Singapore – In the lead-up to the Alibaba 11:11 Global Shopping Festival this coming 11 November, the e-commerce giant has partnered with global creative commerce company VMLY&R Commerce and strategic consultancy WPP BAV, to launch an online learning series for brands, retailers, and marketers, in understanding the global retail space.
The event, which will stream online in WPP BAV Alibaba Command Center Studios on 8 to 11 November 2021 from 7 am to 1 pm SGT, will be hosted by various experts from APAC’s biggest brands and marketplaces, including Dhiren Amin, the chief marketing officer of Kraft Heinz APAC, Chris Tung, the chief marketing officer of Alibaba, and Maggie Zhou, the managing director of Alibaba Group ANZ, as well as James Chang, the chief business officer of Lazada.
The attendees of the event can participate in a no holds barred Q&A and will have the opportunity to ask questions on topics covered during the day’s sessions to a group of experts, namely Arvind Singh, Aleph-Labs’s founder and CEO, Tim Devine, AKQA’s executive innovation director, and Katie Rigg-Smith, Mindshare’s CEO for ANZ. This will be hosted by Rose Herceg, WPP’s chief of strategy for ANZ.
Some of the topics in the program are ‘The state of global retail and the opportunities and challenges for the next twenty-four months’, which will be on 8 November from 11:45 am to 12:15 pm SGT, ‘5 Big 11:11 Commerce Trends You Need to Know Now’, which will stream on 9 November from 12:15 am to 12:40 am SGT, and ‘The online/offline debate’, which will happen on 10 November from 11:30 am to 12:00 pm SGT, as well as ‘Digital commerce’, which will be live on 11 November from 11:00 am to 11:30 am SGT.
Hari Ramanathan, VMLY&R’s chief strategy and transformation officer for Asia, who will be in conversation with Amin, shared that while conventional retail festivals such as Chinese New Year or Christmas sales are tied to culture and emotion, 11.11 is markedly more transactional.
“Sales volumes can be immense, and my conversation with Dhiren will highlight some unique insights into why brands should participate, what their focus should be and how to maximize profitability during the day,” said Ramanathan.
Meanwhile, Lazada’s CBO Chang, speaking of his session, noted that e-commerce in SEA has come a long way from its nascent roots just less than 10 years ago.
“When Lazada started in 2012, the e-commerce landscape was one where shoppers would go to a site, browse and make a call to place an order, before arranging to meet somewhere to hand over cash and collect the purchase,” said Chang.
