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!

[astarplin]

Hello iam Astaria Shaine from Jakarta.. I want to ask about Fashion Online Business as iam still newbie and selling online so slow and i almost desperate 😞

I want to ask to Anurag Avula as 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.)

After i struggle in online business fashion locally, im thinking try to sell to neighbour country ( becoz i think nowadays is global already, but the problem i have got is about fee transport to move the product to sell it, competitive price.. After i calculate, this is not easy to do coz after move it, the product price become expensives and i dont have any idea how to solve this selling becoz transport too high expensive... Any share for this..

Thanks and regards,

Tari

[Shopmatic · Accepted solution]

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@astarplin wrote:

Hello iam Astaria Shaine from Jakarta.. I want to ask about Fashion Online Business as iam still newbie and selling online so slow and i almost desperate 😞

I want to ask to Anurag Avula as 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.)

After i struggle in online business fashion locally, im thinking try to sell to neighbour country ( becoz i think nowadays is global already, but the problem i have got is about fee transport to move the product to sell it, competitive price.. After i calculate, this is not easy to do coz after move it, the product price become expensives and i dont have any idea how to solve this selling becoz transport too high expensive... Any share for this..

Thanks and regards,

Tari

---

Hi Astaria. Your question is indeed a very valid   one. Usually cross border sales are the most rewarding and profitable for sellers. Most customers are happy to pay for the shipping charges that they will pay for products that are unique to the seller. In our case, we have negotiated rates with our shipping partners that transfers the benefit of lower pricing to our customers. There are also other innovative forms of Shipping that are very cost effective compared to the traditional forms of logistics.

[OEYP]

How do I build trust and attract customers for the segment of my business which allows my customers to receive edited/proofread versions of their work before they decide how much they would like to pay (at which point I send them a PayPal email invoice)? Thank you in advance for your words of advice. Our Edit Your Price <a href="http://www.aedsico.com" target="_blank">www.aedsico.com</a>

[GlutenfreeSG]

Hi Experts!

I've recently started a new venture with two other partners. Our eCommerce store focuses on the sale of food products like candies, cereals, beers, etcs. We have an increasingly large list of SKUs, and are staring to have some difficulty keeping track of everything.

We have started with using Shopify's in-built inventory system to keep track of stocks, but as we are also selling B2B, these orders do not go through Shopify's system. As such we have both Shopify as well as an external Excel file to keep track of stocks.

Now as you may know, double work has a high chance of resulting in human error. Do you have any suggestions on how we may streamline this process and make it more productive for us?

[realcc]

Hi All,

I would like to ask a question to Rachel Chan, director of Eggsplore. It is quite interesting to know more about Eggsplore business in Web Design & Development. As we know, there are many companies out there offering the same service like Eggsplore. Why did you go into the business you currently own? How did you differentiate yourself from competition?

Many thanks.

Kind Regards,

Andreas Kurniawan

[RachelChan · Accepted solution]

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@realcc wrote:

Hi All,

I would like to ask a question to Rachel Chan, director of Eggsplore. It is quite interesting to know more about Eggsplore business in Web Design & Development. As we know, there are many companies out there offering the same service like Eggsplore. Why did you go into the business you currently own? How did you differentiate yourself from competition?

Many thanks.

Kind Regards,

Andreas Kurniawan

---

Hi Andreas,

I've started working as a web designer for a sports event company 10 years ago. I did what I know best which is Web Design and Development in the mass participation sporting industry. 🙂

Agree with you that there are many companies out there doing web design. My niche is in supporting sports events website & registration which has its set of unique requirements & funtionality. I have a bigger vision than just to serve our client's needs. I wanted to grow the sports community in Asia through LIV3LY. This industry is emerging and many startups want to organise their own event. The seasoned event organisers are constantly finding ways to attract participants to their event yearly.

Other than a strong database of runners that LIV3LY have, we provide appropriate advise to our clients on what make the best race experience, what do participants look for in a race, how to prevent and manage complaints from the participants, etc. Most importantly, we take over their load to manage online registrations and payments. I believe our clients appreciate the added value service that we provide, not just a system provider per se.

Thank you for your question!

Yours sincerely,

Rachel

[irene_83]

Here's my question.since we had a tough competition in garment bussiness,do as you,as the CEO of your company,Dressabelle,mr.jeremy khoo,how could you be on the way or still on the way to be on TOP?inspite of those competitive brands,whats the difference of your company to them?☺

[SG_User]

We are very excited about the possibilities ever since we heard of the aquisition of BrainTree by PayPal. How have the synergies panned out post acqusition and translated into new features for online business merchants?

[127]

HOW I CAN GET THE AD CRDIT

[PayPal_Luna]

Hi 127,

You can get the ad credit by asking insightful, interesting and relevant questions to our panel of experts. The T&C for the giveaway can be found here.