The retail landscape is dynamic. And trends tend to come and go based on evolving consumer behaviours, technological advancements and global economic shifts. But one trend, in particular, has quickly taken the retail world by storm, cementing its place as a lasting force – and that’s subscriptions. 

The subscription economy grew by more than 300 per cent between 2012 and 2019. And it’s continuing its meteoric rise thanks in large part to Amazon Prime making subscriptions a part of everyday life for many Australians. In fact, according to Telsyte data, Amazon Prime had 4.5 million subscribers in Australia as of June 2023. 

“This is a huge amount of people who are opting for additional convenience with a recurring order. And that convenience is key. It’s creating the sense of brand loyalty, giving subscription businesses a recurring touch point with a subscriber on a cadence versus relying on a one-off purchase,” says Carl Nightingale, Head of Product for Chargebee Retention.

“That committed relationship creates a partnership and allows brands to be more personalised in how they engage subscribers, which leads to healthier unit economics overall.”

The Relationship Between Subscriptions and Loyalty

Many loyalty programs include a subscription element, and many subscription services incorporate conventional loyalty principles. Both of these approaches provide value to customers, whether members or subscribers, in return for something valuable to a brand or retailer. In the context of loyalty programs, the exchange is data which can be used to generate deep customer insights which enable better, customer-centric decision making across all areas of the business. For subscription programs, it’s the predictability that comes with recurring revenue. At a time when consumers are encountering higher prices and adjusting their spending patterns, this value exchange is becoming paramount. 

Consumers want discounts and other benefits to reduce the overall cost of their purchases. At the same time, brands – especially, retailers – need strategies to retain and attract new customers, especially as inflation-driven brand switching runs rampant. The good news is that subscription and loyalty programs, as well as hybrid programs that combine elements of both, excel at boosting customer retention. They create dependable, ongoing and expanding revenue streams and significantly greater customer lifetime value when executed well. 

Subscription and loyalty programs boost customer retention by:

  1. Leveraging the psychology of affiliation and community
  2. Offering tangible value and convenience to members and subscribers
  3. Creating more opportunities and interaction points for customer engagement and marketing 
  4. Enabling more sophisticated personalisation and insights into customer behaviour 

The Psychology of Subscriptions

Subscription programs create an emotional, exclusive draw for consumers to join loyalty programs. Combining the convenience and savings of subscriptions strengthens customer savings while helping customers feel valued. Loyalty programs will typically recognise a customer’s long-standing status as a member (e.g., member since 2010). They may even recognise certain milestones, creating an environment where customers feel appreciated — an essential factor in customer retention. 

Subscriptions represent enduring partnerships between customers and brands underpinned by a financial commitment. Though they require nurturing, this relationship is mutually beneficial, providing consumers consistency, reliability and convenience while businesses reduce their acquisition costs. 

“The market has shifted in the last few years to no longer being about growth at all costs but about healthy, sustainable growth. And that has ushered in an overwhelming focus on subscriber retention, even more so than acquisition in the market,” Nightingale shares. 

“We’re seeing companies prioritise efforts to engage and retain their existing subscribers above and beyond new growth and new acquisition. This isn’t surprising, given the fact that it can be up to five times more expensive to acquire a new customer than retain an existing customer.”

Subscriptions Create a Sense of Community

Subscriptions often employ triggers to prompt customers to use a product or service, generating habitual behaviour. In return for the continued benefit the customer receives from those products or services, such as the convenience of a home-delivered meal kit or access to a library of media content, the customer gives the brand a modest recurring fee and (usually) access to their behavioural and preference data. This exchange is one that consumers are increasingly eager to make. 

Rather than discrete transactions, subscriptions feature recurring incremental payments, reliable and regular shipments of (or access to) products or services, and an ‘always on’ experience — often more affordable than making a series of one-time payments. Once a consumer becomes a subscriber, many typical barriers and friction points associated with purchasing are eliminated or mitigated. 

