tiểu luận topic developing a marketing strategy for a b2cecommerce platform competing with tiki

However, this e-commerce landscape is dominated by Tiki, Shopee, Lazada and they make the biggest challenge to acquiring and retaining customers in a crowded marketplace.“The Second”, ou

DA NANG UNIVERSITYUNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS

Da Nang, 12/2023

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

II INTRODUCTION

III.MARKET ANALYSIS AND COMPETITION

1 Market and competitors 2

TABLE OF FIGURES

Figure 1: E-Commerce Sales of Retail in Vietnam (%) 3Figure 2: Search "Second hand" on Tiki 6Figure 3: The second's brand identity 8

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I EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Vietnam's e-commerce market is booming, expected to reach $60 billion by the year 2030, according to Statista (Statita, 2023) The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and technology has a profound impact on the purchasing behaviors of Vietnamese consumers However, this e-commerce landscape is dominated by Tiki, Shopee, Lazada and they make the biggest challenge to acquiring and retaining customers in a crowded marketplace.

“The Second”, our ecommerce platform, only focuses on second-hand fashion like Clothes, Shoe, Bag, and Accessories and see distinct attributes of these products like low price, quality and environment protection as the assessment to attract customers The platform's exclusive focus on second-hand items allows for stricter management of the product Along with specialization, “The Second” also has the first-mover advantage in this sector, where almost no kind of this product on Tiki, a strong factor contributes to the viability of the platform Cope with threat comes from likely new rivals and well-known platform focus on this field by quickly penetrating and occupying as much as possible

With a mission focused on environmental protection, “The Second” uses green as the signature color and uses this characteristic as the “lodestar” for every marketing activity Provide variety promotion programs to be a leader quickly Focus more on online marketing, target a young demographic and use popular social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok Collaborate with KOLs, celebrities to optimize theperformance Content focuses on the low price, quality and environment protection aspect of products, identifying the keywords for the SEO Offline strategies include leaflets, organizing events and experience programs, use recycled materials for leafletsand others to reinforce the mission of “The second” Continuously update market changes, innovate, and apply new technologies to maintain the position in the market.

II INTRODUCTION

Expected to reach $60 billion by the year 2030 (Statita, 2023), The e-commerce landscape in Viet Nam see a rapid growth, especially after covid-19 pandemic this type of business is more and more popular However, the vast market is characterized by the dominance of well-established competitors like Tiki, Shoppe, and Lazada, so it is not easy to “step food” into this fierce market Know that, "The Second '' only focuses on a niche market by specializing in second-hand fashion items to be a pioneer in this unique segment.

To achieve this goal, this report aims to provide a comprehensive marketing strategy for "The Second" our B2C e-commerce platform, positioned to compete with Tiki, an established platform in the vibrant e-commerce market in Vietnam.

III MARKET ANALYSIS AND COMPETITION1.

Vietnam's e-commerce market is currently experiencing rapid growth and is regarded as one of the most rapidly developing internet economies in Southeast Asia According to Statista, the market value of e-commerce in Vietnam will reach $60 billion by the year 2030 The nation's expanding digital population and rising internet penetration which has contributed to the success of e-commerce By 2021, more than 70% of people will have had internet access, with a significant share using mobile devices Vietnam has seen a steady increase in the number of online shoppers in recent years, with over 57.6 million users expected by 2022.

Established in March of 2010, Tiki started as an online store offering English books in March of 2010 After extending its business model beyond books in less thantwo years, Tiki's extensive product range caters to diverse demographics They've invested in robust logistics, warehouses, and reliable delivery partnerships, ensuring swift order processing and promotions like flash sales, discounts Their user-friendly app and website enable easy browsing, product search, read reviews and purchases.

