Every day, Filipinos spend over 10 hours online, 49.8% more than the global average.
As more and more of people’s daily transactions are made easily accessible over the Internet, today is a great time for businesses to leverage digital marketing solutions to expand their reach and connect with more consumers.
Opportunities in the e-commerce space
Filipinos are conducting their transactions online more than ever—providing a great opportunity for businesses to delve into the e-commerce space.
While consumers are increasingly online in the Philippines, e-commerce transactions are happening at a disproportionately lower rate. In 2018, the average Filipino spent only 0.6% of per capita GDP in the e-commerce space, according to —considerably low for a country with high internet usage.
For start-ups and small-to-medium enterprises, there are more roadblocks to tapping into e-commerce opportunities. Often, these are the businesses operating on lean budgets and in small teams.
Limited resources for start-ups and small to medium enterprises may mean limited testing capabilities, requiring frequent recalibration and review of marketing goals. Businesses must move away from the resource-intensive strategies of running multiple campaigns aimed at different users through the purchase journey and opt for multi-pronged solutions that allow them to achieve multiple goals. To successfully convert leads into sales, businesses need the right partnerships.
The right partnerships
Take the case of homegrown e-commerce platform, BeautyMNL. Established in 2014, this bustling start-up swiftly made its way to becoming the leading online beauty and wellness retailer in the country. Today, BeautyMNL’s catalogue includes a well-curated mix of product that go very much beyond cosmetics. Since their inception, the brand has expanded its catalogue and diversified its product line, carrying hundreds of brands. By providing its trendy clientele with everything they need across beauty, wellness, health, lifestyle, and fashion, they have established a loyal customer base.
As BeautyMNL finds more success, the brand continues to grow with a strong focus on becoming “advocates of appreciating one’s own personal look” and sharing expert-guided knowledge along with a wide assortment of products.
And, the brand’s efforts to expand its business is only beginning.
BeautyMNL’s strategy on Facebook capitalized on automation and scale through a two-pronged campaign. BeautyMNL aimed to improve the brand’s visibility and boost sales.
The e-commerce player made use of the format and in a singular campaign and test ran it on April 2019.
The campaign began with BeautyMNL’s catalogue of all their products being uploaded to Facebook. Dynamic ads helped highlight products by automatically pulling relevant products from the catalogue, rather than using manual conversion campaigns to re-engage people that had shown interest in the products beforehand. This worked well with the collection ad format, where a hero video with product slides was shown to people who previously viewed the same products. The campaign mainly targeted potential customers—people who browsed products but didn’t buy them.
Furthering their reach
For this local start-up, a return on investment is crucial for each marketing campaign they run. BeautyMNL’s partnership with Facebook generated an overall 38% lift in purchases (compared to organic lift) and an 18-point lift in brand awareness (compared to their previous campaign). Making efficient use on Facebook they were able to convert interest in their products to more sales and also increase the awareness about the brand.
BeautyMNL has made great strides in solidifying its position in the e-commerce space and is a great example of how to successfully scale and automate campaigns.
Facebook’s marketing products and solutions can help businesses of any size reach their target audience more effectively. Through smart solutions and insightful collaborations, smaller businesses can maximize their budgets and reach their goals. With the right digital partner, any business can be prepared to take on the world.
Read more about this success story .
Digital 2019 by Hootsuite & WeAreSocial, pg 40
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