Tag: Retail

Hong Kong – Global apparel brand Levi Strauss has announced a slew of commercial endeavours centred around its East Asia presence, including launching new stores and rolling out existing store refreshes and new in-store services throughout the region.

Nuholt Huisamen, managing director and senior vice president at Levi Strauss, said, “We are committed to the future success of our business at every level and are reimagining what we do and how we win in today’s marketplace. At the same time, we are embracing the technologies of tomorrow to power innovation and better serve our customers and deliver greater value to stakeholders. We will do this by placing people at the heart of our business and through responsible practices because being a force for positive change is integral to being the world’s best apparel brand.”

In addition, the company will leverage digital, data and AI to stay ahead of trends, drive efficiency and innovation in the product creation process, deliver omni-channel offerings, claim its space in the direct-to-consumer (DTC) sphere, and ultimately enhance the consumer experience.

Furthermore, among the new stores to be launched this year are Levi’s® stores in countries including Japan, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. Levi Strauss & Co. will refurbish a number of retail stores and shop-in-shops into NextGen Indigo stores, offering an elevated store experience that uses digital tools to streamline the consumer journey, including installing LED portal entry archways and LED screens for marketing content. 

Select stores in the region will also introduce in-store tailoring services to offer greater personalisation.

Vietnam – Vietnamese digital marketing major Blueseed Group has invested a 7-digit figure in the local online retailer startup Greenoly.

Blueseed Group said it will help with the transformation of the online retailer into Vietnam’s next retail champion by transferring its leadership, marketing technology expertise, and what is most important – its vast audience and consumer data expertise.

As part of the investment, Blueseed Group’s CEO Ho Nguyen will join Greenoly as co-CEO and board member, leveraging his career experience that includes senior executive roles within international marketing and tech companies. Nguyen has successfully led Blueseed since the group’s founding, evolving from the leading digital video ad network to today’s diverse focus on the AdTech, MarTech and Data services driving success in today’s digital marketplace. He will focus on leading the MarTech transformation of Greenoly. 

Greenoly is a vertical online retail startup focused on health and wellness products launched in 2020. While such businesses can thrive easily in Vietnam due to strong demand growth for health and wellness-related products in the short term, the momentum isn’t always transformed into long-term growth and success. Blueseed Group Chairwoman Nga Nguyen knows this all too well.

Nga Nguyen brings with her two decades of business and investment experience, including her startup-to-unicorn experience with VNG – Vietnam’s first digital unicorn which contributes to her intricate knowledge in creating success stories in the online space. It is this perspective that led her and the Blueseed Group to invest in driving Greenoly from a small online retailing startup into a MarTech powered retailing platform and in turn to be one of Vietnam’s next retail champions.

Advocating the strategy of Blueseed Group toward Greenoly’s investment, transformation, and growth, Nga Nguyen said, “Leveraging Blueseed’s deep experience in Data and MarTech services and solutions we look forward to developing the most cost-efficient model to acquire new consumers across multiple use cases and grow Greenoly’s market standing. Data initiatives are highly strategic, long-tail investments that impact nearly all areas of the retail business.”

She adds, “Retailers, more than any other industry, feel the need for better customer data solutions. Greenoly already possesses enormous amounts of customer data that lives in dozens of different online and offline tools and systems, but in a few years, it will be a much, much bigger volume of data. Therefore, the top priority will be for Blueseed to enhance retail business with our market-proven Customer Data Platform that can unify data, generate customer insights and scale their marketing efforts via machine learning algorithms to enhance the effectiveness of their most mature and complex marketing campaigns.”

Nga Nguyen further said, “The next big steps for Greenoly will be nurturing and strengthening the loyalty of these consumers and catering to their new needs as they develop. The final game-changer will be developing Greenoly’s 5-star personalized consumer experience. Customer centricity is the new game in town, it requires online retailers to prioritize personalizing the customer experience. To win in this new competitive space retailers need to increase the personal relevance and experience based on customer preferences. This highly personalized experience also needs to be maintained across the new omnichannel world leveraging new technologies to better serve customers in whichever environment they prefer to engage in.”