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The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on the purchasing behaviors of Vietnamese consumers, particularly with regards to shopping Various categories of consumer goods within the e-commerce sector witnessed significant growth during this duration The prioritization of safety and convenience has resulted in a surge in online shopping among Vietnamese consumers (Statita, 2023)

About e-commerce market trends, Vietnam's booming e-commerce industry and beneficial regulatory changes are driving the country's growing adoption of digital payment methods Popular digital payment providers in Vietnam include MoMo, ZaloPay, and GrabPay have the most substantial growth Expanding 4G coverage and affordable mobile internet drive the country's swift e-commerce adoption in the Vietnamese e-commerce landscape (CR, 2023)

Vietnam's E-commerce landscape is dominated by Shopee, Lazada, Tiki, Sendo… These strong brands hold trust and recognition among buyers, attracting a large customer base and building platform reliability and security.

A new platform will face the challenge of acquiring and retaining customers in a crowded marketplace It's difficult to establish a strong brand and trust for a new platform To compete with established platforms, one must provide exceptional customer experiences, communicate clearly, and use strategic marketing It takes careful planning to offer competitive pricing and maintain profitability To ensure sustainable growth, a new platform needs to thoroughly investigate cost structures, competitor's pricing strategies, and market dynamics.

From key insights gained from analyzing Tiki with the booming e-commerce industry, if a new platform wants to gain the opportunity, must locate niche markets ornew products to specialize in and diversify the market in order to draw in customers and set themselves apart from rivals Gaining a competitive edge may involve making investments in effective last-mile delivery networks, forming alliances with trustworthy logistics companies, and providing quicker and more reasonably priced delivery choices

IV PRODUCT DESCRIPTION1.

Nowadays, the consumer market in Viet Nam tends to use quality items with quality, affordable prices, trendy, and environmentally sustainable, especially young people – The generation who lead the consumer trends According to Data from Boston Consulting Group 2020, secondhand goods bought online through platforms take more than 50% of consumption (Filippo Bianchi, 2020).Therefore, we will provide a platform for customers that sell secondhand goods.

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Our marketplace is called “The Second”, belongs to the fashion industry and uses green as the main color for the interface We will focus on selling second-hand items such as shoes, bags, clothes and accessories.

We provide customers with a product search and filtering system in which the product information we provide is relatively detailed and divides specific items into each product group From there, we will return to customers an intuitive, easy-to-use interface In addition, there is also a team of support staff to solve problems for customers.

Secondhand items sold on our e-commerce platform are proposed to customers atan affordable price while still ensuring product quality We will focus on customerswho have low to medium incomes to help them save money but still buy the productsat good prices compared to buying new items, even luxury items.

According to current consumption trends, consumers, especially young people,have a great interest in sustainable consumption, reuse and recycling andenvironmental protection That is why we will focus on products that are suitable forthat trend When buying goods on our platform, consumers will lease the consumptionof new items so it can reduce the effect on the environment through the productionand shipping of these new products

According to Boston Consulting Group Approximately, 40% of secondhandshoppers strongly agree that variety is a key driver Based on that it will offer a widevariety of unique items that may not be available in regular retail stores This willmake our platform different from other platforms It allows customers to find uniqueitems that are suitable for them (BCG, 2022)

a) Feasibility

“The Second only focus on second hand so we can manage them more strictly ”

than other e-commerce competitors like Tiki which have a wide variety of items such as books, electronic items, cosmetics, and houseware, with customers with different shopping needs, they may have some troubles in managing goods that sold on e-commerce platforms and their customer support policies Therefore we may have an advantage in providing specific strategies and goals for our goods to improve product quality, customer service and reputation.

Another point we can highlight here is that the direct competitor of the second, TiKi, almost does not have this kind of products on there-commerce platform So we can have the first-mover advantage when we can catch this chance to be a leader of this field It will have a variety of advantages for the first platform to come to this field like capitalizing the image of our platform, and the loyalty of customers for long-term orientation.

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Because we are the first in the market to specialize only on the second hand, we are strict on the quality of items at a low price, and provide detailed photos to choose the good size And the most special thing is that we promote environmental protection, really important because we earn the belief of our future customers With this, customers will love “The Second” and this one bright spot shows that The Second will be successful We know that customers will need each item to be unique, high quality and with an effective cost, with our platforms, each customer can find what they need.

b) Potential risks and mitigation strategies

So, our potential challenge is the likelihood that other platforms similar to “The Second” appear And we can’t know that if some long-standing platform will focus on this field, to avoid this potential risk we will make a lot of effort to quickly penetrate into the market and be the leader of the ecommerce second hand platforms And for this, it’s important to have a good marketing strategy to appear faster on the internet

Also, the problem is to not convince customers to trust in your platform, our plan for this is to share the good ranking and highlight all our qualities, as stated before to gain customers trust quickly.