Beyond the purely behavioural and transactional aspects of subscription psychology, subscriptions offer a sense of community. The continuous relationship between a brand and its subscribers creates a feeling of belonging to that brand and other subscribers. Brands can encourage this communal aspect through rewards programs, subscriber interactions, events and contests and other relevant content. 

Many subscriptions also offer customers choice and customisability. Subscribers can pay for additional value by choosing an upgrade or a higher plan. This flexibility also helps develop customer loyalty – consumers see the opportunity to have different personalised subscriptions as meeting their needs rather than something sold to the masses.

Subscriptions Drive Customer Retention 

The relationship between value and loyalty can go a long way toward boosting retention rates. But subscribers are inherently easier to retain than customers who require constant reacquisition efforts. The rationale for this is straightforward: a subscriber has to proactively cancel the subscription and until they take that step, the company has opportunities to prevent or dissuade cancellation. 

How significant is the potential impact for retail brands to increase their retention rates through subscriptions? According to Bain & Company, a mere 5 per cent increase in customer retention rates can lead to as much as 25 per cent profit growth. A similar study by McKinsey found that subscription-based businesses grow at a rate five times faster than traditional businesses, on average, and also demonstrate higher profitability, with an average EBITDA margin of 25 per cent. 

Subscriptions present a substantial opportunity that retailers can leverage. Businesses can track activity across various channels and tools through automated workflows to optimise retention rates. Customers who slow their activity are at a higher risk of churning than those who progressively increase their activity over time. By collecting, tracking and analysing customer data, companies can gain insights that inform the actions needed to retain more customers, including those identified as the most valuable to the brand.

Personalised Upselling, Cross-Selling and Marketing to Subscribers 

Retention isn’t the only advantage that subscriptions and loyalty programs provide. They also provide companies with built-in marketing channels to engage and connect with customers. Consumers willingly share relevant personal information in exchange for the value they receive from their subscriptions and loyalty memberships. This kind of first-party data is becoming more critical with the sunsetting of third-party cookies. 

“On the data front, with privacy regulations like GDPR and Australia’s Privacy Act, subscription models offer an opportunity to engage the customer in a voluntary exchange of data that can be leveraged for more personalisation, driving more results upstream. In a subscription model, brands can engage with their customer at different touch points. Then they can use all of those touch points to gather more personalised data,” says Nightingale. 

“It’s much easier creating a highly personalised experience with a subscription model versus a non-subscription model that often relies on third-party cookies, which are being phased out entirely.”

Companies obtain valuable data from each customer transaction through subscriptions and loyalty programs. When able to execute marketing and promotions against these insights, retailers and direct-to-consumer brands can reap significant rewards. Transactional data provides valuable insights into customers’ purchase habits, including what they buy, how often they make purchases (monthly, weekly, etc.), and their preferred payment method. 

This intelligence can inform how discounts and offers are customised to increase the likelihood of redemption, as opposed to generic promotions that are less targeted and offered to all customer segments. Once again, this comes back to CEO of Eagle Eye Tim Mason’s three golden rules of loyalty:

  1. Treat others as they’d like to be treated: When you’re designing your program, don’t treat people as you’d love them to be, treat them how they like to be treated.
  2. Reward the behaviour you seek: Become clear in understanding the behaviour that makes a real difference to your goals and incentivise customers accordingly.
  3. Follow the DIAL approach for continuous improvement: When you have a loyalty program, you are privy to a significant amount of customer Data, which should be used to generate Insight. But the key is to then turn those Insights into Action – something that makes a difference and sparks customer Loyalty. 

“Treat people like individual customers that are giving you this data willingly as part of their consumer habits. Then treat them to something relevant to them, which is going to get them to spend more time with you,” Al Henderson, Chief Sales Officer at Eagle Eye, says.

Grocery Retailers Well-Positioned

Grocery retailers are particularly well-positioned to gather data that reveals customer shopping habits and preferences. For example, if a grocer can infer that a customer is a pet owner based on past purchasing patterns, offering a discounted deal on pet food will create a more positive impression on that shopper – and increase the likelihood that the offer is redeemed – much more than a blanket discount on breakfast cereal or milk ever could. 

