking out the things they are good at and what they need to improve on. To give you a general idea of what characteristics are a good fit for a logistics partner, here are some…
- Cohesive with planning and fulfillment of orders
- Eliminates unprofessional behavior and attends to troubleshooting
- Cuts down complaints and minimizes internal misunderstandings
- Appraises the value of the company by practicing a healthy customer engagement
- Guarantees swift and quality deliveries
- Transparent with all information and activities involving their services
- Accountable and receptive to suggestions
- Has a customer-centric approach
- Communicates effectively and minimizes back and forths
Establishing the way forward with your logistics partner isn’t as tricky as finding the needle in the hay. Suppose you want to skip the trouble and move faster with your business as you work with a trustworthy logistics partner. In that case, you might consider working with an eCommerce platform that already offers logistic solutions. One notable company is the digital procurement company we mentioned earlier – Shoppable Business. The company provides business solutions for suppliers, consumers, and those who want to conduct business-to-business transactions. Shoppable Business is equipped with the logistics tools and services needed for businesses in any industry. The best part about this is you don’t have to pay hefty fees or other expenditures because the logistics solutions of Shoppable Business are a built-in feature.
Effects of Warehousing on Businesses
Here’s where you can say, “think out of the box!” Having a warehouse for your business is not just tied to having a storage facility for your products. Warehousing also includes your company’s supply chain management and how your logistics will be managed. If you happen to be a company that requires a lot of storage space, you might need to allot a portion of your budget for warehousing, logistics, and the management of your supply chain.
Warehousing for large-scale businesses will aid in cutting down the costs of your excess expenditures for logistics, storage, and management of the supply chain. Some warehousing facilities also help provide faster delivery services to their partner company’s customers. If you intend to create a warehouse of your own, it may be a challenging task to accomplish. We don’t want to burst your bubble but think about the architecture and engineering needs you will have to accomplish in line with installing water, heating, lighting, air conditioning, and transportation. If you want to digitize your warehouse for your clients, then you’ll also have to install a technological infrastructure that will smoothen each of your transactions. It’s not such a piece of cake.
If you want to take the other route and just partner with a reliable company that offers all these solutions, you can place your trust in the company we mentioned earlier, which is Shoppable Business. The company is designed especially to fulfill digital procurement, making it possible to optimize the delivery and accomplishment of all your productivity, logistics, supply chain, and storage needs. Here are some other advantages of warehousing…
- Your products will be kept safe and securely
- You meet the demands for urgent deliveries and bulk orders
- You can easily track your products through the supply chain system
- You eliminate losses and experiencing damages to your goods
- You experience a flexible and scalable system of control
- Your costs are significantly reduced
If you’re still shaky on the idea of joining the online marketplace, then we’ll give you a bird’s eye view of the figures. The eCommerce industry alone has amounted to $4.9 trillion on a global scale, and it is forecasted to accelerate with a growth rate of 50% in a span of four years, as cited by Statista. An estimated percentage of 58.4 of internet users make a purchase each week through online shopping. With this knowledge in mind, you can’t deny that businesses in the online marketplace have a place in the future of everyday individuals.
In the Philippines alone, the eCommerce market has an annual growth rate of 12% and a revenue of 20.18 billion Pesos in 2022. The forecast for the online marketplace is expected to contribute to a significant increase in the valuation of private companies that can engage in international transactions through eCommerce platforms. In the information cited by Statista, among the diverse population of companies currently participating in the online marketplace, those that excel are the businesses that invest in their online identity. Having a good online presence accompanied by a reliable logistics and supply chain makes a company’s reputation and business opportunities broader and greener.
The Bottomline
It’s entirely up to you as a business owner on which track you will decide. However, given the impressive figures and facts shared earlier, there’s certainly a bright future with time and resources invested in the online marketplace for your business. A platform that offers all services from consumer-related to business-to-business transactions is the company we mentioned earlier. You’ll have access to warehousing, logistics, supply chain management, digital tracking, marketing tools, an e-wallet, different courier options, and other tools you may need for your online business.
Operating your business online creates a special system of flexibility. Similar to the GigaCloud Technology we discussed, listing your products online in the marketplace will aid in boosting the productivity of your business along with your sales. Expect better conversions and happy customers from the results of your effort. One last thing, the digital procurement platform company we mentioned earlier, you won’t regret choosing Shoppable Business as your partner in logistics and the online marketplace. Check them out here, or say hello at [email protected].