commerce Archives - Page 2 of 2

Singapore – Creative and communications network dentsu in Asia-Pacific and leading short-video platform TikTok has newly forged a regional partnership, aimed at driving media and commerce excellence for clients. The partnership, which has already been kickstarted in SEA, will enable dentsu clients to leverage TikTok’s strengths as a platform to deliver best-in-class capabilities across commerce, creativity, and creator marketing to drive brand outcomes at scale.

A key aspect of the partnership is the ‘Test with TikTok’ program which brings together leading performance specialists from dentsu and product innovators from TikTok to test several performance and commerce hypotheses on the platform.

With a fixed set of exclusive clients on the pipeline, dentsu clients will enjoy access to new features and best practice optimization opportunities on TikTok to uncover new learnings. The agency said that efforts around this initiative are already underway where select dentsu clients are currently participating in an exclusive hypothesis test around the effectiveness of different audience strategies on the platform.

Delilah Chan, head of channel revenue partnerships for SEA at TikTok, shared that through the collaboration, dentsu’s clients will be getting custom product testing opportunities, giving them actionable insights that present advantage when developing growth strategies on the TikTok platform.

“We are delighted to partner with dentsu as by complementing the strengths of our two organizations – TikTok’s product and platform capabilities with dentsu’s world-class performance and commerce capabilities, we can truly put the needs of the clients at the heart of our partnership,” said Chan.

Sunil Naryani, dentsu APAC’s president for product, commercials & partnerships, further shared that more than 10 client tests are already in the works and the longer-term objective is for these tests and best practices to culminate into client-centric commerce and performance strategies on the TikTok platform.

“Genuine commitment between dentsu and TikTok has allowed us to expand our partnership beyond standard training programs into progressive and tangible areas of product testing for performance and commerce outcomes. We appreciate the strong collaboration from TikTok with dentsu advertisers for exclusive hypothesis testing and generating actionable insights on their platform through the ‘Test with TikTok’ program,” said Naryani.

The APAC division of dentsu has also recently announced a new integrated solution focused on gaming. The new ‘dentsu gaming’ aims to bring together the extensive gaming heritage and expertise of the dentsu Japan network with the global scale and specialist capabilities within dentsu international.

New York, USA – New York-headquartered Optimizely, a provider of digital experience platform solutions, has launched ‘Data core service’ which enhances its digital experience platform (DXP) to provide deeper analytics and unified data insights across its suite of products.

With Data core service, Optmizely aims to provide companies a greater understanding of their customers, as well as their overall digital business performance. The new service will be available to Optimizely cloud customers by Q1 2022, and will be included at no charge, subject to 250K MAU’s usage limit, for customers who are implementing one or more of its solutions which include Content Cloud, Commerce Cloud, B2B Commerce Cloud, and Experimentation.

Optimizely said that Data core service will serve as the ‘connective tissue’ for its users, unifying data to serve as the ‘underlying force’ across content-centric, commerce-centric, and experimentation use cases, as well as customer profiling.

Data core service also provides common context, helping companies bring data across Optimizely into a centralized place and gain access to dashboards and analytics on how their digital business is performing. Ultimately, data core service aims to help companies deliver the right experience at the right time by providing visibility into their digital properties.

During the company’s virtual Opticon21 event, Justin Anovick, Optimizely’s chief product officer, said that the best DXP must be adaptable and that organizations shouldn’t have to manage disparate data sets or question where the single source of data truth is when developing their tech stack.

“With the launch of Data core service, we’re giving customers full visibility into their data without sacrificing composability,” said Anovick.

The service launch follows the company’s unification of the Optimizely and software Episerver brand and the acquisition of customer data platform Zaius in March 2021.

Optimizely has a global presence with offices in APAC including in Australia, Singapore, and Vietnam.

Hong Kong – TBWA\Hong Kong has launched its commerce offering TBWA\Commerce, in partnership with sister agency The Integer Group, the commerce agency headquartered in the U.S. and a key member of Omnicom Commerce Group.

Integer is a leading commerce agency focused on driving business growth results and opportunities through retail marketing, e-commerce & social commerce, connected commerce media, and brand communications & activation, as well as retail experience design, and technology & innovation. The agency’s clients include world-leading brands like AT&T, FedEx, Frito-Lay, Michelin, Nestlé, P&G, PepsiCo, and Starbucks.

TBWA\Commerce will leverage Integer’s e-commerce expertise to center its offering around e-retail, specifically on HKTVMall, Hong Kong’s online shopping platform.

