US retail giant Walmart has officially announced buying a majority stake in the biggest e-commerce platform in India, Flipkart. The Walmart and Flipkart deal, valued at $16 billion, represents the latest move by the US company to compete head-on with Amazon.
Walmart and Flipkart deal details
The deal ends 19 months of talks between Walmart and Flipkart. Walmart said it would initially purchase a 77 percent stake in the Indian firm and invest $2 billion in fresh capital into it. The two firms said they will continue to talk with other investors about potentially purchasing a stake, which means Walmart’s shareholding in Flipkart might be reduced.
Flipkart is the current market leader in the Indian e-commerce platform although Amazon’s new India site is giving it a run for its money.
Walmart and Flipkart deal: Who wins?
Still, the Walmart and Flipkart deal is considered a landmark for the burgeoning internet industry in India. This is perhaps the first time that an Indian internet start-up has received a huge valuation from a US firm.
Many of Flipkart’s employees, including its investors, will get a lot of money from the deal. Co-founder Sachin Bansal, for instance, will become an instant billionaire when he sells his entire 5.5 percent stake.
However, many observers are not sure of the benefits of the deal to Walmart. While the Internet population in India is rapidly growing, the number of people who shop online is still not that huge.
Walmart has always been known for its physical stores. It has tried several times to cross over to e-commerce and challenge Amazon, which is the undisputed leader in the US.
Walmart and Flipkart similarities
Like Walmart, Flipkart has dealt with several challenges as well. In 2013, it faced the entry of Amazon in India. Amazon infused more than $5.5 billion into its Indian firm and offered extra features like Prime video streaming.
More and more females are getting into entrepreneurship. In fact, 4 out of 10 new entrepreneurs in the United States are women. Many of these new merchants are millennials who are making their mark on the e-commerce field. But what lessons can these successful online female entrepreneurs share with people who also aspire to make it on their own?
Here are some key lessons from the stories of some successful online female entrepreneurs:
Success tip #1: Tap into influencer marketing
These days, online entrepreneurs don’t have to sign up a big-name celebrity to promote their products and services. Tapping influencers is a more practical approach. Amanda Thomas, founder of online-based Luv Aj, has built a huge business by tapping influences that include models and singers. Thomas says she doesn’t discriminate influencers based on their social media following. She says an influencer with 50,000 followers can be just as effective as one with a million followers on Instagram.
Success tip#2: Sell on Instagram
Many people think that Instagram is simply for showcasing the latest offerings of an online store. But it should also be considered and utilized as an online selling platform. According to Thomas, her online store has used different ways for her Instagram followers to buy jewelry. For example, an Insatram post can be tagged to a product directly synced through their Shopify store.
Success tip #3: Use digital tools/platforms
Ecommerce platforms like Shopify can enable anyone to sell goods to any person in the world. Take the case of Mehera Blum, the founder of Blumera which sells luxury handbags, shoes, jewelry, and ready-to-wear. Blum uses Shopify as her e-commerce platform, allowing her to sell anytime, anywhere.
Shopify makes it easier for Blum to connect to her customers as she can focus more on customer service. She cites that Shopify also allows her to provide her customers with more product options taking into consideration their buying history.
Making money online is a great skill but when you’re actually making money, what are the signs that you are rich?
Top five signs that you are rich
We want to show you what rich life looks like and serve as an anchor point to understand what aspects of your life could be improved. The world looks at the rich differently and well, some, marvel at their achievements but some vilify them. Those who are poor never look at how real fortunes are built, and most of them think that it has everything to do with luck or illegal things. But that’s not true because more and more people are making the financial leap by innovating and contributing to the world.
So what are the main signs that you are rich, that your “Shopify money” is making you a substantial amount of wealth?
1) If you were to stop working you could go more than one year (without affecting your lifestyle)
We all know the importance of money saved up or smartly invested before. The clear sign that you are doing well with your store is that if something bad happened and/or you couldn’t work your lifestyle wouldn’t be affected by it. Usually, beginners work for money (like everybody else) but wealthier c-commerce owners are able to outsource a lot of the process that is involved in making sales and maintaining their e-commerce, os they basically have their money working for them. The smarter you manage your store the more secure your reality is. So the rich e-com owners could stop working all together and never go broke because of how well they structured everything. Do you agree on the first of the signs that you are rich?
