Online shopping was growing steadily in Thailand even before the coronavirus pandemic began. But 2020 saw a massive increase in people ordering everything from groceries to clothing to household supplies online. Although consumer habits are complex and the demand for certain goods shifted with the pandemic, the concerns about shopping in person and the high percentage of people with access to the internet created a significant growth opportunity for online retailers.

As a result, the E-commerce industry demonstrated a tremendous increase in terms of new customer acquisition at around 50% for 2020 vs the previous year. From the beginning of the pandemic, JetCommerce saw an approximate 120% increase in new “first-time” customers being added in Q2 2020 compared to the previous year. According to the “eConomy SEA 2020” report by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company, online shopping in Thailand registered a 40% growth in usage after 2020 lockdowns compared with the pre-COVID numbers. The report also revised its forecast of Thai 2025 Ecommerce sales up from US$18bn to US$24bn – the most significant increase among the ASEAN countries.

Good for brands

Brands that might have been previously cautious of cannibalizing their offline sales by moving entirely online had to re-evaluate their assumptions after physical shutdowns. With consumer demand surging online, companies pivoted to satisfying Ecommerce orders through “direct-to-consumer channels” and invested heavily in branded websites, social commerce, etc. At JetCommerce, our sales by brands on direct-to-consumer channels grew over 110% in 2020, substantially faster than on marketplaces (for example, on Shopee and Lazada).

But paradoxically, quarantines have helped alleviate some reservations which consumers may have had previously about shopping online. Moreover, research shows that many people are reluctant to go back to old purchasing habits and say that they wouldn’t feel comfortable shopping in a mall in the near future. This gives companies certain confidence that investment in online channels has long-term prospect potential.

Good for consumers

People who are more motivated than ever to stay home and shop online created the ideal market conditions to fast-track, test, and launch new Ecommerce experiences. With this massive shift to online channels, Thai consumers can now enjoy a better selection of products from all categories — both domestic and international. More goods than ever are available to people in Thailand upcountry and remote locations that offline channels might not serve.

Consumers can now also benefit from more cost-effective access to products and more targeted campaigns, loyalty programs, and discounts that resonate with them. More available data on consumer preferences allows companies to respond to the demand faster and better. All these digital solutions to marketing challenges are cheaper to execute than offline initiatives. Besides, the Ecommerce economy can be scaled up, with the cost-saving eventually brought to consumers.

Good for the economy

Anything that benefits consumers and companies leads to economic growth. Ecommerce development is no exception — it attracts investments that support the expansion of the Thai digital infrastructure. It also reallocates financial resources to more innovative sectors, creating more well-paid jobs in digital infrastructure spheres. This creates a self-reproducing cycle of economic development — the more knowledgeable and skilled people become, the more efficient and productive they get. An innovative and creative workforce with digital expertise will, in turn, push the “new economy” towards lower unemployment rates and higher salaries. And we are not talking only about employment for content creators, graphic designers, or photographers — there are also new jobs in logistics, delivery, and customer service.

Ecommerce has the potential to overcome market barriers and connect consumers and businesses. According to The World Bank, Ecommerce can create jobs directly and through logistics services and other parts of the broader E-commerce ecosystem. It also helps in improving household consumption and reduces inequality by bringing to people in rural areas the convenience, variety, and low prices enjoyed by urban dwellers, and contributes to economic growth by lowering the asymmetry of information and increasing economic efficiency. For example, China, where rural villages are heavily engaged in E-commerce, is an excellent example of how developing countries can harness digital technology to create jobs and improve people’s lives. China is the world’s leader in terms of E-commerce penetration and sophistication of digital infrastructure, and its experience confirms that there is a positive correlation between GDP growth and E-commerce growth.

Making it all work

At JetCommerce, we specialize in supporting Thai companies (such as AIS, DoHome, TheMallGroup, Osotpa, Naraya, DSG, and GQ) and homegrown businesses, helping them reach more consumers and flourish. As we do this we are also contributing to the Thai economy both directly and indirectly. Our company employs over 500 people in Thailand, with 30% being highly skilled in IT and engineering. And our staff is only getting better because we believe in actively investing in our people and providing them with further training opportunities to grow with us.

Although it is impossible to predict the future of any industry with absolute certainty, we are optimistic about the future of Ecommerce in Thailand. This industry is one of the more resilient locally and globally. It’s also being relied upon more, rather than less, during the current crisis. As such, E-commerce plays a vital role in bolstering the Thai economy, which has been hit so severely by the pandemic, particularly in the tourism and the retail sector.

Also Featured on Bangkok Post:

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/pr/2119527

The post The changes brought by Covid might have an upside for Thai consumers, business and economy appeared first on #1 All-In-One E-commerce Platform.

Bangkok (30 April 2021) — JetCommerce, Southeast Asia’s leading End-to-End Ecommerce Platform and Solutions provider, reveals the BrandIQ Flash Insights report on the Top 100 fastest growing Ecommerce categories after the COVID-19 outbreak. The company launched BrandIQ in 2018 to help brands understand online shopper trends and apply data analytics to increase e-commerce sales.

BrandIQ is the first SaaS solution that assists retailers and brands in consolidating product and channel information and getting granular views on Seller’s activities, Brand’s Share of Shelf, Share of Categories, and Market Share comparison. The company calls the report Flash Insights as it provides a quick overview of trends that are growing in the Thai e-commerce landscape.

Because of the restrictions and COVID-19 preventive measures, Thai people have been avoiding visiting offline stores. They stay home and order goods from stores and retailers to fulfill their needs. This “new normal” way of living persuaded brands to start investing in online marketplaces to drive store visits, and BrandIQ’s Flash Insights reports confirm that Digital Vouchers saw a growth of +1,237% since last year in Thailand. In addition to driving sales, voucher programs present a solution for brands to optimize their inventory amid the COVID-19 crisis. Another trend that surged during the pandemic was cooking at home. As the coronavirus pandemic continues to cause disruptions, many Thais have settled into a routine that involves a lot more home cooking, increasing the demand for refrigerators and cookware. Online groceries also surged with Dairy & Chilled products growing 2,637% including Dry & Package goods growing 389% and breakfast cereals & Spreads growing 271%. This shift in behavior is not only because consumers working from home no longer stop for breakfast or coffee on their commute, but also because they feel unsafe going to restaurants. Last year’s report revealed a surge in the food supplement and furniture categories, and with many people in the country still working from home this year, the trend has continued. The pandemic highlighted the need for comfortable and productive spaces during quarantine whilst creating a growing demand for supplements as consumers prioritized wellness and health. Finally, the report also shows a significant increase in demand for Arts & Crafts for kids. This category includes activities and products which enable kids to learn while they are at home studying.

