Singapore – SHOPLINE, the global smart commerce platform, has announced a regional partnership with buy now pay later platform Atome, allowing online businesses to accept Atome’s buy-now-pay-later function as a payment option.
With the new service, merchants in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and Taiwan will be able to better cater their younger customers. The payment solution consists of three zero-interest instalments, including the first one at the point of purchase and two over time with no annual fees or service fees. It also translates to a higher conversion rate, order value and customer retention, especially for higher-priced products.
Joshua Qiao, General Manager, SHOPLINE Cross Border, said BNPL has taken off for a new generation of consumers and is expected to grow to US$1.2 Trillion in 2024. In the bid to optimise customer experiences, the partnership with Atome seeks to provide an effective digital experience that revolutionises the way their merchants serve their customers. Connecting payments to specific purchases over a period of time gives the power back to consumers as it changes the perception of debt and enables them to purchase big ticket items without the interest fees.
“The partnership with Atome offers the flexibility, transparency and seamless customer experience that resonates with younger consumers who are increasingly judicious with the debts that they take on, favouring BNPL options over credit card and other forms of payments. This is synonymous with SHOPLINE’s mission to continually offer best in class solutions for our merchants to build autonomous, powerful and thriving omnichannel brands,” Qiao said.
While BNPL is becoming more popular among all age groups, millennials and Gen Z consumers who appreciate the convenience of instalment payment option over traditional bank or credit card options have shown the highest growth in adoption.
Meanwhile, Atome’s Regional Head of Strategic Partnership Jeremy Wong, commented, “More than ever, young consumers today want flexibility, transparency and a better, more personalised shopping and payment experience.”
Wong added, “Our regional partnership with SHOPLINE will support thousands of merchants across Greater China and Southeast Asia in enabling a superior, secure Buy Now, Pay Later checkout experience for consumers, both in-store and online. This in turn will improve customer conversion, increase average orders and repeat sales.”
After launching in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan, SHOPLINE plans to expand the strategic partnership with Atome later this year to include other Asian markets such as Indonesia.
Sydney, Australia – Shoppers in Australia and New Zealand are reported to spend less and be more selective in prioritising essentials during their online purchases, a report by BigCommerce, an open SaaS e-commerce platform.
According to the report, 30% of respondents also indicate they plan to decrease their BNPL spend, with 68% doing so to save money for essentials. Furthermore, 79% of shoppers would be likely or very likely to leave a website and purchase elsewhere if a website is too slow.
In addition, credit card as a proportion of last payments made has risen to 39% in 2022, up from 26% in 2020 and 2021. Debit cards have also become more popular as a payment method, increasing from 17% in 2020, to 21% in 2021 and now at 23% in 2022. The majority of purchases made after receiving a marketing prompt came from email (42.1% of respondents), while respondents who made a purchase after receiving an abandoned cart email have also doubled to 32% in 2022.
Shannon Ingrey, vice president and general manager, APAC at BigCommerce, said, “The beginning of the pandemic pushed shoppers online, and now they’re getting more selective with their spending to prioritise saving more. We’re at a point where retailers and merchants need to take an introspective look at their key services to address shopper pain points like website speed and fast delivery time.”
Meanwhile, 40% of respondents indicated they have chosen one retailer over another because of a loyalty program offering, with 69% saying they have used a loyalty program to claim a reward in the last three months. For 77% of respondents, free shipping is the number one preferred perk when it comes to these loyalty programs.
“It’s critical for retailers to ensure they have the right technology and infrastructure in place to prioritise fast, seamless experiences for shoppers. Understanding what consumers think and how they behave on a day-to-day basis will be key to the strategic decision-making of every merchant in 2022,” Ingrey concluded.
Mumbai, India – ePayLater, a buy now, pay later (BNPL) payments platform for retailers in India, has launched a new campaign to pay homage to the Indian shopkeepers.
The 1-minute film, which was developed in collaboration with media agency Madison World, features Indian shopkeepers’ role in a day-to-day life come sun or rain, or even the challenges posed by lockdowns, ensuring to deliver all the essentials to the consumers. It also highlights ePayLater’s promise of adding wings of success to the shopkeeper’s business in following their dreams in new ways – creating a more meaningful connections to Indian consumers.
