UNDONE is a watch brand based on Hong Kong. UNDONE sells watches online with a bulk of their customers being from the United States. In 2022, UNDONE entered the market in Singapore via popular e-commerce platform Shopee and Smart Retail. To enhance this cross-border e-commerce initiative, UNDONE also turned to influencer marketing.
Cross-Border E-Commerce To Overcome Lack Of Physical Presence In Singapore
A challenge UNDONE faced was that they did not have a physical shop space in Singapore. Acquiring a shop would be costly, and thus cross-border e-commerce was chosen as the means of entering the Singapore market. Shopee, a major e-commerce platform in Singapore, was selected as their platform of choice. Online advertisements were run to drive traffic and sales to the Shopee store.
Despite the suitability of Shopee as a platform for cross-border e-commerce, UNDONE nonetheless faced the challenge that customers in Singapore did not have the opportunity to see the watches in the flesh. Watches are products of higher value and shoppers were only more willing to spend on brands that they more familiar with. Competitors in their price range like Seiko, Citizen and Casio enjoyed higher recognition by local audiences.
This meant that while Shopee provided a convenient channel for sales, they needed innovative and effective solutions to help them overcome the lack of shop space in Singapore.
Smart Retail And Influencer Marketing Raise Awareness Among Singapore Online Shoppers
UNDONE needed to provide a way to allow potential customers in Singapore to see and try the watches first hand. The solution was to rent a Smart Retail booth. Financial commitment for rental of a Smart Retail booth was minimal, yet give customers the opportunity for hands-on experience with their watches. Moreover, Smart Retail booth could detect when a person has picked up a (tagged) product and could display video information relevant to the product being examined.
Furthermore, to overcome their branding disadvantage against brand names that were more established in Singapore, UNDONE embarked on an influencer marketing campaign. Influencer marketing is often used by brands to either raise brand awareness amongst the influencers’ followers, or to enhance brand preference. In UNDONE’s case, they engaged Brenda Ng, a local lifestyle influencer with over 27k followers on Instagram to do a video to showcase one of their signature ladies watches and demonstrate the use of their unique and stylish extra-long watch strap. The video also showed audiences UNDONE’s smart retail booth in Singapore.
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