As an entrepreneur, it’s easy to feel the stress and savor the success that comes with the festive Christmas rush. During the most profitable time of the year for most businesses, the holiday season doesn’t have to be something you dread when you have the relevant promotions, the right tools on the right platform, and the best business solutions.
In the latest episode of the online show, “At Your SerBIZ!,” representatives of aesthetic soy candle shop, Lumi Candles and ecommerce giant, Lazada, sit down for a chat with one of the country’s respected business speakers, Francis Kong, to unbox their negosyantips on how to find the right solutions to deal with the holiday rush and manage their operations to stay on top of customer orders.
Lumi Candles’ Business Development Manager, Karre De Leon, demonstrates how a business that started as a hobby stays on top of demanding orders. Lazada’s Head of Business Development and Platform Governance, Sheryll Nito, shares how the leading ecommerce enterprise today plays its massive advantage. Together, they demonstrate that “tuloy-tuloy na success” is the best present you can unwrap when you follow these tips to beat the holiday rush for your business operations and enjoy the festivities.
“Alamin mo ‘yung needs and wants ng customers mo para iyon ang maibigay mo sa kanila,” says Karre when asked about how Lumi Candles lights up its products and services for their customers.
They keep consumer loyalty by ensuring the quality of their products and providing the highest level of service. Lumi Candles offers free shipping and the option to customize bulk orders. They also simplify the return process in order to address their clients’ return-and-replacement concerns in the event that fragile soy candles become damaged during shipment. In addition to Christmas deals, the website also offers Lumi Rewards, which converts each purchase into points redeemable for future discounts.
Lazada strongly encourages merchants to make promotions with a diverse selection of high-quality products to attract customers. With product variety, upgrades, and complete product descriptions, it is always simpler for buyers to browse the store and discover the right product that they are seeking.
Sheryll described how an online store owner must think, “Dapat laging iniisip ng sellers na ‘paano kung bumalik ‘yung customer, ano ang bago sa store ko na pwede nila makita o bilhin?’”
Karre formulates their tried-and-tested approach to online marketing: consistency.
Much like how Santa’s elves work in sync, Lumi Candles team works remotely with digitalized solutions, using a digital planner to keep the team in sync. In terms of marketing, they use a little help from AI websites to deal with consistent copywriting, proofreading, and daily content creation. They also use automated shipping and payment for each online selling platform to keep the quality standards of their services.
Sheryll shares advice about knowing what tools work and upgrading solutions can be a smart investment for growing your business. Using their own logistics and high-tech sorting centers, Lazada vendors and couriers can now deliver packages to buyers more efficiently.
Last 11.11, about 500,000 orders were fulfilled in less than 24 hours, attesting to Lazada’s reliability during the Christmas rush!
Karre believes in hard work and discipline. In every business, a shortage of stock can hinder sales. At Lumi Candles, they work hard to organize their inventories and use information from the previous year’s sales to gauge demand and replenish their stock before the holiday season. They don’t just sell volumes they cannot manage—Lumi Candles allow pre-orders starting from November and give discounts to manage bulk orders ahead of the holiday gift-giving season.
Customer service doesn’t end after payment. Aside from swift responses to inquiries, building trust and loyalty must be the heart of any business. Sheryll shared that Lazada’s vision by 2030 is to embrace 300 million customers, create millions of job opportunities, and empower MSMEs across Southeast Asia.
Their small step starts by encouraging sellers to step up their customer experience. To foster loyalty, expressing your sincerity to customers with quality products, honesty, small freebies, and personalized or customized thank you cards can make a difference.
Open the gift of giving the best customer service for your patrons and the most efficient tools for your business operations. Because it’s the season to learn from successful entrepreneurs, find the best business solutions that work for you, and binge-watch more episodes of “At Your SerBiz!” here!
Starting and growing your own beauty business is both challenging and rewarding when you are faced with the unique opportunity to give confidence, empowerment, and positivity to your customers, on top of providing an effective beauty product.
In the third episode of the online show, “At your SerBIZ!”, two successful entrepreneurs faced award-winning author and speaker Francis Kong, to reveal their top negosyantips on how to effectively manage and successfully grow their beauty businesses.
Both Anna Magkawas and Rizza Lana braved the challenges of the beauty business to confidently claim that “atin ang tuloy-tuloy na success” with these beauty business secrets.
