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Countries in Southeast Asia were formerly best known for attracting holiday-makers and globe-trotting backpackers from around the world thanks to the huge number of gorgeous beaches, variety of exotic cuisine, and the low costs associated with exploring the region. In recent years, however, the area that includes Myanmar, Brunei, Cambodia, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam has been dubbed a “high-priority strategic region” thanks to several factors that make doing business in this region look more and more attractive as the world economy continues to develop and shift.

While there are various pros to trading in this corner of the globe, there are also some cons that an up-and-coming business owner should consider before deciding to set up shop in the region. Let’s take a look at some of the advantages of trading in this region.

Robust and Growing Economies

Trade in this region is assisted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN); a regional grouping whose aim is to promote political, economic, and security cooperation among 10 of the 11 countries in Southeast Asia. Since its formation, ASEAN has gained importance as a trade bloc and it is now recognized as the third-largest in the world.

ASEAN is responsible for the cancellation of all import and export duty taxes on items traded within the 10 member countries as well as several free trade agreements entered into with other Dialogue Partners, namely Japan, China, India, the Republic of Korea, India, New Zealand, and Australia. These agreements have played a role in allowing for economic growth and development that is expected to exceed the global average for the foreseeable future. In 2019, the estimated total gross domestic product (GDP) of the ASEAN region was approximately 9.34 trillion dollars, a significant increase from previous years, which is reflective of the thriving and expanding economies of the member countries.

Ease of Doing Business

Thanks to the efforts of the World Bank, who created the Ease of Doing Business index, and the Doing Business project, it is easier than ever before to make an educated decision on where to set up your new business.

According to the 2020 Doing Business index, in terms of starting a business, three out of the 10 ASEAN countries rank in the top 25 with Thailand ranking 21, Malaysia ranked at 12, and Singapore coming in behind New Zealand in second place. This score comprises several factors including the time required to set up the business, the number of procedures that need to be followed, and the cost and paid-in minimum capital requirements for small to medium-sized businesses to both start up and then formally operate. It is also indicative of what challenges business owners can expect in these areas.

Now for some of the disadvantages of setting up shop in this part of the world.

High Cost of Living in Developed Cities

The cost of living in one of the most famous cities in the ASEAN, Singapore, can prove one of the biggest cons to trading in this area. A sovereign island city-state, Singapore has gained infamy for being one of the most expensive cities to live in globally thanks to a tendency towards high rent prices, high monthly utility bill costs, and high cost of education for expats who often choose to enroll their children into international schools rather than the subsidized public schooling system. While it no longer tops the list of most expensive cities to live in, an honor given to Hong Kong, it does rank number five on the global list and leads the Southeast Asian region by a huge lead.

Hiring Challenges

One of the biggest hurdles in setting up a business in the ASEAN region is the challenge of hiring skilled labor, as each region in the ASEAN has their own set of oftentimes strict regulations concerning employing foreign resources.

Finding the right team to grow your business is essential but, thanks to companies such as New Horizons, one of Asia’s leading corporate and HR administration specialists, business owners don’t necessarily have to live in the country they wish to trade in to run a successful business. New Horizons, which can be found at nhglobalpartners.com, allows businesses located around the world the ability to hire staff and embark on various business-related tasks in Singapore without having to set up a legal entity in the region, which costs money, time, and commitment. Taking charge of the legal responsibilities relating to employing staff in Singapore, the employer of record (EOR) becomes the primary employer of your new employees on paper, ensuring that your business is compliant with the day-to-day regulations regarding local labor laws as well as other general HR practices.

Setting up a business in any part of the world, including your hometown, comes with its own set of challenges. However, if you are looking to expand to a global audience, you could do a lot worse than the ASEAN region which not only boasts a booming economy, but also gives businesses access to an estimated 622 million consumers.

If your retail business doesn’t already have a strong online presence with an e-commerce website to increase your sales channels by offering an online purchasing option, you might be falling behind the times. You should strongly consider starting an e-commerce store, particularly given the rate at which e-commerce sales and their market shares are increasing. Here are some pro tips to get you started.

Spend Time Understanding Good Web Design

The very first thing you’ll do when you create an online store is to actually build your e-commerce website, and that means you need to know what exactly goes intocreating a well thought out, easy to use, customer focused and engaging website. Your online store is your showroom and according to studies, your potential customers aren’t going to give you more than a few seconds of their time to grab their attention.

Spending time understanding what will make a success when you do create online store fronts is going to take some researchand looking at the competition to get an idea of what you should be aiming for. If you want some of the design heavy lifting done for you, then you should get started herewith the Wix Ecommerce website builder that offers many great templates and hosting at affordable rates. Using a builder will make this part of your e-commerce journey much easier and let you focus on other things.

Offer Free or Cheap Shipping

Shipping is a major decision point for many consumers who purchase online. Being able to get free or cost-effectiveshipping means they’re more likely to make the purchase. You also need to consider your biggest competitors like Amazon with their Prime program which offers free shipping. If you can’t at least come close to matching this, potential sales might be lost to another e-commerce store that does offer free shipping. If free shipping is prohibitive because of your margins, consider offering free shipping if customers make purchases over a certain value, as this will incentivize higher total spends.

Give Your Customers Many Ways to Pay

Don’t just offer a standard payment method like a credit card at checkout. Add as many ways for your customers to pay as possible.Offering checkout options like PayPal is essential if you don’t want customers to change their mind last minute at your checkout page. Consumers like PayPalbecause it offers them protection against online purchases and offering a few checkout options means that everyone visiting your store will find a convenient way to pay for their purchase.

Embrace Social Media

Whatever your personal feelings aboutsocial media are, it’sundeniably a very powerful way to advertise and market your products, whether by traditional adverts orgetting involved in the world of influencermarketing. Many consumers, particularly younger customers, who often have more disposable income, report having made purchases online purely thanks to a trusted influencer that they follow and admire showcasing a product.

Use Promotions and Discounts

Everyone loves a good deal and if your online store isn’t taking advantage of this, then you’re missing out. Display specials and promotions prominently and offer incentives to purchase or increase the total spend. Displaying prominently what your customer could save or benefit from, and how they do so, like a 2 for 1 sale, will drive incentive to spend money on your e-commerce website. You could create a loyalty program that rewards returning and frequent shoppers too, which will serve to increase customer loyalty. Both options are effective in different ways and using a combination of these is your best strategy to make promotions and discounts work for you.

Add a Blog to Increase SEO Effectiveness

Search engine optimization is a complexsystem of rankings that the big search engines use to determine in what order websites appear in the search results when a user performs a search for something. Many different factors contribute to this algorithm-based display order, with one of the most effective and biggest determining factors being relevance to the search term. You can increase your search relevance by adding a blogto your website where you can add short articles relating to your products. Offer your customers advice and solutions andmake these blog posts informative and useful. Not only will this increase your SEO effectiveness, but it will mean users will spend more time on your website to read your blogs, which in turn can be a conversion to sales.

Offering online sales means offering your products or solutions to a new market you might not have had direct access to before, and that can only mean an increase in profits if you do it correctly. Understanding the e-commercelandscape and what is offered by the competition can help you decide how to create your online strategy, as can following some of the tips presented here. No matter how you do go about it, don’t hesitate any longer in getting your online store up and running!