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The next e-commerce evolution

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Online shopping has never been easier. Hyper-connected digital platforms let consumers shop around the clock and have drastically transformed the business models for the retail industry across Hong Kong.At Marketing’s recent event, Marketing Insights: E-commerce Evolution, experts and decision-makers from the retail industry mapped out the new reality for brands and how integrated and personalised solutions are winning over customers.E-commerce is turning the in-store experience upside down, explained Nic Tinworth, customer experience director for Lab Concept, and said retailers must create a truly unique, holistic and personalised shopping experience for customers.Shoppers today still prefer to see and touch the merchandise at brick-and-mortar stores, but many items are available at lower prices online, he added.[caption id="attachment_104149" align="alignnone" width="600"] Nic Tinworth[/caption]As a result, he said brands must understand and start personalising the retail experience, to “ignite and foster a long-term, mutually beneficial and respectful relationship”.That said, new retail models demand marketers to think of the customer journey in an entirely new way, not about single sales anymore.“Don’t just insert fancy technology and tactics, start dating your customers,” he said.And if you think fishing for more “likes” and followers on social media is the way to engage customers, Tomás Puig may not agree with you.The chief marketing officer at Emarsys, explained e-commerce companies needed repeat shoppers to run a more profitable business, thus, either online or offline.“Returning customers are the key to success,” he said.[caption id="attachment_104152" align="alignnone" width="600"] Tomás Puig[/caption]Puig revealed while 80% of marketing budgets are spent on getting first-time shoppers, only 2% of visitors actually buy and just 30% of first-time buyers will purchase again.“There are too many corporate posts on social networks,” and inevitably “brand reach is plummeting online,” he noted.To tackle this issue, he said it was essential to build unified customer profiles to “re-active” them through digital automation, and then reach them by different channels such as emails, social media ads and even SMS.While 1.5% is not a huge magical number, for Chow Tai Fook Jewellery, 1.5% or HK$660 million represents the total e-commerce sales in China during the 2015 fiscal year.Quentin Wong, the senior manager of the Mainland China management centre and group e-business at Chow Tai Fook Jewellery, shared the fascinating revenue figure in the seminar and gave credit to multichannel retailing strategies – partnering with 39 e-tail platforms worldwide, including Chinese e-commerce giant Taobao and Tmall.[caption id="attachment_104155" align="alignnone" width="600"] Quentin Wong[/caption]Chow Tai Fook first set up its direct operating eShop in 2011 with a view to engage younger customers.“Our young line products are usually below $2,000, collaborating with celebrities such as Korean superstar G-Dragon and Lee Min-ho for exclusive collections and we think people are happy to buy it online,” Wong said.To enhance the well-established brand in China, the jewellery company started selling products through Taobao, Tencent and JD.com, the No.2 Chinese e-commerce company.Other than earning HK$660 million to make a huge success in sales, these platforms also bring 202,000 unique visitors to Chow Tai Fook daily.Wong said those who wanted to achieved a fast growing presence in e-commerce in China, should kick-start from Taobao or Tencent and such.Emily Lee, research director at Ipsos Hong Kong, says online shopping is not only about the product and pricing itself, but also about the understanding and acceptance of consumers towards online payments.In India and China, a higher proportion of consumers feel they have a relatively good understanding and awareness about mobile payments and are more willing to use such services.Japan, Korea and China have the largest percentage of open consumers, who have a relatively positive intention to use mobile payments, but lack the understanding and knowledge about such services.But people in Canada, Britain and Australia are cautious about effort and security, waiting for mobile payments to become more commonplace.For service providers, “demonstrating usage as the norm is important”, Lee added.Moreover, communicating, supporting and understanding their customers are also vital to increasing mobile payment adoption.

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