Personalised offers can be distributed through many relevant touch points on special occasions like birthdays and subscription/loyalty membership anniversaries or seasonal promotions. These should be tailored to individual customer preferences and throughout a customer’s buying journey starting from the initial expression of interest through the purchase process and up to delivery or pickup. 

Each of these touchpoints provides a brand or retailer with opportunities to gather more customer preference data. This, in turn, can be used to enhance and fine-tune personalised marketing strategies.

Al Henderson, shares, “Customers don’t identify with online and offline anymore. They’re just transacting with a brand. And, therefore, it’s important to bring the benefit of the subscription and the offers anywhere they might be – whether that’s in an app, in-store or online to get the uplift and maximise on the potential, removing friction from the journey.” 

Subscription Success: The Role of Technology Partners

Brands often require technology partners to help them gather, manage and execute these engagement strategies, utilising the customer data available through their systems, such as point of sale, CRM and loyalty program databases. Eagle Eye, for example, enables companies to leverage this digital opportunity by providing real-time omnichannel customer connectivity, seamlessly integrating with all points of purchase and the retailer’sdata analytics capabilities. 

Through this connection, Eagle Eye enables the implementation of all a retailer’s data-driven decisions to reach the end customer using a comprehensive digital marketing toolkit. This toolkit encompasses real-time digital loyalty programs, personalised promotions, subscription services, gifting and cashback initiatives, charitable donations, third-party partnerships, coalitions and more. 

Many brands and retailers can face challenges with the technical and payment infrastructure required to accelerate the implementation of full-featured subscription programs. Partnering with platforms like Chargebee enables companies to rapidly launch and iterate subscription-based plans and products through freemium, trial and paid offerings. Helping companies provide tailor-made offers for long-time subscribers and those most likely to churn, Chargebee also mitigates cancellations. 

Companies receive actionable insights and analytics on those customers who do churn to sharpen and refine future customer retention strategies. They also benefit from the automation of collections and revenue recovery. Together, these tools provide brands and retailers a powerful way to merge loyalty and subscription programs, ultimately reducing churn, upselling to existing customers and increasing customer lifetime value.

CLV and Predictable Purchasing Patterns

The revenue impact of improved Customer Lifetime Value, or CLV, indicates the average revenue a company can generate from a customer over the entire lifetime of their account. In simpler terms, it’s the revenue a company will earn before the customer terminates the relationship. For example, if customers spend $100 on products or services every month for nine months, their CLV is $900. If they remain with the company for two years, their CLV increases to $2,400. 

CLV is an important metric because it gives businesses a customer-centric viewpoint to inform crucial marketing and sales strategies, such as customer acquisition, retention, cross-selling, upselling and support. “CLV is not a new concept. But with the subscription business model, it becomes a very powerful concept to think about as it relates to maximising the unit economics for our business,” Nightingale points out.

A subscription program’s ability to provide businesses with a predictable revenue stream with ongoing growth potential makes the revenue model powerful. Unlike static revenue figures that remain constant monthly, subscription revenue compounds with each new subscriber. As long as businesses can acquire new subscribers at a pace that surpasses customer churn, revenue grows exponentially. 

In practice, subscriptions increase CLV by fostering ongoing customer engagement and loyalty. They create a consistent revenue stream over an extended period, encouraging customers to make recurring purchases and develop a deeper connection with the brand. Additionally, the data collected from subscription customers can be used to personalise offers and improve the overall customer experience, further enhancing CLV. 

Subscription-Fuelled Loyalty in Action

Woolworths demonstrates the power of subscriptions, even in a challenging economic environment. Everyday Extra, introduced by Woolworths Australia in 2022 as an extension of its Everyday Rewards loyalty program. For AU$7 per month or AU$70 per year, Everyday Extra members receive a bonus on points for both online and in-store spending, a 10 per cent discount on one online or in-store shopping trip per month at both the BIG W and Woolworths brands as well as exclusive subscriber-only offers and perks. By the first quarter of 2023, the program had enrolled over 250,000 active subscribers.

