Tag: Asia Pacific

ETP – Helping Lifestyle Retailers Get It Right In Retail

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ETP Blog - ETP helping lifestyle retailers

 

The luxury and lifestyle retail market is the beacon of the future, with several international brands vying to design, develop and deliver the fashionable goods and services that consumers want.  To do so, they are being compelled to modernize their supply chain, to track inventory performance and to spur consumer interest in products and promotions. Obsolescence of existing systems, the predicament of whether to build or to buy and the need to seamlessly integrate cross-channel operations are the major challenges lifestyle retailers encounter.

Working with the leaders in luxury and lifestyle retail across Asia Pacific, India and the Middle East for more than a quarter of a century, ETP has garnered a vast experience and expertise of unscrambling such retail tech tangles. It has understood the business needs of lifestyle retailers from across the 3 most diverse regions in the world and developed an enterprise class, scalable and secure platform that seamlessly fulfils these needs with a prime focus on increasing demand and optimizing costs to improve bottom line.

Some of the noteworthy business benefits delivered by ETP to lifestyle retail brands through its omni-channel retail solutions in order to help them transcend customer expectations and increase customer loyalty are:

  • One seamless solution that can integrate with existing, third-party e-commerce and ERP solutions, across different store formats and business models
  • Superior customer experience with quick checkout
  • Quick access to customer buying history, which helps the marketing and merchandise departments analyze customer needs and buying patterns
  • Option to define promotions centrally and establish controls on how to deploy them across channels
  • Targeted promotions and instant gratification based on customer profiles
  • Access to KPI dashboard to define and track sales/store-staff performance as per assigned targets
  • Ability to capture actionable customer feedback
  • Ease of inventory management, distribution and complete inventory visibility regardless of location or time
  • Brand, store and category level analysis of sales revenue and cost of goods sold
  • Complete visibility and centralized control, modification of feature roll-outs
  • Business stability and scalability to launch new stores while maintaining a uniform brand experience and quality customer service

Asian Retail – The E-Commerce Effect

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Last year eCommerce sales in Asia grew 36% to $615 billion, making it twice as big as the U.S. online retail market. The most illustrious example of this phenomenal growth would be the eCommerce giant Alibaba breaking records with the largest global IPO and raising $25 billion. eCommerce has redefined retail, independent of physical establishments and creating a profitable platform for global expansion. Increasing internet and smartphone penetration has made eCommerce and m-commerce the prime medium to reach consumers in both developing and developed markets. The exploration and expansion of e-commerce in retail has brought powerful technical, logistical, commercial, strategic, behavioral and social dynamism in the market. The popularity of eCommerce is due to many factors, the most basic being easy access to global products, more competitive prices and marketing information with the enjoyment of instant gratification while consuming digital products and services e.g. music, travel tickets, e-books, etc. When these factors are combined with the convenience of avoiding queues and shopping in the comfort of homes and offices, cash-on-delivery at doorstep through personalized service, discounts possible through direct channels, incentivized promotions, and so on, eCommerce becomes not just an off-shoot of retail but the main driver of the industry in Asia, and across the world.

Nike’s brand president Trevor Edwards recently commented on Nike’s mobile traffic exceeding desktop for the first time – “eCommerce has been a winner both from a growth and a profitability standpoint. We are going to continue to invest in digital. We believe that’s where the consumer is and is going. And that’s where our brand is and is going. So we’re going to continue to invest there. But from an economic standpoint, it’s been a very positive driver for business both at top line and bottom line.” He believes this is a signal that the company’s long-term efforts to cash in on cross-channel promotions are starting to take effect.

Following are some pivotal eCommerce trends in Asian retail:

China will exceed $1 trillion in retail eCommerce sales by 2018, accounting for more than 40% of the total worldwide. China’s eCommerce market is forecasted to be larger than those of the U.S., Britain, Japan, Germany and France combined. The future development of China’s eCommerce channel is closely linked to technology developments and also the behavior of Chinese consumers, including the way they research and order products online, and their preference for speed and convenience.

The number of internet users in India soared from approximately 20 million in 2004 to nearly 250 million in 2014. An analysis of the demographic profile of internet users further testifies that eCommerce will rise rapidly in India in the coming years. Around 75% of Indian internet users are in the age group of 15 to 34 years. This category shops more than the remaining population. With a new pro-business government, the eCommerce sector is maturing and a number of serious national and international players are entering the market.

The highest B2C eCommerce growth rate in South East Asia is seen in Indonesia. The fourth most populous country in the world, Indonesia has a relatively low penetration of internet users, evaluated below 30% in 2013. However, by 2016 the number of internet users is projected to top 100 million, with online shopper penetration also increasing. Shopping via smartphones is also on the rise, with some merchants reporting as much as one third of total online sales coming through m-commerce.

Despite its relatively small population, Singapore ranks high in eCommerce indexes due to its developed infrastructure. The highest internet penetration in the region, the world’s highest ranking in ease of conducting business and one of the top 3 best logistics infrastructures in the world with a high-performing payments system make Singapore an attractive market for online retailers.

