As consumer preferences shift to online shopping and cashless transactions, businesses are adopting advanced payment solutions and sophisticated marketing strategies to stay competitive. Integrating secure, efficient payment systems with targeted, interactive marketing has become more essential for brands to thrive in the digital marketplace.

As part of the E-Commerce Marketing Interview series, MARKETECH APAC sat down with Dheeraj Raina, vice president and head of integrated marketing and communications for Southeast Asia at Mastercard. In this insightful discussion, Raina shares his insights on evolving consumer behaviours, emerging marketing trends, and key developments in the payments industry and e-commerce marketing in Southeast Asia.

Emerging marketing trends for the payments industry at SEA

Southeast Asia is a dynamic and diverse region, with commonalities as well as market nuances. For Raina, this means that marketing and consumer trends might be at different stages of evolution in each market.

Raina believes that one of the most significant trends in Southeast Asia is the rise of social commerce. 

“With consumers spending a significant amount of time on social media platforms, social commerce is not just a new shopping experience but a paradigm shift in how consumers interact with brands. This trend reflects a broader change in consumer behaviour, where social media becomes a primary channel for product discovery, brand engagement, and purchasing decisions,” he explained. 

At the same time, he noted how voice commerce is also gaining traction, driven by the increasing use of audio and voice technologies. 

“Although the penetration of these technologies varies across markets, early signs, particularly in Thailand, indicate a growing acceptance and usage of audio in commerce,” Raina added. 

Navigating fragmented markets and consumer trust issues

The SEA is a dynamic and burgeoning region. However, it also presents the e-commerce payments sector with a myriad of challenges to confront, including its evolving regulatory frameworks, diverse consumer behaviours, escalating cybersecurity threats, and the imperative to foster financial inclusion.

According to Raina, SEA is a highly fragmented region, with countries having different regulations for e-commerce and digital payments. 

“Different markets also have varying levels of trust in the security of digital payments. This can make it challenging for businesses to operate and expand in the region, as they need to adapt to all these market differences,” he further explained.

Raina also pointed out that a significant portion of the SEA population remains unbanked or underbanked. Therefore, providing e-commerce payment solutions that cater to this demographic can be challenging.

Lastly, he believes that as the usage and adoption of digital payments increase, so does the risk of cyber threats. And while fighting cybersecurity threats can be costly, he strongly advises businesses to invest in robust security measures to protect customer data and prevent fraud.

Opportunities for the e-commerce payments sector 

While marketers in SEA face certain challenges, they also have opportunities to thrive thanks to technological advancements. 

As Raina mentioned before, the rise of social commerce resulted in social media becoming the main channel for new product discovery. However, Raina stated that this is not the only opportunity in the payments industry this year. 

“We operate in a very dynamic industry and marketing landscape where agility and innovation will always be the keys. SEA is experiencing a rapid increase in internet and smartphone penetration, driving the growth of the digital economy. This means that we are in a region where we could go in with a truly digital-first approach to our marketing,” he said. 

Among the promising opportunities Raina identified to be present this year in the e-commerce payments sector is the growing internet penetration and smartphone usage in SEA, which provides an excellent platform for mobile-based e-commerce payments solutions, with mobile wallets and payment apps able to reach a large number of customers.

Many SEA governments are also pushing for digitalisation and encouraging digital payments; together, Raina believes these initiatives can provide a boost to businesses in the e-commerce payments sector.

Furthermore, the growing middle class in SEA countries is another opportunity that should be taken note of. According to him, companies in the e-commerce and payments sectors should know how to capture this segment of the population that is more likely to shop online and use digital payment methods. 

Raina further emphasises that the emergence of AI, and particularly generative AI, has the potential to significantly transform marketing. 

“AI-powered chatbots can analyse data in a privacy-safe environment and help businesses identify customer trends and preferences. This enables businesses in e-commerce to provide more impactful personalised recommendations and targeted ads,” he stated. 

The role of AI in e-commerce payments

For Raina, emerging technologies, including AI, are expected to significantly influence the trajectory of e-commerce payments in several ways. To stay competitive, he advises businesses to invest in AI technology and integrate it into their e-commerce platforms.