Speaking about the campaign, Aurko Bhattacharya, co-founder of ePayLater, shared that no one has ever thanked the small dukaandars enough for their contribution to society, and with this in mind, Madison BMB got the pulse of our audience and created a heart-warming campaign for these unsung heroes.
“As a brand, we have invested a lot of time and effort in creating a fintech platform that makes the process of availing credit easy; thus financially empowering these shopkeepers to unleash their true potential,” Bhattacharya said.
Meanwhile, Sunay Jain, marketing head at ePayLater, said, “The integrated campaign conceptualized by Madison BMB is an ode to the local shopkeepers who have done so much for each one of us. The TVC echoes the brand’s promise of adding wings of success to the shopkeeper’s business.”
Raj Nair, CEO and CCO at Madison BMB, commented, “This integrated campaign for ePayLater is an ode to these shop owners and revolves around how the brand is, in fact, not just a fintech product but metaphorically the wind beneath their wings. ePayLater takes pride in their achievements and watches them grow their business and prosper.”
Nair added, “In order to ensure maximum reach and impact within our audience group over a period of time, we’ve taken the essence of the campaign beyond the thematic film into digital media and shop level activation as well.”
Singapore – Indian merchant commerce platform Pine Labs has raised US$50m from Vitruvian Partners, a London-headquartered international investment firm.
With this newly secured investment, Pine Labs will continue to expand its BNPL offering in the Southeast Asia region.
Amrish Rau, Pine Labs’ CEO, shared that they are deeply focused on the omnichannel play and are building frictionless and seamless payment experiences for their merchant partners and large enterprises.
“We aim to further strengthen our recent foray in online payments via Plural and take our Buy Now Pay Later offering to new markets through strategic collaborations. We welcome Vitruvian Partners on this journey and thank them for the trust shown in us,” said Rau.
Meanwhile, Peter Read, Vitruvian Partners’ partner, commented that their investment in Pine Labs follows several investments they have made into the digital payments space, and they are excited to partner with the management team as they continue to drive digital transformation within the rapidly growing Indian payments market.
“We were impressed by the versatility of the omnichannel payments platform, as well as the expanding geographic footprint,” said Read.
Earlier this month, Pine Labs has launched the ‘Mastercard Installments with Pine Labs’ program with Mastercard and DBS Bank to empower the bank’s two million customers in Singapore, Indonesia, and Hong Kong SAR with Pay Later instalment purchase options at the point of sale.
Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) was first introduced over 15 years ago in Europe, as a payment platform that allows shoppers to split their purchases into interest-free monthly deferred payments, usually by scanning an in-store QR code or upon checkout at a partner retailer’s website.
In recent years, BNPL has gained immense popularity amongst merchants and consumers in Asia, with its market share expected to more than double by 2024, according to the Global Payments Report 2021 by FIS-Worldpay. While BNPL is seen as a rising global movement, it is important to note that the use case and macro landscape across the regions vary significantly.
Unlike established markets such as the United States, Australia and Europe, Asia is highly fragmented (eg. credit profile, religion, language, culture) with a large unbanked and underbanked population, especially in emerging markets such as Indonesia and Vietnam. For example, in Southeast Asia (SEA), only 27% of the overall 670 million population has bank accounts. This sizable gap in traditional banking penetration has resulted in at least 438 million unbanked or underbanked consumers, with limited access to basic financial services and subsequently, a thin credit profile. Consequently, retailers should partner with BNPL brands with robust risk assessment and credit profiling technology to minimise transaction rejects and fraud cases.
SEA is also leading the charge in digital consumption, having added 60 million new digital consumers to the internet economy since the pandemic started. The massive digitisation that the region witnessed in 2020, triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, saw SEA lead as a mobile-first consumer economy.
Retailers partner BNPL providers to tap on the young and emerging digital consumers – shoppers who are mobile-first and digitally savvy and may be experiencing major life events such as getting their first job or house, getting married, and having their first child. It is estimated that by 2030, 75% of consumers in ASEAN will be under the age of 30.