BrandIQ explains the overall increase across these categories due to the restrictions on out-of-home activities on the one hand, and retailers’ needs to sell their products on the other. As a result, the businesses had to adjust their strategies, and the changes in consumer behavior have accelerated the speed with which companies have to undergo a digital and e-commerce transformation.

“Granular data and analytics of your e-commerce business is important for brands, but getting access to real-time data on your competitors’ sales, promotions, and orders is a game-changer,” said Paul Srivorakul, Group CEO of JetCommerce.

“Providing brands with end-to-end data is important in optimizing their e-commerce business and automating processes that help save costs and grow sales. For example, when a particular brand or product starts selling well, our system immediately alerts marketing to increase advertising spend, then triggers customer service to increase support, then contacts the supplier to place a larger order, and alerts logistics to prepare for an increase in orders.”, he added.

JetCommerce’s vision has always been to enable brands and retailers to innovate and successfully execute their e-commerce vision for Southeast Asia. The company has also added regional platforms such as Shopee and Lazada, including local marketplaces such as Tokopedia in Indonesia, Qoo10 in China, and soon Sendo and Tiki in Vietnam. 

About JetCommerce

Headquartered in Thailand, JetCommerce is the largest e-commerce enabler in Southeast Asia with operations also in China, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Fortune 500 clients such as Samsung, Unilever, Nestlé, L’Oréal, Philips, Adidas, Mars, and many more trust us as their partner for the entire digital commerce journey. Founded in June 2013, JetCommerce provides the full end-to-end suite of eCommerce technologies and solutions including Omni-channel retail, performance marketing, unified data analytics, channel management, webstore development and operations, content production, warehousing, order fulfillment, delivery, and localized customer care. Coupled with our “EcommerceIQ” software suite which strengthens, connects, and unifies all Ecommerce data under one end-to-end cloud platform we enable brands and retailers to connect, engage, and transact with their customers anywhere, any time, and in any way. For more information, please visit www.acommerce.asia.

The post JetCommerce’s BRANDIQ reveals the Top 100 fastest growing Ecommerce categories after COVID-19 outbreak appeared first on #1 All-In-One E-commerce Platform.

On March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declares the latest evolving novel coronavirus or COVID-19 as a global pandemic.

Earlier on March 2, Indonesian authorities had identified the first case within the borders, resulting in the Government’s responding policy to rapidly evolve whilst recommending “work from home (WFH)” policy along with other preventive measures such as temporary cease of business, taking leave, travel restriction, etc.

As of March 31, with the number of positive cases has reached 1,528 and the total death toll of 136, President Jokowi has declared COVID-19 a health emergency and imposes large-scale social restrictions.

From the previous BrandIQ report, we discussed how the COVID-19 situation shines the light on certain Ecommerce categories such as Health & Homecare, Groceries, etc. Southeast Asia shopping behavior has been shifting fast during the virus outbreak and staying home seemed to be the only way to get around it.

With WFH policy seems to be encouraged and enforced in Indonesia, we will walk you through the preparation of Indonesians we saw from their shopping habit.

ADAPTATION: INDONESIANS ARE GETTING REALLY GOOD ON WORK-LIFE BALANCE.

We use BrandIQ as a tool to collect data from 1^st November 2019 – 26^ht March 2020 on top categories related to work-life balance essentials to WFH. The variables include 11.11, 12.12 sales campaigns to display growth during the WFH period. However, Lazada Birthday on 27^th March 2020 is excluded to reflect customer purchase behavior without steep discount influence.

Laptop is definitely not an everyday purchase; in fact, some might only buy a new one every half a decade. Nevertheless, growth in February purchase is fascinatingly reflective of the preparation of WFH policy. As essential as a laptop is for everyday operations, nevertheless, not every firm or business offers a laptop as personal equipment. One of our assumptions is small businesses making purchases for their employees to smoothen out the operation and maintain efficiency.

COVID-19 makes people read!! Yes! We finally crack the code on how to make people take up reading. Books sold massively in consecutive months. Staying home left us with not much to do so most of us find a way to occupy ourselves. Some buy recipe books, some read novels, and for those who can’t seem to relax with more time on their hands may have bought books for self-development in order to brush up new skills or further their careers.

Month-on-Month growth of categories related to WFH (period 1st Nov 19 – 26th Mar 20).

Working from home means you also have extra 2-3 hours a day. Yes, that is your daily commuting time from home-work-home if you live in the Greater Jakarta Area. This actually provides one essential life element, work-life balance, which we doubt Jakartans ever enjoy much. Some spend their leisure time shopping, some play games; and it seems to us that Indonesian loves to do both. Digital Games & Software and Digital Shopping Voucher have positive growth for consecutive months. Games top-up in March have dropped 100% Month-on-Month but this number is irrelevant when huge growth in February, 6900%, is the denominator. Online Game Top-up is a big thing.

Ultimately, working from home means you have to stay home. With the tropical climate in Indonesia, Air-conditioner has become a necessity. Most of the time, Indonesians can get away with the daylight heat because the office has an air-conditioning system or escape to the malls on weekends. COVID-19 eliminates our options and forces us to be at home on a wet-hot summer day. We see the growth from February and March for those who need a replacement for newer models or never had one installed.

BrandIQ is the first Ecommerce Analytics Platform to launch in Southeast Asia. The platform covers data collection from top regional marketplaces, spread over 6 countries.

STEREOTYPE: MEN CARE LESS ABOUT SKIN WHEN STAYING HOME.

BrandIQ also found distinct behavior between women vs men during WFH. The chart below displays the sales index of Skincare categories on both genders. We clearly see a trend of panic buying in February where everyone foresees the inevitable of COVID-19. However, buys of Men Skincare drastically drop in March while Women Skincare performs slightly better than in January. It rather resonates with gender stereotyping whereby men generally do not take care of their body and skin as much when they aren’t leaving the house.