Subscriptions + Loyalty = Higher Retention and Engagement 

In today’s uncertain economic landscape, companies need every advantage possible to attract, engage and retain customers. Subscription and loyalty programs offer a potent combination for retailers to achieve these critical objectives. Loyalty program members significantly outspend non-loyalty members by a wide margin, providing a source of long-term recurring revenue. Subscribers also tend to bring a substantially higher lifetime value to brands than sporadic customers, delivering stability and long-term potential for brands offering subscription programs. 

However, the impact of these strategies goes beyond revenue. Subscriptions and loyalty programs create a strong bond between the customer and the brand, driven by affinity, convenience and value. They increase the number of touchpoints a customer has with a brand and yield valuable first-party data related to purchase history and preferences. In this way, these programs can supercharge personalisation and engagement strategies and make a retail brand more prominent in a consumer’s daily life. 

These advantages are evident in retail and food service brands that have successfully harnessed subscription loyalty to boost in-store and digital revenues, increase frequency and create added value for their members. By partnering with technology companies like Eagle Eye and Chargebee, which specialise in the development and execution of loyalty and subscription strategies, many brands have experienced the revenue and growth results that hybrid subscription-loyalty initiatives can deliver. 

Companies like Woolworths that have already embraced subscriptions and loyalty programs have the added advantage of attracting customers, building and refining loyalty strategies and strengthening and deepening customer relationships, reducing the likelihood of customer churn. As the subscription model continues to gain popularity, the true competitive edge will come from brands that efficiently and effectively execute it in partnership with specialised and experienced solutions providers who excel at optimising these programs.

This article is written by Jonathan Reeve, Vice President APAC, Eagle Eye

The insight is published as part of MARKETECH APAC’s thought leadership series under What’s NEXT 2023-2024What’s NEXT 2023-2024 is a multi-platform industry initiative which features marketing and industry leaders in APAC sharing their marketing insights and predictions for the upcoming year.

“Data is the new oil”, so goes a cliché take on how data is the key differentiator between a successful and failed digital engagement strategy. But more often than not, marketers and business leaders are overwhelmed with what to do with their data, specifically how they can use specific data to their specific needs to improve customer retention and increase the lifetime value of their customers over time.

In this case, customer lifetime value (CLV) has emerged as a pivotal metric for enterprises, encapsulating the long-term economic contribution of a customer to a business. Beyond the conventional focus on acquiring new customers, recognising the importance of customer retention and loyalty has become a cornerstone in establishing a robust and thriving enterprise. This metric transcends mere transactional interactions, delving into the intricacies of customer relationships and their cumulative impact on a company’s bottom line. 

In a sea of seemingly endless data, the challenge for the industry is: what and how personalisation strategies could truly help businesses get better engagement from their customers, retain for much longer, and build greater relationships.

This was the key point of discussion for the keynote presentation of the all-in-one customer engagement platform CleverTap during the recently concluded What’s NEXT 2023: Marketing in Malaysia hybrid conference, held on December 5, 2023, at the Sheraton Imperial Kuala Lumpur.

The presentation, spearheaded by Jezreel Teng, Enterprise Account Executive at CleverTap, provided attendees with a comprehensive look into how brands should conceptualise and launch successful digital engagement strategies through the power of personalisation across their users.

Why context matters over content in improving CX

In the presentation, Teng simplifies the explanation of the importance of understanding the context in digital engagements by using an example of how understanding the predicament of a coffee shop patron allows the barista to make ideal choices and recommendations for the customer. He goes on to say that it is important that brands should be able to make a memorable customer engagement strategy through its plethora of data.

While content undoubtedly forms the backbone of any marketing effort, it is within the dynamic realm of context that content finds its true resonance. Contextual relevance tailors the customer experience, aligning it with individual needs, preferences, and the specific stage of the customer journey.

To achieve successful personalised engagement strategies, he stressed the importance of context; where a brand should be able to use all information given to them, understand its context, optimise the appropriate response, and then engage the customer in a way they would prefer.

