Tips #1 Just Do It

There are so many tips and tricks to successfully run online store. I'm planning to share a new one (or more) out each week as time permits. If you have any tips to share jut drop me an email at akmal@lot.my. Here is the first tips.

For all those who have long been thinking and researching and planning to start an online business but haven't entered the ecommerce world yet, now is the time to do it.

Don't hesitate, stop procrastinating and planning, get started and you'll learn more about your brand and your customers in months than you would do otherwise in years.

"Cari ilmu dan juga perbaiki perniagaan kita along the way. Tak perlu tunggu sampai segala-galanya 100% perfect!" - Irfan Khairi

The forecasts for ecommerce in 2010 look good. Projections indicate that ecommerce will continue to grow even if the economy hasn’t yet fully recovered from the downturn. This can be attributed to many factors but all of which point to the same conclusion: this is a good time to start a profitable online business. If you’ve got an income opportunity home based business idea, don’t just sit on it – start a profitable online business now!

Make 2010 the year when you actually keep to your resolutions by making resolutions which will bring real, genuine, tangible rewards so you are celebrating your online store's success this time next!

How to Add Malaysian Bank in Your PayPal Account.

As I wrote earlier, you can now use your Maybank, CIMB Bank or other local bank in your PayPal account. This enabled your Lot.my store to accept direct credit card or bank transfer online via PayPal.

In this post, I'll provide step-by-step guide on how you can link the local bank to your account. If you don't have an PayPal account yet, register here.

1. Login to your PayPal account as usual, under the My Account tab, go Profile and click Add/Edit Bank Account.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Now, in the Add a bank account in Malaysia page, please fill in the bank details as follows
   
   
   • Country of bank : Malaysia
   • Surname : (automatically filled)
   • Name : (put your first name, don't worry so much, PayPal didn't do cross check with the bank)
   • Bank name : (click the *details link to get your bank name and code)
   • MEPS bank routing code : (check the *details link)
   • Account number : (your account number)
   • Re-enter account number : (same as above)
   
   *Make sure you put the correct Bank name and MEPS banking code. If the code is wrong, you money will be ended up some where else.
   
   
   
   
   Once done, click the Continue button.
   
   
   
3. A review message with the information you just entered will be
   displayed. If everything correct, hit Add Bank Account button.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. A confirmation message will appear next and now you're done!

PayPal Includes Malaysian Banks

This is not new but I've been receiving several question regarding PayPal in Malaysia. Near the end of 2009, PayPal announced the expansion of its services in Malaysia with the introduction of support for payments in Malaysian ringgit and a new bank withdrawal feature that enables members to transfer money from their PayPal account directly to a Malaysian bank account.

Yes, now we can link our local bank with the PayPal account. As you can see from the snapshot below, taken from the PayPal site, Malaysia is now on the Send. Receive. Withdraw. category.

Meaning, now we can use local bank to receive and make payment via PayPal. Lot.my allows PayPal transaction, thus you can now receive payment directly from your customer either via Credit Card or Direct Bank Transfer. Life is just getting easier huh.. :)

Here are the list of bank that has been PayPal enabled.

1. Affin Bank Berhad
2. Alliance Bank Malaysia Berhad
3. AmBank Berhad
4. Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad
5. Bank Kerjasama Rakyat Berhad
6. Bank Muamalat Berhad
7. Bank Of America
8. Bank Simpanan Nasional
9. CIMB Bank Berhad
10. CitiBank Berhad
11. Deustche Bank
12. EON Bank Berhad
13. Hong Leong Bank Berhad
14. HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad
15. Malayan Banking Berhad
16. OCBC Bank (M) Berhad
17. Public Bank Berhad
18. RHB Bank Berhad
19. Standard Chartered Bank Msia Bhd
20. The Royal Bank Of Scotland Berhad (RBS)
21. United Overseas Bank 

If you don't have PayPal account yet, register here.

Update:  How to add Malaysian bank in your PayPal account.

How to Get Started with Lot.my

1. Signup
   
   This step is the quickest. It just took me 5 seconds to finish it. To signup, please click
   here.
   