Sales Index of Women vs Men’s Skincare from 1st Jan 2020 to 26th Mar 2020.

GROWTH: RAPID BEHAVIOUR SHIFTS INDUCE NEW REVENUE

As mentioned in our previous report, COVID-19 coincidentally promotes Ecommerce. However, in retrospect, the Ecommerce community is also making a tremendous effort to grow in this unfortunate event. The bubble chart below displays the share of new products – that has never been listed in a month before, against total sales of their own category. The recognition must be given to the community as they are very well responded to the situation by introducing brand-new products to the market in disastrous hours. 81% of Air Conditioner sales in March are new products as well as 60% and 93% of books in February and March, respectively.

Revenue Share of new product to shelf on 1st Jan 2020 to 26th Mar 2020.

There are lots of new brands and sellers emerging in Marketplaces during January to March 2020. “Gross” column displays total sales of new brands against the total of categories in the aforementioned period. Nonetheless, the nature of Laptop and Game Console & Software are very difficult to produce in pressing time hence, meager the growth.

DELAY THE INEVITABLE: New product listings strategy is possible in Indonesia because of the delay in the penetration of novel coronavirus. Neighbors such as Thailand, China, and Malaysia had identified their first patients in late January, therefore Indonesian sellers are already running the business with anticipation when they have been hit and the outcome is as we’ve seen.

Until this moment, we should all accept that COVID-19 will change the way of life as we knew. Working from home could potentially become the new social norm. Work-life balance will no longer be just a word everybody takes for granted. Home entertainment might be the next big thing in the Ecommerce ecosystem.

Need assistance on locating market opportunity, gaining more insight on where you rank against your competitors?

Reach out to info@brandiq.asia to know how you can improve your ecommerce presence.

The post How Indonesian React to Work from Home Policy appeared first on #1 All-In-One E-commerce Platform.

Amids COVID-19 crisis that wreak havoc to the world’s economy, one industry is standing above all to help people escape deadly virus and might change landscape of Ecommerce forever.

COVID-19, the official name for the latest emerging Coronavirus dubbed by World Health Organization (WHO), is feared to become a new pandemic. As of the beginning of March, the number of infected rises above 95,000, with more than 200 identified in Southeast Asia, particularly China, Malaysia, and Thailand. Southeast Asia economy is inevitably driven by China where trades, transportation, and excursion are unavoidable from the alleged origination COVID-19, and unfortunately, we are expecting numbers of confirmed patients to grow significantly.

Impact of the outbreak on Southeast Asia

BrandIQ investigate the growth rate of the epidemic in various regions and found that Southeast Asia numbers are fairly suppressive. From the 1^st of February to 5^th March 2020, numbers of the confirmed patients only increase by 372% while in China, South Korea and Europe numbers are 582%, 47950%, and 19127% respectively.

Southeast Asian culture seems to involve limited human to human contact whilst westerner greetings are either handshake or kiss on the cheeks. Countries like Thailand and China are also absorbing East Asian habit of wearing a mask in public (despite the main reason is to battling the region’s pollution level). This coincidentally helped slowing COVID-19 dissemination.

If you live in Southeast Asia, it is impossible to not notice the thinning visitors in malls these days, public transportations are also less crowded, and food delivery service such as GrabFood and Foodpanda are flourishing. GrabFood recorded 4 million orders in the first month of 2020 comparing to a total three million orders in 2019, supporting our hypothesis that consumers are preferring to stay home amidst the outbreak.

Online marketshare insights are provided by digital shelf on BrandIQ

BrandIQ dives into our Digital Shelf to determine reflective factors on Southeast Asia’s top marketplace from the first week of the outbreak until the beginning of March to see the impact on people’s purchase behavior. As anticipated, every category regards to self-cleaning, healthcare, virus protection has massive growth in sales.

BrandIQ is the first Ecommerce Analytics Platform to launch in Southeast Asia. The platform covers data collection from top regional marketplaces, spread over 6 countries.

We are responding to the outbreak and try to stay healthy

Thermometers revenue is growing 705% prior to outbreak period. It resonates consumers responsibility to ensure their safety and staying on offence. Hand Care including sanitizers & soup also experienced significant uplift. Overall every product related to virus prevention and protection are on positive Dollar Growth side.

When look closely we will see inverted Unit Growth on Groceries and Body Wash. This could be articulated by two plausible explanations; (1.) customers are willing to pay premium for better/high-end product during the outbreak period (to ensure cleanliness & safety) or (2.) sellers and merchants are taking advantage of the situation by raising and speculating price.

Dollar Growth vs Unit Growth (%) from Southeast Asia’s top marketplace during virus outbreak.

Mask & Filter Dollar Growth are undermined due to stock and product distribution backlog. The real reason behind significantly higher Unit Growth than Dollar could be explained by average order value. Southeast Asia, especially Thailand and Indonesia, has been the victim of PM2.5 since November 2019. The order value of filters is monstrous compared to a piece of mask. Prior to the outbreak, the filter is a dominant product, while during the epidemic – mask became a survival tool. Therefore, Unit Growth value is over-representation while Dollar Growth reflects production and distribution problems (Dollar Growth does not catch up to Unit Growth).

As of now, we are starting to see some level of surgical mask shortage whereby there are several news outlets reporting mask scarcity on both public & private health organization including hospitals and clinics. Some local SMEs aggravated and worsened this incidence by price speculating this lifesaving item. However, ecommerce leaders such as Lazada & Shopee have taken a step of responsibility to not condone such actions and began to take out, ban, and off-board sellers who taking advantage of this global catastrophe.

We put our health first and budgeting other expense

BrandIQ indexing outbreak period online shopping growth by selecting the categories that performed well during normal circumstances (Electronics, Beauty, Petcare, and Fashion) to compare growth index against Healthcare and Groceries products.

