Building A Brand

By June Ramli

It has been two weeks since I updated this column. To be honest, I have been struggling with writing this column as there has been very little to no movement in me onboarding my items onto a reputable website for selling purposes.
At the moment, I am still at a loss as to where I should sell my merchandise both LazyBum Skincare and Blitz Hair Spray Oil and this is causing me immense stress.
You see I do have a website that is up and running but I still haven’t been able to sell anything yet because I believe people are scared to put their credit card numbers on a relatively new website.
That is why I need to partner up with someone big or a relatively up and coming eCommerce website. I don’t mind paying them a commission on a sale of an item in exchange of being able to sell on their platform and they look after the shipping and all the marketing costs for me- yes, I am talking about social media marketing and the works.
And that is why I am now at a crossroads- it is because all the cold messaging that I have done on LinkedIn have not borne any fruit and now I am unsure what else to do.
I need to act fast because my merchandise comes with an expiring date.
I can’t hold on to the stock forever. My only consolation is that the stock has a super long shelf life and it has been stored in the correct place but man I need to test this idea out fast.
The last time I created a product was a bespoke Batik lingerie line in Malaysia before my move to Australia and a dear friend of mine had helped me with a lead into getting my merchandise into Zalora– one of the largest e-commerce marketplaces in the Southeast Asian region.
She, and I along with several other friends used to go clubbing in Malaysia, but it was a chance meeting at a nail salon at Bangsar Village that led to my products being onboarded onto Zalora. It is safe to say that if I hadn’t met her on that fateful day at the nail salon, I wouldn’t have had my products on Zalora at all. My products have since been removed from Zalora since moving here to Australia- a move that I regret till this very day.
Next, I attended two back to back Australian Made Campaign webinars in the last two weeks. One was to look at ways on how onboard my products into the Singaporean market and another one on onboarding my products onto Tmall.
The Australian Made Campaign is offering all its licensees free participation in onboarding their products into Tmall and Alipay but places are limited and they have the right to choose who gets into this program.
At the moment, I am waiting to hear back from them on whether my application was successful or otherwise. I hope I get in. Till my next update. Be well.

Editor’s Note: You can now download our app on the Google Play Store or the Apple Store, or write your next best selling novel with our sister app Toolis, available on the Apple Store and Google Play Store or purchase something from us at www.tapiroo.com, yayaezzy.com or at lazybumskincare.com.au. Also, check out our rate card and media kit here if you would like to advertise with us on this website. Thank you!