Online Selling Tips Philippines For Beginners

Online Selling Tips For The Philippines: Whether you are a beginner or an experienced seller, selling online in the Philippines can be a challenging task, which leads us to the question, are there any online selling tips for beginners in the Philippines?

Today you will learn 12 online selling tips for the Philippines, and as a bonus, we will also be going through how beginners can sell more in the Philippines and how online sellers can save those precious pesos!

Table of Contents

Online Selling Tips For The Philippines

1. Build Your Business Around Your Strategy

The big mistake that is often made when starting an online business of any kind is not building a business around a strategy. So to avoid this, you first must design a business strategy that will allow you to take the appropriate actions which will lead to success.

Say, for example, you are selling yoga mats. A typical seller would go crazy on all social media and spend money on marketing in the hopes that someone would buy. This strategy may work for some, but it’s often not a wise long-term strategy. So what do you do if you are selling online but do not have the funds to market all the time to spend hours on social media?

What you would need to do is to design a different strategy, which is just as effective. This could be creating video content on YouTube, for instance. One added benefit is that once you have uploaded the video, you can receive views 24/7 without any additional work (if you want to build your channel, you will need to do continuous work). The second benefit is that if you grow your channel, you can also receive an income from Google ads.

This is just one example of possibly thousands of strategies. Don’t be afraid to be creative!

2. Choose The Right Platform For Your Business

Where are you selling your items or services? Are you choosing to sell on a website or social media? When looking at online selling tips for the Philippines, you must choose the right platform for your audience.

Social media is an excellent platform for the Philippines as most Filipinos use social media every day. You can also sign up for groups and promote live videos, which can help you sell certain items but again, this needs to be suitable for your audience.

Suppose you are selling expensive watches, for example. In that case, it may be better to create a professional and secure website that has visible contact details of your business rather than creating a Facebook live video one random day.

In the Philippines, there are many different platforms to sell online, so choosing the right platform for your audience will be key.

3. Learn Everything About The Digital World

One of the biggest online selling tips for beginners in the Philippines Is to learn everything about the digital world. However, even if you are not a beginner at online selling, it is still a recommended tip to help you get above the competition.

The universal fact is that the speed of technology increases year after year, and so does the online selling world. For instance, Google reported last year that their search volume had decreased slightly for the first time in over 12 years. Around the same time, it was announced that YouTube is the second most popular search engine globally.

Why does this help you? This allows online sellers because the way we search for information (such as where to buy a product, etc.) is changing. If you are looking to continue success as an online seller in the Philippines, you will need to go where the audience goes.

This may mean that you start to deliver podcasts or provide webinars to your audience. Statistically, consumers buy from companies and people they trust, so building credibility through various channels will help you establish that authority in your niche.

There are always options to increase your reach without showing your face or speaking. This is often recommended for those building a brand rather than a personal brand.

4. build & Work With A Community

The next online selling tip for beginners in the Philippines is to work with the community. One important thing about selling is that word of mouth is critical. This is especially true for the Philippines. If your audience is from overseas, word of mouth is still just as popular as forums and reviews fill the Internet.

So how do you work with the community to build your online selling business? The perfect combination is when you can offer the community something but receive a greater reward. A classic example of this is a referral program where you offer a referral agent or affiliate marketer a small commission for each lead or sale.

Different options may be more suitable for your business. For instance, if your business is larger and somewhat successful, you could decide to sponsor events, which is a great way to get some extra marketing (think about the brands supported when there is a marathon in the city).

5. Create A Sense Of Urgency

To sell more online in the Philippines may require a sense of urgency; this is an excellent beginner business tip for the Philippines as urgency has been scientifically proven to stimulate sellers to buy an item.

Have you ever seen those videos of shoppers in America on Black Friday? It’s almost like a riot happening inside a mall. Urgency creates demand. This is a well-known fact in every selling industry and is often adapted to help companies drive up sales.

Another example is the famous Disney vault. The Disney vaults are a collection of films and other products that have had their marketing stopped and products recalled. Some indicate that this is a theory, while others suggest this is real. Whatever the real answer is, another example shows that a sense of urgency drives demand.

It’s important not to lie or to try and deceive your customers, as this will often backfire. Still, if you genuinely only have three units left in stock or one-color left, then the demand can increase. In some cases, the demand can result in the item being sold for a higher amount (similar to The Disney vault theory).