The number speaks for itself; Southeast Asian consumers are tightened up their personal expense. Both categories yield positive growths are COVID-19 preparation and protection item (food, medicine, health accessory). Extravagance items, for instance, beauty and fashion are inverted whilst unnecessities such as Mobile, Laptop & other electronics are receding to hibernation. Nevertheless, Alkaline batteries, as a subsidiary to Electronics, are growing 38% (Index +0.76) during the outbreak.

Online Shopping growth index during COVID-19 outbreak

Pet food and medical is expected to yield positive index

Through recent breaking news from Hongkong, a Pomeranian is tested to have “weak positive” immune for novel coronavirus.

“The Pomeranian’s owner was infected with COVID-19 but the dog itself was not showing symptoms,” authorities said.

However, the famous news outlet also warns the readers to adopt good hygiene practices for both humans and pets, therefore, we are also anticipating incline of pet care products sales via online channel.

Southeast Asia’s commercial landscape as we know might forever altered when consumers, who has been negligence of online shopping, has been forced to step into Online Shopping world. BRANDIQ team hope this crisis resolve quickly but until that time, please stay conscious, stay safe and follow official announcement from WHO.

Need assistance on locating market opportunity, gaining more insight on where you rank against your competitors?

Reach out to info@brandiq.asia to know how you can improve your ecommerce presence.

The post Fears of Virus Outbreak Open the Door to the New Adoption of Online Shopping appeared first on #1 All-In-One E-commerce Platform.

How are Indonesian giants latently leveraging Lazada’s category listings to bolster LAZMALL fanbase.

At this moment in time, if you are not selling on Lazada, you should be. Ecommerce in Southeast Asia (SEA) has been soaring fast and the competition is fierce. Some sellers might find themselves depleting resources on counterproductive advertisements while some might have a better idea of how to spend money smartly. Whichever way, one of the most imminent and visible money printing machines in Southeast Asia is Lazada.

Inevitably, product visibility is key to success in Lazada as “Visits”, the alpha metric from Ecommerce 1.0 day, leads to conversion ergo…sales. The good news is LAZMALL sellers algorithmically gifted such privilege to boost Visits on Lazada automatically.

If you’re already a LAZMALL participant but you still feel like your Visits are low, this piece of research is for you.

The importance of store followers

When you think about it, follower manifests fanbase. A fan culture typically reflects credibility, popularity, and also act as social proof to influence others to follow you. Fame is measured by visibility, retention directly proportional to credibility, social proof would spread the word organically, and when people trust your products, your revenue will increase substantially.

Traditionally, there are several ways to acquire more followers. You can either join the promotional campaigns set up every day, week, month by Lazada. By participating in this type of campaign, your store visibility will be increased.

Another way is to try to be creative and pump out attractive offers outside of Lazada’s ecosystem. Gamification or voucher giveaway to drive users towards the store and picking up followers.

Some might take an unorthodox approach and buy followers. It’s the fastest way towards building a fanbase. However, to assure that purchased followers will always be active to browse and buy (low churn rate), it’s advisable to only recruit followers from a site with a solid background and good reviews.

BrandIQ is the first Ecommerce Analytics Platform to launch in Southeast Asia. The platform covers data collection from top regional marketplaces, spread over 6 countries.

How big boys fishing for followers

The aforementioned techniques demonstrate tactics on how you & I, small practitioners, acquire our followers but brands do it differently.

Before we get to that, let us look at the number of store followers on each category leaders on Lazada.co.id obtained from Brandiq.asia.

The graph exhibited arrays of the category with an equivalent number of followers; for instance, Mobile Phones, Camera & Drone, Home Appliances, Smart Devices, and Stationery & Craft had oddly display exactly 532,794 followers. Data Storage and Monitor & Printers’ numbers precisely match in second class, Bedding & Bath, Kitching & Dining were in the third group, and so forth.

We investigated thoroughly and detected some level of dependencies between product assortment of categories in the same class of arrays, e.g., Mobile Phones has some degree of relationship with Smart Devices so does Bedding & Bath together with Kitchen & Dining.

This peculiar finding has revealed to us the hidden gem of how Lazada accidentally gave big brands the upper hand on followers’ acquisition.

Chart B: Brands in Lazada.co.id with the number of followers > 100,000 against the number of categories that brands are listed on.

Chart B displayed the top 14 brands in Lazada.co.id with followers more than 100,000. 10 out of 14 (71%) have been listing their products at least on two or more major categories. The party consists the likes of Fortune 500 companies [Apple, Phillips], Chinese technology titans [Xiaomi, Huawei], and local dominant players [Planet Sports, Eiger]. By nature, these companies are furnished with massive resources to produce, distribute, price and promote more products. Subsequently, they dominate share of shelves whereby chance of being seen or discovered is induced.

Lazada categories are constructed by 12 main categories and enabled product tagging up to four subcategories. Mathematically, this is represented by a forest of twelve polynomial trees with maximum altitude of 5. Fortunately, a product (SKU) must commit to complete and unique path of a tree. Therefore, ‘the probability of product being view’ has simplified to a full path comparison. To Illustrate, a brand with extensive resources covering 3 paths, assuming one product placed on each category, will have probability of being viewed as high as 11x of a single-category seller (because product can either be tagged on 4 or 5 categories hence maximum probability is 5 times 3 subtracted by 4).

Stepping closer to reality, these colossus ventures also facilitate favourable number of commodities. It cultivates the gap of product being viewed as opposed to smaller enterprises. For simplicity, a calculation can be expressed by the difference between number of products of the two and multiply by ‘probability of being view’. As brands’ PageViews growth exponentially combining with classic acquisition tactics (voucher, promo code), they are unstoppable. Imagine behemoth like Tesco with inundate product lines to cover all 12 categories, their probability of product being view is almost immeasurable.

Up to this point, we are uncertain whether companies and sellers are cognizant of such artifice. However, we as an advocate to data analytics community wishes to collectively share our fact and findings to flat out the playing field and takes retail analytics to the next level.

Benefits when working with store followers

1. Improve customer relationship

By signing up followers, Lazada allows store owners to communicate with fans through the newsfeed. One should capitalize on engagement with followers and convert them to long-term customers.

2. Increase product visibility

This is a chicken and egg issue, really. By signing up followers, you can guarantee Pageviews and vice versa.