This is especially important, as understanding context extends beyond demographic data; it delves into the intricacies of a customer’s interaction history, behavioural patterns, and real-time situational factors. By grasping the nuances of context, businesses can deliver messages that are not only timely but also deeply meaningful, fostering a sense of personalisation and connection.

Moreover, it is also worth mentioning that a key facet of prioritising context over content is recognising that customer engagement is a journey, not a singular transaction. Mapping the customer journey allows businesses to anticipate needs, address pain points, and deliver content that seamlessly aligns with the evolving dynamics of the relationship.

From the initial awareness stage to post-purchase interactions, each touchpoint represents an opportunity to enhance the customer experience. By tailoring content to fit the specific context of each interaction, businesses can cultivate a sense of continuity and relevance that transcends individual transactions, thereby solidifying customer loyalty and increasing CLV.

How CleverTap aims to help businesses navigate the complexities of customer engagement

With these in mind, Teng lays out in detail how CleverTap can create personalised experiences to retain valuable customers. This is summed through its four value propositions: understanding customers for life, faster and smarter decisions using advanced analytic capabilities, true personalisation for customer delight, and being purpose-built for your business.

As businesses navigate the intricate landscape of customer engagement, the paradigm of context over content emerges as a guiding principle. Recognising the multifaceted nature of context empowers businesses to forge deeper connections with their audience, enhance the customer journey, and, ultimately, elevate their customer lifetime value.

Moreover, in a world where personalised experiences are increasingly sought after, mastering context becomes the cornerstone of customer-centric strategies. By weaving a narrative that is compelling and contextually relevant, businesses can navigate the complexities of the modern market, leaving a lasting imprint on their customers and ensuring a sustainable path to success.

Teng also explained in detail how TesseractDB™, its database built specifically for engagement and retention, can serve its various clients with diverse customer analytics across the entire customer lifecycle, for every customer. For them, it features an array of services beneficial in overcoming the limitations of martech, including mapping lifecycle stages to industry frameworks, answering queries (funnels, cohorts, and others) spanning millions of data points in a single pass, featuring complex combinations of user properties and multi-rules, and having native AI models for predictions or recommendations with discovery/exploratory data-science features.

Teng’s presentation is part of a series of presentations and discussions under the What’s NEXT 2023: Marketing in Malaysia hybrid conference, where CleverTap is a proud gold sponsor.

The company offers an all-in-one customer engagement platform that helps brands personalise and optimise all consumer touch points to improve user engagement, retention, and lifetime value. Moreover, it is built to address the needs of retention and growth teams, with audience analytics, deep segmentation, multi-channel engagement, product recommendations, and automation in one unified product.

What’s NEXT 2023: Marketing in Malaysia is part of the trilogy of conferences from MARKETECH APAC’s “What’s NEXT 2023-2024” series. The conference featured a diverse lineup of marketing leaders across Malaysia, representing local and international brands including AEON, Astro, Atome, Boost, CelcomDigi, EDOTCO Group, Gentari, IHH Healthcare, MR. D.I.Y., PropertyGuru, Secret Recipe Cakes & Cafe, Sunway Malls, and Touch ‘n Go Group.

To learn more about CleverTap’s marketing services, you can contact them directly through their contact form or keep in touch with Jezreel Teng, enterprise account executive at CleverTap.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – With the debut of MARKETECH APAC’s “What’s NEXT 2023: Marketing in Malaysia”, CleverTap has joined us as a Gold Sponsor for this conference and will be leading the conversation on the importance of customer lifetime value (CLV) for businesses.

The company offers an all-in-one customer engagement platform that helps brands personalise and optimise all consumer touch points to improve user engagement, retention, and lifetime value. Moreover, it is built to address the needs of retention and growth teams, with audience analytics, deep segmentation, multi-channel engagement, product recommendations, and automation in one unified product.

Through the conference, Jezreel Teng, enterprise account executive at CleverTap will be presenting a keynote presentation on aiding businesses to fully understand why CLV is crucial for the success of businesses, as well as sharing how personalised experiences contribute to increased customer loyalty and, consequently, higher CLV.

