Wave Commerce hosts Shopify Meetups every quarter in Hong Kong — Photo by Athena Lam

Alex from Wave commerce welcomes attendees and event and giveaway prize sponsored by Nixplay — Photo by Athena Lam

We’d like to thank our speakers from Mayarya — More than Maternity, Nixplay, and BuyandShip for their in-depth sharing sessions. We would also like thank our venue sponsor WeWork and prize sponsor, Nixplay, for making the event such a success.

Shopify’s Hong Kong Community Manager, Frankie Ng, Introduces the Platform’s Resources

Shopify’s Hong Kong Community Manager, Frankie Ng, shares recognized local brands using the platform — Photo by Athena Lam

Frankie, Shopify’s Hong Kong representative, shared that Hong Kong’s Shopify merchants have been highly successful, with many recognized local brands and Fortune 500 companies using the platform for online customer engagement and global ecommerce. Frankie also shared that Shopify is looking to expand its Shopify Academy resources to cater to its global users. As part of the initiative, Frankie launched the official Shopify Hong Kong Facebook community for local brands, agencies, and service providers to share knowledge and resources with each other, as well as reach out to him to provide feedback for the region’s needs.

Mayarya: Approaches to Redefining Products and Brands

Rieka Kato Shetty, founder of Mayarya, shares how to create a product that captures hearts and a business that builds loyal fans — Photo by Athena Lam

Reika, founder and Chief Creative Officer at Mayarya shared her tips for developing a product line based on her personal challenge, which was shared by mothers around the world. Reika revealed how she addresses women’s dissatisfactions with prevailing maternity wear by creating a product line that challenged stereotypes. Instead of being old fashioned, unattractive, and wearable only during pregnancy, Reika illustrated how one could design maternity clothing that was fashionable and could be worn during and after pregnancy, attracting not only expectant mothers, but mainstream shoppers. Reika also emphasized a customer-centric approach to deliver unparalleled shopping experiences, such as a home-delivered try-on service for the convenience and comfort of expectant mothers. Reika emphasized how empathy for customers and personalizations helped grow a business through long-term customer loyalty.

Mayarya: Employing UX Design to Increase Online Store Conversions

Susanne Wilfinger Leung shares how Mayarya’s UX design improvements for Shopify store that increases conversion 2.5x — Photo by Athena Lam

Next, Susanne, ecommerce coordinator at Mayarya, explained how UX can provide tangible results with improved conversions. She walked through the company’s online store redesign and migration to Shopify, which resulted in 2.5x conversion improvement within five days of the new store launch. She highlighted that clear site navigation and information architecture, context-specific information and guidance, and personalization for product interaction were key to improving online shopping experiences. She also demonstrated how Mayarya’s new website used animations and custom icons to help shoppers find clothing that met their needs and browse different designs. By offering an online shopping experience that visually showed customers how clothing pieces looked when expecting or not expecting, customers quickly understood the brand’s unique value.

Nixplay: Using 3rd Party Marketplaces to Grow Online Store Sales

Waqas Ahmed from Nixplay explains how to leverage marketplace sales and tools to increase exposure and drive traffic to Shopify store — Photo by Athena Lam

Next, Waqas Nixplay’s Senior Ecommerce Manager shared how the company used a marketplace such as Amazon to grow their own online store sales. Waqas first shared that Nixplay added a simple question for shoppers to learn how customers discovered Nixplay’s products, which revealed that after word-of-mouth-referrals, marketplaces were a key referral channel. Based on the findings, Waqas shared strategies for increasing reach, conversions, and reselling opportunities. He used an example of how holiday sales, marketplace tools such as Amazon launchpad, matching Amazon’s quality of service with free shipping and money-back guarantees, and asking customers to subscribe to newsletters grew the company’s Shopify store sales. Waqas shared that many sales were made by customers who went on to purchase frames for friends, families, and even their businesses.

BuyandShip: Global Distribution Considerations to Capture Regional Markets Earlier

Wilson Chan, CEO of BuyandShip breaks down shipping into 4 stages and explains how merchants can improve customer experience with shipping — Photo by Athena Lam

Wilson, CEO of BuyandShip, provided a comprehensive overview of considerations for cross-border shipping to capture ecommerce opportunities in Asia, which is the fastest growing ecommerce market in the world. Wilson shared that merchants should breakdown shipping into first mile, freight, customs clearance, and last mile stages to understand where they can improve efficiency, cost effectiveness, and customer satisfaction. Wilson also illustrated how understanding varying taxes and duties could help businesses better calculate profit margins and improve customer satisfaction by reduce shipping delays caused by customs. Hong Kong’s ecommerce merchants can take advantage of the city’s many logistics service providers to find convenient shipping solutions and tap into new emerging markets as first-movers.

Questions & Answers and Community Networking Opportunities

Question and answer period after presentations — Photo by Athena Lam

Following the presentations, the floor was opened to the audience for questions and the rest of the evening gave participants the opportunity to break out into smaller group conversations.

Presenters answer clarification questions about their operations, strategy execution and business approaches — Photo by Athena Lam

The attendees included Shopify merchants, freelancers and solutions providers who were able to discuss their immediate challenges, growth strategies, and observations of the latest ecommerce industry trends. In addition, local business owners and brand representatives were able to learn more about the considerations for setting up, or integrating, an online store into their existing operations.

Presenters stay behind to answer specific questions from attendees about their business — Photo by Athena Lam

Many attendees also had the opportunity to ask Frankie further questions about Shopify’s support for the merchant community and what platform features would be advantageous for Hong Kong merchants to sell locally and regionally.

Frankie from Shopify is building a Shopify Hong Kong community to help ecommerce merchants and service providers share resources and knowledge — Photo by Athena Lam

Wave Commerce hosts regular Shopify Meetups in Hong Kong each quarter. The goal of these events is to share ecommerce knowledge for the Hong Kong merchant community through presentations and industry networking. In addition to featuring Hong Kong’s most successful merchants and ecommerce service providers, what excites us is seeing attendees discussing their learnings with each other. Thanks to all our attendees and we look forward to seeing everyone at the next meetup!

Shopify Meetups are places for Shopify merchants, brands thinking about ecommerce, and service providers to share knowledge and resources with each other — Photo by Athena Lam

If you would like to discuss growth opportunities for your ecommerce brand, please get in touch!

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