   Make sure you entered all the details. Remember, your email must be valid as all the information will be sent to your email. Once done, just click the Sign-up and start Selling button.
   
   Congratulation. You've just created your online store. Wasn't that a breeze? Please remember the important link as shown in the image below. The same information is also sent to your email account.
   Now, to manage your new store, just click the button Login and Start Selling Now. It will bring you to your admin page.
   
   
2. Setup Account and Store
   
   Now you are in admin page, to enter, just put in your password and click Login.
   
   Once login, for the first time, you can see the basic guide on how to setup your store. You just need to finish all the items to get your store ready.
   
   First setup your account details. Just go to Setting > Account. Make sure you put your first name and last name here. In case you want to change your password, please do it here. Else just leave it blank.
   
   Then, you need to setup your store. Just go to Setting > Store. Here you could add header, pick theme, put store description and more.
   Great, now you're one step closer to selling online.
   
   


3. Gather Product Information
   
   If you're planning to open your online store, I guessed you may have this information ready. Just make sure you have all the details of the products like the description, price, model, etc. And make sure you have photos of you product. The more the better as Lot.my allows you to add as many product photos as you want.
   


4. Add Product
   
   Once you ready with your product details, just head to the Product tab at the top. Since you're new your product list will be empty.
   
   To start add new product, just click the Insert button. There are many tabs and you can choose to fill all the fields or just the required ones (with *)
   
   Continue to add all you products and once completed. You can see it available on your online store.
   
   You can also create categories for your product but that is optional.
   


5. Check Shipping
   
   Now you need to check the shipping options in Setting > Shipping. As default we set flat rate for the shipping cost. You can always change it as you want. Either it flat rate, per item, weight based or even for free. It all your choice. To enable the option, just click the Edit link.
   
   
6. Check Payment
   
   To check the payment option, just go to Setting > Payment. Same as the shipping, we've created a default payment for new store. It's is Cash. And you always can change it to Bank Transfer, via PayPal or etc. To change just click Edit.
   
   
   
7. Walla!
   
   Done! Wonderful isn't it. Now it's time to invite the customers in!
   

Blog vs E-Commerce, Mana Satu Terbaik?

This article was first appeared in wangcyber.com

Sekarang ni ramai yang nak cari duit kocek lebih, maklumlah, zaman gawat, harga gula pun dah naik dua puluh sen. Antara cara paling mudah nak cari duit poket lebih ialah dengan berniaga secara online. Namun bagaimana cara untuk membangunkan kedai online sendiri? Seringkali saya ditanya, guna blog atau e-commerce? Kali ini saya akan cuba berkongsi kebaikan dan keburukan bagi kedua-dua pilihan ini.

Kelebihan Blog berbanding E-Commerce

1. Antara kelebihan utama menggunakan blog ialah kerana ia mudah dan murah dibina. Malah anda boleh menggunakan perkhidmatan blog percuma seperti wordpress ataupun blogspot. Tidak seperti laman e-commerce, anda mungkin perlu bebelanja ratusan dan ribuan ringgit untuk mengupah pembina laman web membangunkan laman e-commerce anda.
2. Pembangunan blog tidak mengambil masa yang lama, dalam sehari anda boleh membangunkan perniagaan anda. Ia mungkin mengambil masa berminggu-minggu jika anda menggunakan e-commerce.
3. Bagi perkhidmatan blog percuma, terdapat ribuan template yang juga boleh digunakan secara percuma. Pada masa ini, anda boleh mendapatkan template blog yang sangat cantik dan menarik seperti di sini atau di sini.
4. Antara kelebihan lain blog adalah kandungannya yang mesra enjin pencari menyebabkan mereka lebih cepat dijumpai dan diindek oleh enjin pencari seperti Google dan Yahoo berbanding e-commerce. Kebanyakan laman web e-commerce hanya menyenaraikan produk dan ia memerlukan kerja tambahan bagi menjadikan ia mesra enjin pencari. Bagi blog pula, terdapat banyak plugin yang membantu memperbaiki SEO laman blog tersebut.
5. Laman blog percuma selalunya diupgradekan secara automatik dari masa ke semasa. Ini sangat penting bagi memastikan blog sentiasa mengikuti perkembangan teknologi semasa. Ia juga penting bagi mengekalkan keselamatan blog dari diceroboh.

