Social Commerce Archives - MARKETECH APAC

Manila, Philippines – Tech-driven media company Hepmil Philippines, a regional arm of Hepmil Media Group, has launched a series of new programmes that aim to strengthen the capabilities and skills of all talents and creators under its network.

First on the list of Hepmil Philippines’ new programmes is the launch of its social commerce solutions, which will allow content creators under its network to explore other avenues to monetize their content.

A part of this initiative is the introduction of a new incubation programme that is largely focused on developing the skills of their talents and creators in social selling and forging partnerships with regional e-commerce brands that can support their direct-to-consumer efforts.

The media company has also expanded its list of new and accomplished creators, with big names such as Jico Umali (Jiconyo), Pipay Kipay, and Adam Alejo joining their roster of exclusive creators under their digital creator community, Hepmil Creators’ Network (HCN).

As part of the company’s programmes to support its talents, Hepmil Philippines also rolled out a list of entertainment shows and relatable content for their wide variety of audiences.

The exhilarating travel show ‘Oner Gang’ will feature social media sensations Jico Umali and Risha Rodriguez as they explore the tapestry of local communities and diverse cultures across the Philippines. PGAG, Hepmil’s marketing company, also injected humour into their latest lineup of shows with ‘Sa Office’, a workplace satire that provides a comedic look at office life.

The new programmes come as Hepmil and its partners work on developing communication strategies that are tailored to cater to the newer generation of mobile-first consumers. The company aims to make authentic connections with audiences who want entertainment value, making sure that there is still organic integration of local culture into engaging digital content.

Jel Directo, country manager at Hepmil Creators’ Network, shared, “The unstoppable rise of TikTok Shop in the Philippines has brought a platform for our creators not only to elevate their game in content creation but also to increase their opportunities for monetized content.”

“Since this is fast-growing in the local market, we have trained our creators in effective live selling, live streaming, and also affiliate content building. With this, we continue to be partners of brands that are first-movers in bottom funnel creator marketing, able to support them as they speed up test-and-learn efforts,” she added.

Directo further explained, “We want our creator network to be represented by those who truly understand our passion and skill in content creation. With Jico as our homegrown creator in PGAG; Pipay, known on TikTok for her comedy and wit; and Adam Alejo, a YouTuber known for his most-watched idea-first challenges, we are able to showcase our ability to support brands in creating content that connects and matters to their audience.”

Also speaking on the programme launch, Erwin Razon, general manager at PGAG and Bent Pixels Asia, said, “We continue to innovate new shows with our partner creators to bring engaging and entertaining content to our fans, new and old. The company’s strategic partnerships with rising platforms like Oner Gang and PGAG offer brands a strategic entry point into the evolving realm of digital marketing. As the rules of engagement are being rewritten, Hepmil is poised to author the next chapter in the industry.”

“We strongly believe in the balance of advertising and entertainment on content, a mindset that allows us to thrive in integrating brand messages seamlessly within our content while maintaining the authenticity and entertainment that our fans love,” he added.

Jakarta, Indonesia – Following the recent regulation by the Indonesian government on the use of social media for e-commerce transactions, TikTok Shop has finally announced that it is shutting down its local operations in accordance with local orders.

“Our priority is to remain compliant with local laws and regulations. As such, we will no longer facilitate e-commerce transactions in TikTok Shop Indonesia by October 4, and will continue to cooperate with the relevant authorities on the path forward,” TikTok said in a press statement.

The ban follows a recent government regulation which prohibits the use of social media for e-commerce transactions, adding that it’s aimed at quashing e-commerce sellers that are purportedly abusing pricing tiers on social media to promote their products.

Following this, a question arises: is there still hope for social commerce in Indonesia?

Social commerce will still exist–even with regulations

For Rolly Pane, managing director for Indonesia at Clozette, despite the new regulations, social commerce will still be around, as the new regulations only prohibits having social media and e-commerce inside one app.

“Social commerce can still be done, promoting products in social and driving people to e-commerce. The only difference is that it will not happen in one ecosystem or app. It just has to cross over apps,” Pane told MARKETECH APAC.

However, he noted that with this regulation, there would be a significant drop in e-commerce transactions which originated from social media posts and engagements.

“The biggest downfall is that there will be a larger amount of drop-offs when it is cross-app compared to being in one ecosystem or app,” he said.

Despite all of thise, Pane says that brands can still implement alternative strategies to make their social commerce strategies still stand out.

“Promotion of products will still be done as it is being done now. The only difference is that when the promotions are clicked, it will no longer be in the same ecosystem. It will drive the consumers to a different ecosystem / app to conduct the transactions,” he concluded.

