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Shop Talk: Do shopping festivals really work?

Shop Talk: Do shopping festivals really work?

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Southeast Asia’s digital economy is expected to hit US$1 trillion by 2030. By the end of 2021, the region is predicted to reach US$174 billion in gross merchandise value, with eCommerce being one of the growth accelerators. At the same time, mega sale campaigns have also become a norm for brands, eCommerce platforms, and consumers.

In fact, these campaigns are seen as an opportunity for companies to either create brand awareness or remain at the top of consumers’ minds. With eCommerce growth not expected to slow down any time soon, mega sale campaigns can be seen as an important channel for them to engage consumers.

In this latest series, titled “Shop Talk”, Shopee’s regional marketing lead, Pan Huiyan (pictured bottom), and Microsoft’s online and eCommerce head for Southeast Asia, Korea and India, Ashima Chetan (pictured top), discuss how merchants and brands can make the most of shopping festivals, and the perks of being part of these festivals.

Listen to the podcast here. This podcast is presented by Shopee.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: What are some of the most anticipated campaigns Shopee has that your merchants can jump on board?

Pan: Many of us remember Shopee through our very memorable ads as well as our exciting mega sale campaigns. These are [the times] when shoppers can really enjoy the best deals and entertainment. Our sellers as well can easily come on board to grow and scale their businesses. Brands can also connect and deepen the engagement with new and existing customers alike.

In general, for Shopee, we have a wide range of these campaigns that our merchants and our brands have grown to love and look forward to every month. In all our markets, these localised campaigns really celebrate the uniqueness and diversity of Southeast Asia. For example, our 2.2 Chinese New Year campaign in Singapore and our big Ramadan sale in Indonesia. Both of them are very in-line with the festivities celebrated by different ethnic groups

We also roll-out campaigns that cater to the ongoing and evolving needs in our markets. For example, in Malaysia, we launched a campaign titled Shop Malaysia Online, in collaboration with the local government, which benefited a lot of Malaysian sellers and shoppers amid the pandemic in 2020.

This campaign saw 2.9 million shoppers enjoy discounts and subsidies which really helped them manage the cost of living. The campaign also generated more than RM540 million in sales for 83,000 participating local sellers.

So that was really a feat for us. These campaigns are created in line with a hyperlocal approach and they cater to the varying needs and preferences for each and everyone of our markets.

Mega sale campaigns today have become widely popular among shoppers and businesses alike. Shopee was actually the first to launch a 9.9 Super Shopping Day in 2016 to cater to the rapid growth of eCommerce in the region.

Today, 9.9 marks the start of the year and shopping season. Mega sales have also become massively huge annual celebrations, for example, the 10.10 brands festival, the 11.11 sale, and our annual 12.12. birthday sale. So I think over the years, we will see more users joining us in these mega campaigns.

In fact, according to a recent survey, 91% of shoppers actually plan to shop during these mega sale campaigns and 75% of them plan to increase their spending during these campaigns. So it’s a huge opportunity for brands and sellers. Hence, it’s crucial for us to continue enhancing our in-app tools to allow brands to better reach and engage these customers.

For example, our features such as Shopee Live, Shopee Feed, and our in-app games, as well as our marketing solutions, help brands leverage on the increased traffic and visibility during these campaigns. I think these mega campaigns serve as very effective springboards for brands and sellers to reach new customers to drive traffic and sales. And, obviously, at the end of the day, to strengthen everyone’s presence online as well.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: With various shopping festivals and campaigns going on almost every month, how do you strategise which campaigns to invest in?

Chetan: It’s true isn’t it? There’s a festival almost every month. While I’m a marketer, I’m also a consumer so it’s complicated for me from both ends. But the trick is really in positioning that event and that date and marrying your motions as a brand.

We’ve managed to leverage these festivals for launches and pre-orders. It becomes a great way to use this event that the platform is getting behind anyway, and you get a lot of traffic and eyeballs for which otherwise you would have to push a lot of advertising to get.

Speaking from recent memory, for 10.10, it was all about Windows 11 for Microsoft because we just launched a new OS five days before that. While there was a lot of investment going into that launch momentum, because 10.10 was around the corner, it helped us mount it up on a big event like that.

Our teams have done a solid job of making sure that we have a clear planning view of not just the quarter, but actually of the half, and they know what to prioritise, what to market, and when. And they are marrying these two calendars very seamlessly.