“AI offers enhanced security. It can detect fraudulent transactions, reduce the risk of data breaches, and enhance the security of e-commerce payments by analysing spending patterns and user behaviour. This also helps reduce false declines, thereby improving the overall customer experience,” Raina explained. 

He goes on to discuss how AI can create more personalised experiences powered by real-time data processing.

“E-commerce businesses can harness AI to not only process and analyse large volumes of data, such as customer behaviour and purchase history, in real-time but also predict customer preferences and market trends. This enables them to make informed and strategic decisions about pricing, discounts, and sales, as well as provide more personalised and efficient shopping experiences, which will boost customer satisfaction and loyalty,” Raina stated. 

AI can also automate various payment processes, which Raina believes is crucial for streamlining operations and enhancing productivity.

“AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants can provide 24/7 customer service, handling inquiries and issues related to payments, thereby enabling a seamless shopping and payment experience for consumers. Moreover, AI can help reduce errors in the payment process by automating data entry and other manual processes,” he added. 

Additionally, businesses can also leverage AI to enhance their e-commerce payment systems and stay at the forefront of the industry’s evolution. 

With the field of AI evolving rapidly, Raina suggests that businesses start investing in AI technology and integrating it into their e-commerce platforms. Employees must also be trained on how to use AI tools and technologies responsibly to improve efficiency and the customer experience.

While implementing AI, he also encourages e-commerce businesses to focus on improving the customer experience. 

Expounding more, Raina said, “By utilising AI-powered tools such as chatbots and biometric payments, e-commerce businesses can develop payment solutions that provide a more personalised, efficient, and seamless shopping experience for their customers. This helps drive repeat business, customer loyalty, and sales.”

Lastly, amid rising data privacy concerns, he believes implementing strong data security measures and adhering to data protection regulations are essential to gaining customer trust as AI technologies rapidly evolve. 

Raina explained, “A recent study by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services with Mastercard found that 80% of Asia-based consumers saw information security and privacy as important. This suggests that businesses need to carefully consider data governance and management when looking to use data to improve the customer experience with AI-powered tools.” 

He added, “When AI is ethical, transparent, reliable, and beneficial, people trust it. At Mastercard, we know the only AI is responsible AI. Businesses that prioritise the protection of personal information will enhance their reputation as reliable guardians of customer data. As AI continues to be a key ingredient of the technology that we are using across marketing platforms, our own awareness and responsibility towards the use of AI will be paramount.”

Navigating the next chapter in payments and e-commerce marketing 

As Raina noted, there is a rising prominence of AI-powered marketing. AI empowers payment providers to gain a deeper understanding of customer engagement, enabling more personalised interactions that result in enhanced customer experience and long-term loyalty. Furthermore, AI streamlines consumer behaviour analysis and automates interactions between marketing and other departments to allow us marketers to make better decisions in real-time. 

He recommends that companies in the payment industry must learn how to leverage AI’s capabilities to their advantage. 

“Mastercard is leveraging AI to analyse the landscape, gauge consumer sentiment, and explore new product opportunities. This not only enhances the efficiency of successful products but also expedites time to market,” Raina stated. 

He added, “It is crucial for payment providers to move beyond ‘set it and forget it’ automation strategies and adopt a more collaborative approach between humans and AI to strengthen connections with consumers.” 

Furthermore, Raina emphasised that the expanding cross-border e-commerce landscape in SEA presents exciting new avenues for companies to market and sell their products and services internationally. This trend opens up a wealth of possibilities for businesses to reach new customers and expand their footprint across the region.

“The payments landscape in Southeast Asia is evolving rapidly, driven by digitalisation, consumer preferences, and regulatory changes. Marketers need to stay agile, understand local nuances, and create compelling narratives to capture this dynamic market,” Raina concluded. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been around for a long time. But for the past few months, it has accelerated and taken the marketing industry by storm, giving marketers unprecedented opportunity while opening more doors on how to distil its power to full capacity. Although iterations of the use of AI are now being witnessed, there are still some questions surrounding the technology. 