The Vietnamese Health and Wellness space has proven to be a fertile space. A recent report released by BritCham Vietnam found that the segment is valued at over 13t VND (over 570 million USD) with over 13% annual growth. It also found that the growth is driven by several key consumer groups including a fast-growing middle class, women turning to health supplements for beauty, sexual and overall female health purposes, growing numbers of younger consumers looking to improve vision and memory, and a growing elderly population demanding relevant health supplements.

Events like the Covid-19 pandemic are accelerating the shift towards e-commerce. Helping this will be more quick delivery services as more customers enjoy the convenience of the doorstep experience. Today, consumers have high expectations for how they want to shop, demanding frictionless, fast, and comfortable shopping experiences 24/7. The retail-champions of tomorrow will be the ones who focus on just-in-time delivery, plan successfully using the right customer decision trees and proper promotional messaging based on personalized propositions. All of these can only be achieved progressively by investing increasingly in tech-driven retail business.

Singapore – Global data and AI company Databricks has recently launched Databricks Lakehouse for Retail, which is a new centralized data and AI platform catered to retailers and consumer goods (CG) customers. Some of its early adapters include Walgreens, Columbia, H&M Group, Reckitt, among others.

With Databricks’ Lakehouse for Retail, data teams are enabled with a centralized data and AI platform that is tailored to help solve the most critical data challenges that retailers, partners, and their suppliers are facing. In addition, it delivers an open, flexible data platform, data collaboration and sharing, and a collection of tools and partners for the retail and consumer goods industries

Designed to jumpstart the analytics process, new Lakehouse for Retail Solution Accelerators offer a blueprint of data analytics and machine learning use cases and best practices to save weeks or months of development time for an organization’s data engineers and data scientists.

Some of the solutions offered include real-time streaming data ingestion, demand forecasting and time-series forecasting, as well as machine learning-powered recommendation engines.

Ali Ghodsi, CEO and co-founder at Databricks, said, “Databricks has always innovated on behalf of our customers and the vision of lakehouse helps solve many of the challenges retail organizations have told us they’re facing. This is an important milestone on our journey to help organizations operate in real-time, deliver more accurate analysis, and leverage all of their customer data to uncover valuable insights. Lakehouse for Retail will empower data-driven collaboration and sharing across businesses and partners in the retail industry.”

Manila, Philippines – AllValue, the fast-growing retail group in the Philippines, targets to boost the digital and e-commerce growth of two of its brands, AllHome and AllDay, and has tapped consumer engagement platform MoEngage to help bring this to fruition.

AllHome is its one-stop shop brand for home living, while AllDay is the group’s fast-growing mid-premium supermarket chain. MoEngage said that AllValue aims to capitalize on the online sales momentum and the recent surge in e-commerce sales in the country through an in-depth look into customer behavior data.

“We are betting big on the current digital wave that will expand the e-commerce market size in the Philippines. With more and more customers discovering our enhanced e-commerce experience, we recognized the need to align ourselves with a data-driven mindset to mount effective customer-facing campaigns and to further drive our platforms’ development,” said Camille Villar, AllValue’s vice chairman.

MoEngage is a full-stack solution consisting of customer analytics, automated cross-channel engagement and AI-driven personalization. It said that AllDay’s challenge is making sense of large-scale retail data that is primarily undifferentiated, while AllHome aims to unearth insights and patterns for its broad spectrum of customers: from homeowners to architects, engineers, and designers.

Through its optimized e-commerce platforms, AllValue is able to telegraph current customer behaviors by providing relevant product recommendations, sorting out logistic challenges for home deliveries, and allowing safe payments to offer a comprehensive and convenient E-commerce experience. MoEngage said that this is the exact window where they can provide breakthrough insights to push AllHome and AllDay ‘s e-commerce initiatives to the next level.

“To sell premium retail products, one must put together a great website and an awesome checkout experience. However, that is not enough in the hypercompetitive e-commerce world. One must complement it with well-timed and limited offers for browsed products that are simply hard to put down,” commented Saurabh Madan, GM of MoEngage for ANZ and SEA.

He adds, “Product differentiation alone might not cut it for many businesses who plan to make a shift to online sales. Consumer brands also need to focus on a customer-centric engagement strategy, and that’s where MoEngage can help.”