Jan Cho, TBWA\Hong Kong’s managing director, commented that surprisingly, the e-commerce landscape in Hong Kong is less advanced than most developed countries because of its prolific and highly concentrated retail presence, which previously provided the unchallenged shopping convenience.

“But Covid upended the landscape and gave rise to a late, yet rapid e-comm boom from direct to consumer (DTC), social commerce to marketplace,” Cho said.

According to the agency, HKTVMall is one platform that has benefited significantly with the marketplace’s Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) more than doubling to HK$5.95b or almost US$800m in just a year and which is still climbing.

The agency said that despite the speed in development, marketplace commerce remains an unfamiliar territory for many Hong Kong brands, and like most e-commerce platforms, HKTVMall has its own layers and set of rules that feel foreign to most marketers, which can initially be intimidating.

Anne Chan, the agency’s head of digital and commerce, said, “HKTVMall is a fantastic platform for brands. Its volume of traffic, diversity of customers, promotion support, and online-to-offline (O2O) presence are second to none in the region.”

Chan shares that they’ve spent a great deal of R&D time to understand the inner workings, hidden codes, and rules of the platform. Chan said they believed they’ve cracked the ‘codes’ with the help of Integer’s expertise and the suite of tools from HKTVMall.

Cho added, “We’ve tried and tested [the] methodologies we’ve developed with actual businesses on HKTVMall, which have proven to be very effective. We’re confident we can advise any marketers to boost conversion, and the impact would usually be seen in a matter of months.”

TBWA\Commerce sits alongside other specialized offerings to provide full-funnel support to brands, namely, Disruption\Consulting which is catered to data-led business planning, DxD or which stands for design & experience planning, and BOLT, the agency’s in-house film production.

The commerce offering will pioneer in Hong Kong but planning for expansion across other APAC markets is already underway.

Terence Ling, head of strategy at TBWA\Hong Kong, commented, “We have made heavy investment of resources to develop this proprietary capability. Brands can take advantage of our unique experience and know-how leapfrogging the competition.”

Ling said that while the immediate focus is on HKTVMall, brands can access the agency’s ‘ePlaces’ offering to map their growth strategy across the digital ecosystem.

Singapore – Despite many countries worldwide easing up on normal life disrupted by the global pandemic, there is still a large fraction of shoppers worldwide who now hesitate to shop in-store, a new report from Wunderman Thompson Commerce shows.

According to the report, 49% of APAC shoppers are now hesitant to shop in physical stores, suggesting a transition to shop through online channels.

Looking at specific markets, nearly three quarters (72%) of shoppers in India are experiencing this fear, followed by Thailand (62%), China (55%) and Indonesia (51%) – while Japan and Australia are more open to the idea (30% and 22% respectively).

Meanwhile, on a global scale, nearly three-quarters of shoppers say that online shopping came to their rescue in 2020, with Thailand at the top of the global ranking having 94% of consumers agreeing to the sentiment. Looking ahead, three-quarters of global shoppers (73%) say e-commerce would be more important to them in 2021.

In terms of frequency of shopping online, marketplaces other than Amazon account for a third (33%) of all purchases, led by Japan at 45% and Thailand coming in at 41%.

It has been noted in the report that Amazon’s reputation on pricing is comparatively poor in Asia – just 20% of shoppers say it provides the best value, compared to 48% who identify the other marketplaces as being best: e-commerce platforms Tmall, Taobao, and Lazada.

“As we look beyond 2021, we know this channel shift from physical to digital channels is not only accelerating but will be the primary channel for retail purchasing in future. We see consumers turn to local and regional marketplaces as they take on global players like Amazon, an abundance of businesses switching to D2C offerings, and Asian consumers leading the way when engaging in new channels such as social and live commerce,” said Kaythaya Maw, chief technology officer at Wunderman Thompson APAC.

Despite these moves towards online shopping channels, there still remains hope for direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands handled by retailers. Over one quarter (29%) of shoppers in China said they have used branded direct-to-consumer sites as a source of inspiration, putting the channel third behind dominant marketplaces like Taobao and Tmall, and social media.

Nevertheless, the demand within these online retailers are surging, as APAC shoppers now demand the most from digital retailers, saying they want better products, services, and experiences online, with Thailand shoppers agreeing with the statement at 94.8%, closely followed by China and Indonesia at 89% and India at 86%.