In the world of marketing, MARKETECH APAC wanted to uncover how brands can use AI for success, and in doing so, what challenges they can prepare for, as well as what opportunities can be gained through AI innovation.. For that, we turn to Konrad Feldman, CEO & co-founder of Quantcast–the adtech that specialises in AI-driven real-time advertising, audience insights, and measurement.

In the latest Expert Up Close interview, we sat down with Feldman to learn his expert insights on the emergence of AI and how marketers can use it as a powerful tool to deliver excellence in their marketing initiatives. 

Firstly, according to Feldman, the innovation of AI has moved past itself, it is not just ‘one thing’ but an umbrella of approaches. What makes it a true mark of growth in this digital age is the fact that it can interact with what has been democratised for everyone; information on the open internet.

Right off the bat, productivity is the biggest benefit of AI, and for marketers, this means being able to have more room to do the jobs they were meant to do, better..

“There’s going to be all sorts of companies launched and tools that sit on top of these [large language] models that will help us with productivity and that will help us get through our work quicker, freeing up marketers to be more creative and more and more innovative. I think everyone should be testing these things to get a feel for themselves,” he said. 

Konrad also added that the more we can set these tools to understand the data patterns to be able to predict the right audiences and to autonomously optimise campaigns, it frees people up to do things that people are still much better at doing.

“One of the more intricate use cases of AI for marketers is being able to narrow down which audience segments are best to reach for an advertising campaign”, stated Feldman. 

“So one of the key benefits [of AI] is helping [to] decide which set of consumers would be best to reach for an advertising campaign. In any market, there’s a large potential [audience], but the reality is, very few marketers want to reach the entire audience.”

Many advertisers have an increasing amount of information on their customers. Feldman gave the example of an airline that has a route to San Francisco and is promoting tickets for that destination could have many hypotheses by which someone could become a customer. But even with a large number of people, it would only be able to identify a subset of those motivations. 

And this is where programmatic advertising enters the picture and leverages machine learning, which can more systematically assess the characteristics of customers that may be interested in a brand’s offer. 

Ultimately, Feldman said there are different types of AI for different types of problems, but just like any other technology, one should start not with the goal of simply using technology. 

“You should start with the goal of solving a specific problem,” he said. 

Overall, machine learning and AI algorithms work as an optimisation process where they are trying to minimise some errors and maximise some value, so one must be able to provide the incentive for the way the algorithm learns. 

“Be really clear about the problem that you want to solve and how you’ll measure success. I think that’s an important framing – having a clear understanding of what success looks like.” 

Another important thing — the willingness to experiment. 

“Be willing to experiment, recognise that not everything you try with new technologies is always going to work straight off.”

He elaborated by saying that if something doesn’t work and you can understand why, that’s how you learn in advance.

He then concluded, “So getting a model where you’re able to experiment and learn quickly is powerful. And that’s the last thing I’d say – experiment. These new products that are available based on [breakthroughs] and the availability of data is such that we’re seeing some really interesting, emergent properties from these models. And they’re available, and they’re accessible. And anyone can go and use them. Just try them out!”

Watch the full interview with Feldman here. 

In an interview with Manisha Seewal, chief marketing officer at Gumtree Australia, she shared her marketing journey and her experience in overcoming preconceptions about all women working in the automotive industry.

“It was my love for cars and technology that made me take a leap of faith and join Carro, which was a young startup in 2018. I wanted to be part of a change where we use data and technology to remove human bias from car buying and selling,” she shared in the ‘Empowered Women’ interview.

Manisha emphasised, “I think that’s the main reason why we need more women to join the industry so we can start changing the narrative.”

During the conversation with Manisha, we asked about her top leadership strategies in ensuring a successful marketing business of a brand, she shared, “[My] top leadership strategies are: Clarity in communication, leaning on your team and enabling them rather than being too prescriptive, owning up if we make a mistake – leaders are just normal people. We should not shy away from owning up if we make a wrong decision, call it out, learn from it and move on.”

“I think it’s important because as leaders, we lean a lot on our teams, to be able to buy into the vision that we have to be able to drive the strategies together and really grow the business together. So clarity and communication are important,” Manisha adds.