Who loses this game? Merchants or consumers?

Meanwhile, Anish Daryani, founder and president director at M&C Saatchi Indonesia explained that with 2024 being an election year in Indonesia, showing support for MSME’s by securing their interest is considered as an important move by the government.

It is worth noting that the government said that the new regulations aims to protect the interests of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME’s), given the lack of adoption of digital platforms on their part, and inability to compete with what has been labelled as ‘predatory pricing’ on social platforms.

“On the brighter side, the regulation removes ambiguity from e-commerce and provides clear guidelines towards the dos and don’ts of running e-commerce businesses, which [was] long overdue,” he said in an exclusive interview with MARKETECH APAC.

However, Daryani notes that other local merchants who have long utilised social commerce will ‘lose’ in this game, who have used it to connect with their patrons. He also added that with the new regulations, the livelihood of about 6 million social sellers and 7 million affiliates on TikTok Shop alone were hugely affected.

He also stated that end consumers are also affected as well, whose support to their social commerce merchants were the driving force behind their success.

“In my view, the biggest loser in this regulation, however, is the end consumer, who would now be deprived of exciting prices that were sometimes too good to be true, and discovering great quality products from skilled entrepreneurs, which in itself was a massive support for local businesses,” Daryani added.

Social commerce barely scratches the surface of the local industry

Despite all of these regulations, Daryani believes that social commerce will continue to move forward in Indonesia, adding that there is more growth for the Indonesian social commerce scene, compared to more mature markets like of China’s.

“Though this regulation would bring social commerce to a stop, there is no stopping commerce from becoming more social,” he quipped.

Looking at the issue from an agency perspective, Daryani believes that continued social media communication will still help amplify e-commerce, with social media and e-commerce now serving separate purposes in the customer purchase journey.

“From a communications perspective, digital content will still continue to fuel demand for products and services through the upper funnel (awareness and consideration), while the objectives of the lower funnel (purchase, retention and advocacy) would be met by e-commerce platforms,” he said.

He also added, “The use of influencers to review and recommend products will continue to expand. Overall, this would make discoverability of content more organic, so the quality of content would have to be better going forward.”

Singapore – Social media conversation within the Southeast Asian region has been focused on topics on the metaverse, social commerce, as well as sustainability–according to the latest report from consumer intelligence and deep listening company Talkwalker and digital-first customer engagement software Khoros.

The topic of the metaverse is trending amongst Southeast Asian audiences with more than 5.9 million conversations recorded on social channels over the past year. Indonesia recorded the highest number of mentions and engagement amongst the countries monitored, accounting for 60% of all conversations and one-third of total engagements on the topic. This is closely followed by the Philippines, which accounts for almost 24% of mentions and 29% of engagements across Southeast Asia.

In addition, brands looking to launch metaverse campaigns need to stay on top of the latest conversation trends, and ensure that these new realities connect with consumers’ real-world needs.

Meanwhile, in Southeast Asia, the pandemic drove more shoppers online last year, with e-commerce and social commerce accounting for more than 50% of online purchases in 2021.This trend is set to accelerate in 2023 and beyond, with social media platforms set on making the social shopping experience more seamless for consumers.

Furthermore, post-pandemic digital growth and rising costs of living are driving an increased demand for affordability. Consumers are becoming more willing to explore new shopping channels such as social as a result. However, some countries are more ready to adopt social commerce than others.

Lastly, brands are learning to speak the same language as consumers, as both increasingly use the same keywords to drive sustainability conversations. This indicates a unified vision shared by consumers and brands, and suggests that more brands are determined to integrate sustainable practices in 2023, in order to make a genuine difference to the situation.

David Low, chief marketing officer at Talkwalker, said, “Marketers are constantly playing catch-up with consumers given the rapidly evolving digital landscape. This is particularly apparent in the Asia Pacific region which is home to some of the world’s largest populations of digital consumers, and which leads the way in online spending globally.”

He added, “In this new environment, marketers must focus on forging symbiotic relationships through a better understanding of online conversations and taking quicker action. It’s this new understanding that will help brands create meaningful experiences and become closer to their consumers.”

Meanwhile, Dillon Nugent, chief marketing officer at Khoros, commented, “As marketers, we know the value of data and the importance of listening to our customers. But, we need to be more action-oriented and use those insights more effectively. Consumers’ comfort level for doing things online—shopping, researching, socialising—is not slowing down as the world opens up.”

She added, “They also care more about their communities—global, local, IRL, and online. Marketers need to tap into these trends and behaviours more deeply to personalise customers’ experiences and create more impactful strategies that empower your brand to stay connected to customers and grow your presence in the market.”

