Ask an Expert Dec 15: Anurag Avula, Jeremy Khoo & Rachel Chan

[PayPal_Luna]

Hello there and welcome to our first Ask an Expert session!

Once in a while we sit down with e-commerce experts across the region, and this time we are excited to have some of the most experienced and inspirational online business owners around! Quick bio:

• Anurag Avula: Ex Paypal APAC Senior Director, currently CEO & CoFounder at Shopmatic Just about the best person for you to ask technical & design questions about online launch, operation and growth.

• Jeremy Khoo*: Founder & CEO at Dressabelle, Jeremy is well-versed in customer service and has previously been featured in this Paypal Headstart article.

• Rachel Chan: Founder & CEO at LIVE3LY, and director of Eggsplore. Having been in the online space for >15 years, Rachel is your digital solutions guru. You can read more about her in this Headstart article.

* Unfortunately Jeremy is not currently available to answer questions, but he shall be able to response in January. 

The three experts will be around on this thread to answer questions in the next 2-3 weeks. They will also sit down in a panel discussion later that will be filmed and uploaded.

Before we get started, I have a small surprise for you: We are giving away 10x US$100 Google Adwords vouchers to people with the most interesting questions! So you will be rewarded for getting your problems solved, how does that sound?

Detailed T&Cs for the giveaways are found here. If you haven’t read the board sticky post, I encourage you to do so. Now let’s get started!

[Shopmatic · Accepted solution]

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@claude741110 wrote:

Its a good thing you guys came up with an integrated solutions in terms of mobilizing a business into a less intricate web based business solution. However, modes and terms of payment were quite viable thus offered by a growing additional entrepreneurs catering same services, my question is.

Since business entities are your major target clients (Shopmatic and Paypal in particular), can you extend your service starting from web and system design up to business operations analysis, problem identification, and finally recommendation of solutions in technical, operations and financial (accounting) aspects? As we all know that most newcomers in the business world can easily disregard such matters wherein miscalculations and misprojections were a common mistake. I mean, can you somehow provide a visual or just in a standard form wherein significant figures of the business can be clearly observed? Best if summaries and projections are also provided, just a mere guide for those who are newbies in the industry.

Best    

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Hi. Your point is indeed very valid. Most businesses tend to gloss over the intricacies of Accounting, Corporate Structuring and Regulatory aspects. Its important that customers are aware of such requirements and we do provide for a simple guide on our platform and guide customers to the experts in the field for your specific countries.

[kalsa]

How can I redeem my points?

How long points take eo expire?

Can you email me the answer at my email? 

[kalsa]

How can I redeem my points?

How long points take eo expire?

Can you email me the answer ?

[Sharif123]

Hi, I'm a 16 yr old student looking for opportunities online to make legal cash either through business or some legal online jobs. I would like to learn how to make money online through paypal without getting cheated or scammed. Also, if i were to run a small business, which I probably would be interested in, I would need some capital to start my business off. I'm willing to work hard also. So I would appreciate if I could get some advice from you all and the $100 Google Adwords vouchers would be a great start together with your advices to start my business off. Please give tips on how to not get scammed and how to sound attractive to customers to get my stuff. Thank you very much much for this opportunity to raise my question and also a chance to get rewarded for my questions raised for the sole benefit of everyone. I hope i will be able to benefit everyone and earn my initial capital for my business and get great tips on starting a new business which can rapidly grow also. Thank you very much.

[Aris10]

Hello sir. I'm from Thailand. I just started my online business for 2 months (ebay). So i would like to ask my question. - How can i start for business? and please guide me for them in the right way. Best regard Areerat

[maurisrx]

Hello,

Thank you for the opportunity.

My question is directed to Rachel Chan.

What are the best ways to market products on the internet with minimal budget?

And what percentage of total budget do you recommend to put for marketing and advertising?

Thanks!

Mauris

[RachelChan · Accepted solution]

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@maurisrx wrote:

Hello,

Thank you for the opportunity.

My question is directed to Rachel Chan.

What are the best ways to market products on the internet with minimal budget?

And what percentage of total budget do you recommend to put for marketing and advertising?

Thanks!

Mauris

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Hi Mauris,

Start with a natural channel that does not cost you any marketing fee first. For example, posting and sharing articles in social media, determine the key words to search for your website and place them in your website meta, through referrals/sponsorship.

Some of the marketing tools I've used which cost nothing are:-

1) My product, LIV3LY, sells registration support to event organisers. This, in turn, allow the users to get know about the name LIV3LY during the registration process. 

2) I offer a sponsorship value to my client and in return, I get marketing values back from their event publicity.

3) My website is optimised for Google search

4) Post and share articles about LIV3LY through facebook

5) Build a database that you can send EDM monthly to engage them

In my opinion, spend on marketing and advertising only when you start having a stable revenue stream. Don't just spend without a plan in mind, work with an agency/your team to come up with a campaign to achieve the outcome you want.

All the best! 🙂

Your sincerely,

Rachel

[karimunjawa]

Hi All,

In the last year we mainly used PayPal for deposit payments for our holiday packages. We would like to offer our packages online and make direct booking online possible. A lot of the platforms we have been searching for offer a system we can use for this. Some of them are commission based others are with a monthly subscribsion. Besides this a lot of them also offer an own payment gateaway, but we like to use PayPal.The problem we encounter that it costs us to much commission/service costs to put up an ecommerce store. The market in which we are selling are most prices from competitors low rated. This means when we take of all these commissions and prices, there is not much left to earn, or if we would calculate all these prices trough to our customers, our package prices will end up being to high. 

We are not yet in the position te build an own platform or ecommerce website for our packages and tours. Could you tell me how other businesses deal with all these commission rates and what would be the smartest option for us to get our online business to the next level?

Thanks!

[Sriramap]

Nice to meet you people here, My question is some e commerce websites planning for drone delivery to their customers... In India when it will started? In India Drone Delivery Meet Success or Not?

[lsflth]

 We do, you can do so .