Highlights from Savour!’s 5th Webinar - Let’s Talk Social Commerce
On 13 December, Savour! concluded its 5th webinar on the Social Commerce space in Singapore. It was an honor to have hosted 3 seasoned panelists who represent different voices in the social commerce space has touched on the following key topics:
Experiences doing social commerce as merchants, group buy leaders and live streamers
Opinions towards trends and opportunities in the social e-commerce space
Advice for businesses and individuals looking to go into this space
Here are some key Takeaways from the session:
Wouter Ducyk - Co founder and CEO, Zenko Superfood
Q: How did you incorporate social commerce into Zenko 3 years ago?
A: Zenko Superfood continues to try to innovate healthy products and we are in control of our entire supply chain and farmers. Physical events are important as they are useful in explaining the snacks and letting customers try their products. COVID-19 happened and forced us to tap into the power of social commerce to explain our products better to customers. A lot of preparation, marketing and collaborations with strategic partners are needed to do livestreams and webinars. Savour!’s idea of doing livestreams with IG influencers is a great idea.
Q: What are your thoughts on changing consumer demands?
A: Zenko has a strong physical footprint, but we are trying to adapt. But my team is luckily young and is proficient in social media. We need to continue to stay curious and keep adapting. We must adapt to the fast-changing world with new technologies. It’s great to see Savour! promoting products via livestreams and group buy.
Jasmond Heng - Head of Business Development, Farm Grocer
Q: Can you tell us more about what you do?
We are a healthy snack shop and we mainly distribute our products to supermarkets and on online shopping platforms like Lazada, Shopee, etc. We created our own website to sell our products and promote our products in online stores. In the past, customers used to not trust online stores. This perception changed when I moved to America, where I observed a lot of people purchasing products from online stores like Amazon. When I came back to Singapore, I invested in online stores and depended on third party platforms for their services in exchange for commission. During the pandemic, we did even more online selling.
Q: In terms of incorporating social commerce trends, how do you incorporate them into your platforms and what do you plan to do in the near future?
A: We depend on Shopee a lot. Our brand is well-established, and we still do distributions there. Online shopping is the trend now and we believe that it will be still ongoing. We were B2B before. Now, we sell products directly to customers (B2C). It is good to digitalise businesses just like how Savour! helps in promoting our brand.
Q: What is one key social commerce trend that is changing the industry right now?
A: Creativity. We need to be more creative with branding especially when online marketing. Making videos for TikTok requires a lot of creativity.
Erick Chandra - Group Buy Leader
Q: What inspired you to be a Group Buy Leader?
A: I wanted to build a habit of sustainable consumption. As a university student, I adopt a thrifty lifestyle. Sustainable foods are usually expensive whereas Savour! sells discounted products that are also sustainable. For example, the Hao Di Lao self-heating noodle hot pot is usually x dollars. But Savour! sold them in bulk a cheaper amount, making it a very attractive deal to get a hold of. Other than that, it also fits my personality. It’s ingrained in me to only buy discounted products and I am keeping this habit because I am a GBL. Being a Savour! GBL gives a good balance to live sustainably while living on budget.
Q: What is it like being a GBL?
A: As a GBL, you need more customers to place bulk orders with Savour!. Luckily for me, there is a Telegram group chat for SUTD students residing in the hostel. It was easier to collate orders from there especially during Circuit Breaker when seniors created the group to buy food since students cannot go out to eat. Being a GBL also means that I get to meet new people and I enjoy talking to new people. One of the challenges of being a GBL is that it is hard to pick up heavy boxes of snacks and store it in my room during distribution. Some people forget that they ordered and so I have to contact them to pass their snacks.
Q: Who usually buys from GBLs?
A: Usually students that reside in university hostels, not just friends.
Q: How do GBLs play a huge role in the social commerce sector?
A: People like me who want to buy sustainable products will not prefer buying them in small quantities since it’s more expensive. Group buy leaders need to hit Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ) to get free delivery. This not only motivates people like us to buy more products but to live sustainably.
For those who missed it, don’t worry! For more insights and experience shared by the panelists, watch our recording here.
Lastly, we want to thank all participants who attended our webinar and we hope you have gained some insightful knowledge to achieve your goals in the social commerce space. We'd also want to extend this invitation to anybody interested in getting involved in the social commerce space by reaching out to Savour! via email (team@savourapp.co) for collaboration opportunities.
We have a myriad of opportunities available for you as a merchant or as an individual. You could join Savour! as a group buy leader / livestream host or collaborate with us as a merchant who is interested in taking part in our group buy or livestream initiatives.
To check out and participate in Savour!’s groupbuy initiatives as a customer, visit here: https://www.savourapp.co/group-buy/
To view and purchase things from Savour!’s e-commerce livestreams as a customer, watch it here:https://www.instagram.com/savour.sg/channel/.
We hope you have enjoyed the informative session! See you at our next webinar!