TikTok has recently powered up its social commerce value proposition to brands, launching a suite of three ad solutions called Shopping Ads. Identifying brands’ most pressing needs when it comes to using the platform for product and brand marketing, TikTok developed new formats to address these pain points, namely – Video Shopping Ads, Catalog Listing Ads, and Live Shopping ads.

In fulfilling its mission of becoming a reliable partner for brands and their business, TikTok has integrated digital enablers to help brands successfully put their consumer engagement in place – and for the newly launched Shopping Ads – TikTok has tapped Smartly.io as its first-to-market campaign and ads partner.

TikTok Shopping Ads is a smarter and simplified solution that drives maximum impact by mixing the best of TikTok’s existing e-commerce advertising products with new tools. As TikTok’s first-to-market campaign and ads partner, Smartly.io will be supporting brands in its Video Shopping Ads and Catalog Listing Ads formats.

Smartly.io will empower brands with the tools and automated workflows needed to enable scale, optimisation, and testing to drive real results that take their TikTok Shopping Ads to the next level. The social advertising platform will be supporting the creative and campaign creation and management process for Video Shopping Ads and Catalog Listing Ads.

When TikTok rose to the top of its game, it hadn’t originally been seen as a channel to discover consumer products, but instead as mainly a social media platform for bite-sized entertainment. Khush Karai, the APAC Marketing Lead of Smartly.io, believes the tipping point has been the pandemic.

She said that the pandemic accelerated peoples’ reliability on social media, and TikTok most especially for its unique format, the short-video platform naturally evolved to be an essential part of consumers’ buyer journey.

“TikTok’s popularity has steadily increased over the years and gained a strong fanbase. As it became the world’s most visited website last year, brands and advertisers started to plan how to include TikTok in their social advertising mix,” said Karai.

Another strong factor in the transformation of consumers’ purchase journey would be TikTok’s unique ‘For You’ page which enables personalisation, bringing the most curated and suited content for a specific user. Through this experience, users had quickly grown to see TikTok as a source to discover something new, whether that’d be relevant content or products to buy.

The ‘For you’ page, in line with commerce, will become even more valuable for both consumers and brands with the latter afforded the new Shopping Ads solution.

With Smartly.io, brands are able to scale, optimise, and test their Shopping Ads to drive performance. According to the platform, they have observed that 86% of customers saw performance lift for test campaigns against core performance metrics. Together with its strong partnership with TikTok and years of expertise with leading brands and advertisers, Smartly.io can be a strong strategic partner to help brands ace their paid social game on TikTok.

Why brands must start testing now for TikTok Shopping Ads

“Right now is actually just the perfect time,” said Karai.

As brands and advertisers gear up for the upcoming festive period and the holiday shopping season, brands must now take the time to test these formats and see what works best. These ads are perfect opportunities for brands looking to launch new products during the holiday season, and with these use cases in mind, brands can plan ahead.

Smartly.io, the new TikTok ads partner, also gives a tip right off the bat – use Shopping Ads with Triggers. In this way, brands can create assets in advance and schedule campaigns to start and end on particular dates, which can be during the Mega Sales Days. This will be largely useful in the South East Asia region, as we’ll see an uptick in campaigns over the Mega Sales Days and this is a great way for brands to stand out from their competitors.

Karai says that the new commerce solutions from TikTok show the extent to which social media can influence consumer behaviour today. Smartly.io has been sharing its predictions about the ever-evolving consumer behaviour and strongly advises brands to adopt the multi-platform strategy. Within this strategy emerges the need to leverage the high-level traction of TikTok.

TikTok’s Shopping Ads offer a one-stop solution for brands to drive e-commerce sales and allows them to meet shoppers along the purchase journey – from content to cart.

Smartly.io’s solution for TikTok Shopping Ads enables seamless campaign management, bulk optimizations, reporting, and creative automation. Advertisers have access to automated workflows that help them to enable scale, optimise, and test ads that drive results and connection.

Visit Smartly.io for more details.

Jakarta, Indonesia – Super, an Indonesian social commerce platform serving tier-2 and tier-3 cities and rural areas, has completed a US$70m oversubscribed Series C round led by NEA, with additional investment from Insignia Ventures Partners, SoftBank Ventures Asia, and DST Global Partners, as well as Amasia, and B Capital, amongst many others.

Super leverages a hyperlocal logistics platform to deliver consumer goods to agents within 24 hours of the order time. It partners with community agents such as individuals and warungs to aggregate and distribute millions of US dollars’ worth of goods to their communities each month.