A big finding from this year’s survey is that 44% of all global consumers the report spoke to say they have bought from a social platform. In Asia, buying directly through social media is already clearly a well-established trend, led by Thailand where 74% of consumers said they had purchased from a social platform, followed by Indonesia and China at 69%.

Speaking about the insights, Justin Peyton, chief transformation and strategy officer at Wunderman Thompson APAC, notes that with the heightened interest in online shopping, one should refrain from the use of the term ‘e-commerce’ since the term online shopping has now expanded beyond the borders of e-commerce platforms.

He added that with the growth of sales that we have seen in the recent past, and the fact that it is becoming the channel of choice, digital transactions have become a hygiene element that brands are expected to support as part of the overall commerce ecosystem.

“What’s more interesting is how commerce is fragmented across owned platforms, social platforms, conversational platforms, and marketplaces. With this diversity, brands must focus on where they can not only gain visibility but demonstrate their products in ways that are most likely to influence consumer choice,” Peyton stated.

Meanwhile, Maw added, “With the largest representation from Asia-Pacific taking part in this year’s report, we hope to provide businesses with vital insights to formulate effective strategies and respond to how consumers are shopping in this current environment, and how they will shop in future.”

Philippines – Dingdong Dantes, a top local actor in the Philippines with a long-time leading man status in the local entertainment industry, has officially launched Monday, 19 April, Dingdong, his new tech startup, which offers commerce solutions for SMEs. Without the frills, the actor goes for his namesake for the business’ official name.

Dingdong offers three solutions, namely, Dingdong Delivery, Dingdong E-commerce, and Dingdong Marketplace.

Dantes, whose real name is Jose Sixto Raphael Dantes, rose into popularity by the terse screen name which is often anchored to the perennial humor of its reference to ‘doorbell’. And without any surprise, Dantes, who joins the band of celebrities opening up their own business ventures, uses the jovial connotation to his advantage, adopting the tagline – “You Ring it, We Bring it” for its delivery services.

Its delivery service was first piloted to the market in August 2020 as a response to the blow of the pandemic on businesses’ economy and peoples’ livelihood. Meanwhile, its e-commerce API for SMEs is currently underway, while its online marketplace serves as the platform that merges both its delivery and e-commerce, offering consumers a place to make their food delivery orders.

The realization of the tech solutions firm, Dantes credits, to a time in 2019 when his wife, equally prime actress in the country Marian Rivera-Dantes, had to accomplish a delivery for her flower arrangement business in which the male Dantes had to step in, and thereafter, sparking the idea to bring a delivery service himself to fruition.

In partnership with software enterprise solutions company and PLDT-backed, Multisys Technologies Corporation, Dingdong’s delivery service helps businesses and organizations to fulfill their last-mile delivery requirements. Meanwhile, Dingdong E-Commerce enables all entrepreneurs to promote and sell products in an online marketplace with user-friendly tools that automate the management of products, inventory, and orders. Its e-commerce solution also allows companies and businesses to aggregate with other merchants in a unified digital marketplace. Committed to becoming the leading and most trusted e-commerce platform, Dingdong E-Commerce also provides auxiliary training in general business topics like branding, accounting, taxes, and product-specific topics.

Dantes said that he recognizes first and foremost that his business venture is show business and that his strength lies in telling stories and realities through his craft. This time, he wants to be able to redirect the power of stories to uplift Dingdong’s stakeholders – its merchants, riders, and consumers, with whom they intend to grow with and improve the lives of.

“At the core of dingdong and its solutions is excellent service that we give to all our stakeholders. We believe that excellent service is the key to all our business relationships and to all the doors of innovative solutions backed by technology,” said Dantes in the virtual press conference.

Dantes added, “Dingdong as a brand, and as a service is definitely here to build lasting relationships [with] our fellow entrepreneurs, partner riders, and discerning consumers by enabling and empowering them. We understand that it is only through the empowerment of our community members that we will be able to co-create what we call the people-centric solutions that will allow all of us to thrive and progress sustainably amid adversity.”

Currently, the Dingdong marketplace is only available through a web app. Consumers can make their on-demand and pre-booked food deliveries through marketplace.dingdong.ph. Meanwhile, businesses can learn more of its solutions through dingdong.ph.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – “#EveryoneCanTrade” – this is the catchphrase of the newly-launched MeCan Trade commerce platform that promises to allow merchants to conduct business absolutely free.

The recent platform launch is in response to the rising unemployment rate in Malaysia, and the perils that traditional and big industry business players face in the mid of the COVID-19 pandemic.