2) You think that earning 250k a year isn’t a lot of money
Everybody wants to get to that “paycheck” until they realize that quarter of a million isn’t that much. Someone might be shocked by this but earning 250k a year isn’t that much money. Of course, things can vary depending on which country you live in. Why It’s not that much? Well, after paying for personal expenses and paying all your taxes you are barely left with anything But you might get smart about it and place into an investment portfolio, or directly reinvest it into your personal e-commerce business that gets you a solid ROI.
3) You don’t feel stuck
Do you feel like you can leave every time you want, and you’re in charge of your life? If yes then you are probably rich! One of the major benefits to be financially secure is that you have options. Unless you want to your days can look different. And you don’t have all that “being stuck feeling” eating you from the inside.
Comfort is appreciated but being too comfortable takes away from your inner nature to improve and constantly move forward. You feel like the world is yours for the taking and hell yea you’re coming after to everything the world has to offer. Let’s check other signs that you are rich
4) You are confident that you could start over and things would work out
This is when you really know you are rich because your success is no more dependent on circumstances or environment.
You as an individual are worth a lot. Your knowledge, your skill set is improved so much that even a dramatic change and the need to start over from scratch could not stop you. Yes, it would be a hell of hard and time-consuming, but you know that you will still get it.
People usually underestimate the importance of investing in their self(eg. learning how to do Facebook ads ). A few know that this kind of investment usually pays the best interest.
Once you know how to make money that knowledge doesn’t go away.
5) You aren’t motivated by money alone
This is one of the greatest signs that you are rich…
One of the beautiful things about being rich is that money doesn’t control you. You want it but you don’t need it. Because of this subtle differences, you can do what you truly like and have more free time for it.
If you are rich the cha-chin sound of Shopify doesn’t sound that good anymore if you can’t build a legacy from it. You have now the power of helping others and a great impact on the world before you are gone.
Alibaba, the Chinese-ecommerce giant, is stepping up its investments in Thailand as the competitiveThai e-commerce market is expected to further heat up in the coming years.
Alibaba founder Jack Ma recently met with Thai prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and signed several agreements, including one that would set up a digital hub. The project is dubbed the Eastern Economic Corridor and will facilitate online trade between Asian countries such as Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and China. Reports indicate that the said project will also serve as a research and development center for the Chinese e-commerce giant.
There is no word yet on how much Alibaba is investing in Thai e-commerce. However, Thai media is reporting that Ma’s company will invest more than 10 billion Thai baht in the said project.
Thai e-commerce to become competitive
The Thai government is also expecting Alibaba not only to make the Thai e-commerce market more competitive, but also train their entrepreneurs and small merchants in the ins and outs of e-commerce as well as in setting up an online tourism platform.
Ma and Prayuth allayed fears that the growing involvement of Alibaba in the Thai e-commerce market will only increase Chinese influence in the country and not benefit Thailand.
In a news conference, Ma said Alibaba will not occupy Thailand nor take away jobs. He emphasized that the e-commerce giant is only interested in enabling entrepreneurs and e-commerce partners in the Asian country.
Expanding beyond Thai e-commerce
The move comes in the heels of Alibaba’s recent announcement that it was investing $2 billion in the Lazada Group, a regional online retailer. The Chinese firm had gained controlled of the said firm in 2016.
US e-commerce giant Amazon has also been making moves to expand operations in Southeast Asia, a region that’s rapidly growing in terms of purchasing power. Home to more than 600 million people, Southeast Asia has an expanding e-commerce sector as well.
E-commerce has affected countless industries, including traditional ones like automobile. The automobile industry is also seeing a change in the profile of its customers with millennials slowly emerging as the top buyer of cars. It is only appropriate that the automobile industry adapt best practices in online marketing to reach out to more customers and maximize their earning potentials.
Millennials are predicted to make up 40 percent of the automotive market by 2020. However, automotive firms still struggle to satisfy consumer expectations especially of the younger buyers. According to business research firm, L2, only four brands— Tesla, Ford, GM, and Hyundai— have online shopping tools.
According to Google, the following are the best moments for the automobile industry to engage a prospective buyer:
Thinking of which automobile model to buy
One study has shown that six out of 10 car buyers have no idea which model to buy. Automotive brands, thus, should be clever enough to produce videos that can highlight the strengths of their car models and perhaps encourage prospective buyers to get these.