Both Anna and Rizza used their strengths to build the foundations of their operations. They prioritized their abilities and skills acquired from experience in pursuing business goals.
Before Anna started Luxe Beauty, she earned a degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering while operating a “sari-sari store” inside her boarding house. Back then, she knew that she wanted to pursue a business path in Manila instead of taking the board exam. Anna’s determination led her to sell car accessories, photocopier machines, medicines, and eventually, as a call center agent and an online seller of luxury bags. As a salesperson who knows how to market her products, she got the edge to become a persuasive online seller when she dove into live selling.
Rizza was a former hotelier climbing the corporate ladder when her husband encouraged her to make her long-kept business ideas into reality. Rizza’s innate creativity sparked original business ideas which developed into her first shop: a print-on-demand phone case store. From making digital layouts, she further utilized her technical skills, resourcefulness, and advocacy to work on the Lana PH website, its promo materials, and its position to introduce local products that care for the environment and for the Filipina skin.
Anna and Rizza made their presence felt on live selling, the platforms that their customers use. Anna first used a distribution business model where authorized distributors and resellers sell Luxe Skin products. But to expand its reach, she strengthened Luxe Skin’s online presence by maintaining its social media pages, turning live-selling viewers into buyers. Rizza utilized Facebook ads to generate leads, then transitioned to live selling where she advocates Lana’s brand story and purpose to a younger digital-first audience. During online selling on social media, they “flex” and showcase their products through Facebook Live and e-commerce live selling, allowing busy customers to comment “mine” and buy their products in real time.
As they started earning more, they tapped beauty influencers and brand endorsers and cultivated a community to widen their target markets. Rizza pointed out, “Love your community. You have to make sure na sila ‘yung pina-prioritize mo… and always give value to people.”
“Sa dami ng tanong (online), minsan nai-stress tayo pero sagutin lang natin,” Anna explained as she talked about how she maintains exemplary customer service for Luxe Skin. She makes sure that her customers are heard and concerns are immediately dealt with in order to foster strong interactions with customers.
Consistency is the key. “We have to make continuous promotion kasi napakaraming tao sa mundo. Hindi ‘yan makukuha ng isang post lang,” Anna added. By having a consistent posting schedule, Anna’s target market will know when and what to expect from her brand, which is another way to foster brand trust and recognition.
Anna and Rizza let their customers be their biggest promoters with the quality and value their products provide.
“Tayo mismo, brand owners, ang una dapat tumangkilik at gumamit ng sarili nating produkto para makita ng potential buyers na effective ang products,” explained Anna. The businesswoman and vlogger creates rippling effects on viewers becoming customers. Eventually, some customers turn into resellers who strongly believe in her products. On Luxe Skin’s first anniversary, the boss babe marked the occasion by granting awards to outstanding distributors who not only made a huge sale but also helped others to start their own Luxe Skin distribution.
When Rizza started finding out the needs and wants of her customers, she opened up an intimate skincare store called Mink.ph, along with a jewelry and clothing store, while planning for other businesses with foresight on what her customers look for. Later on, her customer base grew exponentially, focusing on a market supporting local products that highlight a zero-waste lifestyle and skin-positive outlook. Today, Lana PH, Mink.ph, and other products are being reviewed and talked about on TikTok and other social media platforms for their quality and advocacy.
Both Anna and Rizza bounced back from their setbacks by hiring wiser people to support them in every big decision. Rizza was scammed out of a total of P5 million three times by different people, while Anna had to deal with the challenges of theft by a former employee amounting to P14 million. From there on, they kept on seeking people who have business knowledge and operations experience that are better than theirs. They listen to them and trust these team players to delegate work over time.
“Kasama talaga sa negosyo ‘yung failure… when we fail, it doesn’t mean that we’ll start from scratch. You start from the lesson that you learn,” Rizza said. She emphasized that an entrepreneur must be humble enough to accept the need to hire people who are wiser than you, “When you start hiring wiser people, matutututo ka rin [from their knowledge] at mapapalago nila ang negosyo.”
Today, they continue to listen to the best people in the industry and work with partners that understand what their MSMEs need. In return, they share the learnings and experiences they get from experience in running their beauty businesses. Join the ranks of these inspiring CEOs and get more negosyantips on how to grow your own customer base with the help of digital solutions from Globe Business. Watch more episodes of At Your SerBiz.
Get access to all our exclusive member-only content
By clicking the sign-up button, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.