New statistics have shown that more people are venturing online to earn income, as shown by Statista where about 81% of the Malaysian population are active social media users. This is about a 1/3 increase compared to 2016, in which the social media users amounted to approximately 60% of the total population in Malaysia.

“MeCan Trade enables you to have your very own business by providing you your very own personalized e-store instantly with just a few clicks, for absolutely free. You will be able to offer a wide variety of original products directly from product owners. It has no risk, no capital, 100% genuine and unique products with instant set-up which is completely free for life. All the provision of stocks/products, inventory/payment gateway, back-end logistics, delivery system etc from A to Z will be taken care of by MeCan Trade for the Ambassadors,” the company said in its press statement.

MeCan Trade is the brainchild of former founder of restaurant chain OldTown, Andy Goh. Goh believes that as e-commerce has taken the ‘world by storm’, local entrepreneurship can go beyond conventional borders.

“From a business perspective, traditional ways of doing business have become harder – involving competition, product quality, logistic arrangements and sustainability. There is a paradigm shift using technology & big data efficiency to rebuild and transform suffering business owners through this difficult period,” Goh stated.

He added, “The core value for MeCan Trade is to share the wonders of what technology can do to improve, accelerate and re-invent new business ideas. We already have all the resources in place, we just have to collaborate and execute.”

Through the MeCan trade platform, three opportunities are being offered:

Sellers/Brand Owners – Sellers now have a platform to perform business recovery, consolidate enough data, tools and resources put together to start a business instantly, without being burdened by hefty expenses. The seller’s role is pretty straight-forward; list with MeCan Trade and use the system that allows full transparency, product price control, marketing tools and access to over 1000 fleet of sales force to sell your products.
Buyers – Bulk buying options by tiers, where MeCan Trade will connect these interested buyers to reliable, safe and trustworthy manufacturers.
Ambassadors – A MeCan Trade ambassador can earn passive income and become an entrepreneur by directly engaging with the source of the product.

MeCan Trade currently supports over 200 brand owners and manufacturers with over 2,000 products available with more than 1,000 ambassadors and counting, and Goh hopes that by the end of next year, they hope to achieve over 5,000 ambassadors and more than 20,000 products on the platform.

As part of its e-commerce initiative, MeCan Trade has also launched a 2 year #MeCanBoss Program with a total investment valued up to RM15.75 mill to nurture social commerce entrepreneurs. Said program gives incentive to coached ambassadors, while top performers will be given capital and guidance to start and develop their very own product,

“We provide a journey to aspiring local entrepreneurs in generating a self-sustainable income or passive income by trading online with credible, in-demand products from Manufacturers or Authorized Distributors. Business owners or individuals that are interested to come and list their reputable products or join this campaign can sign up at MeCan Trade on our official platform,” Goh concluded.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Marketing consulting-meets-agency, Entropia, has launched three new services under its eCommerce arm MEDICI – MEDICI Live, MEDICI Engage, and MEDICI ROI to optimize each stage of the commerce funnel and maximize sales conversion for its clients.

Together with international technology partners mobile live video streaming Bambuser, end-to-end conversational commerce and shopper engagement platform Jumper.ai, and eCommerce selling solutions Split Dragon, the new eCommerce services are aimed at converting brands’ leads to customers – from demand generation to demand capture – helping brands stand out from the saturated Southeast Asian digital marketplace.

Considering consumers increasingly rely on live video to assist in their online shopping decision process, MEDICI Live aims to drive a digital brand experience by integrating live stream shopping and utilizing live selling via influencers or KOLs, an increasingly-popular sales strategy. Relevant to high context categories such as cosmetics, education, and infant nutrition as well as financial services, or even electronics, with this technology, viewers can become paying customers, all without missing the show.

As one of the top-ranked countries globally in mobile social media penetration, it is not surprising that about 80% of Malaysian consumers obtain information on products and services from social media. MEDICI Engage will leverage the power of conversational commerce and shopper engagement platform, to tap into social media’s massive, yet cost-effective reach.

Meanwhile, MEDICI ROI will help brands optimize shops on eCommerce platforms like Lazada and Shopee. Simply featuring products on marketplaces and spending money on direct marketing channels is not enough for brands to attract the evolving consumer, and through the service, MEDICI aids brands in improving product visibility, storefront design, and search ranking.