The platform has launched two private-label brands that have realized product-market fit and will invest a portion of their new capital towards developing additional FMCG private-label brands in the next several years. Moreover, Super will be using the new fund to launch cosmetics products, as the desire for this segment is rising across Indonesia. It will also launch a feature for community agents to track end-consumer transactions to help community agents offer better-tailored experiences for the end customers.

Steven Wongsoredjo, Super’s CEO and co-founder, shared that Super is going after a huge untapped market; thus, they will deploy this investment to enable equitable access for people in Kalimantan, Bali, West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, Maluku, and Papua over the next few years.

“We will help more multinational, and provincial FMCG suppliers tap into new markets in rural areas and empower more community leaders to optimize their income and have a better quality of life,” said Wongsoredjo.

Meanwhile, Gisella Tjoanda, Super’s head of strategy and business development, noted, “As Super is entering its 4th year in business, we understand the importance of data collection and analysis as one of the keys to success in launching new SKUs. Therefore, we are going to expand our engineering team to improve Super’s warehouse management system by implementing machine learning to help Super better utilise data to expand its SKUs in the future.”

Andrew Schoen, NEA’s partner, commented that they are thrilled to back the whole Super team, as the platform is positioned to improve the lives of the 260 million Indonesians who reside outside of Indonesia’s capital city.

“Super is going to continuously improve access to basic goods, create meaningful and rewarding jobs, and streamline supply chains for Indonesia’s tier-2, tier-3, and rural regions,” said Schoen.

Hong Kong – China-based social commerce solution provider Azoya has announced the launch of its turnkey social commerce suite to assist retail brand K11 to amplify its digital presence in the Greater Bay Area (GBA), including in Hong Kong.

As part of the solution, Azoya assisted K11 to launch the K11 Go HK WeChat mini-program using proprietary technology of Azoya SaaS, and fully integrating with WeChat Work, where customers can interact directly with tenants and smart sales consultants.

The mini-program leverages K11’s strong portfolio of tenants and capacity of acquiring customer traffic both offline and online to increase overall brand awareness, customer loyalty and revenues for tenants, including Beyorg, Carbali, Champion, Kids 21, L’Occitane, Penhaligon’s, Thann and a dozen more brands who are also available on the physical premises.

“The escalating COVID-19 situation continues to affect Hong Kong retailers. Shopping malls, pharmacies and duty-free businesses cannot get access to foreign customers and tourists, while local customers must continue to comply with social distancing. In response, retailers are turning to digital methods to continue their operations and serve customers whose demand for merchandise remains strong,” the company said in a statement.

In addition, one of the key features of the mini-program launched by Azoya is to integrate deeply with K11 membership system KLUB11. The fully-customised solution allows K11’s private domain customers to earn and burn points in the same mechanism as in offline stores.

Davy Huang, director of business development at Azoya said, “Consumers want to form a closer relationship with brands in WeChat according to our study and practice. Our data shows over 34% of customers that participated in group chats have made at least 1 purchase in the past year, and we think the number will continue to increase.”

He added, “We are working with our retail partners to transform a large amount of idle sales reps into smart digital beauty advisors, who can interact with customers in WeChat groups, and convert interpersonal connections into deeper customer relationships.”

Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) was first introduced over 15 years ago in Europe, as a payment platform that allows shoppers to split their purchases into interest-free monthly deferred payments, usually by scanning an in-store QR code or upon checkout at a partner retailer’s website.

In recent years, BNPL has gained immense popularity amongst merchants and consumers in Asia, with its market share expected to more than double by 2024, according to the Global Payments Report 2021 by FIS-Worldpay. While BNPL is seen as a rising global movement, it is important to note that the use case and macro landscape across the regions vary significantly.

Unlike established markets such as the United States, Australia and Europe, Asia is highly fragmented (eg. credit profile, religion, language, culture) with a large unbanked and underbanked population, especially in emerging markets such as Indonesia and Vietnam. For example, in Southeast Asia (SEA), only 27% of the overall 670 million population has bank accounts. This sizable gap in traditional banking penetration has resulted in at least 438 million unbanked or underbanked consumers, with limited access to basic financial services and subsequently, a thin credit profile. Consequently, retailers should partner with BNPL brands with robust risk assessment and credit profiling technology to minimise transaction rejects and fraud cases.

SEA is also leading the charge in digital consumption, having added 60 million new digital consumers to the internet economy since the pandemic started. The massive digitisation that the region witnessed in 2020, triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, saw SEA lead as a mobile-first consumer economy.

Retailers partner BNPL providers to tap on the young and emerging digital consumers – shoppers who are mobile-first and digitally savvy and may be experiencing major life events such as getting their first job or house, getting married, and having their first child. It is estimated that by 2030, 75% of consumers in ASEAN will be under the age of 30.