Sydney, Australia – Sometimes, when asked by someone of ‘what you want for Christmas’, chances are you are put into a spot, feeling overwhelmed and unsure. Hence, instead of saying what you want really, you resort to describing vague terms regarding your gift wish.

Such a quirky ‘dilemma’ is the spotlight of the latest ad from Australian department store chain Myer, centered around the concept of ‘unriddling Christmas’ to Aussies.

Titled ‘The Vague Carol’, the ad portrays a slew of people describing what they want for Christmas, yet still giving vague answers such as “I’m not really sure, surprise me” or “no pressure, whatever, I’m easy…”. In addition, the ad’s song is also a reinterpretation of the famous Christmas song, ‘Joy to the World’.

Geoff Ikin, chief customer officer at Myer, noted that the campaign is all about capturing the joy and fun of Christmas for all Australians by playfully turning those vague wishes into wonderful gifts, adding this provides a great way to showcase the many reasons they continue to be the ‘home of Christmas gifting’.

“Christmas is a busy time of year, that’s made ever so slightly more complicated by our attempts at trying to guess the perfect gifts for loved ones. With the vast Christmas range on offer in-store and online at Myer, we’re here to help Australians Unriddle Christmas, with our expert Giftician service and wide range of gifts that everyone will love,” Ikin said.

The ad, made by agency Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, was first previewed to the MyerOne loyalty program, with over 5 million members. The campaign then comes to life across all of Myer’s platforms including TV, BVOD, OOH, digital, social, online and in-store.

One of the many OOH campaigns for Myer’s ‘Unriddle Christmas’ campaign.

“We can all relate to giving and getting those annoyingly vague responses at Christmas. But one thing’s for sure, it’s been a joy to reimagine this classic tune with Fiona and the team. We hope this spot inspires some loud and proud Christmas carol singing. And of course, helps Australia Unriddle Christmas and turn those unhelpful hints into wonderful gifts,” said Ellie Dunn and Huei Yin Wong, senior creatives at Clemenger BBDO Melbourne.

Myers also added that the campaign’s media approach, led by AKQA, is steeped in making their ‘Unriddle Christmas’ campaign one you cannot miss. 

“Unmissable media with in-depth partnerships ensures Myer creates and owns this relatable conversation, and showcases that no matter who you’re purchasing for, the perfect gift is waiting for them at Myer,” the company stated.

Jakarta, Indonesia – Erigo, the Indonesian fashion retail that has been a staple in Shopee Mall, is set to grace the renowned New York Fashion Week (NYFW) 2022, and it has partnered with e-commerce to launch a campaign that will see both celebrating the said milestone with Indonesian consumers.

According to Shopee, Erigo has been a partner since 2017 and has seen significant growth in sales and brand innovation. The streetwear brand has won the hearts of users, making them one of the top favorite brands at major annual Shopee campaigns. In 2020, Erigo participated in the Shopee Export Program, Kreasi Nusantara: From Local To Global, where the well-loved Indonesian brand entered other markets like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines.

Called, ‘Erigo x Shopee NYFW’, the campaign will include different engagements and launches. For a start, Erigo’s appearance at the NYFW will be livestreamed on Shopee Live, which is exclusively available in Indonesia on 9 September at 8:00 pm. 

In addition to this, the Erigo NYFW runway collection will be available at the Erigo official store on Shopee Mall. Users will be able to purchase exclusive collections brought straight from the Erigo pop-up store in New York, and also enjoy up to 90% discount for various Erigo products. Lastly, shoppers will be able to purchase a ‘Mystery Box’ of Erigo products for only under Rp100,000. The campaign will run from 9 until 11 September 2021,

Handhika Jahja, Shopee’s director for Indonesia, commented that they are proud to witness the extraordinary progress of Erigo so far and to finally be able to deliver ‘Made in Indonesia’ products to an international stage. Jahja shared that Erigo is one of the 180,000 local MSMEs fostered by Shopee that have successfully penetrated the global market through the Shopee Export Program. 

“We hope that this collaboration can create pride and love for local products among Indonesians. It can also spark enthusiasm and create a good track record for more local MSMEs to follow,” said Jahja.

Meanwhile, Muhammad Sadad, the CEO of Erigo, said that the brand’s ability to penetrate into the global market certainly cannot be separated from the support and assistance they got from Shopee and the various programs held by Shopee have greatly helped the development of the business and realized their dream of bringing Erigo products to consumers in other countries. 