6. Offer Fewer Choices

If you are online selling in the Philippines, you may have many product options available. This can sometimes seem like a good idea, but did you know that psychology suggests that it has the reverse effect?

Neuroscientists have proven that we are less likely to make a choice when there are more options. For example, suppose you decided to spend your time visiting restaurants instead of setting up an online selling business in the Philippines. In that case, you will often find that it’s much easier to pick a meal in restaurants with fewer options than restaurants with many different options.

This also taps into the science of creating a sense of urgency. If you have thousands of units in stock with 50 different colors in seven different sizes, why would a customer buy your product today? Instead, it will most likely be available tomorrow or the next day, or the next.

There is often a balance between offering more choices or fewer choices, and ultimately, this will come down to your customers, the demand, and your industry.

7. Offer Several Payment Options

An excellent online selling tip for the Philippines is to offer several payment options. Some Filipinos preferred to pay with Gcash. Others prefer to pay through that online bank as long as you provide a payment service that is suitable for them; it will remove one more hurdle from the buying process.

If you are a local seller (your clients are local Filipinos), offering local payment options is a must. Choosing the right platform, one of our previous online selling tips, is linked to payment options because some platforms can get a cheaper commission rate with certain payment vendors.

8. Find Your Unique Selling Point or emotional Selling Point

What is USP/ESP? A USP is a unique selling point, and an E.S.P. is an emotional selling point. The best kind of product has both a unique selling point and an emotional selling point. This is the same for the best services.

The iPhone has a unique selling point, which is its flawless design and simple navigational structure. However, the iPhone’s emotional selling point is that it is a trendy item and an item that only people with money can buy, and even a phone that the “cool kids” use.

Finding a unique selling point over an emotional selling point will help you massively in the online selling world as this will allow you to market and sell your product to the right people at the right time.

Let’s take our original item of a yoga mat that we mentioned at the beginning. Of course, there may be nothing unique about this yoga mat. It is, after all, just another yoga mat in the market, but what about the emotional selling point? Perhaps a small amount of the cost goes to the Cancer Research charity or the plantation of trees in a local forest in the Philippines.

Start to question the products you are selling. Is there anything unique about your products? If not, is there something emotional that can be a buying trigger?

9. Go Visual As Much As Possible

All successful online businesses spend a considerable amount of time and energy on visuals. This includes areas such as brand awareness, video marketing, or product placement. Therefore, this is a key online selling tip for beginners in the Philippines, as visuals make up a large percentage of buyers’ decisions.

If, for instance, you have a fantastic description of a product but a poor-quality photo, it will likely not be sold. But if we were to flip these situations around and you had a fantastic quality photo, but you have a poor description, then the chances that the item will be sold are slightly higher. Again, this is because many of us are visual buyers.

Another example we used previously was the iPhone. If you visit Apple’s official website right now, you will see a beautiful stunning website with a minimal design and high-quality photos of the iPhone. The description is full, but Apple does not overdo it as consumers will buy through the visuals.

This is also the same principle if you are a small online seller in the Philippines. If you are selling sneakers or baseball caps, for instance, then making sure the background is removed and that the object is on light and the white surface will help your product stand out.

10. Build A Strong C.T.A For Your New Customers

A huge online selling tip for the Philippines is to build a strong C.T.A…..C.T.A. stands for a call to action, and this is what you wish your customers to do at a certain point.

An example could be a simple email. From this email, you could send your customers details about the latest product you have installed with pictures and features of the product, and perhaps some recent reviews. Then at the bottom of the email will be your call to action. In this example, your C.T.A. will often send customers directly to the product so they can purchase the item.

A CTA is an important part of any sales funnel. Therefore, when building your online selling business in the Philippines, it’s a good idea to reverse engineer. In other words, start with a clear action that you want your customers to do (Is it to buy a product?). Then, once you have your outcome start to work backward, this will allow you to plan your call to action thoroughly.

11. Aim To Cross & Upsell At All Times

Have you ever been to Jollibee’s, and they have offered you an extra portion or to upgrade your meal? Cross-selling and upselling is important part of an online selling business in the Philippines. It allows you to maximize your profit and sometimes lower your expenses (if you are delivering).