Physical shopping in SEA remains a social activity for many, and shoppers still prefer to see and touch products before making the commitment to purchase. This is different from other developed markets in Europe or the US where e-commerce is widely adopted because of good public infrastructure (e.g. cheap broadband, good last-mile delivery to every home).

For the shoppers in SEA, they value omnichannel retail shopper experience, one that allows them to shop and purchase seamlessly across online and offline channels. What this means for retailers and BNPL players in this region is that the physical store experience is critical when it comes to increasing in-store conversion, basket size, and the overall brand and shopping experience.

Merchants who have adopted BNPL in their business have seen benefits including improved sales, traffic, and conversions. With BNPL, merchants can also unlock a new segment of shoppers and understand their shopping behaviours.

BNPL V2.0

As BNPL matures in Asia, it will evolve from its current basic model of interest-free monthly payments to further enable merchants. We’ve seen examples of new products and services launched, for example, co-branded cards, savings accounts, investment products, and personal finance management.

Traditional banks and even digibanks are also developing and launching their own BNPL offerings. Potential evolution pathways of BNPL and features include:

1. Greater industry adoption

With wider customer adoption and demand for payment choice and flexibility, other retail categories beyond fashion, lifestyle, and beauty categories are experimenting with BNPL. Travel and hospitality, food and beverage, and luxury and premium retail are some examples.

2. Open-loop payment services

Open-loop is a payment method that can be used anywhere that brand of cards or e-wallets is accepted. As BNPL gains momentum globally, BNPL players are introducing co-branded credit cards and e-wallets with payment providers to create an open-loop system that is not restricted to signed merchants. This will greatly accelerate BNPL acceptance across retailers who for example, already accept payments for example, via Visa or Mastercard. BNPL brands also partner with payment service providers, web builders, e-commerce enablers to provide integration support for merchants and accelerate the wider acceptance and integration of BNPL solutions.

3. Social commerce

SEA is expected to lead the biggest market for social commerce, especially given how a large chunk of its population is entering its prime of technology adoption. Social commerce (78%) has become the second most preferred shopping channel in the region, second only to e-commerce platforms (91%).

In 2020, clothes, apparel, and accessories continue to lead social shopping (71%), followed by health and beauty (59%), and electronics and appliances (53%). A large majority of Gen Z and millennials are leveraging social platforms not just to connect and explore, but also to shop and inspire. Increasingly, BNPL players are developing social commerce features to create highly targeted and personalised content recommendations to help promote organic engagements with merchants.

4. Customised merchant services

One of the key strengths for BNPL players is a strong understanding of user demographics and shopping behaviour. Moving forward, BNPL players can invest in co-marketing and merchant-enabler features such as social CRM, loyalty programme, co-marketing, and concierge-like membership services, and this would be crucial in connecting with a community of young, aspirational, and digitally-savvy consumers.

5. Broader financial services

Finally, BNPL players can also introduce offerings with longer tenures especially for high-value items like electronics and smartphones, and money management services such as savings accounts and investment options. As the BNPL industry continues to thrive in the coming years, the evolution of BNPL will further enable and empower merchants and create a strong and holistic ecosystem that drives engagement and value through every facet of the consumer’s purchase journey.

This article is written by Jeremy Wong, head of strategic partnerships at BNPL platform Atome.

The article is published as part of MARKETECH APAC’s thought leadership series What’s NEXT. This features marketing leaders sharing their marketing insights and predictions for the upcoming year. The series aims to equip marketers with actionable insights to future-ready their marketing strategies.

If you are a marketing leader and have insights that you’d like to share with regards to the upcoming trends and practices in marketing, please reach out to [email protected] for an opportunity to have your thought-leadership published on the platform.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about many changes to what we know about digital marketing. Businesses have learned that they can operate virtually, and more and more consumers turn to the internet for almost everything they need. Pandemic restrictions propelled the growth of e-commerce exponentially while further cementing the value that content creators and influencers bring to every brand’s marketing mix.

Influencer marketing has been around for decades, but it has not been until recently when the market more than doubled, reaching USD 13.8 Billion in market size as of 2021, compared to just USD 6.5 Billion in 2019, according to a Statista study. It is predicted that the global influencer marketing industry will grow increasingly faster with the technological developments and the rise of different social networks and platforms.

But before we go even further, for starters, let’s define influencer marketing.

Influencer marketing involves working with people of influence — bloggers, social media influencers, celebrities, thought leaders, charismatic people — in strategically communicating the value proposition of a product or brand. Such promotions are usually sponsored or paid-for endorsements, where social media is the main advertising channel.