Physical shopping in SEA remains a social activity for many, and shoppers still prefer to see and touch products before making the commitment to purchase. This is different from other developed markets in Europe or the US where e-commerce is widely adopted because of good public infrastructure (e.g. cheap broadband, good last-mile delivery to every home).
For the shoppers in SEA, they value omnichannel retail shopper experience, one that allows them to shop and purchase seamlessly across online and offline channels. What this means for retailers and BNPL players in this region is that the physical store experience is critical when it comes to increasing in-store conversion, basket size, and the overall brand and shopping experience.
Merchants who have adopted BNPL in their business have seen benefits including improved sales, traffic, and conversions. With BNPL, merchants can also unlock a new segment of shoppers and understand their shopping behaviours.
BNPL V2.0
As BNPL matures in Asia, it will evolve from its current basic model of interest-free monthly payments to further enable merchants. We’ve seen examples of new products and services launched, for example, co-branded cards, savings accounts, investment products, and personal finance management.
Traditional banks and even digibanks are also developing and launching their own BNPL offerings. Potential evolution pathways of BNPL and features include:
1. Greater industry adoption
With wider customer adoption and demand for payment choice and flexibility, other retail categories beyond fashion, lifestyle, and beauty categories are experimenting with BNPL. Travel and hospitality, food and beverage, and luxury and premium retail are some examples.
2. Open-loop payment services
Open-loop is a payment method that can be used anywhere that brand of cards or e-wallets is accepted. As BNPL gains momentum globally, BNPL players are introducing co-branded credit cards and e-wallets with payment providers to create an open-loop system that is not restricted to signed merchants. This will greatly accelerate BNPL acceptance across retailers who for example, already accept payments for example, via Visa or Mastercard. BNPL brands also partner with payment service providers, web builders, e-commerce enablers to provide integration support for merchants and accelerate the wider acceptance and integration of BNPL solutions.
3. Social commerce
SEA is expected to lead the biggest market for social commerce, especially given how a large chunk of its population is entering its prime of technology adoption. Social commerce (78%) has become the second most preferred shopping channel in the region, second only to e-commerce platforms (91%).
In 2020, clothes, apparel, and accessories continue to lead social shopping (71%), followed by health and beauty (59%), and electronics and appliances (53%). A large majority of Gen Z and millennials are leveraging social platforms not just to connect and explore, but also to shop and inspire. Increasingly, BNPL players are developing social commerce features to create highly targeted and personalised content recommendations to help promote organic engagements with merchants.
4. Customised merchant services
One of the key strengths for BNPL players is a strong understanding of user demographics and shopping behaviour. Moving forward, BNPL players can invest in co-marketing and merchant-enabler features such as social CRM, loyalty programme, co-marketing, and concierge-like membership services, and this would be crucial in connecting with a community of young, aspirational, and digitally-savvy consumers.
5. Broader financial services
Finally, BNPL players can also introduce offerings with longer tenures especially for high-value items like electronics and smartphones, and money management services such as savings accounts and investment options. As the BNPL industry continues to thrive in the coming years, the evolution of BNPL will further enable and empower merchants and create a strong and holistic ecosystem that drives engagement and value through every facet of the consumer’s purchase journey.
This article is written by Jeremy Wong, head of strategic partnerships at BNPL platform Atome.
The article is published as part of MARKETECH APAC’s thought leadership series What’s NEXT.This features marketing leaders sharing their marketing insights and predictions for the upcoming year. The series aims to equip marketers with actionable insights to future-ready their marketing strategies.
If you are a marketing leader and have insights that you’d like to share with regards to the upcoming trends and practices in marketing, please reach out to [email protected] for an opportunity to have your thought-leadership published on the platform.
Singapore – With changing consumer and retail trends as well as more inclusive payment options, e-commerce spending is estimated to rise by 162% to reach US$179.8b by 2025, according to data from a joint study by market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) and global payments platform 2C2P.
The largest markets for e-commerce payments are forecast to be Indonesia (US$83b), Vietnam (US$29b), and Thailand (US$24b).