Kelebihan E-Commerce berbanding Blog

1. Blog tidak dibina untuk tujuan perniagaan. Oleh itu, buat masa ini, tiada cara khusus bagi pemilik blog menerima sebarang tempahan secara terus. Kebanyakan tempahan di terima secara manual melalui email. Berbanding blog, laman e-commerce direka dengan menepati kehendak perniagaan internet. Oleh itu tempahan, pembayaran, dan penghantaran lebih mudah diuruskan. Bagi pengguna blog, modifikasi perlu dilakukan (seperti pengunaan plugin WP-e-Commerce) untuk pengguna wordpress.
2. Walaupun pengguna blog boleh melakukan modifikasi dalam blog mereka, ia bukan lah cara yang optimum. Rekabentuk dan pangkalan data blog bukan dibina untuk tujuan perniagaan. Oleh yang demikian, kemungkinan besar ia tidak dapat menampung transaksi yang banyak bagi sesebuah kedai online yang mempunyai banyak produk dah pelanggan. Sistem ecommerce moden seperti Magento dan OpenCart dibina bagi memenuhi kehendak perniagaan internet
3. Bagi e-commerce, anda tidak mempunyai masalah untuk melihat laporan perkembangan perniagaan anda. Kebanyakan sistem e-commerce dilengkapi dengan pelbagai laporan bagi memudahkan anda memantau perniagaan anda. Malah terdapat sistem e-commerce yang dilengkapi dengan sistem perakaunan, CRM dan inventori.
4. Laman e-commerce juga membuatkan perniagaan anda nampak lebih professional. Ini mungkin hanya satu persepsi, namun bagi berjaya di alam siber, persepsi juga memainkan peranan yang penting.

Kesimpulan

Blog atau e-commerce? Terpulang kepada anda, jika anda hanya memiliki beberapa produk, anda boleh menggunakan blog untuk membangunkan perniagaan anda dengan mudah, murah, dan cepat. Tapi sekiranya anda mengutamakan fungsi dan sistem yang lebih efektif bagi mengurus perniagaan anda yang lebih besar, saya cadangkan anda menggunakan sistem e-commerce.

Alternatif Lain

Masa kini, sudah terdapat sistem hybrid yang menggabungkan sifat mudah, murah, dan cepat blog dengan sistem efektif e-commerce. Saya jangkakan ini merupakan masa depan perniagaan online. Sebagai contoh, sistem tempatan Lot.my membolehkan pengguna membina kedai online mereka semudah membina blog. Sistem sebegini dipanggil SAAS atau Software As A Service. Di luar negara SAAS untuk e-commerce menjadi salah satu pilihan bagi membangunkan kedai online.

We're open! Create Your Online Store in No Time..

I'm happy to tell you that we've just open Lot.my to everyone. Now anyone who like to open an online store can instantly create one for free by simply by visiting Lot.my and click on the "Create Your Online Store for Free Now!" button (alternatively, just click here.). After you create an account, we will instantly send you an email. We suggest reading the email to get it set up quickly and correctly. And in no time you'll have your online store up and running like a pro.


We also have prepared same brief description on Lot.my. You can start by having a brief tour and the check why you should use Lot.my over any other services. If you know the details of what we offered, you could check the long and growing Features List. We also prepared a demo page for you to play around.

So, why wait, jom start working on you online store and start selling now! Should you have any question, feel free to shoot us an email at tanya@lot.my.

Welcome 2010!

We would like to say goodbye to 2009 and welcoming the new year of 2010. Today is the 1st day of the 2nd decade of the 3rd millennium!

For us 2009 was a very exciting year. We're working day and night to develop the Lot.my. And we hope the 2010 will be more exciting as finally we're going to see Lot.my kicking and functioning! We'll let you know about it on our next post. As for now, enjoy the new 2010 and hope this year will be a great one for all of us!

Happy new year!