Listen to the full conversation with Manisha Seewal over on Spotify, where she discussed the changes in the automotive industry due to COVID-19. Hear her insights about trends that would shape the future and her advice for marketers who want to be part of the automotive industry. You may also view the highlights of the conversation on YouTube.

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

In an interview with Melissa Sandhu, deputy general manager of marketing communications at Desaru Coast, she discussed her marketing and communications career path, from a young kid discovering the importance of personal messaging to the marketing leader she is now.

Melissa’s marketing and communication skills led her to work in various industries such as the banking and publishing industry, as well as the advertising and real estate industry until she finally landed in the area of hospitality. 

“The ability to bring ideas to life makes me happy, and marketing allows me to do that. I enjoy bridging business goals with marketing outcomes, and I do that by leveraging technology, focusing on value creation and emphasising customer-centricity. And what I enjoy at the heart of it all is the ability to be creative with your storytelling,” Melissa shared in the ‘Empowered Women’ interview.

During the conversation with Melissa, we asked about her marketing and leadership philosophy, she shared, “Part artist, part scientist is how I would define it. Although ROI tends to always be at the forefront in marketing investments, it’s also about fully understanding the brand values, understanding what parameters can be worked around or what parameters can be ‘stretched’, and whether there would be any positive or negative impact on the brand in the long run. 

Melissa emphasised, “This also includes the importance of being fully aware of current and emerging trends, yet having the ability to recognise what would or potentially wouldn’t work for the brand. In developing content, I generally use a 3-step framework that focuses on who am I speaking to, where do they consume content, and how can I make them care.”

Listen to the full conversation with Melissa Sandhu on Spotify, where she discussed her approach to content development and her tips and advice for hotel brands that are struggling to cope with the economic consequences of the COVID 19 pandemic. You may also view the highlights of the conversation on YouTube.

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

In a conversation with Charlotte Ward, founder of Agnes Media, she shared her entrepreneurial background, which fueled her desire to one day establish her own business. 

Even as a teenager in secondary school, Charlotte was able to demonstrate this character, when she developed her own business plan and launched her own organic soap company. Fast forward to her professional career, she built the Agnes Media we now have today through tremendous effort, starting as a freelancer and taking contract works.

“I always felt that we can do things better ourselves after working in various large agency corporations,” Charlotte adds.

During the conversation with Charlotte, we asked about her philosophy in leadership, by which she shared, “Empathy and transparency are at the core of my leadership style, I think this is [something many leaders missed], without this, you’re really just a business owner or a manager, you’re not a true leader.”

Charlotte emphasized, “Leadership is not something that I developed overnight, definitely, when I started out my career I was not the best manager and it’s something that comes with mentorship and learning and being able to admit to yourself when you’ve made a mistake.”

Listen to the full conversation with Charlotte over on Spotify, where she further discusses her passion for marketing measurement and the challenges she had to face in leading Agnes Media. Hear her insights as well about the biggest marketing challenge that B2B brands face nowadays. You can also view the video 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]

In a conversation with Raushida Vasaiwala, general manager for Asia-Pacific at Celtra, Inc., she shares her career trajectory and what motivated her to pursue the marketing and tech industry. 

“I grew up in a family of businessmen so entrepreneurship quite comes akin to my nature. So there was this constant internal push of leading business that would help me pursue my varied passion in advertising, brand communication, art, and technology, ” she shared in the ‘Empowered Women’ interview.

Raushida believes that having a different career from the degree of specialisation is perfectly fine, especially if you have developed a new interest or have better self-awareness.

“So essentially love what you do and do what you love,” she remarked.

During the conversation with Raushida, we asked about her marketing journey and her leadership, and she shared, “A mentor in my family guided me to explore digital marketing especially the adtech and martech ecosystem.”

“As leaders, we need to ensure that our teams are upskilled and kept abreast with the latest tools that can help in driving better business outcomes,” Raushida adds.

Meanwhile, Raushida strongly urges marketers to re-evaluate the implementation process of their marketing activities and do a deep dive to look for areas that keep them from achieving their goals.

Listen to the full conversation with Raushida Vasaiwala over on Spotify, where Vasaiwala shares the importance of technology adoption as well as her insights about the importance of creative automation for brands. You can also view the video 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]