3. Organically grow more followers

Everybody had to go through the pain when trying to grow user-based from zero to thousands because credibility is everything when it comes to social. Once the reputation is adequately established, you can expect a snowballing effect on subscriptions.

4. Run exclusive promotions to fans only

In this day and age, online retail has come down to “finding excuses to discount.”. Customers are price-driven and have become a promotion seeker. When you have to discount you might as well only do it for the fans.

5. Prepare for the future

Ecommerce has yet ceased to develop, including platforms like Lazada. We can undoubtedly anticipate a significant amount of support technology to improve features to assist sellers. Having followers is equivalent to owning customers. The future is imminent; make sure you communicate with them.

Need assistance on follower acquisition, want to know where you rank against your competitors and how you can improve your ecommerce presence? Reach out to info@brandiq.asia.

The post Lazada Hidden Gems Allows Big Brands to Boost Followers appeared first on #1 All-In-One E-commerce Platform.

By signing up followers, Marketplace such as Lazada & Shopee allows a store owner to communicate with fans through the newsfeed. One should capitalize on engagement with followers and convert them to long-term customers.

Marketplace analytic is rather circumvented. Data scientist often finds themselves scarce of a necessary piece of the puzzle to analyze or build competitive analysis due to limited access to third party data. BrandIQ always advises our customers against using traditional Ecommerce metrics and practices whereby you will find an analytic journey full of missing bits and pieces.

In the previous issue, we reveal how big retailers are exploiting product category listings to boost the number of followers. This issue, we will figure out the underlying value of each and individual store subscribers.

Benchmarking follower’s performance against every competitor including greymarket seller on BrandIQ

Some might take an unorthodox approach and buy followers. It’s the fastest way towards building a fanbase. However, to assure that purchased followers will always be active to browse and buy (low churn rate), it’s advisable to only recruit followers from a site with a solid background and good reviews.

BrandIQ is the first Ecommerce Analytics Platform to launch in Southeast Asia. The platform covers data collection from top regional marketplaces, spread over 6 countries.

Sample Size

More than trillion bytes of Marketplace data are commuting day in day out ubiquitously. One of the common, and in this case – impractical, approaches often starts with taking a shot to try to interpret a galaxy of dataset all at once. On the other hand, Marketplace consists of a multitude number of products offered by blended seller’s quality, attempting to galvanize too many variables on the left-hand side of the equation could sometimes derive to unpleasant and skew results.

In this analysis, we choose four large-fanbase anonymous brands to each represents Health & Beauty, Electronics, Mom & Baby, and Fashion categories on two Southeast Asia’s marketplace leaders as our research subjects. This perspective enables us to compare two angles between marketplaces and categories. The findings are demonstrated in the following infographics.

It’s worth noting that each marketplace has its own characteristics and we did not anticipate customer/follower behaviors to be identical or comparable. Before proceeding to action, we suggest readers read the findings with caution.

Dollar value is key to understand market opportunity.

Regarding follower acquisitions, Marketplace B has dominated Mom & Baby, Fashion, also slightly edging on Health & Beauty categories whilst Marketplace A wins on Electronics.

Brand representatives’ gross dollar (total merchandise value) is overshadowed by Marketplace A for $46m to $18m. Merchandise value of Electronics products outshines other categories, yielding bigger basket size despite carefully selected comparable brands (in terms of size, wealth, company status).

However, when we look closely at the store follower dollar value, Electronics come second to Mom & Baby due to a significantly higher number of followers (store dollar value is the division between category gross value and number of followers). It could be interpreted as either most of Electronics followers have not yet converted to customer or Electronics followers are low quality and will not become spender.

Mom & Baby society is by far the finest of all. They produced substantial dollar value by just shy of a moderate number of followers. This group is the prime example of the real world’s simulation where mothers are inevitable top spenders above other demographics regardless of household income.

Fashion’s performance in marketplace B is terrifying. It translates blood-red ocean market where the follower’s dollar is descending to the floor and return on investment could be very limited.

The heavyweight Health & Beauty fight could not come to a unanimous winner, but if we have the last 10 dollars in our pocket, it’s a no brainer to put the money on marketplace A because of follower dollar value.

All in all, we are in the opinion that balancing between marketplace follower and brand.com (first-party platform) acquisition is critical to success in 2020 Ecommerce. We would highly recommend everyone to take into account the bigger picture of the business. And should you need further assistance, BRANDIQ professionals are always ready to support you.

Need assistance on locating market opportunity, gaining more insight on where you rank against your competitors?

Reach out to info@brandiq.asia to know how you can improve your ecommerce presence.

The post What is the Dollar Value of Your Follower? appeared first on #1 All-In-One E-commerce Platform.

For example: technical information about the product size, color, weight, and materials; usage information as to where to use, how to use, and instructional videos; as well as enriched emotional information to set the scene and lifestyle of the product’s users, including stories and imagery to help create an emotional connection with potential buyers.

All of the above are what we called “digital assets” and you can imagine the mountain of digital assets you have to store somewhere in the cloud the wider your product selections are. Not to mention if your brand is selling on more than one online channel or if there are multiple teams from different markets needing to reuse the same materials for different purposes.

These are the scenarios many global brands can relate to and PIM is the solution to make sure brand’s ecommerce process is optimized.

What is PIM?

PIM is the acronym for Product Information Management or the process of managing product data, its information, and materials that are needed to sell and distribute your product.

Having a good, centralized PIM system provides you with a single place to collect, manage, enrich, merchandise, approve, and distribute information to multiple sales channels easily.

It’s an important aspect of scaling ecommerce business because it improves the product catalog management process and ensures the quality, accuracy, and completeness of your product information across all channels are the same.

Here is a way to visualize how PIM works:

Does your brand need PIM?

If your brand is in the business of selling products online, needing to grow, as well as customizing and localizing product in different markets — while doing it all quickly and efficiently — you should be looking at PIM solution to prevent any further struggles while scaling the business.

Take a look at the quick calculation of product assortment below:

Assuming the administrative task of 1 SKU per channel per year is 46 minutes. If your brand is selling each 100 SKUs on three different online channels (a website and two e-marketplaces), you need 232 hours just to do product assortment per year.

(PIM) can automate up to 80% of the manual tasks, reducing the previous example of 696 hours per year down to 139 hours.