The report also noted that digital payments are expected to account for 91% of total e-commerce spending by 2025, up from 80% in 2020. The Philippines,Vietnam and Thailand markets are projected to have noteworthy shifts with declining cash usage and increasing digital payments usage by 2025.
For Aung Kyaw Moe, founder and CEO of 2C2P, there is an opportunity to ride on the growth of digital payments and provide secure and reliable financial services to meet the ever-changing needs of consumers in the region.
“Digital payments are no longer a nice-to-have but a must-have, and a key part of every company’s business strategy. The ability of businesses to optimize their payment capabilities and operations according to geographical reach will also determine how they stay competitive, agile, and successful across the region,” Moe stated.
In terms of digital payment preference, local payment options like mobile wallets are preferred for ease and convenience across Southeast Asia. From 2020 to 2025, mobile wallets and BNPL in the region are expected to grow 30% and 58%, respectively. Indonesia alone is predicted to welcome over 100 million new mobile wallet users by 2025.
“Southeast Asia’s payment landscape is incredibly fragmented, and payment systems and their adoption, as well as regulations, can vary from market to market. To help businesses understand and navigate the region’s complexities, we’ve put together this comprehensive guide to the region’s payments landscape featuring regional and local payment insights,” said Michael Araneta, associate vice president and head of research and consulting at IDC Financial Insights Asia-Pacific.
What a great way to start the ‘Ber’ months this year with a list of high-flying stories which gave the industry a peek of the latest developments in the startup, e-commerce, and digital payments scene.
This September, an Indian-born PR agency leading the way for communications in the startup sector has expanded its presence to Singapore. A Buy Now Pay Later platform is also ramping up its market in Southeast Asia with the announcement of its country manager for Thailand.
Meanwhile, e-commerce makes another round getting into readers’ radar with a data-driven marketing firm in Asia unveiling its new leader for its e-commerce offering.
Stories from the Philippines are also in this month’s top spots with one career coaching firm in the country sharing its business story, and also, a report that saw the convergence of consumer products and social media snared readership for the period.
Value 360 Communications, the startup-focused PR agency in India, has announced that it will be expanding its market to Singapore to unlock growth opportunities in the country’s burgeoning start-up space.
Speaking to MARKETECH APAC, Kunal Sinha, the founder and director of Value 360 Communications, shared that the company has been part of the journey of 15 unicorns in the market of India, where they have built communications from the ground up. Learning from the process, the agency eventually grounded its name and reputation in the sector.
Working with a complex market such as India, Sinha believes, gives the agency a strong value proposition to bring to the start-up space.
“We are going to focus on providing start-up PR in the SEA region, and Singapore will be the core for us in extending our services to start-ups. We are also in a discussion with other global brands who have both India and Singapore presence, and we are looking to hire talents with specific experiences in start-ups,” said Sinha.
We have an internal training module where we will be able to help them learn and understand about the start-up space.
Entering this month’s top stories is one of the latest episodes of MARKETECH Spotlight featuring career coaching firm in the Philippines, Metamorphosis Group (MG).
In an exclusive conversation with the firm’s Founder, President, and CEO, Danica Octa, she shared MG’s start-up journey which began in the pandemic year in 2020. Gaining more expertise and leadership into the current job and recruitment industry in the country, the coaching firm has now firmed up its mission of becoming an end-to-end employability solution for those seeking guidance on their career development.
Speaking MARKETECH APAC, Octa shared how the firm sees its role in the Filipino workforce.
Our role [in the workforce] is to be some kind of a learning partner [and] an accountability buddy.
Octa believes that above all, it’s able to help shape people’s career journey through its future-oriented thinking.
“We are very forward-thinking, we understand the future of work, we as a company is very, very in touch with what’s going to happen 10 years later,” she said.
Octa adds, “We have the intuition, we can give our market the information they need to succeed moving forward, of course, so that they can upskill and reskill to the appropriate job that they need to have, moving forward. So I think that’s the role that we take here.”
Twitter Philippines has recently released a report on the products Filipinos love to talk about on the platform. The data shows that there are five key trends in how Filipinos converse around food, beverages, and personal, as well as home care.