Contemplating if automobile model is appropriate
Once a potential car buyer has identified a car model to purchase, he or she would likely contemplate on whether the said model is the right vehicle to procure. It is during this stage when the buyer will look into other practical considerations such as number of seats and security features.
Determining whether the automobile model is within the budget
Obviously, the buyer will have to consider his/her budget.
Shopping where to buy the car
While Millennials do most of their shopping online, they naturally want to visit a dealer to see the car. In fact, this is the reason why the search phrase ‘car dealerships near me’ has been used extensively since 2016.
Checking if they are getting a good deal
Finally, Millennials want to check if they are getting a good deal before actually buying the car.
How can you promote a product? Here there are some tips you can apply.
Let’s get directly to some of the best advice on how to promote a product
You’re at the helm of a young and successful Shopify store or e-com business. Your products are great and customers love it. So you have the product, the platform (Shopify) but you don’t know how to market and sponsor your product. What you need is a killer promotion, a plan and multiple ways to be able to promote your amazing products.
But before watching at multiple ways to promote a product you need to optimize the back end: a promotion strategy
Optimizing Your Promotion Strategy
Always aim to increase demand for your product. Prior to anything, find out a way to optimize your promotions in order to create a greater demand for it. How? Increasing brand awareness and creating a community around your brand is crucial. Bonuses, special offers, flash sales are also great ways to make customers crave your product.
Regardless of the path you take, keep your end goal in mind: You want to make your customers want your product.
Best ways to promote a product
Giveaways
Giveaways can be an extremely easy and flawless marketing approach in order to promote a product launch. This tactic is also time efficient and time-saving. But why it is so powerful? Everyone loves to receive gifts and free stuff in general. Therefore giveaways can produce a lot of (good) rumors around your brand and also a lot of interest
“While giveaways have their drawback of attracting people with little interest in your company besides the free goodies, the strategy itself is one with immense potential especially if you create your sweepstakes with clear objectives and requirements.
Forbes
Create a Facebook campaign
Create an amazing campaign on Facebook before the actual conception of your product. A teaser campaign sends a message to the social media world that something exciting is about to happen. Even if you do not end up creating the exact product you have originally hoped for, you have probably developed relationships across social channels, giving you a great opportunity to take the launch process to an entirely new level.
If you ship packages you may know why shipping times are so important.
But Now let’s give a look at the “big scheme” in the world of packages.
International shipping has become such an everyday part of our lives that we often don’t even think about how packages end up at our front door.
In reality, international shipping is a complex process with many moving parts and a history that is directly tied to the rise of aviation.
People buy a lot of things online and as a result, 7.4 billion packages travel around the world each year, arriving in a few days and sometimes in a few hours too.
This means that on every given day over twenty million of packages travel around the world. Who ship this packages? How do they travel?
Major companies like FedEx, local post services, DHL, and Amazon.. they fly above us in the sky and pass on the highway.
How to Ship Packages faster than everyone?
Yes, you guessed it by the title of the image.
Epackets are powerful for drop shippers and let me explain why.
If you do dropshipping with Shopify you will probably use Aliexpress. WHat’s the problem with that?
Shipping times are obnoxiously long and often clients ask for a refund or a chargeback. You can avoid all this with just $1. Yes, that’s how much ePackets costs. So with just $1 you can decrease dramatically shipping time. A decrease from 1 month to 1-3 weeks is a huge advantage over your competition.
By doing that you will also dramatically reduce the number of mad customers, refunds, and chargebacks.
Golden Nugget:
ePacket is the key to a faster and better shipping experience. But we can tell you that there is a better way to ship packets.
This is how you can ship packets to your clients faster and more efficiently than nearly everybody else.
What you have to do is combining ePacket and shipping zone.
Let’s consider a scenario. You want to sell watches and you are form the USA. so you feel comfortable selling in your country
In order to combine these two options, you have to choose items with ePaket and that have warehouses in the country you want to ship to.
By doing that you reduce shipping time by having a extraordinary advantage over your competitors.
Competiotion is good only when you beat competition.
Discover the best ways to optimize SEO and rank up on google searches
Planning First of all
As you create content you want to pay special attention to keywords that you are targeting. You may have reached the top of the rankings but you have to pay particular attention in order to maintain the current ranking or position.
