Tag: E-commerce

Singapore — End-to-end commerce enablement company AnyMind Group has announced the launch of AnyX, a one-stop e-commerce management platform for individuals and businesses that connects various e-commerce channels and AnyMind Group’s various platforms.

Through the convenience of AnyX, an individual or business can manage operations across e-commerce marketplaces and platforms, and consolidate and activate data across available e-commerce stores. With AnyX, businesses can also easily embark on cross-border e-commerce activities by tapping on the platform’s integrations with e-commerce marketplaces across the region.

At launch, AnyX is already connected to regional e-commerce marketplaces and platforms namely Shopee, Lazada, Rakuten, Amazon, and Shopify. Additionally, it is also connected to numerous AnyMind Group platforms such as AnyTag, AnyChat, AnyManager, AnyFactory, AnyDigital, and AnyLogi.

Kosuke Sogo, CEO and co-founder of AnyMind Group, commented on the launch of AnyX, saying that over the years, they have constantly made it exciting for everyone to do business through their technology, and AnyX is yet another milestone for AnyMind as an end-to-end commerce enablement company.

“We will continue to connect even more functions across our proprietary product suite, enabling easier and more exciting commerce for all. We’re looking to advance next-generation commerce by enabling commerce to be done anywhere, bringing forth a world where every business is borderless,” Sogo said.

AnyX is now available to AnyMind Group customers internationally, with customers having the option to use the company’s various platforms individually, or as part of a suite through AnyX. In the near future, AnyX will also support the automated triggering of actions across platforms, including order management, inventory allocation and management, and revenue/pricing management.

AnyMind Group is also working on connecting further with local or niche Asian e-commerce marketplaces and more third-party applications and will integrate future products that the company develops.

Australia – Global communications agency Havas Media has launched an e-commerce offering called Havas Market, which is focused on creating effective, digital shopping experiences that generate incremental revenue for clients. Said offering stretches far beyond media into e-commerce strategy, operations, analytics, and customer experience.

Havas Market’s capabilities have been fully integrated into the broader Havas Media business, ensuring e-commerce is seamlessly connected to a single communication approach and enhancing Havas’ ability to work with clients across the full customer journey.

Virginia Hyland, CEO at Havas Media Group says, “We know that up to a third of advertising dollars are wasted because of the poor consumer experience at the point of purchase online. Our dedicated ecommerce team has developed a unique approach shaped by combining best-practice customer experience and behavioural economics to remove purchase barriers and increase conversions.” 

She added, “Our approach means that we are utilising proprietary tools and capabilities that have been integrated agency-wide to enable marketers to navigate, identify, and leverage new and emerging opportunities across the entire commerce space.”

The launch of Havas Market is a new development for Havas Australia and comes at a critical time as brands are rapidly shifting their focus to online sales.

Managing Partner Dan Johns, who is leading Havas Media Group’s digital performance, data and technology teams, commented, “Central to the proposition is Havas Market Forecast. The tool uses a robust methodology to identify the incremental revenue opportunity across client websites and relevant marketplaces. The accuracy of Havas Market Forecast opens new performance-based engagement models that align Havas Market directly with client revenue growth.”

Through the new offering, Adam Steward now has the designation of head of performance and e-commerce. Speaking on his expanded role, he said, “As an agency, we are obsessed with delivering the best media experience, and now that extends to shopping, which we believe should be more seamless for customers. The launch of Havas Market allows us to help brands navigate the challenges a post covid world throws their way, as customers demand a more interconnected and personalised experience, both online and in-store. We deliver this by being a trusted business partner, providing integrated solutions and proven business outcomes.”

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam – The Trade Promotion Agency (TPA) in Vietnam and e-commerce platform Alibaba.com have jointly organised a conference on 18 March to promote exports via the e-commerce platform, as well as the inauguration of the Vietnam Pavillion on Alibaba.com.

The ‘Vietnam Pavilion’ will support Vietnamese businesses in building images and promoting product brands; supporting business connection activities, increasing understanding of Vietnamese products and businesses for international customers.

Through the partnership, the two enterprises will implement business support programs for more than 2500 medium and large enterprises small, helping them to equip them with the right tools and mindset to overcome the post-COVID-19 era. In addition, it further promotes the success of Vietnamese businesses on Alibaba.com, by recruiting e-commerce experts to advise businesses throughout the participation process.

Vu Ba Phu, director at the Trade Promotion Department said that Alibaba.com continues its commitment to the Vietnamese market with unique services to help businesses accelerate and will also launch new membership products for Vietnamese businesses, helping them to better opportunity to introduce products to global shoppers.

