Along with the rapid growth of ecommerce in the SEA market since 2020, we have seen many ecommerce players in marketplaces like Shopee & Lazada ride the wave. There are many prospering brands growing along on the marketplace, with only a handful of them also invested in building their brand.com store.

Our brand partner, Dasher, a homegrown distributor of lifestyle gadgets like Xiaomi and 70mai with thousands of orders every day, is one of the brands that decided to grow a new sales channel by launching dasher.my, an ecommerce store built on Shopify by our team. There is no doubt that marketplaces will still capture a big portion of the revenue, but hear us out on why we think investing into your own website will be a more sustainable way to grow your brand in the longer run.

Why is it important to have your own website? 

1. Grow & nurture your own customer base.

• Marketplaces like Shopee/Lazada provide limited access to your customer database, email address being the most important data left out. Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to increase the lifetime value of your customers and having your own ecommerce store allows you to utilize this channel. Shopify supports seamless integration to amazing email marketing apps such as Klaviyo, SMSBump and Wati.io that are perfect to stay connected with your existing customers post purchase. We have seen brands introducing member specific perks, informative newsletters, feedback cycles to build good customer relationships & and keep their eyes from wandering to your competitors.

2. Reducing reliance on marketplaces and their ever-increasing costs

• They say to always put your eggs into different baskets when it comes to risk management for your business. Having your brand presence and sales solely on marketplaces gives these platforms significant negotiation power over you, be it the campaign exposure, transaction fees, restrictions to certain Stock Keeping Units (SKUs), or even the ranking of your products when searched.

3. Gain control over your customer’s browsing experience

• It is common knowledge that cross-selling and up-selling are incredibly effective strategies to increase your average order value. With your own ecommerce store, you’ll be able to control what your customers see. One of the pain points of selling on marketplaces is their recommendation engines often direct users out from your store, to your competitors’ products. 
• Having your own website also allows more leeway to customise your landing pages according to your brand guidelines, or build a database of interested customers before you launch a new product.

“Z21 is very professional. The team understands data well and executes with good strategies. Overall working together with the Z21 team to achieve our goal is very productive.” - Wei Kheng, Co-Founder of Dasher