In the Malaysian context, considering there are more than 55,000 sellers across marketplaces in Malaysia alone, brands need more than deep discounting, free shipping, and special event campaigns to stand out from the crowded digital marketplace. And now, equipped with MEDICI’s data-driven approach, these new services and partnerships offer just the right measurable solutions for our clients looking to reshape their commerce transformation.
Sourabh Agrawal, partner at Entropia

Tasked with leading MEDICI, Kelferd Hor, added, “Part of our mandate is to bring best-in-class technology partners on board to implement clients’ direct-to-consumer trade strategies – helping marketers up their ‘See Now Buy Now’ game, capitalize on impulse purchases and increase conversions. We’ve also made great strides in ensuring a seamless and consistent eCommerce experience for users across devices and platforms.”

Singapore – Global marketing and advertising firm Grey has recently launched a new division – Grey Commerce Collective SEA – where worldwide retail and commerce units from the group have been merged to specifically serve Southeast Asia brands.

Previous lead of Grey Singapore’s Shopper marketing arm, and now head of the SEA collective following its consolidation, Richa Kapse, said, “Commerce is borderless, and so are we.”

Kapse refers to the holistic arrangement of the Commerce Collective, which brings some highly specialized agencies such as retail interactivity expert Vinyl-I in Seoul as well as Grey’s social and data experts in Singapore to benefit brands.

“The name Collective was chosen by design because this is truly about collaboration across our Grey network,” said Kapse.

Shortened to bear the nickname GreyCoCo, Kapse shared what has prompted the birth of the collective.

“Over the past year, we have seen a growing demand from our clients to coordinate the in-store design and communication with complimentary social media assets. Increasingly, we see shoppers expecting brands to have the same storyline across social, e-commerce, and physical retail channels. Similar to bricks and mortar, the millennial and Gen Z shoppers are expecting to be wowed and immersed in a brand experience online.”

For GreyCoCo, Kapse will be reporting to Grey Singapore CEO Konstantin Popovic.

Popovic said, “What makes Grey CoCo unique is that it is embedded in an end-to-end agency, so we are uniquely positioned to deliver ideas that connect content to commerce.”

The most recent campaign by Grey is for Olay and its exclusive partnership with Shopee on its Brand Day in October. The campaign titled “Adult Fearlessly” targeted millennial women across key SEA markets, using bite-sized content spread out like a mini-series.

“A simple price promotion on a well laid-out brand shelf is no longer enough to drown out the competition. GREY brings the famously effective creative approach to tackle our clients’ commerce business problems,” added Kapse.

New York, USA – To officially mark its presence within the Asian market, commerce company VTEX is officially expanding its growth by establishing its first Asian regional office in Singapore, with a greater reach for the APAC region.

For VTEX, its APAC expansion means looking at the various commerce opportunities, especially with the shift to e-commerce in the region. Furthermore, Singapore is one of the region’s growing e-commerce hubs, which VTEX sees as a potential place to seek local and diverse e-commerce talent.

“With our growing number of global clients, we want to ensure each of our customers feel supported in whichever markets they do business in. Opening an office in Singapore is the next step in building our expansive global presence, and we’re thrilled with what this team of local commerce experts will be able to do for our customers,” said Alex Soncini, co-founder and head of global accounts at VTEX.

France Roy, CTO, D2C at AB InBev added, “VTEX’s unique commerce capabilities allow us to operate more efficiently while having the flexibility to scale and meet demand. We’re excited to deliver a streamlined and efficient buying experience, available to our customers now.”

Manila, Philippines – The Philippines arm of technology and commerce platform Zilingo has announced home-grown executive Shiela Mauricio as its new country manager.

In her new role, she will be spearheading Zilingo’s business operations, strategy execution while driving profitability and growth for the Philippines.

Mauricio boasts 25 years of experience in business development and sales. Joining in 2018, She was one of the very first employees at Zilingo Philippines. Mauricio was previously the head of commercial in the company, where she led to the execution of sales strategy in the Philippines, and on-boarded numerous big clients like Silver Kingdom, Havaianas, Plains and Prints, and designer Avel Bacudio’s exclusive athleisure line

Mauricio shared her excitement for her new role, “I’m happy and thrilled to be working with the young and diverse minds of ZilingoPhilippines. I believe that the company has a lot of potential in the country, especially in the B2B sector. I take this huge opportunity as a means to contribute my experience and add value to Zilingo’s impressive growth trajectory and grow alongside in the Process.”

“I would like to sincerely thank our CEO, Ankiti Bose (Zilingo) for entrusting me with this immense responsibility and encouraging the way for women in leadership positions,” she added.