Meanwhile, Alibaba.com Deputy General Director Andrew Zheng commented that they strongly believe that Alibaba.com will continue to help small and medium enterprises in Vietnam overcome difficulties for this year.

Singapore – Marketplace integration and operating platform ChannelEngine has raised US$50m in funding, which will be used by the platform to bolster its e-commerce and marketplace management suite in Southeast Asia. They first opened their office in Singapore in 2021 and subsequently opened in the Philippines in the latter part of the year. In addition, the funding will boost a large number of new e-commerce and tech jobs in both offices.

The funding is led by Atomico, with participation from General Catalyst, and existing backers Inkef and Airbridge Equity Partners. In addition, notable serial e-commerce founder Stephan Schambach – founder of Demandware, Intershop and NewStore – also joined this round as an angel investor.

In total, this raise brings the company’s total investment to US$57m, with Atomico Principal Luca Eisenstecken joining the ChannelEngine board, alongside General Catalyst Managing Director and BigCommerce investor Larry Bohn and Max Rimpel.

Jorrit Steinz, CEO and founder at ChannelEngine, said, “Over 60% of e-commerce sales globally are already taking place on marketplaces, with this figure estimated to grow to over 75% in the coming years, representing a total revenue of US$4.4t in 2023. Brands, wholesalers, and retailers are looking to capture the e-commerce opportunity by delivering a seamless experience demanded by the modern customer. By acting as the e-commerce control centre, we enable brands, retailers and wholesalers to sell on marketplaces globally.”

ChannelEngine is an e-commerce operating platform that connects the systems of brands, wholesalers and retailers to these global marketplaces providing a powerful management suite to boost their international sales with tools such as automated repricing, content, stock and order management.

Steinz also added that their customers are easily able to create, enrich, organise and manage their product listings and content as well as their e-commerce operations on marketplaces worldwide.

“Brands have gone from being online in one store – theirs or one big marketplace where the rules are made by others – to being everywhere their customers are, and being everywhere means you need control to offer consistent brand experience, e-commerce operations and availability. One of the biggest marketing challenges most brands and retailers face, as e-commerce business owners, when it comes to selling on marketplaces, is keeping their branding and messaging consistent across different channels,” he concluded.

Hong Kong — Choco Up, the Hong Kong-based financing and growth platform, has announced its partnership with fintech company Airwallex to support the future growth of cross-border e-commerce. By combining Airwallex’s proprietary global payments infrastructure with Choco Up’s flexible recurring funding solutions, the collaboration enables a comprehensive and integrated finance solution for e-commerce companies across Asia.

Leveraged by Airwallex, Choco Up is able to offer a one of its kind, turnkey solution covering cross-border payments, collections, and growth funding, and addresses the needs that will enable e-commerce firms of all sizes to grow beyond geographical boundaries without financial constraints.

Kai Wu, CEO of Airwallex Greater China, commented that they are pleased to have been chosen as Choco Up’s partner as they continue to support the growth of e-commerce companies across the region.

“Businesses today require easy-to-use, accessible, safe and cost-efficient payment options and our global financial infrastructure can enable that for businesses like Choco Up. Our scale API solution offers a centralized way to manage cross-border payment complexities, so businesses can easily transact internationally. We look forward to continuing our partnership in APAC and beyond, empowering businesses of all sizes to operate anywhere, anytime,” Wu said. 

Choco Up provides e-commerce companies with flexible funding ranging from US$10,000 to US$10m to accelerate their growth. Choco Up’s proprietary fintech platform allows for a seamless, automated funding process. By connecting the companies’ sales and marketing accounts to their data integration platform, Choco Up can efficiently conduct artificial intelligence-driven risk assessments on applicant companies within hours. The information gathered enables e-commerce companies to see all their business performance data in one place, helping them identify pain points, optimize their businesses, and stay on top of the competition.

Brian Tsang, co-founder and COO of Choco Up, said that the pandemic has propelled even faster growth of e-commerce companies over the past couple of years, many of whom are in search of new funding and payments options to enable more sustained long-term growth regionally/internationally.

“Partnering with Airwallex allows us to build a comprehensive hassle-free payment and funding infrastructure in Asia to empower these businesses to scale across borders without complications and co-create a better future for cross-border e-commerce in Asia,” Tsang said.