“We are very encouraged by the love and enthusiasm from Shopee users in Indonesia and around the region, empowering us to continue innovating the brand until we finally had an opportunity to represent Indonesia at the biggest fashion show in New York. To commemorate 10 years of work, Erigo will be debuting the new Erigo X collection exclusively at New York Fashion Week 2022, where users can watch through Shopee Live,” said Sadad.

Shopee said that it would like to reaffirm its commitment and passion in supporting the development and potential of local businesses that are an important part of the Shopee ecosystem through the Erigo X Shopee NYFW 2022. The recent collaboration is part of Shopee’s effort to strengthen the reach of homegrown brands in their own country and showcase the good quality of locally-made products.

Singapore – As the industries of retail, banking and finance, and digital entertainment become more and more active, these industries have ramped up their personalized customer engagement across their target users in Southeast Asia, as a new report from customer engagement company MoEngage shows.

According to the report, daily active users (DAUs) of e-commerce, retail and D2C brands increased by 13.36% in the first four months of 2021. When studying the monthly active user (MAU) trends of the same brands, web MAUs had increased the highest (by 8.7%) compared to mobile. 

The report notes that such activity is recorded most likely due to pandemic movement restrictions and shoppers working from home, as opposed to shopping via mobile on the go.

As the report targeted three main channels in their report namely push notifications, email, in-app messages, and website messages; they found out that push notifications that used behavioral attributes with an added layer of personalization from shopping brands saw deliverability of up to 85.67% and campaign conversions increased to over 27%.

There has been an increase of 54.9% in the number of DAUs across all digital banking, fintech, peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, insurance, and cryptocurrency platforms during the first four months of 2021.

In terms of email click-throughs, it saw better click-through rates and conversion across all industries as compared to the generic ones: open rates of emails from shopping brands went up to 28.17% and the 0.5% of emails that were behavior-based in the digital entertainment sector saw 2.4 times better click rate, while in banking, behavior-based emails boosted conversions by 2.72 times compared to generic broadcasts.

Finally, the report noted that digital media and entertainment brands using custom user segments based on behavioral and user attributes to send in-app messages to Android users saw twice the increase in click-through rates and conversion rate of up to 50.05% as compared to sending the same message to all users.

“Consumer behavior in Southeast Asia has changed rapidly over the last year, and digital adoption across industries has accelerated during the pandemic period. We’re pleased to provide organizations globally with a holistic view of how their current and prospective customers are behaving and guide them through their insights-led customer engagement and business growth journey,” according to Saurabh Madan, GM for SEA and ANZ at MoEngage.

The report concludes by stating that the findings demonstrate the importance of closely analyzing consumer behavior across every critical channel and developing both proactive and reactive outreach in association with these insights.

“Laser-focus on this [customer engagement] establishes customer-centricity, ensuring that brands meet and exceed the expectations of their customers and boost long-term loyalty and repeat business,” the report added.

Hong Kong – Hong Kong-based beauty and personal care chain SaSa has announced in its latest financial results for the year 2020/2021 that it is expecting to close 15 to 20 stores throughout the year. 

SaSa is only one of the many businesses that have shut down operations as a strategic move over pandemic-induced economic downturn. According to the company, the markets of the Hong Kong and Macau SARs dealt a severe blow to the group’s sales performance with the pandemic bringing tourism to a standstill. 

Since the beginning of February 2020, the cumulative number of Mainland Chinese visitors in the Hong Kong SAR up to now has plunged to almost zero year on year, and due to social distancing initiatives imposed by the Hong Kong SAR government, local consumer sentiment has also been dampened. 

SaSa’s brick-and-mortar stores are established in Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, and Malaysia. 

SaSa
Inside a SaSa store

Overall, the group’s retail sales in the markets of the Hong Kong and Macau SARs dropped by 58.1% year on year, while its same-store sales decreased by 54.4% during the financial year. Meanwhile, in Malaysia, turnover decreased by 34.9% in the financial year. 

Due to the movement control orders in Malaysia, the group’s stores were temporarily closed for nearly 100 days in total. As of 31 March 2021, the total number of SaSa’s retail stores in Hong Kong and Macau SARs was reduced from the peak of 118 two years ago to 100. Among closed stores in Hong Kong SAR, 80% were located in tourist districts. 