Influencers are typically tiered according to their number of followers, where perceived value is attributable to a bigger audience base and compensation is almost always directly correlated to reach.

As we usher in 2022, it is predictable that more brands will jump into the influencer marketing bandwagon, working with content creators and influencers to remain relevant to their audiences. Executive buy-in is not anymore a problem for most marketing teams given the general acceptance of influencer marketing as an important part of the digital marketing pie. Marketing budgets will be appropriated for influencer marketing campaigns, which will then give rise to the demand for influencer agencies, influencer marketing platforms, and influencer managers.

As the influencer marketing industry gains further traction, marketers must prepare for what will most likely lie ahead for the rest of the year. Here are five (5) forces that will drive the influencer marketing industry in 2022 and in the next few years.

Micro-influencers will continue to prove their value down the customer funnel.

Celebrities and macro-influencers will always have a space in influencer marketing campaigns as they are the ones that drive top-funnel metrics such as reach and impressions, which will always be valuable to any kind of advertising campaign. However, micro-influencers will be the main driving force for visibility, talkability, and even virality in any social media channel.

Working with micro-influencers levels off the playing field for brands. Bigger brands may have resources to engage celebrities and macro-influencers as campaign headliners, but such brands will always need micro-influencers as amplifiers for their campaigns. While smaller brands may not be able to appropriate big budgets for the big names, they can still work with micro-influencers regardless if budgets are extremely limited.

Micro-influencers have proven time and again that they are able to be more hardworking with their content and engagement. More often than not, micro-influencers are able to engage their audiences beyond surface level, replying to public comments and even private messages. What many brands do not realize is that given this level of responsiveness and interaction, the influencers also become part of the customer’s experience of the brand, which is certainly a richer encounter versus just seeing the brand posted by a famous social media personality.

This influencer-follower engagement makes micro-influencers automatic brand ambassadors, creating content for the brand and personally engaging their audiences to tell the brand story, which proves that even if bigger names trump micro-influencers in terms of top-funnel metrics, marketing investments on the latter are still a more diligent way to spend.

Influencers will be a major driving force for social commerce and live shopping.

Live streaming and live shopping have been growing exponentially since 2020 and this trajectory is predicted to shoot up even further to 2022 and beyond. An article from Forbes.com postulates that sales through live shopping may likely reach USD 500 Billion this year. Major social networks have launched features that incentivize creators to go live. The largest e-commerce marketplaces have poured in copious amounts of investments in putting up tools to support the new wave: shoppertainment.

The shoppertainment phenomenon is all about an interactive shopping experience, combining e-commerce, entertainment, and audience engagement. The most popular format of shoppertainment is livestream shopping, where brands get trained presenters to demonstrate the product live, enriching the customer experience of the product to facilitate the journey leading to the point of purchase. Usually, these live stream shows are aided by creators and influencers either through joining the live shows themselves as presenters or promoting the live stream through social media posts.

In 2018, Instagram launched shoppable posts, allowing brands to tag products in content to create a seamless user experience from post to purchase. Off the live shopping experience, shoppable content in social media is becoming mainstream and influencer content can now be repurposed by brands to be more hardworking.

Social commerce is the awakened sleeping giant in 2022. Increasingly, product discovery will be through social media, and influencers will be the gatekeepers of consumer consideration, purchase, and perhaps even loyalty.

Short-form videos will increase in demand and be the preferred content format for influencer campaigns.

Like it or not, everybody is at the mercy of social media algorithms. Many creators have seen a drastic decrease in visibility of their content in the major social networks, as social media platforms introduce new features that boost the visibility of short-form video content. The growth trajectory of TikTok is impressive and Instagram has taken notice, prompting the launch of Reels. YouTube has kept up with this with the introduction of Shorts, and even subscription streaming service Netflix brought in Just For Laughs in its mobile platform real estate to keep up with the short-form video trend.

The attention span of people becomes shorter and shorter by the day, which posits a challenge for the marketers of today: how do we communicate everything in just a few seconds and still meet the implied requisites of our audience? With marketers grappling to capture and sustain the attention of their customers in overcrowded social media channels, short-form video content made by influencers are the solutions to this challenge.

Short-form video content is more engaging compared to static format content such as text or photos, but less effortful to consume compared to long-form videos. With short-form videos, influencers are able to entertain by showcasing their creativity and personality, educate the viewer about the message and key elements of the brand campaign, and empower their audience to make informed decisions coming from these propositions — all in a few seconds.

The InfluencerPreneur^TM phenomenon: content creators will now be recognized as credible creative marketing channels operating as individual media companies.