If you have a presence in three different markets, it reaches a total estimation of 696 hours (assuming all SKUs are active that year). Imagine if your brand is a fashion brand that releases hundreds of new SKUs each season.

PIM has the ability to boost product team productivity because, without it, your team will be spending most of their time going between multiple applications and platforms doing manual, repetitive tasks to keep up with the pace of growth and success.

It can automate up to 80% of the manual tasks, reducing the previous example of 696 hours per year down to 139 hours, clearing up your product team’s time to finally do what they were hired to do: which is to create new desirable products and sell them across different channels.

PIM also speeds up the time to market, as the product enrichment process can often be a busy flow between suppliers, offices across multiple geographies, and an intricate approval process workflow. Enabling a clear guide in a PIM system can offer each of the working teams a visible next step, improving productivity and collaboration between product information creation, approvers, departments and countries.

Why is PIM so hot right now?

PIM software market is growing at a rate of 25.3% annually and it’s estimated to reach $15.8 billion USD by 2021. The top reasons for adopting PIM are addressing customer expectations through the accurate distribution of product images and digital media.

Today shoppers are tech-savvy, attention-short, and cash-rich. Success in retail is all about the detail and if shoppers can’t find what they want or don’t see the information they need from one retailer, they will go to another website — and it might not be yours. An investment in making it fast and easy to collect then distribute information will ensure accurate product information and keep your consumers engage with your brand.

How to choose the right PIM?

Now that we established the importance of PIM for scaling an ecommerce business, there are few considerations that can help your brand determine the right PIM platform based on your business’ needs and make sure it helps them sustain your ecommerce business.

1. How many sales channels my products listed and published on?

If your products are solely on your own webstore then you possibly do not need a PIM system. But if you are selling on other sales channels (e.g. marketplaces, social media) then you need to have a centralized place to store, maintain and manage consistent information across all sales channels. More points to consider is how data are extracted and what are sales and marketing channels connected to drive impressions and sales?

2. How complex is my product information, taxonomy and relationship management?

It is not always about how many SKUs do you have, but also how many types of product information do you have? How they are structured, categorized and the hierarchy relation?

How can related products be associated (e.g. accessories, replacement parts, upsell, cross-sell, components, substitutes)? These factors need to be addressed and handled when choosing PIM.

3. Does the PIM offer the customization options?

Your PIM platform should be flexible enough to support content information that matched to your supply chain, exchange data with your ERP, system workflows and be able to present analysis data available to indicate the effectiveness of the product information.

4. Does the PIM workflow adaptable with your working process?

How easily can product information be tracked to maturity for approval and visibility of tasks to each department along the approval process. Which roles are allowed to create new content, approve content etc. How easy is this to administer ?

5. Where is the product content source for PIM to get from?

Generally, product information is generated internally in the company but there may be a case where it is from external source. PIM system should be able to handle all of your sources without manual intervention. How do we get product information into the PIM and how easy is this to do?

Want to learn more about choosing the right ecommerce platform and PIM system? Contact mandy@acommerce.asia for more information.

The post What is PIM and Why Should Brands in Ecommerce Care? appeared first on #1 All-In-One E-commerce Platform.

The latest e-Conomy of Southeast Asia report by Google and China-based Temasek confirmed the growing confidence among investors in the region. Startups raised $9.1 billion in the first half of last year, almost as much as throughout the whole of 2017.

2018 was dubbed as the year of ecommerce for the region, so what can we expect in 2019? We speak to industry leaders to discover the anticipated trends for online retailers and brands in Southeast Asia.

1. Brands Shift Their Focus from Data Gathering to Data Utilization

The biggest differentiator between online and offline retail is the ability to track, collect, monitor, and manage information, all in real time.

Through online channels, brands are able to access customer data through chats, social media, and their own websites. This information can be used to devise online strategies. Globally, 73% of brands plan to allocate their ecommerce budget on data & analytics services in 2019.

However, despite the general agreement of its importance, many brands still have no concept of how to utilize data to their advantage.

“Even today, not all retailers have embraced data fully to the point where they think of themselves as data companies, and this might be why many companies are suffering.” Harvard Business School Professor Srikant M. Datar.

Data collection is easy but having and optimizing the analytics capability to use it is a completely different ball game.

A survey by ecommerceIQ identified data analysis as one of the most difficult skills to find among the digital talents in Southeast Asia. Brands are constantly searching for data aggregators to consolidate information into one place for convenient retrieval and use to target, retarget, and personalize products and services.

Reagan Chai, Head of Regional Business Intelligence and Business Development at Shopee told ecommerceIQ that data acquisition enables the company to map out and optimize buyer and seller user experience while pre-empting customer demand and anticipating future potential. The company has seen an increase in website traffic in the past year that even surpasses the other regional players.

In China, Alibaba and JD.com have taken this a step further by utilizes the data gathered online to improve inventories and experiences at their physical stores. Alibaba Chief Marketing Officer, Chris Tung said the company wants to help brands find the right consumers by tracking them throughout Alibaba’s system.

“We’re finding all data that has to do with people, their behavior, what they like, what they buy and binding this online data to real people,” concluded Chris.

Seeing the need, regional brand ecommerce enabler JetCommerce launched a data analytics platform BrandIQ last year to enhance their capabilities as a data partner to help brands centralize their customer data and offer customized products or services to each target group.

The capabilities of BrandIQ that aim to enhance brands’ performance on online marketplace; BrandIQ

This leaves brands with two options: find an economical way to utilize the data or continue looking for a needle in a haystack.

2. Social Commerce Channels are Brands’ New Sales Outlets

Social commerce in this region boomed before the rise of ecommerce as we know now.

Facebook groups have long established as an online space where people connect to buy and sell goods, even before the launched of Marketplace feature. The social media’s rapid growth in Southeast Asia is propelled by mobile adoption and smartphone, where 90% of the online population access the internet via smartphones. For some, Facebook even defines the internet itself.

With multitudes of potential customers gathered in social media platforms, brands naturally espied alternative sales channels. Following Facebook’s footsteps, social platforms like Instagram and Pinterest have also developed their own shoppable features.

