Perhaps you might not have heard of SHOPLINE, a Hong Kong based e-commerce platform founded in 2013. However, with the recent explosive growth of online shopping, SHOPLINE has rapidly expanded into a competitive force in the Asian e-commerce industry. They’re credited with the creation of over 350,000 online stores. What exactly makes it so good, and why should you use it?
In this article, we’ll explain what SHOPLINE does, and how its variety of features can help your business to grow.
What is SHOPLINE?
SHOPLINE provides merchants with a platform to build their online store using their proprietary drag-and-drop website builder. As a result, merchants need not have deep knowledge of code in order to design and build a store.
SHOPLINE operates on a SaaS (Software as a Solution) model. Meaning, you only need to pay a monthly fee to host your website on their servers. Their team also provides support for any technical issue you may encounter on their platform.
Below is a basic summary of SHOPLINE’s plans and their pricing:
| Plan | Description | Price |
| Free Trial | 14 day free trial of features | Free |
| Starter | For e-commerce startups, no-frills online store | USD$29 per month |
| Essential | Basic necessities for small e-commerce businesses | USD$69 per month |
| Premium | For larger businesses, it provides the most features | USD$259 per month |
For more information, check out their detailed pricing list here.
SHOPLINE’s Best Features
SHOPLINE has a variety of exclusive features that sets it apart from the competition. We list some of them below to hopefully give you an idea of what this platform can offer.
1) Livestreaming on Social Media
A livestream is an excellent way for you to interact with your community. Your store could present limited products on camera while engaging with your audience. It’s a surefire way to get their attention and possibly persuade them to buy your products.
SHOPLINE integrates streaming on two of the most popular social media platforms — Facebook and Instagram.
I. Livestream app
SHOPLINE offers you a convenient method of streaming – your own mobile device! With their handy livestreaming application, you can start a livestream from anywhere. There’s no need for any expensive equipment. The app also displays comments and allows you to edit featured products, prices and inventory on the fly. Hence giving you the ability to manage the stream conveniently.
II. Multi-streaming
Engage multiple audiences at once! With the application, you can stream and retrieve comments from Facebook Live, SHOPLINE live, and other supported streaming platforms at the same time. Moreover they can all be conveniently managed from the dedicated admin panel in the store backend.
III. Livestream ordering
Allow customers to make orders during a livestream through chat! Using the admin panel, you can set products to be featured during the stream, then associate a keyword to them. Now, customers need simply comment “keyword +1” to add one of that specific product to a personal shopping cart. Thereafter they just have to proceed to check out.
IV. Live performance review
The SHOPLINE livestream application allows you to review the performance of your live stream. They contain important metrics such as viewer count, number of products added to cart as well as a handy summary of all ordered products. In addition, all inventory changes are synchronised in real time with your account. Therefore you don’t have to keep track of inventory manually.
Streaming can be a powerful tool to market your products to your audience. Your business could take advantage of this feature too with a SHOPLINE store plan.
2) Message Centre
It’s essential for customer satisfaction to manage their enquiries in a timely manner. But even with a team of dedicated staff, it can be a tall order indeed especially if you have a larger business.
Fortunately, SHOPLINE has got you covered with an all-in-one administrative panel to make answering customers a breeze.
I. Centralised message platform
Administrators can manage all inbound messages from supported channels, from a single admin page in the backend. Examples are Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Whatsapp, Telegram, and more. Additionally, queries to customer service from the main store website will be displayed on this admin page as well.
II. Message templates
Managing frequently asked questions can be tedious. Instead of manually typing out repeated answers, SHOPLINE includes a way to save messages to be used for specific queries. Thereby allowing for faster replies and more efficient conversations overall.
III. Automatic customer profile
When communicating with customers, SHOPLINE will automatically fill out information provided in the chat. Admins can then correct the information given. This profile is then saved in the database in the event that the customer wants to make a purchase or contact the store again.
IV. Instantaneous checkout
Sometimes customers may decide to enquire about the products. This can be a golden opportunity to sell them these products on the spot, without the hassle of the usual checkout process.
SHOPLINE provides instant checkout page links that representatives can send to customers, with products, delivery, payment methods and discounts all preconfigured for their convenience.
V. Facebook comments
Facebook comments under store posts can also be managed from the panel. Customer representatives can reply directly, or saved messages can be sent in reply automatically.
Effective customer management will improve your reputation among your audience, making them more likely to return in the future.
3) Customer Relationship Management
The relationship between a store and a customer is key, and keeping them happy is a priority for many businesses. Turn one-time customers into loyal fans with SHOPLINE’s suite of customer loyalty features.
I. Wishlist features
Most e-commerce platforms come with wishlist features for customers to save their favourite products. SHOPLINE is no exception. Customers can add products that are out of stock, or pre-order incoming products, and can move them to their cart at any time.
II. Membership tiers with exclusive pricing
Reward your customers for their loyalty! SHOPLINE provides stores with a flexible 5 tier membership system that is easy to configure and deploy. Customers are encouraged to make purchases, with every tier offering bigger and better rewards.
III. Store credit system
Store credit can be used in purchases to offset the cost customers have to pay. This will incentivise them to return to spend them on your store. SHOPLINE allows you to reward loyal customers with welcome credits, purchase credits, or even credits on their birthdays!
IV. Stock notifications
Customers can subscribe to products that are out of stock so they can receive notifications about their availability. Hence this increases the likelihood of them returning to make the purchase.
By using positive reinforcement techniques through loyalty rewards, customers will definitely visit your store more often and be more likely to spread the word to others.
4) SHOPLINE Payments
Inconvenient checkouts are a leading cause of abandoned carts shopping carts. A checkout process that is too complicated will sour a customer’s mood, and they may simply choose to buy from another merchant. A majority of these issues are caused by payments that failed to process.
Getting your e-store to support every form of payment out there, from credit cards to digital payments, can be nigh impossible. Fortunately, SHOPLINE’s in-house solution, SHOPLINE Payments, is an integrated platform to manage all of the payments. From orders and refunds of your store it saves you the trouble of dealing with 3rd party payment platforms.
I. Credit card support
SHOPLINE Payments supports Visa, Mastercard, American Express and UnionPay as well as the major credit card companies. The transaction fee rates differ according to the SHOPLINE plan that you’re on. For the cheapest plan, it’s 3.20% + SGD 0.50.
II. Other payment methods
Currently, SHOPLINE Payments also supports FPX online banking, Atome, E-wallets such as GrabPay, as well as debit and gift cards. This ensures a majority of payment methods will be accepted.
III. Fraud protection
SHOPLINE Payments boasts an AI detection algorithm to detect potential cases of credit card fraud. If a transaction is deemed to be potentially risky, 3D verification will be applied to the transaction to secure it.
An efficient and secure avenue of payment that requires little micromanagement can take a large burden off your shoulders. It is entirely worth the fee, allowing you to focus on more important business matters. Find out more on their website.
Conclusion
SHOPLINE is very much an e-commerce platform that is still in development, but even so, the features on offer at this point are promising, and the development team likely has many more in the works. We definitely recommend SHOPLINE’s platform for your business.
Even so, you might still need a capable agency to help you with custom design, business strategy and advisory, technical assistance and content strategy. eFusion Technology provides leading SHOPLINE implementation and development services for businesses. Contact us today!