Bringing together Airwallex’s global payment technology with Choco Up’s funding platform and analytics tools, this solution will serve as a one-stop-shop for e-commerce companies looking to expand internationally. Airwallex’s global payment software lets e-commerce businesses make cross-border payments in more than 130 currencies at significantly lower costs because of their market-leading foreign exchange rates. In addition, Airwallex Borderless Cards will enable e-commerce merchants to make digital payments across borders that are more secure, transparent, and efficient.

Last January, Airwallex launched its fintech platform in Singapore.

Hong Kong – Hong Kong-based beauty retailer Sa Sa has partnered with foodpanda mall in Hong Kong, the online grocery and goods shopping mall under foodpanda, to accelerate its online-merge-offline (OMO) functions. 

It would be remembered that in June of 2021, the HK retailer announced the closing of a number of its physical stores with the goal to build a stronger O2O business.

With the new partnership via foodpanda mall’s round-the-clock delivery service, Sa Sa will be opening up for local customers a more convenient way of shopping to enhance customer experience. It will also be offering about 700 selected products on foodpanda mall, including anti-epidemic products for which Hong Kong citizens have an urgent need, and popular products such as cosmetics, skincare, fragrance, haircare, and body care products, as well as health supplements. 

After customers have placed orders at the online supermarket, foodpanda’s couriers will collect the goods at Sa Sa’s physical stores and deliver them to the customers in as fast as 10 minutes. Customers can thus quickly obtain the products without going out, especially meeting their urgent needs for anti-epidemic products and their favourite items within the cosmetic and personal care categories. This service will initially be piloted at 20 of Sa Sa’s stores and will be rolled out at more stores in the future.

Following the launch of the ‘click-and-collect’ service, Sa Sa’s partnership with foodpanda mall will further enhance the OMO development of the Group’s physical stores and its online business in Hong Kong. It also provides customers with one more customer-centric and convenient channel for online shopping, complementing Sa Sa’s shopping website.

Moreover, the partnership will allow Sa Sa and foodpanda mall to manifest their respective advantages and generate synergy. Sa Sa will be enriching foodpanda mall’s product assortment with its cosmetics, health supplements, and anti-epidemic products. Both foodpanda and Sa Sa have large customer bases, which can enable mutual conversion and thus enlarge their respective target customer bases. Sa Sa can also strengthen and expand its own base of young customers by serving foodpanda members who are used to quick commerce.

Simon Kwok, Sa Sa’s chairman and CEO, shared that online shopping trend is especially more pronounced amidst the raging pandemic as more consumers would rather stay at home than go out to protect themselves against the disease, and they believe that foodpanda’s quick delivery meets their customers’ increasing demand for convenient, fast online shopping service.

“In the light of the urgent demand for anti-epidemic products, we are offering them at foodpanda mall in the hope of providing citizens one more convenient shopping channel to help fight the pandemic. We also hope to enhance the OMO function at Sa Sa’s operation through the partnership with foodpanda mall so as to provide customers with a more seamless and convenient shopping experience,” said Kwok.

Meanwhile, Ryan Lai, foodpanda’s managing director for Hong Kong, said that they are extremely pleased to have Sa Sa as a foodpanda mall retail partner, benefiting from complementary strengths in advancing each other’s OMO business strategy, and elevating customers’ shopping experience for personal care, health and beauty products, amongst others. 

“This partnership also expands and diversifies foodpanda mall’s product offerings, to better satisfy the wants and needs of our customers,” added Lai.

To celebrate its partnership with Sa Sa, foodpanda mall launches promotional offers from 15 March to 30 April, where customers will enjoy a HK$50 discount upon spending of HK$400 or above with their first purchase at Sa Sa on foodpanda mall by entering the promotional offer code ‘SASA’.

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam – Amidst the growing popularity of online shopping, there has been a high demand for shopping beauty products online and interestingly, more men in Vietnam shop for beauty products online than women, according to new research by marketing research company Decision Lab.

According to their data, 58% of their male respondents say they have shopped online for beauty products while 49% of the female respondents shopped online for beauty products. However, female shoppers still dominate all purchases for beauty products, amounting to 69% of the respondents. This is in contrast to the 28% of the male respondents.

“Notable from the responses was that women’s love of the shopping experience – often described as a type of ‘therapy’ – was reflected in the fact that it was men who said they had purchased beauty products online more often than women, with just under 10% more male respondents saying they had done so in the past three months,” the report stated.

The data also showed that shoppers in Vietnam are more informed than ever prior to buying but that the channel of research or browsing activity – be it online or offline – does not always determine the channel of purchase. This is especially true when it comes to non-durable goods like food and beverage, where the vast majority of purchases are still made in brick and mortar outlets.