“Brands will miss out if they don’t have a social media presence. The best way to get feedback from consumers is by having a direct conversation,” Deb Liu, Vice President, Facebook Marketplace told Forbes.

LINE recently acquired a social commerce management startup Sellsuki in Thailand, where it has the second biggest user base, to build a strong foundation for its ecommerce business. The company has also formed a joint venture with three local banks to offer personalized loans to SMEs.

A few big brands like L’Oreal have already equipped their social media page with ‘Shop’ feature that allows consumers to purchase the order directly on the page and it’s only a matter of time before more brands activate the platforms as one their sales channels and remove another layer between them and the consumers.

Consumers can purchase L’Oreal products on their Facebook page assisted through the Messenger app until the checking out process; L’Oreal Thailand.

3. E-Marketplaces Launch New Services to Differentiate

Looking at the successful existing ecommerce players in more developed markets, one key success factor they share is the various services rolled out on their fully-controlled supply chain.

JD.com’s investment to the development of their own supply chain allows them to scale their technology and offer Retail-as-a-Service proposition to help other retailers or brands sell online. Alibaba is unrivaled on its extensive ecosystem beyond commerce, including a logistics network Cainiao, a payment firm Ant Financial, not to mention its recent foray into the entertainment industry.

The same practice has infiltrated down to Southeast Asia. Lazada has strengthened its logistics arm FBL (Fulfilled by Lazada) post the acquisition, and although no concrete plans have been disclosed, Shopee has expressed the intention to build its own logistics network.

China’s Qoo10 is set to launch its blockchain-based ecommerce site QuuBee this year, leveraging the blockchain technology to eliminate the transaction and listing fee which in turn increase the retailers’ profit margin and make a more sustainable commerce approach.

In Indonesia, Tokopedia is set to offer “Infrastructure-As-a-Service” with the fresh $1.1 billion funding. They also plan to use AI for customer care services and to run credit checks on merchants seeking loans to expand their businesses.

The practice is not exclusively done by the general e-marketplaces. Fashion e-marketplace Zilingo scored $226 million in funding due to their new focus to build a network of fashion supply chain that anyone, small merchants or big retailers, can tap into.

“It’s imperative for us to build products that introduce machine learning and data science effectively to SMEs while also being easy to use, get adopted and scale quickly. We’re re-wiring the entire supply chain with that lens so that we can add the most value,” revealed Zilingo CTO Dhruv Kapoor to TechCrunch.

Facebook is also showing more intention to jump into the bandwagon that is the region’s ecommerce. The social network has launched Marketplace feature in Thailand and China without much fanfare, but the recent partnership with Kasikorn Bank in Thailand to allow in-app payment feature might be the start of the company’s effort to bulk up its commerce capabilities and cater to those that utilized the platform for their business.

Facebook partners with Thailand’s Kasikorn Bank to enable transfers and card payments on chats from Facebook Messenger; Facebook

In a bid to recruit more brands to sell on their platforms, we anticipate that e-marketplaces will continue to go head-to-head with each other through new services, acquisitions, and partnerships. Ready to burn more cash to win in this battle, e-marketplaces?

4. Brands to Reinforce Reviews and Fund User-Generated Content to Win Ecommerce Consumers

E-marketplaces in Southeast Asia has been upscaling and building add-ons which provide consumers with the utmost convenience. The search for better technology and assistance for the consumers is constant and never-ending.

Lazada introduces AI-powered image search feature onto its platform which allows shoppers to take a picture of an item and the platform will suggest similar items available; LiveatPC

Online consumers begin their online purchasing journeys by searching for product information or reading reviews, usually on the e-marketplace platforms, before making their purchase decision. They are looking for real opinions and user-generated reviews to validate the products.

The habit of leaving product reviews on ecommerce platform is not as common in Southeast Asia as it is in the US — Amazon even have dedicated page for top reviewers — and when they do, the reviews usually left little information about the product and more about the other aspect of the purchase (i.e. delivery time, packaging, etc).

Platforms like ReviewIQ are used by brands to increase their ratings and reviews engagement on their e-marketplace listings to help boost consumers make their decision. While the use of chatbots is an increasingly popular solution to help smooth the online customer experience, it’s more suitable for generic questions such as “where is my order?” or “is this product available?” instead of personalised questions such as “will this lipstick look good on a yellow-undertone skin?”.

Community-crowd model like one that’s popular with travel platforms such as Airbnb might also be suitable for ecommerce in the region to help consumers get passed their apprehension with online shopping — something that Edouard Steinert, JetCommerce Thailand’s Director of Channel Management, is investigating to help the company’s clients as this model has shown to save time, increase results, and keep costs low.

“Consumers today want to hear genuine feedback and reviews about a product and become more averse to hard-sell methods. [User-generated] Reviews, especially from people who share the same passion with them, proved to drive better conversion for the brand,” added Edouard Steinert.

5. Brands Employ Direct-to-Consumer strategies to Acquire Direct Consumer Data

89% of companies are now competing mostly on a customer experience playing field and the Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) approach is becoming more important for brands as it allows them to gain insights into their end users and anticipate their needs.

One trend observed among brands to promote DTC is ecommerce subscription. From a consumer perspective, subscription offers a convenient, personalized, and often cheaper way to buy what they need. For brands, it’s a subtle method to create customer loyalty in the digital landscape.

One brand adopting subscription ecommerce in the region is Nescafe Dolce Gusto, offering free coffee machines in exchange for a minimum 12-month subscription. Besides witnessing sales growth, Nescafe Dolce Gusto also noticed that consumers continued to purchase goods from its brand despite dropping out of the subscription plan.

“They may have dropped out of the subscription but not the brand. They still buy capsules from different channels; ecommerce website, online marketplaces, and supermarkets. A subscription strategy is not just a long-term consumption enabler but also a consumer acquisition channel for the whole brand,” Bhuree Ackarapolpanich, Brand Director & Digital Expert at Nescafé Dolce Gusto.

JetCommerce’s Regional Director of Project Management, Mandy Arbilo said that e-sampling is a popular strategy employed by brands to evaluate the demand, especially ecommerce.

While normal sampling techniques used by offline retailers are expensive, e-sampling saves brands up to 40% as well as providing essentials customer data.

