Page 16 - AeM_Nov_2018

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Ménage à trois of digital + retail + innovation

turns out to be difficult

As many reports reveal, the festive e-commerce market Digitization and retail - often a difficult relationship
in Southeast Asia is worth billions of dollars, rewarding
those brands willing to digitally reinvent themselves The purchasing behavior of customers has clearly
constantly and matching consumer demands and changed dramatically due to the increasing digitization.
expectations steadily. Or as Meltwater describes it in They search for inspiration on social media and do
one of their recent reports, “the common thread between more and more transactions on their smartphones. At
the winning brands – whether that is Lazada, Amazon or the same time, they have a high demand for speed and
Shopee – lies in their understanding of consumers and convenience.
willingness to provide the best experience through price,
value, quality and service.” This increases the pressure on retailers to offer as
innovative shopping experiences as possible in order
What comes on top, according to Forbes, is the fact that not to be pushed out of the market. Unfortunately, it is
“we are now a generation into digital retail, but change still hard to figure out which user experiences bring the
continues to accelerate. In the Third Era of Digital Retail, most revenue.
traditional barriers and frameworks will fall by the
wayside. Everyone can be a retailer and every surface a In the race against the online giants, traders already
store. There will be new competitors from outside the had various ideas, such as virtual reality in changing
sector as well, reimagining what retail can be. Thriving in rooms, but although such measures attract short-term
such challenging conditions requires entirely different attention, bringing shopping experiences and brick-and-
combinations of skills and the courage and creativity to mortar digital technologies together remains difficult.
rethink entire business models – not just adapt them.” While new technologies are impressive and have a
high impact, the big question is still whether they really
Indeed, there are plenty of other trends and technologies improve or in fact distract the shopping experience?
that retailers will need to adopt in the coming years in
order to gain competitive advantages and thrive in this Despite growing acceptance of language assistants like
new era, such as e.g. VR, AI, voice assistants and even Google or Alexa Home, most consumers still believe
more personalization. The fact is that every other these devices are not necessary for their purchases.
consumer is interested in VR offers in stores and one out Digital innovations are generally embraced in retail, but
of three in language assistants, aside from 90% of all consumers generally demand mainly technologies that
consumers demanding fewer advertising emails. make their lives easier and reduce any barriers to
purchase, such as automated payment systems,
location-based offers and online ordering options.

16 November 2018 - Email Marketing & E-Commerce