This discussion is beneficial in the sense that a high CLV signifies not only financial success but also a thriving customer-centric approach that fosters enduring relationships, boosts brand reputation and secures a resilient position in the market. In essence, customer lifetime value serves as a compass for businesses navigating the complex landscape of sustained profitability and customer engagement.

Jezreel Teng, enterprise account executive at CleverTap, said “An increased focus on customer retention is the obvious choice for any brand when considering the sharp rise in acquisition costs. A mere 5% improvement in retention has been found to increase profits anywhere from 25% to 95%. But brands must not stop there. They must go one step further and ensure users are actively engaged throughout their journey; transacting and adding value regularly. Through this conversation, I intend on diving deep into just how important CLV is in the long term sustainability and profitability of a brand.”

Teddy Cambosa, deputy regional editor at MARKETECH APAC, commented, “Understanding and maximising customer lifetime value (CLV) isn’t just a metric; it’s a strategic imperative, guiding businesses to not only thrive in the present but to compose a symphony of sustained success in the future. It’s the art of turning customers into advocates, transactions into tales, and businesses into legends. We look forward to how CleverTap can spearhead this conversation and inspire marketing leaders in Malaysia to develop efficient CLV strategies for their businesses.”

What’s NEXT 2023: Marketing in Malaysia is part of the trilogy of conferences from MARKETECH APAC’s “What’s NEXT 2023-2024” series. The conference features a diverse lineup of marketing leaders across Malaysia, representing local and international brands including AEON, Atome, Astro, Boost, CelcomDigi, IHH Healthcare, InterContinental, Gentari, MR. D.I.Y., PropertyGuru, Secret Recipe Cakes & Cafe, Sunway Malls, and Touch ‘n Go Group.

Head over to the official event site to see the full agenda of What’s NEXT 2023: Marketing in Malaysia.

In the past year, growth through acquisition has become more expensive as Cost per acquisition (CPA) increased across most channels, attribution became opaque, and cookies became less reliable. Furthermore, in the past 6 months, the financial outlook has drastically changed, and with an increase in the cost of capital, it has become less prudent for companies with limited runway to spend large sums on acquisition. 

Additionally, as Cost of goods sold is increasing and customers are not ready to absorb additional price increases due to the higher overall inflation, there is additional pressure for lean operations and reduced spending. Acquisition investment as high as 10% of total revenue has now become a challenge to maintain due to lower overall revenue and even smaller margins; hence, the focus of e-commerce operators and investors has shifted from the growth rate to operational efficiency, bringing about a big change in direction from the last few years. 

Focusing on retention and keeping your existing base engaged

Over the last 3 years, e-commerce saw an outpaced growth rate during COVID that is now becoming more stable. The question we are all trying to answer is whether it pulled the growth forward by a few years or actually changed customer behaviour. I would argue, like most things, it’s probably a bit of both, but companies who assumed that the growth rate will be maintained will face a challenge as they may have over-leveraged for growth that is now going to take a few more years to materialise. 

Most companies have to make a hard choice, whether to raise prices to maintain profitability or reduce margins to keep their base growing! I think the third less obvious option is to focus on retention and increase the profit per customer. By focusing on creating a relational e-commerce experience that delivers value to what customers deem as necessity and accepting that customers will cut their overall spending, companies can ensure that they don’t lose their existing customers and can, therefore, increase overall revenue by increasing the Share of Wallet (SOW) of existing customers. 

Brands in e-commerce that look to unlock this path will likely invest in owned channels that would keep their existing base engaged, developing automated programs to lead customers through the lifecycle from onboarding and growth to rescue to advocacy. Meanwhile, many companies use their CRM strategy as the only part of the business to engage existing customers, however, most CRM systems are not able to go beyond the basic e-commerce tools of engagement such as abandon browse and repurchase and reactivation type campaigns, unless paired with a comprehensive source of customer data. 

Leveraging data to boost brands’ customer experience

To create effective engagement, brands in e-commerce must bring together all the sources of data to create a contextual understanding of their customer’s needs and habits. Brands are able to collect zero-party data as customers engage with the site and triangulate their profile info, purchase habits, on-site browsing behaviour as well as the customer segment definitions to create a comprehensive view of their current customers and predict potential behaviours of future customers.