Decades ago when blogging was still the newer form of media (compared to traditional publications and television), brands engaged bloggers as its key opinion leaders (KOLs). Bloggers will write about their experience of or with the product, usually getting the product for free in exchange of authentic reviews and placement in their blog sites. Monetary compensation was not common practice then, as blogs were still recognized as personal channels with not much commercial value. After all, while people may have referred to KOLs for guidance in opinion formation and decision-making, most still got their information primarily from traditional media.

However, the days when free products in exchange for posts were the norm are long gone. Now that more and more people are turning to the internet and to social media for product discovery, influencers have found themselves to be owners of prime digital real estate, and prime real estate always comes with a price.

Creators are now fully aware of the value that they bring to brands and quality people will not be willing to work for free. The increasing commercial value of influencer content will bring about the phenomenon of content creation work to be a real, widely-accepted profession, and will give rise to individual influencers being media companies themselves. Compensation for content creation work will be commonplace, as creators and influencers are professionalizing their content creation business by hiring their own teams of professional videographers, editors, and even production teams.

With this development in the influencer marketing space, brands must now start treating the content creator as an InfluencerPreneur^TM: an individual who is in the business of content creation. There are two (2) significant implications to this that modern marketers must remember. First, as an influencer, the content creator is a creative individual that produces creative work, and as such, reasonable artistic license and discretion must be fully allowed by brands in the creation of the materials. Authenticity will remain to be a crucial component of what makes influencer content compelling to the audiences. Second, as an entrepreneur, the content creator treats content creation work as a business venture, and as such, has to be commercially compensated, mostly through monetary means.

Long term influencer collaborations will win over one-off engagements.

Just like in traditional business ventures, long term partnerships with influencers provide the most strategic value over time. The general user base of social media is a clued-up audience — they know when something is paid and they usually second-guess the truthfulness and believability of the information when the content is sponsored. The doubts are fueled even further when they know for certain that the relationship of the influencer with the brand is very transactional.

There are plenty of reasons why long term collaborations are better than one-off engagements, but it all comes down to this: it takes time to make a sale. The marketing “Rule of 7” states that a prospective customer needs to encounter your brand seven (7) times before they are actually prompted to take action. If an influencer talks about a brand once and never again, the likelihood that the message sticks to the followers of the influencer is extremely low. On the other hand, if an influencer talks about a brand consistently in their channels over a prolonged period of time, this communicates that the brand is a part of the influencer’s life, which then builds the credibility of the brand in the minds of the followers of the influencer, and will have a lot of impact on customer lifetime value.

One-off engagements with influencers are still a good way to go about launches and campaigns that are intended to be short term, but real brand value will be driven by influencers only through a long term, ongoing relationship. After all, as digital transformation continues to influence the great migration to the internet (and the metaverse even!), brands will need more creative online partnerships to set them apart in the space.

This article is written by Ace Gapuz, CEO of influencer marketing company, Blogapalooza Inc., in the Philippines.

Retail has been challenged on every front over the last year and a half, and as a result, there have been significant changes to customer experience (CX); from livestream shopping and social commerce to supply chain disruptions. All of which has pivoted towards digital transformation.

While customers have adapted to new digital models, it’s important to note that offline shopping isn’t going anywhere. The future of retail will embrace both online and offline shopping, creating a hybrid experience that will provide the customer with even more value. According to Statista, more than 57% of Asia Pacific (APAC) consumers will shop in physical stores post-COVID restrictions. Foot traffic will still be just as desirable as it is now but overall CX will take center stage.

Meet the metaverse

In late 2021, Facebook changed its name to Meta to reflect its growing focus on the metaverse. But what exactly is the metaverse? It is a shared, persistent, 3D virtual space where people can meet and interact. Augmented Reality (AR) and VR technologies are essential parts of the metaverse. These advances in digital imaging, display, and output devices are what make the metaverse possible. Bloomberg Intelligence forecasts that the market size for the metaverse could reach up to $800b by 2024. How will it impact retail in the next year?

Online shopping and deliveries quickly became the new standard throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, a trend that will be accelerated by the metaverse. With AR and VR experiences, consumers will be able to explore brands and products from the comfort of their own homes. Consumers will no longer need to frequent physical stores to try new products before purchasing.

The metaverse will also enable more interactive-in store experiences. For instance, in Malaysia and Singapore, property developer CapitaLand Investment launched ‘A Jolly Molly Christmas’ festive campaign in its malls, introducing shoppers to the AR world allowing them to interact with Singapore’s virtual influencer, Rae, in the physical world. Real-world stores are now becoming the gateway to the metaverse and will be the next evolution of omnichannel experience.