Furthermore, smartphones have continued to increase their role in the everyday lives of Vietnamese consumers. Thanks to the emergence of branded ride-hailing apps like Grab, the mobile phone now dominates short distance travel bookings and has an equal split with computers of purchases in categories like mobile phones, clothing, and footwear. When it came to long-distance travel and hotel bookings, the computer was still preferred.

Bangkok, Thailand – Thailand’s online marketplace for buying and selling second-hand IT products, SWOPMART, has partnered with digital agency CJ Worx to launch a new creative packaging called ‘Swopbox’, aimed at reducing e-waste amid the climate change situation. 

The new creative parcel was designed to use repeatedly for IT gadgets and products, of which IT brands could use to target the nowadays consumers who pay high attention to the climate change issue. 

CJ Worx said that once the Swopbox arrives in the client’s hands, they can turn it inside out and put the used or second hand IT gadget in and send it back to SWOPMART.

Chawana Keeratiyutamonkul, CJ Worx’s managing director, said the Swopbox is a must-have item nowadays, and this creative product aims to be the alternatives for the climate change-concerned consumer and brands.

“Brands or general consumers could use Swopbox to deliver their IT gadgets and the receivers can use it repeatedly,” said Keeratiyutamonkul.

In celebration of International Women’s Month, MARKETECH Expert Up Close will be featuring a special series called ‘Empowered Women’ where we spotlight inspiring women marketing leaders across the Asia-Pacific Region to share their expertise in marketing and leadership. For the first episode, we sat down with Aditi Kapoor, the former marketing lead at Metromart Philippines, to get to know more about her career journey in steering the wheel of the marketing business of various brands in the e-commerce, media, and retail sector in Southeast Asia.

Aditi is a marketing veteran who brings a decade of marketing experience in e-commerce under her belt. She polished her marketing prowess by working for various marketing companies such as Ola,  Bennett Coleman and Co. Ltd., and Blue Star Limited. 

Of what makes her explore different markets, she shares, “If we believe in ourselves, nothing can stop us from trying our best whether working in a new market or trying a new profile.”

“I’ll be very happy and open to sharing my experiences, what works, what didn’t work, in order to help other aspiring female leaders,” Aditi adds.  

During the conversation with Aditi, we asked about her philosophy on mentorship, and she said, “When you’re starting fresh, you really need lots of mentorship and guidance,” Kapoor said.

Aditi admitted that her biggest inspiration and mentor has always been her dad. With words of encouragement from her dad, Aditi learned that “management starts from home,” and is not something that you instantly get if you start working in the corporate world; one that is learned through practice and owning responsibility as you grow. 

Listen to the full conversation with Aditi Kapoor over at Spotify, where Kapoor shares further on her biggest challenge as a marketer amid her decade-long journey and whether she, in the future, also plans to join others in establishing her own company.  You can also view the highlights of the conversation on our Youtube channel. 

If you are a marketing or tech leader who wants to share your industry journey and insights, email us at [email protected]. 

Singapore – Regional e-commerce platform Lazada has launched an augmented reality-powered feature called ‘Virtual Try-On’, where users can instantly sample products with pictures or live videos of themselves before making a purchase.

Users are able to immerse themselves with hyper-realistic virtual makeovers, try-on beauty products in real-time with true-to-life results. The ultra-personalised experience is straightforward and instantaneous, increasing customer satisfaction and confidence, and helping create great shopping journeys, without the need for physical product sampling.

The feature leverages Perfect Corp’s try-on platform, allowing consumers to preview their looks with the in-store experience in their homes via the LazMall flagship stores of Bobbi Brown, Estée Lauder and M.A.C. 

Alice Chang, founder and CEO at Perfect Corp, said, “Here at Perfect Corp, we pride ourselves on delivering market-reading AI and AR-powered virtual makeup try-on solutions that seamlessly integrate into our brand partners’ channels, and help them create high touch, customised, and ultra-realistic virtual shopping experiences. We are excited to partner with Lazada to bring our revolutionary solutions to their customers.”

Meanwhile, James Chang, chief business officer at Lazada, commented, “With Lazada’s shoppertainment strategy, we are excited to collaborate with more partners and introduce new virtual enhancements to uplift consumers’ experiences especially as e-commerce becomes an integrated part of lifestyles in Southeast Asia.”

He added, “This latest successful pilot is testament to the great partnerships we have and our commitment to scale up such immersive real-world experiences with more brands and products. Shoppers will definitely get to easily discover and try more new products while having fun with their friends and family when shopping on the platform.”