E-commerce opportunities in Asia

Kantar Worldpanel’s new insights paper “The dynamic world of e-commerce in Asia” reveals that the region has taken the lead in online shopping. The numbers show a 7.3% value share of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) in 2017.

FCMG and fresh foods represent the number one category of goods on which consumers spend their money, garnering 25% of all funds spent across almost all Asian markets. Meanwhile, online purchases of FCMG continue their steady growth rate of the past few years and represent now a 19.9% of e-commerce value share in South Korea, a 9.5% in Mainland China, 7.6% in Japan, 7.2% in Taiwan, 1.5% in Malaysia, and have reached a 1.2% in Vietnam and Thailand.

Kantar Worldpanel Vietnam Expert Solutions Director, Peter Christou said:

“E-commerce is developing fast in Asian countries, driven largely by the growing internet connection, which is now much more easily available and at a lower cost. Small stores can very quickly digitalise themselves and take advantage of this new era, while bigger stores can focus more on experiential shopping and leveraging new technologies to improve the shoppers’ experience.”

In other words, the opportunity is ripe for a wider expansion into e-commerce on the Asian market and that is explained at the paper:

• Advancement in intelligent automation and virtual reality technologies now allow brands and retailers to merge digital and physical experiences.
• Mobile technology has matured and now offers an attractive method for making safe and informed online purchases and for implementing more consistent and efficient marketing strategies.
• E-commerce now blurs the boundaries of experience and shopping by providing access to personalised service, accurate real-time information, virtually instantaneous delivery, and the convenience of paying via a well-integrated system of mobile currency exchange.
• Messaging apps like WeChat, LINE and WhatsApp and third-party services like HappyFresh and GrabFood support OnDemand delivery.
• Mobile eWallets like WeChat Pay, Go Pay or GrabPay support online and offline purchases.

Digitalisation of commerce in Asia will replace physical stores, but that gives sellers more ways to target consumers and to achieve a deeper level of engagement with them.

The paper shows that brands and retailers in Asian markets should devise innovative ways of embedding these digital strategies into multiple customer touchpoints and their marketing strategy as a whole, including omnichannel marketing strategies that offer the consumer a complete shopping experience.

Download the paper or watch the webinar by clicking on the button at the right.