Says JENNY KIM of Auction.ph, "Our consumer traffic climbs as more and more people become aware of online buying and selling."

By simply equipping themselves with a personal computer and an Internet connection, more and more merchants are discovering that doing business online is an efficient, safe, and hassle-free way to market their products.

In the Philippines, in particular, online merchants are now fast turning cyberspace into an online shopping mall, selling most everything from balloons to cellular phones and concluding thousands of transactions in the relative ease and safety of their living rooms, office cubicles, or even of specialty coffee shops.

Take the case of 24-year-old Joether Santos of Manila. When he decided to pursue post-graduate studies earlier this year, he badly needed money and he needed it fast. The beginning of the school term was less than a week away but he was still woefully short of the funds he needed for his tuition.

That was when he decided to sell his motorcycle online. He took photos of it, uploaded the images onto his laptop computer, then posted them on his web log along with a price tag and a short description. In just two days, he got the P30,000 in cash he needed to enroll for his post-graduate course.

"It's easy to make money from online selling as long as you have a good quality item to sell," he says. "It's convenient, and you get to reach a much broader audience free of charge."

Santos now plans to expand his foray into the online selling business by posting more items and increasing his inventory. He intends to do this on the side while doing his post-graduate studies and his regular job as a marketing manager at FEATI University in downtown Manila. Unlike traditional business ventures that require an onsite presence most of the time, online selling entails but a few mouse clicks a day.

He explains: "You don't have to physically check everything because you can do the business by remote."

One company that is capitalizing on the growing number of cyber transactions in the Philippines is the Korean firm Auction.ph. It is betting that with the families of overseas Filipino workers awash with foreign exchange remittances, their appetite for online shopping as an alternative to mall shopping will grow steadily as a result.

"We are confident that our consumer traffic will climb as more and more people become aware of online buying and selling," says Jenny Kim, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and vice president of Auction.ph.

What Auction.ph does is to serve as a virtual middleman for online transactions. Its website functions as a showroom for products and as a forum where buyers can meet prospective clients without having to meet in person. Users can register on Auction.ph's website for free, and can start posting items for sale immediately.

Online traffic figures provided by Auction.ph show that the site currently has 9.6 million registered buyers and vendors. Daily, it posts about 2,000 new items and completes about 200 tracked transactions.

"It's a fast-growing market, and people are finding that it is easier and more convenient to do shopping online," says Kim. "We hope that as more and more people realize the advantages of shopping online, they themselves will be encouraged to start their own online businesses."

Auction.ph does not limit the number of items a seller is allowed to post on his account. Instead, it encourages vendors to increase their inventories to a point that they can sell in bulk, thus enabling them to bring down the prices of their merchandise and entice even more people to buy them.

Kim says the safety of the Auction.ph online service is a major selling point she wishes to drive home to cyber entrepreneurs. "Auction.ph assures you of getting paid if you're the seller, and of getting the merchandise if you are the buyer," she says. "The entire transaction process is free, and on top of that, you don't have to go out and meet people because you can do everything online."

Another major selling point of online shopping is the ease of access to the products and services being sold. Anybody who has a PC and an Internet connection can create his own virtual shop, complete with an inventory of items, discounts, and even a virtual shopping cart. There are no rental fees or annoying paperwork.

Consider the case of Jerry Cleto of Quezon City. Three years ago, when his online business started picking up, he quit his day job as a purchasing manager for a retail company. Since then, he says, his haul from online selling has been far outstripping his fixed salary in his previous regular job.

He explains: "I can now work from my house, and I get to watch my kids. No fixed hours, the money is really good, and I find it very good that I can do things at my own time and at my desired pace."

Cleto finds that big-ticket items like cellular phones and music players sell like hotcakes online. He believes that the market's appetite for them is far from abating.

"Call center agents and students are my number one customers," he says. "These people know what they want, and because they hold high-paying jobs or have extra allowances, they can afford to buy gadgets and the like."

Indeed, a recent study done by Auction.ph independently confirms Cleto's assessment of his online market: people between 18 to 29 years old comprise 80 percent of the company's online clientele.

As its potential becomes better known and well appreciated, online selling is becoming a marketplace not just of individual sellers. Traders and agents from big companies are now also regularly using the Internet to sell their wares.

A case in point is Robert Hwan, who helps run the family's retail business, supplying RTW's for a shopping mall. With orders from big retail outlets hitting the skids, Hwan has decided to shift focus from supplying malls towards servicing end users. He now plans to venture into online selling to cut down on costs and increase profits.

"With online selling, you don't need as much manpower as you do with a traditional retail business," he explains. "As competition stiffens, we are trying to find new avenues for our merchandise to reach a bigger market, and I believe that the Internet offers this and many other opportunities."

PREP YOUR PRODUCT

1. Take a digital photo of the product you wish to sell. Auction.ph says a good way of doing it is to shoot from different angles (back, front, top) so that customers can see the different sides of the product.
2. Create a short description of the item you are selling. An accurate description would include the dimensions of the product and its features, color, model, and make.
3. Set a price for the item.
4. Create a catchy title for the item. The label must be complete and should include all possible search words you can fit without being too long. A good format, according to Auction.ph, is to state the color, the model, and the make, like this: Brand new black Sony DSC 500 Digital Camera.
5. Post the item on your virtual shop and wait for interested buyers.
   

Contact details:
AUCTION.PH
Address: 3201A East Tower, Philippine Stock Exchange Center
Exchange Rd., Ortigas Center, Pasig City
Telephones: (02) 637-4705; (02) 637-6271
Website: www.auction.ph


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