And I think that’s where the winning formula really lies because it’s pretty easy to get overwhelmed and sit back and say: “I need to invest in 20 different festivals and how do I break this down?”

It’s really not about that. It’s more about saying what are the moments, at the platform and the brand end, where do they come together seamlessly and how can you make the most of it?

Having said that, as brands, we are trying to not be “sell for a day and then leave”. That’s not the strategy for marketplaces. So we have ensured that there is a pretty robust off-festival strategy, or people would call it business as usual strategy, because you don’t want to be overly dependent on conversions only on that one day.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: How do the strategies differ for sellers and brands?

Pan: Essentially for sellers and brands it is important to identify your key business objectives across the year. It really gets down to the basics and this will help them strategise a bit more effectively, understanding when and how much you should invest in business-as-usual versus on certain spike days or festivities.

It is also important for brands themselves to understand which stage of the eCommerce journey they are at. This will help them to better plan how much they want to invest and what their expected goals are for the year or for the quarter.

For instance, a seller who has just started their digital journey should focus on raising awareness of their store, building their presence, and then building trust among the customers. This can be done by providing good shopping experiences; cultivating positive relationships through features such as seller chat; going back to the basics of good product; as well as good service. That’s really important, and that does not change because of the platform.

Second, they can better understand the tools that are available, and be more educated on what are the features that they can actually leverage on the platform that will help them gain more exposure and widen their reach a bit further.

A good example is a footwear brand in Indonesia that was started by two friends with a dream. They go onto Shopee and are very diligent in working on understanding the platform, and working together with Shopee to look at what incremental steps they can take to increase their store followers, their reviews, and ratings.

By now, they have amassed over 67,000 followers on their Shopee store and it has helped them to grow into a beloved home-grown brand for Indonesians. This is an example of a fresh and exciting brand that has just started off on its eCommerce journey.

On the other hand, for an established brand, their focus is to remain top-of-mind within the category itself, and also build customer loyalty and encourage repurchase. For brands with that in mind, besides riding on our brand-centric campaigns such as Shopee 10.10 brands festival, with the high visibility, brands can generate more orders, and GMV.

At the same time, they also need to look into some tools that will actually help them cultivate better loyalty with shoppers.

One example is the Shopee Mall Brand Memberships programme. This gives brands the autonomy to customise their own loyalty programmes and rewards within Shopee to serve their customers in the way that they want to.

What’s interesting is that we are looking to integrate this initiative and this feature with the brands’ own loyalty programmes in the near future. This helps make the user experience more seamless across channels, on and off Shopee as well.

In summary, you know, there’s really no cookie-cutter strategy for brands and sellers. Everyone’s at a different stage. Everyone has slightly different business objectives. But go back to the basics, understand your target customers, and where your key competencies lie as a brand and for your products.

And, then finally, keeping abreast of the shopping tools and programmes that you can leverage is crucial. So don’t be afraid to experiment with different strategies along the way.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: With so many shopping festivals today, sometimes shoppers might miss the boat and simply wait until the next campaign to make a purchase. How do you counter this with the growing number of shopping festivals?

Chetan: When it comes to Microsoft solutions, we believe that if there is a customer need that one of our solutions is authentically fulfilling, these platforms are becoming a very good enabler.

The customer demand is already positive, and as a brand, which is, let’s say Microsoft, and the platform which is Shopee, if we are doing the right job of convincing the shopper that: “Listen, this is what you should buy and this is where you should buy it from”, this will drive the conversion because Southeast Asia customers are smart, they are connected, they are informed. One festival or the next really doesn’t matter.

Pan: I totally agree. I think essentially brands and sellers view eCommerce as a long-term business strategy. So it’s not just a one-off boost just for major campaigns.

And I think shoppers today are really a lot savvier, and they’re a lot more connected, like what Chetan mentioned. And therefore the purchasing journey is also a lot more complex. So consumers can start their journeys at different times and on different channels, it’s no longer so linear.

With an always-on approach to effectively engage these consumers, brands can see greater success when they meet them at the right time, at the right place, where they know purchase intent is highest.

Also, I think certain key levers, such as search, need to be always-on to make sure there is maximum efficacy to convert potential customers, and not necessarily just rely on certain spike days, as we call them, to do that.

I think, very rightfully, we are an enabler at Shopee, and I think eCommerce has evolved well beyond being a checkout facilitator, but actually representing a full funnel for brands to help them better connect along the way.

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