Tag: E-commerce

Australia – Retail e-commerce company Cashrewards has launched its biggest season marketing campaign, including a new creative that features content queens SketchShe, which will be all delivered end-to-end by its in-house creative team. 

Called ‘Happy Dayz’, the campaign aims to celebrate the unique sense of excitement as the nation enters the first key shopping season since the pandemic, with ‘dayz’ referencing the key seasonal shopping days, such as Black Friday, Cyber weekend, Christmas, Boxing Day, and the New Year Sales.

Through the campaign, Cashrewards has tapped SketchShe to bring their signature inventive wit and energy to the creative. It will run across BVOD, YouTube, social, and advertorial, as well as digital display, and outdoor.

Matthew Poulier, Cashrewards’ head of brand, noted that their biggest ever campaign combines with a record media spend to maximize the most important quarter of the year at a time where pent-up demand is at an all-time high.

He further shared that as the nation emerges from lockdown, the ‘Happy Dayz’ campaign taps into the mood of celebration as Australia gears up to celebrate the joy of summer freedom. 

“Cashrewards is growing fast with more than one million members geared up to reward our merchant partners for the incredible program of cashback offers they have programmed throughout the key seasonal shopping period. I’m particularly proud of the Cashrewards in-house creative team for delivering such an outstanding campaign from end-to-end,” said Poulier.

During the campaign, shoppers will see brands such as Myer, Big W, Catch, Liquorland, and Booking.com, as well as Expedia, and Bonds, among others, active on the platform.

Singapore – As 11.11 sales consistently draws record numbers, this year’s sale event is likely to be bigger than ever. This means come event day, there will be a list of offers from countless sellers, many with additional coupon discounts. 

To accommodate online user demand for these online deals, e-commerce aggregator iPrice has launched its ‘Price Checker’ service to help shoppers find the lowest prices on 11.11. This will be launched across six countries namely Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

With the iPrice Price Checker, shoppers are notified which seller provides the best discount for their favorite products. In addition, the service aims to save shoppers the time and trouble to track prices across multiple e-commerce sites and sellers. 

To use the service, online users must click the ‘Buy on 11.11’ button on the ‘Price Comparison Page’ option on iPrice’s site. The user will then be sent an email on the 11th of November about the item’s price drop. 

Through the feature, the user is able to make the purchase right away by clicking a link to the product in the email. Consumers can subscribe to any number of product prices they want to track. 

“We continue to bring a greater level of trust, convenience, and transparency with everything we do. The iPrice Price Checker fulfils our mission to help shoppers save money through a convenient shopping experience. We will notify them on 11.11 about the lowest price of any item they choose among tens of thousands of products across the region,” said Heinrich Wendel, chief product officer at iPrice.

According to iPrice, shoppers can expect more new features in the coming months.

Singapore – In the lead-up to the Alibaba 11:11 Global Shopping Festival this coming 11 November, the e-commerce giant has partnered with global creative commerce company VMLY&R Commerce and strategic consultancy WPP BAV, to launch an online learning series for brands, retailers, and marketers, in understanding the global retail space.

The event, which will stream online in WPP BAV Alibaba Command Center Studios on 8 to 11 November 2021 from 7 am to 1 pm SGT, will be hosted by various experts from APAC’s biggest brands and marketplaces, including Dhiren Amin, the chief marketing officer of Kraft Heinz APAC, Chris Tung, the chief marketing officer of Alibaba, and Maggie Zhou, the managing director of Alibaba Group ANZ, as well as James Chang, the chief business officer of Lazada.

The attendees of the event can participate in a no holds barred Q&A and will have the opportunity to ask questions on topics covered during the day’s sessions to a group of experts, namely Arvind Singh, Aleph-Labs’s founder and CEO, Tim Devine, AKQA’s executive innovation director, and Katie Rigg-Smith, Mindshare’s CEO for ANZ. This will be hosted by Rose Herceg, WPP’s chief of strategy for ANZ.

Some of the topics in the program are ‘The state of global retail and the opportunities and challenges for the next twenty-four months’, which will be on 8 November from 11:45 am to 12:15 pm SGT, ‘5 Big 11:11 Commerce Trends You Need to Know Now’, which will stream on 9 November from 12:15 am to 12:40 am SGT, and ‘The online/offline debate’, which will happen on 10 November from 11:30 am to 12:00 pm SGT, as well as ‘Digital commerce’, which will be live on 11 November from 11:00 am to 11:30 am SGT.

Hari Ramanathan, VMLY&R’s chief strategy and transformation officer for Asia, who will be in conversation with Amin, shared that while conventional retail festivals such as Chinese New Year or Christmas sales are tied to culture and emotion, 11.11 is markedly more transactional. 

“Sales volumes can be immense, and my conversation with Dhiren will highlight some unique insights into why brands should participate, what their focus should be and how to maximize profitability during the day,” said Ramanathan.

Meanwhile, Lazada’s CBO Chang, speaking of his session, noted that e-commerce in SEA has come a long way from its nascent roots just less than 10 years ago. 