What you need to focus on are the search queries that yield the highest total traffic. To determine which keywords are most important and which ones can be left to competition, look at the traffic data for different search queries using Google Analytics or Google’s Webmaster Tools program.
Stay updated
If you’re in SEO you have to stay updated. It’s a field that is constantly changing. If you are capable to jump from technique to technique you have the possibility to outrank your competitors giving you an incredible result. This is the best way to optimize your SEO.
Check monthly or even better weekly on SEO related sites and watch and observe updates on google ranking algorithms. If you notice evidence of a new way to optimize SEO apply it. Why? Because there are good probabilities that other sites won’t update their SEO.
What to do?
Google suggestions keyword are extremely useful before. To check good keywords we can use keywordKeg.
Let’s start by entering our root keyword that in this example will be “sneaker laces.”
Just as an example, I noticed that various searches use brand modifiers like Amazon, eBay… We want to add those keywords to our negative keywords for further clean-up results
As you can see there are a big number of keywords that are material specific and that include various product that we don’t have the intention to sell. Therefore we will exclude those keywords too.
This “strategy” allows us to niche-dow with our keywords.
We want now search keywords per monthly search volume. By doing that we understand how much popular these keywords are
Two US consumer giants—Amazon and Walmart—are prepping to bankroll the next phase of e-commerce warfare in India, home to more than 1.3 billion people. Amazon has recently pledged to pour in more than $5 billion to further expand its business in India. Meanwhile, Walmart has acquired the largest e-commerce store in India, Flipkart. All these developments point to a very competitive Indian e-commerce scene in the next decade.
Indian e-commerce developments
According to Bloomberg, Walmart will acquire up to 80 percent of Flipkart for a value of $12 billion which could raise the value of the Indian firm to $20 billion. Last year, it was valued at $12 billion after landing a $1.4 billion investment from various firms like eBay and Microsoft.
It is said that Amazon tried a last-minute move to acquire Flipkart but the latter’s founders favored dealing with Walmart instead.
Indian e-commerce growth
It is not surprising that these two fierce rivals are doing these things. After all, India is not only one of the most populous countries on the planet. It also has an emerging e-commerce market. A report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India predicts that India will have half a billion Internet users by the middle of 2018. Internet penetration is mainly concentrated in the urban parts of the country. Morgan Stanley believes that the Indian digital market will be worth $200 billion by the year 2026.
The increased focus of Walmart on the Indian market comes in the heels of its exit from the Chinese market two years ago after it sold Yihaodian service to JD.com. Walmart worked closely with the Chinese e-commerce giant by using JD.com as a storefront for reaching out to Chinese customers.
Amazon has also not made secret its plans to diversify. It recently announced having more than 100 million Amazon Prime members globally and cited the growing number of members in India thanks to the intensive promotions it conducted in the said Asian country.
Alibaba is one of the biggest e-commerce firms in the world. It is two times more profitable than Amazon, serving more people than those who live in North America. It is believed to generate nearly $550 billion in annual sales, which is more than the online sales in the US. With its size, it is not surprising that many American firms want to sell their products on Alibaba.
Alibaba accused of sabotage
However, a recent story by the Associated Press raises questions on the integrity of the Chinese e-commerce giant. Quoting industry sources, the AP mentions the story of a top US clothing brand which agreed to sell its products on Alibaba’s Tmall platform.
However, the firm didn’t sign an exclusive contract with Alibaba. Worse, it also took part in a big promotion with Alibaba’s fierce rival, JD.com.
In return, Alibaba was said to have ‘punished’ the US firm by cutting traffic to their storefront. Two executives from the US firm also accused Alibaba of removing banners from prominent areas in Tmall sales showrooms. Moreover, its products were prevented from appearing in top search results.
As a result, the well-known US brand had its Tmall sales dropping by 20 percent for the year.
Other US firms have accused Alibaba of doing the same to them. According to AP, five big consumer brands were also affected by low sales after refusing to enter exclusive contracts with Alibaba. Three of those are American firms which have billions in yearly sales and were looking to grow further by expanding their online business to China.
Alibaba denies accusations
Reached by the AP for comment, Alibaba denied the charges of unfair play. It did, however, said that exclusive deals are a typical industry practice.
The accusations may affect Alibaba’s attempt to expand its business outside of China and Asia. Founder Jack Ma has said he dreams
that his company will serve 2 billion people by 2036.