Chandan Deep, Twitter’s head of emerging business for SEA, shared that people on the app and the conversations that they create are what makes Twitter unique, and that 71% have rated it as a great platform for brand interaction, making it the number one among its peers.
MARKETECH APAC conversed with Deep, and she noted that when you looked at the top mentioned brands, which were listed on their CPG dispatch, you will see some good samples on how brands can engage with their customers on Twitter, to be able to drive more meaningful conversations.
Twitter has a diverse community so they can connect with people who like entertainment, gaming, or health, making the first move as a brand by initiating conversation and making your audience enjoy it.
ADA, the data- and AI-driven marketing firm in Asia, has appointed former Chief Business Officer of Lazada Malaysia, Sherry Tan to be its regional head of e-commerce.
ADA has just unveiled its end-to-end e-commerce solution for brands in APAC, and for the new role, Tan will be leading a team of leaders who will support the growing demand for e-commerce in the region.
In the interview with MARKETECH APAC, Tan shared the challenges that brands in e-commerce are faced with in this pandemic.,
“In the last 18 months right, the pandemic catapulted e-commerce retail significantly, and there are more users in the digital space whether it is the buyers or the sellers. Now, it has become harder for brands to attract customers because there are wider options available,” said Tan.
According to Tan, besides having more choices, customers are gaining smarter as well and therefore, have higher expectations toward their shopper journey.
Brands need to stay on top of their game to predict industry trends…and then they need to enhance engagement and attraction to their brand to build loyalty and retention.
On ADA’s e-commerce solution, Tan said, “Leveraging on our data and digital shelf, we are able to craft [an] e-commerce and digital strategy based on sentiment analysis, customer insights as well as [competitive] landscape. This data allows us to understand what consumers are interested in, where they have visited over a period of time, and ADA is able to target these audiences for the brand.”
For our top story for the month, we have Buy Now Pay later platform in Asia Atome’s appointment of its country manager for Thailand, Poompong Tancharoenphol Tancharoenphol was formerly Zilingo’s country head for the country.
Speaking to MARKETECH APAC, Tancharoenphol said, “I think I have been fortunate to look at e-commerce both from AddVentures and Zilingo before. There [are] a few key factors in making an e-commerce company successful, namely the business model itself, whether it is B2C e-commerce, B2B e-commerce, and marketplaces, and there is [a] supply chain, marketing, and payment.”
He adds that with BNPL being quite new to the Thai market, it could mean either two things: it may be potentially good or something which the market may not adapt to.
I think the direct value we offer to the retailers and e-commerce players is the increase in the market size. We were able to increase the market size to 30% more than any other payment method, and this comes along with increasing sales and conversion [afterward]
Watch our exclusive interviews with the brands themselves on the latest episode of MARKETECH APAC Reports, now live on our YouTube channel.
This is in collaboration with Malaysia-based media company The Full Frontal.
Singapore – Buy now pay later (BNPL) platform in Asia, Atome, has launched Atome+, its in-app loyalty rewards program, in Singapore.
Atome allows shoppers to split their purchases into three interest-free installments at different stores. Through Atome+, shoppers will be earning points for purchases made using Atome across online and offline retailers in Singapore. These points can be redeemed against further purchases at selected merchants, including LEGO, Kinohimitsu, PEDRO, and Melissa, or to offset future transactions.
Within the program, Atome shoppers are able to earn 1 Atome+ point for every S$1 spent. To celebrate the launch of Atome+ in Singapore, shoppers will receive up to 3 times more Atome+ points from 9 to 12 September. Existing Atome users can also earn additional 1,000 points for every successful referral from now until 30 September.
According to Atome, since the program’s soft launch in June, over 11,000 users have already redeemed 3 million worth of points to offset bills and transactions. The Atome+ loyalty program will be progressively rolled out to Malaysia and Hong Kong in the coming months.
Trasy Lou Walsh, general manager of Atome Singapore and Malaysia, shared that the program has been very well-received by Atome users since its soft launch. She further shared that within the program in the future, shoppers can be further rewarded with Atome+ points for actions like making on-time payments.
Atome has been ramping up its presence within Asia, recently announcing its newly appointed country manager for Thailand, Poompong Tancharoenphol.
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