Vietnam makes for a fertile eCommerce market and as close to 87 million aspiring consumers are taking advantage of increased broadband availability and steadily growing incomes. Its eCommerce industry was valued at $300 million in 2011, but global reports estimate that it has grown and will continue to mature at a rate of 75 percent each year until 2015.

South Korea is the third-largest retail eCommerce market in Asia-Pacific, after China and Japan, and the seventh-largest retail eCommerce market worldwide. Retail eCommerce sales in South Korea are expected to reach $36.76 billion in 2015.

Japan is a strong and mature eCommerce market, with a high proportion of urban population and significant internet penetration rate at almost 80%. 75% of the population have purchased products online, and 89% of this group have done so from a mobile device.

New Age Retail – Business Culture And Engagement

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The retail industry is one of the main drivers of employment around the world and a major contributor to the GDP increase of most Asian countries. The retail arena has been transformed through multiple market upheavals and strategic developments – from opening economies leading to true globalization in the industry to emerging markets rising as dominant competitors. Parallel to this, technological evolution created burgeoning business domains e.g. ecommerce, mobile applications, social media communication etc. establishing changing consumer preferences and expectations.

The industry has been historically the first avenue of employment for many new workers. The changing rules of retail combined with the upsurge of young, educated workforce in Asian countries has greatly propelled business growth and foreign investment. There is a need for stabilizing business culture and engagement which encourages the workforce to pursue opportunities in retail and form a stronger industry foundation.

“Asia has the potential to drive innovation in areas such as e-commerce and in developing new products. Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are home to some of the world’s leading electronics companies. And, China and India’s consumers are some of the world’s most active users of mobile technology and social media,” says Michael Cheng, PwC’s Retail and Consumer Leader for Asia Pacific and Hong Kong/China. “While shopping via social media platforms is still a new trend, it won’t be long before consumers jump on the s-commerce bandwagon.”

To understand and harness the dynamics of new-age retail, leading retailers and industry experts from across the world will be congregating at the 5th Annual Retail Congress Asia Pacific 2015, Singapore. As Key Partner to the event, ETP will be leading discussions on Asian retail and its emerging markets.

International Retail Expansion In India

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India dominates the future plans of most CXOs of global enterprises around the world. This is especially due to the new pro-business government inclined to push past facial foreign engagement which was adopted most of the last decade. Serious steps and calibrated operations are put in place to create an internationally savvy, productive ecosystem for major industries like retail, technology, hospitality, manufacturing etc. Most international businesses are planning to accelerate existing operations or enter into fertile ventures in the country. As an emerging market strategy, India accounts for a large chunk of their capital allocation, largely due to the educated, abundant and young work force with proficient skill-sets from manufacturing, engineering to creative arts and life sciences.

“India is blessed with a greater degree of persistence than the average emerging market (EM) when it comes to portfolio inflows. During the market ‘taper tantrums’ last year and in the more recent October correction, India suffered outflows along with other EM equity and debt markets. But recovery in portfolio flows after each disruption has tended to come sooner and more convincingly in India’s case than for other emerging markets.” says Geoff Lewis, Executive Director-Global Market Strategist, JPMorgan AMC in Money Today – December 2014.

Indian Retail Sector is continuing to grow despite irregular global economic trends. A.T. Kearney, a global consultancy firm, has ranked India as the fourth most attractive nation for retail investment among 30 emerging markets. The Business Monitor International India Retail report has estimated that the total retail sales in India will grow from US$ 411 billion in 2011 to US$ 804 billion by 2015. Robust economic growth, high disposable income with the end-consumer and rapid construction of organized retail infrastructure are key factors behind the forecast.

A panel of retailers and market experts will discuss the challenges and growth opportunities for international retail in India at the Retail Congress Asia Pacific 2015. ETP Group is proud to be the  Key Partner  at the Retail Congress Asia Pacific 2015.

New Hyper Growth Markets In Asia Pacific (APAC)

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Global reportsindicate that the APAC economy will increase its slice of world GDP to 43% by the year 2020. This comes as no surprise as the retail industry has been witnessing and in fact been equipping itself for active participation throughout the last decade. APAC wins in the retail arena not just by sheer numbers but also due to their speedy demographic transition and agile adaptive economies which are tuned to the needs of the new age customer and global market conditions.

In 2015, the key emerging retail markets within this eclectic region:

The Philippines: One of the major growth markets in Asia, with over 250 brick and mortar establishments set up in the country in 2014. Its GDP growth is further fuelled by the rise in tourism which is expected to increase by 5.7% year-on-year from 2010-2020. An additional 220 million square feet in shopping center construction is expected to be added by the end of 2015.

South Korea: The country is already APAC’s third largest ecommerce market with sales in South Korea further expected to reach $36.76 billion in 2015. Bloomberg ranked the country second, closely following China, as the Best Emerging Market in 2014.

Vietnam: Vietnam’s population of approximately 90 million is the main driver of growth in the retail market. 70% of the population is currently aged between 15 and 64 years, and this is projected to continue to increase by 2017.

Other APAC countries that are steadily accelerating their mark in the market are Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos. Today, it is truly a global market with equal customer reach, open sourcing and liberalization on direct foreign investment. And thus, we find the APAC retail universe is filled with possibilities and promise.