So what is upselling, and what is cross-selling? With the example above of Jollibee, cross-selling would be to add an extra burger or an extra drink on top of the item you have already ordered. Upselling would be to upgrade your meal to a larger meal.

Both of these strategies work, depending on the item you are selling and the customer. For example, the Apple corporation makes billions of dollars each year, but they make billions more through cross-selling, such as The Apple AirPods.

12. Collect The Contact Details (Data Is Key)

The last online selling tip for beginners in the Philippines is to collect the contact details of possible customers. Numerous software allows you to obtain customers’ details before they purchase an item. This is very handy if they abandon their cart during checkout on your website.

If you are not selling on a website and are selling through social media, then the chances are you will already have their contact details on their Facebook account.

The reason why collecting contact details is so important is that sometimes customers cannot purchase at this moment in time, which is a valuable online selling tip for beginners in the Philippines as it may take several tries until a customer purchases an item.

I decided on this method on my own business when I was a personal trainer many years ago. I went through my Facebook messages of people who showed interest but did not purchase my training packages and asked them if they would like to attend a free session. Many of them attended, which resulted in 6 new clients (approximately 35,000 + pesos extra a month)

Remarketing is an important part of the business. This is why it’s now one of the most popular advertisements on Facebook. Suppose you have ever been on a website before and saw an advertisement on Facebook for that website or company. In that case, this is retargeting marketing, and it is very beneficial in most niches.

How Can Beginners Sell More Online In The Philippines?

After looking at some of the biggest online business tips for the Philippines, it’s time to narrow our focus down to the most important questions, the first being how beginners can sell more online in the Philippines?

Purchasing items online in the Philippines from a consumer point of view can be a new experience, especially for the older generation. Sites such as Lazada and Shopee have made it more accessible. However, as a whole, the Philippines is slightly slower at buying items online compared to other countries.

For instance, The U.K., U.S., Australia, and Europe have a significant online market. The very young to the very old buy products online, even items such as their groceries. This is important because these buyers are repeat buyers and drive up the demand for this service.

This is also partially true for the Philippines; however, The Philippines has lots of options. For example, a quick jeepney ride into the city will take you to markets, 711, many different malls, and so much more. And therefore, many products can already be purchased through those means.

In other words, the key tip for beginners to sell more in the Philippines is to find a unique product and in high demand (unable to buy elsewhere). OR a product that you can sell for a fantastic price.

Finding your winning product is an important step in becoming a successful online business in the Philippines. But, unfortunately, from experience, sometimes the products the business owner thinks will sell do not sell very well, and the item they think is average ends up being their best seller.

How Can Online Sellers Save More In The Philippines?

There are a few different ways online sellers can save more in the Philippines. A popular method is through Dropshipping; however, Dropshipping has become slightly harder over the last ten years. Nevertheless, the process is relatively simple, and just about anyone can start a dropshipping business.

The market is starting to turn to imports and exports. This is where many business owners can purchase a personal product (private label) to resell. Many Filipinos purchase items from Alibaba and export from China into the Philippines (items are often at a crazy low price).

This strategy does have the potential to earn a lot of money, but this strategy relies heavily on the brand’s strength. There are many brands sold in the Philippines that cost very little to make, but the marketing and brand awareness is strong, and therefore, they can make many pesos on each product sold.

In conclusion, one of the best ways an online seller in the Philippines can save more is through importing or bulk buying. There are other tricks in the trade, such as the ones used in drop shipping, that can save unnecessary spending.

Online Selling Philippines Tips: Conclusion

We have gone through many online selling tips for beginners in the Philippines. However, to succeed in the online selling world, your business needs to obtain a few key factors. These factors include demand for your product or service, the trustworthiness of your brand, and credibility.

Starting an online selling business in the Philippines will require the entrepreneur to investigate the market fully. What is being sold, who is it being sold to, and why are the consumers purchasing from them? These are the questions to ask when setting up an online selling business. Remember to make the product and the business around the customers, make the customer’s journey easy and transparent.

A final bonus for online selling in the Philippines would be a clear-cut plan for your business. Filipino wealth has a business plan template that you can download for free with all the information you will need to set up an online business.

It’s always important to do the maths, can you survive without any profit for the next several months? How are customers going to find you? How can you cross-sales to the customers? These are all covered in the free downloadable business template.