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Product Update: Janio - Helping to Expand Your Melbourne eCommerce Sales Coverage throughout SEA

Written by
Benedict Leong
Published on
August 8, 2019
Updated on
July 10, 2023

When choosing new countries to expand your eCommerce store to, the size of their economies and their prospects for growth are going to play big roles in that choice. In this regard, China isn’t the only one with size on its side, and Southeast Asian economies are increasingly seen as rising stars.

Google and Temasek’s 2018 report1 predicts that the value of Southeast Asia’s growth is expected to exceed USD 240 billion by 2025, led by countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. This more than a fourfold increase from its 2017 market size of USD 50 billion is primarily driven by growth in technology and mobile connectivity.

Source: e-Conomy SEA 2018 report by Google and Temasek

Also, according to World Bank Data2, the combined population of ASEAN countries makes it the third largest in the world behind India and China.

There’s demand for Australian products in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asian economies have been seeing a rise in disposable income3 lately, and the rise in mobile connectivity4 has brought increasing numbers of people online for the first time.

This leads to a much larger population of online shoppers in this region, who are all eager to import products they perceive have high quality at reasonable prices. As such, many Australian products and brands are also seeing success in the region such as Quiksilver, Blackmores, and Shona Joy among others.

Data from Paypal and Ipsos’s research5 in 2018 shows that cross-border online purchases are still prevalent globally, with primary motivations being product availability in their country and the perception that product quality is higher from overseas. In this regard, Southeast Asian online shoppers aren’t too different.

Data from We Are Social and Hootsuite6, mentions that online purchases for most product categories have been increasing over the years, including from Southeast Asian countries:

  • Health and Beauty
  • Mom & Baby
  • Fashion
  • Consumer Electronic
  • Home & Living
  • Packaged and Canned food

What this tells us is that consumers in Southeast Asia are willing to purchase Australian brands which they perceive have good quality and are hard to find locally.

Listing your products in Southeast Asia

For many Australian brands looking to enter one of Southeast Asia’s eCommerce markets, it’s worth considering listing your products on relevant online marketplaces, such as Zalora and Zilingo for fashion products across multiple countries. Marketplaces are some of the most popular online shopping platforms7 among locals for their product variety and promotions,

To help your foray into Southeast Asian eCommerce, Janio has partnerships with key regional marketplaces in Southeast Asia. We can help you connect with them to accelerate your initial expansion and growth in the region.

Some of our key regional cross-border eCommerce marketplace partners include:

  • Shopee - one of the leading general regional marketplaces in Southeast Asia in seven countries
  • Zilingo - the fastest growing fashion online marketplace in Southeast Asia
  • Zalora - the Largest Fashion online marketplace in Southeast Asia
  • Bukalapak - an Indonesia-based online marketplace that carries a wide variety of items and sells to many countries within Southeast Asia

Also, if you’re aiming to sell primarily to Indonesia, you’ll want to be listed some of the most visited platforms8 in the country. In this regard, Janio is partners with the following key marketplaces:

  • Blibli.com - a large domestic online marketplace that sells general categories with 70 million unique views a month
  • JD.ID - an online marketplace for more premium brands and products. Receives around 30 million unique views a month

Dealing with challenges related to Southeast Asia deliveries

Listing and marketing your products in Southeast Asia is the first step, but the matter of delivering those products into these countries still needs to be considered. Among the common pain points when it comes to shipping to Southeast Asia include:

  • Cost - international end-to-end shipments could be expensive. Especially with what you’ll need to tackle the below problems.
  • Coverage - Southeast Asia is a large geographical region. You may need many different partners to gain good coverage in the region and managing them all requires time and resources.
  • Customs - Southeast Asian countries have different customs regulations and documentation for delivery clearance. Keeping up with all of these differences and changes could cost you time and resources.
  • Cash - Cash is the predominant form of payment in a number of Southeast Asian countries, involving many different types of currencies. Many people in the region love online purchases, but prefer a more traditional payment method.

To give Australian merchants in Melbourne a hand, Janio’s services are now available to merchants in Melbourne. Now, you’ll be able to drop off your products for shipment at our hub and our suite of delivery solutions will help take care of your Southeast Asian supply chain.

Our solutions include:

Cross-border shipping

We’ll help you deliver your products from Melbourne to and throughout Southeast Asia, covering steps such as line haul, customs clearance and last mile delivery.

Customs Clearance

Janio keeps up with all the customs clearance developments in Southeast Asia. We’ll use our experience in clearing customs for shipments to the region to help take a huge administrative burden off your shoulders.

Transhipment

Using our transhipment hub in Singapore’s Free Trade Zone, we’ll help to distribute your shipments throughout Southeast Asia.

Transhipment is particularly good for merchants who are planning to kickstart their Southeast Asia presence for the first time and want to gauge the demand for the products in multiple markets at once.

Another benefit of using a transhipment hub in a Free Trade Zone, is that there’s less red tape and set up time, which means faster time to market for your B2C sales to Southeast Asia

Regional Distribution Centre

Once you’re more confident of your demand in Southeast Asia, you can choose to keep your inventory closer to your customers to decrease delivery lead time. This is where you can consider using Janio’s regional distribution center, also based in Singapore’s Free Trade Zone.

Cash on Delivery

Janio’s network allows us to collect cash on delivery payments for you, allowing you to offer one of the most preferred payment methods in the region.

Partnership Management

We can help to connect your business with our network of marketplaces, accelerating your online sales’ growth in the region.

Southeast Asia is a rising star in terms of economic and eCommerce market growth with a populace that has strong demand for overseas products. Cross-border shipping to the region may seem daunting, but we’re here to help you simplify your cross-border shipments from Melbourne to and throughout Asia. To find out more, reach out to us at contact@janio.asia!

References:

  1. Think With Google: e-Conomy SEA 2018: Southeast Asia's internet economy hits an inflection point
  2. World Bank Data - Population
  3. Bain: Understanding Southeast Asia’s Emerging Middle Class
  4. Tech Crunch: Google report: Southeast Asia’s digital economy to triple to $240 billion by 2025
  5. Paypal Insights Global Report 2018
  6. Hootsuite/We Are Social: Digital in 2018 Global Overview
  7. iPrice: The Biggest E-commerce Websites and Apps in Southeast Asia
  8. iPrice: The Map of eCommerce in Indonesia