Surge in social commerce

In 2022, social commerce will continue to bring fun back into the digital shopping experience. Social commerce sales in the region are expected to surpass US$4t by 2024, expanding 25% year-on-year.

According to the Forrester Analytics Consumer Technographics Benchmark Survey, 2021, 85% of APAC consumers are using social media to discover, 83% to research, and ultimately, 76% are buying products. The number is projected to grow as features such as livestream shopping draw more engagement than other types of posts.

B2C social commerce investments are paying off: B2C companies in APAC have generated 10% of revenue from social media as cited in Forrester Global Marketing Survey, 2021 (B2C). Not only that, 55% of marketers increased their social media marketing budget in 2021.

Moving forward, brands investing in social commerce must provide more personalized customer interactions and care, such as virtual agents who can instantly answer questions, share the latest offers, or recommend additional products with the consumer. We’ll see more brands providing a connection throughout the customer social journey. They will begin employing one-to-one video shopping, implementing conversational commerce, and launching virtual video boutiques. Above all, brands must provide excellent care on social channels, using the right technology combined with the human touch.

Conversational chatbots

Advanced conversational technology will be key to providing such experiences at scale. Chatbots will play a key role in the next year, as more and more brands deploy advanced chatbots in their social shops that can handle sophisticated queries — and escalate to human agents when needed.

Most brands are employing bots that can provide routine answers to basic questions. While they don’t respond to more complex customer queries, this will change as more companies add AI-powered bots with advanced contextual and consultative abilities. In the next 12 to 24 months, Forrester reports that the vast majority of B2C brands plan to implement or are interested in developing advanced social bots that can provide a higher level of assistance.

Such advances in automation will enable more effective and satisfying care throughout the customer journey — before, during, and after the purchase. In many cases, social bots will respond to queries that used to require a human agent. More and more, shoppers on social channels will be able to access personalized answers, recommendations, and resolutions to their problems, whenever they need help.

Looking forward

Over the next year, brands will take what they learned during the pandemic and leverage technology-driven solutions that help build deeper connections and relationships with their customers. By creating immersive, personalized, and hybrid experiences, and always keeping CX at the heart of everything, retailers can excel in 2022.

This article is written by Shellie Vornhagen, CXO at CX platform Emplifi.

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Singapore – Customer experience platform Emplifi has announced the launch of their latest platform Emplifi Social Commerce Cloud, which offers a multitude of marketers social commerce capabilities who are often charged with driving high conversion rates and increased revenue across social platforms.

The platform delivers a full suite of solutions to enable the social shopping experience by synchronizing social commerce activities across platforms, providing automated and live assistance during the shopping experience, and giving brands a single, holistic view of their social commerce efforts, along with advanced analytics.

One of those tools is Shop Sync™, which enables e-commerce teams to provide an omni-shop synchronization across social platforms without relying on heavy IT involvement. The API integration with Facebook Shops and Instagram Shops eliminates any long and laborious tech efforts, helping brands rapidly scale online shopping experiences. The tool also tracks inventory across all social shops so that e-commerce and product managers gain a full view of product availability and performance across all platforms.

In addition, Emplifi’s AI-powered Shop Clerk™ bot tool delivers a personalized shopping experience through sophisticated conversational commerce capabilities, guiding shoppers from discovery to purchase. The bot can answer product questions, complete transactions, offer in-store pick-up information, recommend additional product add-ons, seamlessly hand over to care agents and deliver quick surveys via Emplifi’s Natural Language Processing and proprietary Intent Engine abilities that go far beyond the standard, limited Bot FAQ offerings.

Other tools included are the ‘360 Shop Dashboard™’ which was designed to offer the industry’s most comprehensive view of product performance and inventory status across all social media shops, and Emplfi’s Social Care, the consumer engagement tool that brings together marketing and operations to help service customers, while measuring the success of their entire customer journey.

“Social commerce is the next frontier for cutting-edge B2C brands that wish to connect, convert and monetize today’s shoppers. Social media shops are rapidly becoming the new shopping malls. We’re excited to release Emplifi Social Commerce to the market to enable our customers to revolutionize the shopping experience, win unprecedented conversion rates and drive revenue gains,” said Mark Zablan, CEO at Emplifi.

Emplifi Social Commerce Cloud is the first major platform announcement from Emplifi since the company’s rebranding earlier this year. With the goal of unifying marketing, commerce, and customer care through AI-powered CX solutions, Emplifi was born from the combined technology of the customer experience platform Astute Inc. and the social media marketing platform Socialbakers.