Hong Kong retailers turn to staff-run online shops to boost sales hit by protests, Covid-19 pandemic
- Platforms like Boutir and Shopline that enable vendors to set up and run their own online stores have seen a big surge in business in recent months
- The nascent model enables sales people from a particular vendor to individually set up their own online stores selling the company’s products
Hong Kong retailers, hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and last year’s social unrest, are turning to platforms that allow their sales people to set up their own online shops to rescue their business.
This nascent model of online commerce allows sales staff from a particular vendor to individually set up their own online stores selling the company’s products. They can earn commissions on the products they sell, but the profit still goes to their company, which controls pricing and delivery.
It particularly suits traditional retailers of higher value products whose customers usually buy only after trying them out at their stores and take weeks to decide, according to Eric Ng Ka-ka, co-founder and CEO of Boutir.
The five-year-old Hong Kong firm has helped over 85,000 merchants set up online shops via its mobile app.
“For traditional retailers, it is not easy to deviate from their entrenched practices, but due to the retail slump, many have been forced to try new methods,” he told the Post, adding it is close to signing up a major cosmetics retailer.
Around 70 per cent of its merchants are from Hong Kong and the rest mostly from Southeast Asia.
Some are well known brands such as health and wellness products distributor OTO Bodycare and its strategic shareholder Mabelle Jewellery, but the majority are small and medium-sized retailers.
“Our merchants do not need to use complicated computer programs, they can start an online shop with a mobile phone app, simple enough even for my mum to do,” Ng said.