“When Lazada started in 2012, the e-commerce landscape was one where shoppers would go to a site, browse and make a call to place an order, before arranging to meet somewhere to hand over cash and collect the purchase,” said Chang.

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.

Singapore – Sales festivals, such as 11.11 and 12.12, create opportunities for consumers to make advanced holiday gift purchases, and retailers should note to make these moments count, and capture the attention of their shoppers in advance of year-end seasonal shopping moments.

Out of all these sales festivals, which remains the most popular among Southeast Asian consumers? The latest data from adtech Criteo finds out, spanning across recorded data from 280 e-commerce players from nine markets in SEA

According to the report, 11.11 emerged as SEA’s most popular sales festival, with sales made during this period in 2020 increasing by 554%

Meanwhile, Criteo’s report cited 12.12 as the largest shopping festival for SEA in 2020, with online retail sales and traffic increasing by 305% and 127% respectively. 

Market-wise, observed trends found that 12.12 emerged as the most significant shopping festival for Indonesia, while 11.11 remained the largest sales festival for Singapore and Vietnam.

“While there has been tremendous growth in Double Day sales over the last two years, we are seeing that the growth in e-commerce sales (when compared with their respective baseline year) have been slowing down as more in the region get accustomed to remote work, life, and play,” said Taranjeet Singh, managing director for Southeast Asia and India at Criteo.

He added, “While retail sales continue to grow, we see that the rate of growth is narrowing. It is thus more important than ever for brands to understand consumer habits across online and offline platforms, and relook campaign strategies so that they can stand out from competitors and gain greater market share.”

As the present 11.11 sales this 2021 is nearing, top e-commerce platforms in SEA are currently launching big campaigns to gain further momentum. Lazada Singapore has partnered with real estate company Propnex for a S$1m-worth condominium for their 11.11 giveaway, meanwhile, Shopee has partnered again with CapitaLand for continuing the omnichannel drive which had gamification as a key aspect.

Hong Kong – PluginHive, the e-commerce shipping solutions company based in India, has partnered with carrier service provider Hong Kong Post, to boost e-commerce merchants in Hong Kong. This move comes after its recently signed agreement with FedEx, to launch a new campaign across the APAC and MEA regions.

The recent partnerships aim to provide e-commerce merchants with automated shipping solutions for free when using e-commerce platforms Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce. It also comes with added benefits for the Hong Kong-based small e-commerce merchants, as the partnership offers up to a 75% discount on the shipping cost on successful signup with FedEx.

Ahammed Mirdas, PluginHive’s CEO and founder, believes that Hong Kong is a budding market for e-commerce in 2021, and this integration is aimed to boost the small and medium e-commerce business across the country by bringing together reliable shipping services from Hong Kong Post, with the reach and quality of service that FedEx provides in more than 220 countries across the globe. 

“PluginHive is excited to be the catalyst in driving this partnership and believes e-commerce merchants will take advantage of it in the upcoming weeks,” said Mirdas.

In addition, PluginHive has ensured a streamlined carrier account sign-up process that involves a single click account registration and a smooth merchant onboarding, with the help of dedicated shipping experts that will be available 24/7 via multiple channels.

Singapore – As part of the platform’s new campaign to boost reach of the upcoming 11.11 sale, e-commerce platform Lazada in Singapore has launched its newest giveaway which is none other than a new condominium unit at Normanton Park, valued at S$1m.

Said giveaway has been co-sponsored by PropNex, a Singapore-based real estate agency. To boost the campaign, Lazada will be rolling out the marketing campaign across various platforms to publicise the giveaway, including TV, radio, digital ads, Out Of Home (OOH), social media platforms and more.

To enter the giveaway, shoppers must collect ‘golden keys’ through various missions on the Lazada app. Up to 34 golden keys can be collected in total through the app from 1 November onwards, by completing missions, playing games and more. The more keys collected, the higher the chances of winning.

James Chang, CEO at Lazada Singapore, said that they wanted to inject something new and more exciting for their shoppers to look forward to, adding that with PropNex as a co-sponsor, they are thrilled to be able to up the ante for this year’s million-dollar giveaway.

“Our key focus to support our sellers to thrive in the online space has never wavered, and to thank our shoppers for supporting us, we went and looked for the biggest reward we could find in the market, to show that e-commerce opens up all kinds of possibilities,” Chang stated.

Meanwhile, Ismail Gafoor, CEO at PropNex, said that a way to increase chances in winning the million-dollar prize is to fulfil the task of purchasing their PropNex edition of the popular board game Monopoly at the Lazada store. Said limited edition of the board game is specially curated with Singapore real estate rules and the winner is declared in an hour, with in-depth knowledge of real estate investment.

“We are delighted to co-sponsor this prize – Normanton Park in collaboration with Lazada, and bring about a new excitement to the shopping experience on Singapore’s biggest annual sale event, and we could not have asked for a better platform to collaborate with. It is part of our branding campaign in building our brand equity and we are thrilled to be part of this mega event this year,” Gafoor said.

He added, “We hope that shoppers who purchase it will enjoy the game, and we are thankful to have the opportunity to work closely with Lazada in value-adding to customers.”