Mars Petcare is one of the e-sampling pioneers for JetCommerce. The campaign prompted up to 25% of pet owners to try Pedigree as the main meal; JetCommerce

As DTC becomes widely adopted, consumers will see brands coming up with attractive gimmicks using digital tools to gain insights and entice consumers to spend more on their brands.

6. 2019 Will Finally see Regulation of Ecommerce across the Region

Ecommerce practice in the region has remained largely unregulated as a nascent occurrence. As the industry grows, it is only a matter of time until governments step in to tax this fast-growing segment and level the playing field for foreign companies to offer digital services and goods locally.

News of the implementation of ecommerce tax regulations in Southeast Asian countries has been floating around since the beginning of last year but nothing concrete has as yet materialized.

A couple of months ago, Economic Ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) signed an agreement to facilitate cross-border ecommerce transactions within the region.

However, while nothing has written in stone, predictions abound concerning the impacts of ecommerce tax on imported goods into the region. In Indonesia and Thailand, ecommerce tax is predicted to bolster the growth of social commerce because, unlike marketplaces, they are uncontrolled.

“If tax regulations restrict ecommerce platforms, making selling in Bukalapak complicated, there will be an exodus of people who prefer selling on Instagram and Facebook. These platforms are uncontrolled and not chased for tax because they sell through the back door,” Bukalapak co-founder and Chief Financial Officer Muhamad Fajrin Rasyid.

China might also see a decrease in cross-border shopping as prices increase with the introduction of Goods and Service Tax (GST) on ecommerce goods and services from overseas. Currently, 89% of all cross-border transactions in the Asia Pacific region are conducted by Chinaans.

A snapshot of the state of ecommerce tax regulations across six major Southeast Asian markets; ecommerceIQ

Looking at another high-potential ecommerce market, India introduces the new e-marketplace laws that indicate the prohibition of marketplace “owners” to sell products on their own marketplace through vendor entities in which they have an equity interest. It also prevents marketplaces to make deals with sellers that grants the marketplace exclusivity rights on the product. Could we see such laws be applied in Southeast Asia?

Regardless, brands will have very little influence on how the new tax policies take root but they will be behooved to anticipate the ruling and adjust online strategy accordingly to mitigate the impact of a shift in customer behavior. This ASEAN agreement will encourage more local entrepreneurs to create new products and venture online to access a larger and more diverse market. Brands will now need to be nimble and innovative to adapt to local nuances and preferences.

7. Grab and Go-Jek Challenge Logistics Providers to Capture Ecommerce and Online Food Delivery

Since Uber’s exit last March, Grab monopoly in countries like Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia has led to complaints about services and prices increased which resulted in protests from consumers and fines from governments which hit the headlines of the Filipino newspapers and Chinaan watchdogs.

But with the recent regional expansion from Indonesia’s Go-Jek, the competition between the two will only get fiercer. Go-Jek has successfully carved its existence in Vietnam, China, and Thailand last year alone. In addition, Grab’s competitor in Malaysia, Dacsee, has also expressed the plan of expanding to Thailand.

Both companies are not racing to be the best ride-hailing providers, they’re aiming for something much bigger; super apps. Go-Jek has secured $1 billion funds from Google, Tencent, and JD.com in part of their plan to raise $2 billion for this venture. Meanwhile, Grab recently nabbed $200 million investment from Thailand’s Central Group, boosting their valuation to 11 billion to date.

2019 will see these two competitors steer toward the same goal of food and ecommerce delivery. Google and Temasek reported that the online food delivery business grew 73% CAGR in 2019. By 2025, they predict online food delivery growth at 36% CAGR with online transport only 23%.

Market size of the ride-hailing industry in Southeast Asia; e-Conomy SEA 2018 Report by Google and Temasek

“We will be expanding our GrabFood and delivery business and deepening our relationships with restaurant merchants and key partners in some markets,” said Grab’s head of regional operations Russell Cohen.

Same-day delivery providers are going to feel more competition next year. The impact of Grab and Go-Jek on market vibes will definitely raise the bar for the logistics and delivery sector.

8. Brands and Retailers will Double Down on Omnichannel is Southeast Asia’s Preference over Pure-Play Ecommerce

The omnichannel shopping experience is not a new concept, but companies do have diverse interpretations of the concept. Headlines revealed that online retail behemoths, such as Amazon and Alibaba, are moving into physical retail.

The main reason why Alibaba ventured out of online space reflects its determination to solve core problems of the shopping experience, such as scattered operations and lack of payment transparency.

JD.com pipped Alibaba for once by opening the first unmanned convenience store in the region in Jakarta to leverage the enormous database by offering beneficial insights to brands such as the best products to stock and advertise. Through their JV with Central Group in Thailand, JD Central also planning a similar launch in the country by 2020.

Inside JD.ID X Mart in Indonesia. It is JD.com’s first unmanned store outside of China and it is a demonstration of JD.com’s mission to implement RaaS; Food Navigator Asia

Pure-play ecommerce retailers and brands recognized drawbacks in online marketing channels with fragmented infrastructure and a limited pool of shoppers. They promoted offline as an attractive option to push sales growth.

Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, companies are slowly but surely adopting this strategy across all categories. Ecommerce fashion players like Thailand’s Pomelo and China’s Love, Bonito have opened physical stores in their respective countries.

In 2018, Pomelo opened 5 new outlets, embarking away from Bangkok’s prime shopping areas to central business districts (CBDs) like Asoke and residential areas of Bangna. Meanwhile, Love, Bonito has 17 retail outlets spread across China, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Cambodia.

Rachel Lim, Co-Founder of Love, Bonito told Peak Magazine, “Data can tell you what’s selling but being on the ground tells you why something is not selling and what the customer is looking for.”

Visiting shopping malls is a popular social activity in Southeast Asia and this trend is not set to disappear anytime soon. Brands should take advantage of dual physical and online presence.

Updated (28 Feb 2019): Shopee Thailand does not have a solid plan to build its own logistics network yet. The comment was mentioned briefly in the interview with Bangkok Post which was made a focal point by the media.

The post 8 Trends That Will Shape Southeast Asia Ecommerce in 2019 appeared first on #1 All-In-One E-commerce Platform.