In pursuit of one’s professional aspirations, a true marketing leader is dedicated in delving deeper into the intricacies of customer dynamics within their regional leadership landscape. For an ideal leader, the true ambition is to not only comprehend the nuances of this diverse market but also to play a pivotal role in moulding their business framework into one that fosters enduring profitability through steadfast foundational principles.
For MARKETECH APAC’s second Milestone Series article, we spoke with Achint Setia, chief revenue and marketing officer at ZALORA, to share one of his greatest milestones–leading ZALORA’s marketing efforts across the Southeast Asian region, in order to contribute towards shaping ZALORA’s business model.
In this narrative, we take a look of his accomplishments within the company, what his industry insights are, and what he aspires as a marketing leader moving forward.
Challenges on leaping to a new role
Prior to joining ZALORA, Setia was previously the CXO and head, marketing and social commerce business at Indian fashion e-commerce company Myntra. He has two decades of experience across media, management consulting and technology. For him, he joined ZALORA at a time when the larger consumer tech industry, and e-commerce in particular, was going through a major transition, with the focus shifting from pure play growth towards profitability.
When asked what was his biggest challenge as a business leader, he said that it had something to do with driving business outcomes in a very volatile macroeconomic landscape in Southeast Asia, among inflationary pressures, geo-political challenges, supply chain disruptions (with lockdowns in some markets), unprecedented consumer purchase behaviours (with the return to offline), as well as weakened employee morale from the pandemic era.
“Keeping our teams excited and motivated about the opportunity ahead, while continuing to push problem-solving and innovation in unexplored territories, has been a roller coaster thus far, but it has also been an immensely rewarding ride over the last year. Throughout this period, I am extremely thankful to be a part of a caring organisation surrounded by highly talented colleagues, and for the presence of a strong family support system to help me through this transition,” he said.
What contributions led to one
Building continued success on the company’s anniversary milestone
Setia noted that a key factor why businesses needed to calibrate nowadays is because consumers are now enticed with digital-led strategies, which include innovations like “Shoppertainment” – a portmanteau of “shop” and “entertainment” – and virtual retailing, which further diversified retail’s omnichannel ecosystem.
Citing a recent report they had, he goes on to say that consumers are becoming increasingly adept at shifting between reality and virtual landscapes – they constantly straddle between both on a daily basis. This brought on an increased demand for shopping journeys to be more humanised and personalised as they continue to discover their footing in today’s “next normal.
“Customer experience is always a key priority for me, and we still see many opportunities for us to spearhead improvements to consumers’ e-commerce experience in the region,” he said.
For ZALORA’s recent anniversary, the company launched several pop-up activations with partners like Adidas, Nike, and Trendyol, which offered immersive ‘click-and-mortar’ experiences. Citing an example, a pop-up collaboration with Adidas, called The Supermart, showcased over 90 Adidas products exclusive to ZALORA, and enabled customers to explore a supermarket-themed physical store, scan unique QR codes tagged on each item, and purchase via the ZALORA app with direct shipping to their doorstep.
Moreover, a significant portion of the company’s achievements this year can be attributed to their year-end mega campaigns such as 11.11, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and 12.12.
“We see strong performance during our shopping events, and typically enjoy three to six times the number of sales as compared to non-campaign days – last year, we saw the highest number of sales during 11.11 and 12.12 compared to any other day,” Setia also added.
He also added that the company also made significant investments and progress on customer loyalty. For the company, they revamped their subscription program, Zalora VIP, which offers free and fast shipping at no minimum spend, along with a host of privileges such as access to sales, priority customer service, and exclusive offers from their lifestyle partners for a complete VIP like experience for their subscribers.
Aspirations of bringing more success to ZALORA
As the company’s chief revenue and marketing officer, his main objective is to drive business growth and profitability led through customer experience, assortment and post purchase experience.. For him, they are placing significant emphasis on their customer journeys and personalisation to ensure increased engagement, loyalty, and satisfaction when customers interact with ZALORA.
“This includes anticipating and addressing the growing demands of our customers by ensuring that we offer the best assortment of only authentic products from over 3,000 brands; deploying innovative omnichannel strategies–like The Supermart–to create inventive and personalised retail journeys; and adopting 27 different payment methods, including innovative options like BNPL and other digital wallets to broaden financial accessibility and inclusion for millions of SEA’s underbanked,” he explained.
He goes on to say that they also aim at expanding their platform services business to enable brands to grow their presence in the region and provide breakthrough solutions to enhance the overall customer journey.
However, Setia noted that brands venturing into overseas markets often face a multitude of challenges, and this is particularly true in Southeast Asia, a region with complex geographies, and where each country boasts its own customs, culture, religion, and language.
And yet, for him, it is also a region where e-commerce is experiencing strong growth on the back of continuing digitalisation and a rising middle class.
“The combination of ZALORA’s holistic platform services empowers our brand partners to swiftly and more effectively capture the region’s demand boom – whether it is harnessing benchmark data to understand buying behaviour and pricing insights from close to 60 million monthly platform visits with our ‘TRENDER’ data service, or boosting brand visibility through targeted content, onsite campaigns, influencer marketing, insights, and analytics through our ZALORA advertising platform (ZAP), or even tapping onto our comprehensive supply chain infrastructure and state-of-the-art logistics capabilities across different markets, through our fulfilment services,” he added.
When asked what he wants to continue doing as part of ZALORA, Setia says he wants to go deeper with his customer understanding in Southeast Asia, as well as contribute towards ZALORA’s business model.
“My personal passions include investments in building deeply segmented experiences using advanced analytics, along with driving a multi-channel engagement ecosystem to inspire customers to shop at the convenience of their fingertips,” he said.
This piece is published under MARKETECH APAC’s content series ‘Milestones’, which celebrates the different milestones and achievements of industry leaders across the Asia-Pacific region. Please reach out to [email protected] for more information.