The e-commerce platform brings many benefits like it’s faster to research clothes with a photo, just with one click for your good even thousands of kilometers away However there are some weaknesses like we should add our information on the website (name, address, payment card…) and it can be very dangerous for “The Second” The difficulties are to correctly choose the size, if it’s not a good one, we should return the package and it’s long and costly So we have to provide very detailed information about the product It is a bit hard for second hand items comparedto other products

V MARKETING STRATEGY1.

For a successful business campaign, a detailed marketing strategy is crucial By knowing that, we had initiated a marketing plan that we believe will facilitate us in ourgoal to be a leader in the second hand field Currently, environmental protection is oneof the issues that people are really concerned about, so we define the mission of “ The Second” as “Bring back a clean world for the community” and use the environment protection as a “lodestar” for every marketing activity.

Because of this we decided to use green as our signature color for all marketing activities to emphasize the message of eco-friendly and create the uniformity between the offline and online strategy Moreover, to optimize the brand recognition as well as promote the mission of “The second” we also have the slogan “never refuse to reuse” for it.

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“The Second” is an e-commerce platform so we will focus more on online marketing compared to offline marketing By using the online way, we can take full advantage of social platforms Post a lot of images about our product on our social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok This online marketing also helps us to build a two-way communication between us and our customer.

The number of users on these social networking platforms is very large plus the features on these platforms can help our customers interact with us about the quality of the product If interactions increase, “The Second” will also attract more customers.We will also have promotions and discounts to quickly penetrate into the market and make sure our goal to be a leader comes true.

Our target customers are mostly young people, nowaday these people are really influenced by KOLs, celebrities To optimize the performance of online marketing, wealso collaborate with these people.

a) Content

Our products are second-items and our target customers are people who have a low-budget and want to protect the environment From this appearance, our keywords for the content, for instance, are “low budget”, “second-hand”, “environmentally friendly” By knowing this, we will evaluate, develop and then make content about our products like writing blog, posts, images, videos,…, after that we will post it on our social media channels to popularize our product and attract more customers.

b) Search Engine Optimization

From identifying the keywords for our content marketing strategy, we can also optimize another marketing plan, which is SEO marketing For example, having defined our keyword and our target customer, we can optimize titles, descriptions, andtitle tags with target keywords and the customers can easily find “The Second” when

Although “The Second” does not focus on offline marketing, we will also use this method, offline marketing includes many activities like leaflets or organizing an event… By using leaflets, we can increase our brand awareness and also customer acquisition.

Organizing an offline event is also our optimal choice The element of the marketing plan that we organize many events to attract customers will let the customerevaluate the quality of the product themselves and this will have the most significant impact on attracting and retaining customers In addition, we also have product experience programs so customers can evaluate the product in advance and they can return the product if they are not satisfied with it We care about our customer experience, so ensuring product quality is our priority

Our leaflets and product packaging manufactured from recycled materials such as old newspapers, will use green as the main color to convey our message of “environmental protection” to the customer Moreover, our event will also use green to emphasis on message of “The Second”.

VI CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The B2C market in Vietnam is growing very quickly because of the development of technology, especially after covid-19 However, this market is occupied by many long-standing platforms like TiKi, so it is difficult to penetrate, so to set foot in this market “The Second” will bring a platform that focuses on a niche market of second hand things, a segment where TiKi almost does not have this type of product here

“The Second” based on the unique characteristics like low price, quality and especially the environmental protection characteristics to be able to differentiate from competitors Thereby improving the likelihood of success of the platform Focus on a niche market to be a first-born platform in the second-hand fashion sector provides thehighly likely to succeed.

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