With this, the company has expressed plans to leverage its online sales and deliver an enhanced customer experience by combining online with offline. 

Sasa
SaSa’s current website

Compared to offline sales, the beauty retail chain’s online business had been looking up, rising by 45.4% to HK$501.3m accounting for 16.5% of the total turnover from the group’s continuing operations, up from 6% in the previous financial year. 

The company shared that the group’s long-term vision is to grow businesses beyond brick-and-mortar operations. By growing the share of sales from online platforms, it trusts that it can help reduce its reliance on physical stores. 

“Through persistently adjusting and rationalizing the store network, the group could improve its overall cost structure and lower the breakeven point for the traditional retail business, thus reinforcing its competitiveness and profitability in the long term,” the group said.

The group will work to further realize the complementary effects of combining the advantages of online business and physical stores to improve both customer experience and the group’s profitability. 

It plans to execute the integration of online and offline operations. The group said that it will be improving inventory and logistic arrangements to provide a seamless O2O customer experience. For SaSa, the O2O business offers a more favorable gross margin and basket size owing to the element of personal service when compared to pure online sales channels. All these mean a more attractive profit margin for the O2O business, an area that the group wishes to develop to its fullest potential.

Dr Simon Kwok, SBS, JP, the chairman and CEO of the Group, said that online business has become the new focus of the retail industry, and that they are dedicated to expediting development in the new retail landscape by investing more resources in their online business, unceasingly strengthening the brand and adjusting their product portfolio. 

“The Group will also proactively propel businesses beyond our core markets in Hong Kong and Macau SARs and promote the online business, thus diversifying and expanding our revenue portfolio and customer base and creating value for our stakeholders in the long term.”

Philippines – The pandemic flipped everything on 360 degrees, and to look at the current rankings of the top companies in the business sector is to view it from a whole new perspective. Market research firm Euromonitor International has recently released its list of the top companies in the retail industry in Asia for 2020, and in the Philippines, a majority of those that were leading the in the year 2019 are still the ones that reigned in 2020.

Out of the 10 in the list, the top five all registered steady growth in sales in 2020, retaining their standings from the past year. SM Retail, which holds a nationwide portfolio of department stores, supermarkets, and specialty stores, still came out as the leading firm in the sector. It was followed by pharmaceutical company Mercury Drug, with grocery retailer Puregold Price Club coming out on the third spot. Meanwhile, another giant in retail, Robinsons Retail Holdings, registered neither a drop nor an improvement in sales as well, landing the top fourth spot, while specialty store group Seven & I Holdings rounded the top five. 

Top retailers in the Philippines

Three of the top firms, which are also all international companies – beauty and wellness AS Watson Group, China-based Alibaba Group, and Shopee’s parent company Sea – all recorded improvements in sales landing the 6th, 8th, and 9th spots respectively.

Meanwhile, local grocery retailer Metro Retail Stores Group was shown to drop sales in 2020, with international home retail Wilcon Depot also demonstrating the same movement in sales.

SM Retail, which registered $5.4b in sales in 2020 came out as the 9th leading retailer in the Southeast Asia region. For the region, Tokopedia took the crown with $11.7b in total sales for the year. 

Meanwhile, for the whole of Asia, it was China’s Alibaba Group Holding and JD.com that were named as top firms. 

The pandemic remains to be the biggest determinant of the rankings, where the lockdown in the Philippines had become one of the longest globally, which started in March of 2020, and is still presently in reinforcement. According to Euromonitor, this affected the way people chose to fulfill their essentials, where mixed retailers were the worst hit, with consumers opting for specialist retailers, presenting a convenient way to obtain what they needed in stock. 

With people cooped up at home, the current situation panned out greatly for e-commerce, and this showed with Shopee’s parent firm Sea registering an increase in sales. According to the report, the category had already been growing at a double-digit pace pre-lockdown but this was accelerated in 2020 with people maximizing the ease of online retail. 

An interesting growing trend in 2020 in the Philippines is community stores, or stores that are situated in nearby communities and neighborhoods. These existed prior to COVID-19, and the increase in popularity can be attributed to the presence of Alfamart, a minimart that is a hybrid between a supermarket and a convenience store. 