Singapore – The change of consumer behavior into tapping into digital purchases has pushed the average growth of in-app purchases across Southeast Asia to 240% this year, with the Philippines tallying the highest growth at 371%, new insights from marketing analytics company AppsFlyer’s report show.

The region has seen a 13% to 35% rise in in-app revenue from March to July 2021, despite global in-app spend falling 2.05%. In order to capture and convert these first-time users, e-commerce marketers have also doubled down on their ad campaigns after March 2020. 

This has resulted in an overall uptick in year-over-year non-organic installs (NOI) in the region, with Philippines (215%), Indonesia (104%), and Malaysia (69%) noting the highest growth. Meanwhile, marketers in Singapore dialed back on marketing campaigns due to user acquisition cost, with NOI increasing just 28%.

“Up until March last year, Southeast Asia was still a significantly offline market – at least when it comes to the mobile app space, and the majority of people did not have online banking or contactless payment options. Now, just 1.5 years later we are on the cusp of a paradigm shift as Southeast Asia is poised to experience a digital shopping wave; what businesses do now can determine their market share over the next few years,” said Sam Chiu, senior director of marketing for APAC at AppsFlyer.

Meanwhile, app remarketing on iOS saw growth in 2021 across all six SEA markets, even after Apple introduced new privacy rules and disabled Identifier For Advertisers (IDFA) in April 2021. In fact, Indonesia – an Android-dominant market – saw the most robust growth, with remarketing conversions on iOS shooting up 98% from April to July 2021, and Android remarketing conversions falling 4.4%. This contrasts with global figures, where iOS remarketing conversions dropped 22.4% and Android observing an 8.2% increase during the same period.

“This is why it is crucial that marketers advocate for higher budgets to invest in ad campaigns to acquire new users and remarket to existing ones. Companies should focus on increasing brand awareness and building customer loyalty now, before they miss the boat,” Chiu added.

Despite all of this growth, brands should be more wary in executing ad campaigns, as the report found that e-commerce apps’ exposure to fraud was US$58m in APAC between Q4 2020 to Q1 2021. Although this number is high, it is improving: Malaysia and Indonesia both saw an almost 80% reduction in year-over-year fraud rates when comparing January 2020 to January 2021 – reiterating the importance of vigilance and anti-fraud solutions.

Manila, Philippines – Fast-leading retail company, Metro Retail Stores Group Inc. (MRSGI) in the Philippines, has unveiled its roster of initiatives to boost its e-commerce presence. 

The company targets to launch its official store in e-commerce apps Lazada and Shopee in the fourth quarter to take advantage of the expected holiday shopping surge.

“All these developments we are doing are in line with our commitment to grow our e-commerce business and ultimately enable us to continue meeting the changing customer demands in today’s digital environment,” said Manuel C. Alberto, president and chief operating officer at MRSGI.

For its supermarket vertical, MRSGI is looking to expand its reach by adding multi-service superapp GrabMart to the list of their on-demand goods delivery service partners. Metro Supermarket customers in select areas of Metro Manila and Cebu can purchase from an assortment of more than 3,500 goods and have these delivered to their homes through the Grab app.

At present, Metro Supermarket in Ayala Center Cebu and Market! Market! in Taguig have this convenient arrangement, and plans are underway to include six more stores to join GrabMart before the year ends.

MRSGI is also working to integrate its Metro Rewards Card with customers’ Metro online accounts, allowing loyalty cardholders to earn points for all purchases made from shop.themetrostores.ph and even use accumulated points to pay for their online purchases.

In addition, the company is on track to introducing a Progressive Web App (PWA), which is considered more efficient and convenient as they have reduced memory requirements and battery usage, and are expected to load faster and provide better navigating experience for users.

“Our customers can look forward to a more exciting and pleasant online shopping experience. We have lined up a number of strategic initiatives that are geared towards making e-commerce an important component of MRSGI’s overall value proposition,” said JJ Moreno, chief strategy officer and head of e-commerce at MRSGI.

Hanoi, Vietnam – The data-driven loyalty platform in Vietnam, Society Pass (SoPa), has announced that it has closed a Series C funding round, which will help in accelerating its growth and acquisition strategy in the SEA and SA region.

Society Pass is a loyalty and data marketing ecosystem that operates multiple e-commerce and lifestyle platforms across its key markets. Its business model focuses on collecting user data through the expected circulation of its universal loyalty points.

Society Pass plans to expand its market presence by harnessing the untapped potential of SEA and SA, regions which according to the Digital 2021 Global Overview Report by HootSuite and We Are Social stand to see tremendous growth. SoPa believes that developing countries are only now experiencing a surge in digital adoption, with large potentials for future growth.

Moreover, the said funding aims to acquire companies with existing user and merchant bases that can be quickly plugged into the Society Pass ecosystem.

Dennis Nguyen, the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer at Society Pass, shared that the platform’s success up to this point has been built through offering unique value for both consumers and merchants, along with the infrastructure supporting that exchange.

“This new funding will allow us to replicate our success in our target markets and our ongoing aggressive M&A initiatives in the pipeline. We are very grateful to have found strong demand from quality investors that share our vision,” said Nguyen.