Brands can also use this data to identify which portion of the customer SOW is necessary and will likely continue and, on the other hand, which the customers will decide to curb spending on. This will allow them to optimise inventory, pricing, and promotions decisions for a financial downturn. For instance, one company may use points and special offers to discount categories that customers may be hesitant to spend, and on the other hand, drive orders of the essential categories to maintain profitable operations. 

Additionally, without a doubt, the best way to improve the retention of existing customers is to provide an excellent customer experience. The next few years will set a new standard for what customers expect from e-commerce platforms in terms of customer service, delivery speed and refund/return policies. To protect their market share, said platforms will compete to stay ahead of the customer’s expectations and their competitor’s capabilities. 

Hitting the home run in relational e-commerce experience

Brand recognition will also play a big part as advertising budgets shrink. The best brands will focus on customer experience and brand values rather than splashy advertising. This approach helps them to stay top of mind, bringing existing customers back to the site and focusing the smaller acquisition budget on truly new customers who are highly aligned to the near-future growth strategy of the company, and likely in categories that are less recession-affected. 

Finally, to fully leverage site traffic, e-commerce players must focus on increasing the conversion rate by reducing friction in the buying journey and focusing on increasing the basket size of customers. 

It is worth noting pricing competitiveness is still quite important as we go through a financial downturn but has historically been a smaller contributor to longevity over the brand and customer experience. Many successful brands in e-commerce will use loss leaders to harness demand and drive retention and lifetime value. 

The most successful brands provide exceptional relational e-commerce experience rather than a transactional one by knowing their existing customers better and aligning their strategy to where the customer expectations are going. 

In 2023, brands ought to focus their strategy to balance Customer lifetime value and Cost per acquisition to ensure sustainable growth without the need for constant injection of acquisitions cost. To navigate this complex plan, they must bring together teams from multiple disciplines to allow coordination of data modelling, customer engagement, and customer experience to best engage and grow the SOW of existing customers. 

This article is written by Negar Mokhtarnia, Director of Product at Pet Circle.

The insight is published as part of MARKETECH APAC’s thought leadership series under What’s NEXT 2023What’s NEXT 2023 is a multi-platform industry initiative which features marketing and industry leaders in APAC sharing their marketing insights and predictions for the upcoming year.

If you are a marketing leader and have insights that you’d like to share on upcoming trends and practices in marketing, please reach out to [email protected] for an opportunity to be part of the series. 

Singapore – With social restrictions gradually easing down and the world slowly returning to normal, we are now realising the full potential of the phygital world: a space that brings a combination of digital and physical experiences. From SMEs and institutions to large enterprises, this blended experience is being incorporated into their day-to-day operations because of its numerous advantages.

The year 2022 saw the marketing industry flourishing in more ways than one. This includes the rise of influencer and content marketing, the continuous boom of the e-commerce space, and the metaverse getting more known in the digital world, amongst others. But amidst this upward trajectory, there are still challenges that the marketing industry will face and will have to overcome now that hybrid marketing strategies are in place. 

MARKETECH APAC, in its quest to share key trends, insights, and relevant predictions for the preparation of the marketing community for 2023, has brought back its future-oriented industry series – but now much broader and larger to give the community a 360-degree view of what to expect in the coming year. ‘What’s NEXT 2023’ now comprises of four main pillars – article, interview, webinar, and conference –  and to kick the series off, the digital media starts with the launch of its thought leadership article series. 

The article leg of the industry series features the views, predictions, and some tips from various marketing leaders across APAC on different industry-relevant topics for 2023 and beyond. This includes exclusive written insights on integrated campaigns, personalisation, and B2B marketing, amongst others. 

Part of the series is Andrea Chuang, head of marketing for Malaysia-based used car platform myTukar, who will be discussing the importance of integrated campaigns and things to consider in doing these campaigns; and Jan Harling, director of new customer acquisition for APAC at foodpanda, who will be sharing his knowledge about personalised marketing and what brands need to know about their consumers. He will also be providing tips on how media and creatives can work together for their personalisation initiatives, and how to target consumers in a world that’s becoming less targetable.