Alfamart is a chain of convenience stores from Indonesia, with over 10,000 stores across Indonesia and the Philippines. Euromonitor said the concept increased in relevance in 2020 as consumers looked for the most convenient ways to complete their shopping trips, with the trend expected to continue further.

Manila, Philippines – As the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic swept the country, pandemic-relevant items such as face masks, face shields, and hand sanitizers have surged in demand. With this new ‘essentials’ in market, a new study from media monitoring and insights solution provider Isentia notes that Philippine retailers need to listen to the clamor of consumers regarding these essentials, especially through social media channels.

Isentia notes that face masks have naturally garnered high attention from the general public on social media, as buzz online has peaked at 75,715 impressions at least during March 2021. The demand has been also amplified with three local events, as follows:

  • The initial announcement from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) last 13 March where the agency stated that face masks should be worn, even inside of their homes. The statement was met with ridicule from the general public on social media, stating that wearing face masks at home was unnecessary. Some had sarcastic reactions saying that they should then wear masks while bathing, that policemen should be assigned inside their homes to monitor, and that they might as well require wearing a face shield at home.
  • A video of a woman onboard the Metro Rail Transit-3 Train line (MRT-3) last 23 March was met with outrage from netizens after not wearing a face mask and face shield on board the train, where she was met with confrontation from other passengers.
  • An online news report from 30 March stated that people from the English territory Gibraltar are no longer wearing masks due to the absence of COVID-19 cases in the territory. Filipino netizens perceived the news in awe and envy, while others expressed skepticism on how the Philippine Government has been handling the pandemic in the country.

In addition, Isentia notes that the most discussed face masks in the country are N95 masks and the brand Coppermask, as many netizens complain online about using disposable surgical masks when wearing makeup. Some netizens reacted negatively towards the Philippines’ vaccine expert panel’s suggestion that wearing two face masks reduces the risk of getting COVID-19 by 90%. Others praised Doc Adam, an Australian doctor and YouTube personality, for his critique of the Coppermask – saying that wearing the mask is just a fashion statement for most people. 

“Since the pandemic, what the public deems as essential has very much shifted. Masks are now a must-have and retailers and producers have found ways to cater to different tastes,” said Victoria Bernadette Lazo, insights manager at Isentia Philippines.

In regards to face shields, conversations about them were driven by multiple events during the month of March, garnering a total of 43,599 total buzz during the month. The highest momentum was on the Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III who went out on the streets of Baclaran to hand out face shields. The majority of the comments were highly unfavorable in nature, with netizens dubbing that it was a ‘failed PR attempt’ for the government arm and its top official.

Lastly, ‘hand sanitizers’ garnered 1,605 total buzz in the social media. One news article that included the mention of sanitizers struck out on 13 March when Thailand Prime Minister Paruth Chan-ocha sprayed hand sanitizer on the reporters of his press conference to avoid answering questions. Filipino commenters still found a way to correlate the news to Philippine government leaders such as President Rodrigo Duterte and Vice President Leni Robredo. 

“With the threat of COVID-19 still lingering, you can never underestimate any measure when it comes to your safety. A lot of luxuries were taken away from us but what we still have is a choice, an option to choose your face masks, face shields and even the hand sanitizer that goes along with your bag,” Francis Angelo Calucin, insights analyst at Isentia Philippines, said.

The report uses the example of Coppermask which engaged in a so-called ‘Streisand effect’, where the brand attempted to hide, remove, or censor information about negative reviews of their product, such as those of Australian doctor/YouTuber Doc Adam, which in return has the unintended consequence of further publicizing that information, often via the Internet.

“Social media, given its volatile nature, is a good avenue for retail brands to gain insights into customer preferences. Amid the clutter in online platforms, trendspotting reports unlock relevant organic conversations that may be leveraged by brands in devising strategies that will impact their consumers.” Kate Dudang, insights manager at Isentia Philippines, explained. 

Meanwhile, Gladys Mae Ruiz, insights analyst at Isentia Philippines added, “A critical situation like the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed human behavior in different directions. Trendspotting studies such as this will help brands and businesses better understand and respond to the ever-changing consumer behaviour.”