Check out the initial line-up of published insights by marketing leaders under the series:

Kick-starting the article series, Amperity’s Area Vice President Billy Loizou explained the consequences of having fragmented customer data for businesses. He also enumerated three reasons why a great identity resolution strategy is a must-have for brands.

Click here to read the full article.

In this insightful read, James Campbell, regional manager of SnapLogic for ANZ, stressed why it is important to incorporate intelligent practices into companies’ data integration, how vital it is to leverage modern technology, and how automation helps enterprises deliver and achieve their goals, amongst other things. 

Click here to read the full article.

With tech companies and governing bodies making stronger restrictions when it comes to data privacy, businesses might find it harder to access customer data. In this article, Billy Loizou, area vice president of Amperity, shares how you can empower your business despite the stricter privacy rules, unlock the value of customer data to drive growth, and use ‘messy’ data to make the year 2023 for your business a success.

Click here to read the full article.

At present, B2B marketers still believe that they should always talk about how ‘good’ their products and services are. Donovan Chee, head of marketing and communications for SEA at Bureau Veritas says that marketers don’t have to do this, and instead learn to understand their customers and “win their hearts and minds,” amongst other tips.

Click here to read the full article.

The fifth installment of this series features Negar Mokhtarnia, director of product at Australian retail brand Pet Circle, weighing the importance of focusing on customer lifetime value over customer acquisition for e-commerce companies. She also shared her own take on leveraging data to boost brands’ customer experience and establishing a relational e-commerce experience to ensure sustainable growth.

Click here to read the full article.

Consumers today expect brands to be more vocal about social movements and contentious topics, which puts the responsibility to brands being an advent of change. In this article, Aaron Brooks, co-founder of influencer marketing platform Vamp, gives his insights on purpose-driven marketing, why it is important, the value of authenticity, its four key elements, and some advice for brands looking to leverage this approach.

Click here to read the full article.

Conventional business knowledge implies that sales and marketing should be tied together to drive profit and define a brand’s success. In this piece, Mark Opao, communications planning partner at Kaspersky for APAC explains why the two are hard to fuse and exposes the underlying realities of marrying Brand Building and Sales Promotion.

Click here to read the full article.

In the post-pandemic era, we just might see economic environments and market situations evolving. So, how can companies leverage these evolutions? Hongchia How, vice president of Appier for APAC answers this question by enumerating three MarTech strategies that can help companies seize great business opportunities and make smarter business decisions.

Click here to read the full article.

Asia-Pacific’s share of the global connected cars market reached 42% in 2020, and is anticipated to register a CAGR of more than 19% in the coming years. But how can this drive the growth of media tech platforms? Sharon Soh, chief planning and audience officer at UM APAC shares with us how, as well as its impact on brands and marketers in this thought-leadership piece.

Click here to read the full article.

As data and measurement becomes a cross-functional effort with marketing research and technology teammates – how can marketing lead the way in being more agile and achieving more success? Anna Henwood, CEO of Stickybeak shares how creating a mindset of experimentation and team collaboration – with your customer deciding if your hypothesis is right.

Click here to read the full article.

With many companies investing in customer data platforms and data agency partners, the real question is how marketers can make the most out of it? Antony Yiu, chief executive officer at PHD Hong Kong explains the process on how marketers can make their first-party data ‘dance’ in harmony and bring impactful revenue to someone’s business.

Click here to read the full article.

In an era of increasingly targeted marketing and limited budgets, how can brands effectively reduce wastage and improve performance by ensuring that their ads reach the right audience? This is the question that Jan Harling, chief executive officer at Virtus Asia Consulting asks in this latest article, centered around the topic of personalised marketing.

Click here to read the full article.

Watch this space as we update this article with details and links for other What’s NEXT 2023 thought-leadership articles.

If you are a marketing leader and would like to share your insights and predictions under the series, email us at [email protected].