The attitudes and behaviour of Southeast Asian consumers are shifting, presenting opportunities for retailers. The consumers of today are largely driven by convenience and value and therefore convenience stores and e-commerce players have enjoyed robust growth in recent years.
Seven & I Holdings Co Ltd, the operator of the 7-Eleven convenience store chain, remains the largest retailer in Southeast Asia by value sales. The company witnessed strong growth as consumers are shifting their purchases from large format supermarkets to small format conveniences stores. Young urbanites are starting to value the convenience of buying-on-the-go and buy-as-you-need. Convenience stores enable consumers to satisfy their immediate needs, especially in cities faced with traffic jams like Bangkok, Manila, Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur. 7-Eleven quickly adapted to consumers’ needs and the chain grew its customer footfall by expanding its products and services. 7-Eleven now houses ATMs, provides bill payment services and offers ready-to-eat meals to cater to busy working adults.
Several e-commerce players including Tokopedia PT, Sea Ltd and Bukalapak.com PT, jumped up in the Top 50 Retailers in Southeast Asia 2019 ranking. Besides the fact that these players benefitted from the region’s rising digital connectivity and mobile penetration, e-commerce retailers adopted several innovative initiatives to drive sales and build customer engagement.
The Indonesian e-commerce platform, Tokopedia, introduced a fulfilment service to help merchants reach their customers easily without having to establish their own warehouses. Known as TokoCabang, merchants can stock their products in areas with high demand. As such, customers can receive their products in a more cost-efficient and timely manner. Sea Ltd’s Shopee has also been very innovative and aggressive in promoting its e-commerce platform. Shopee ran daily deals in the lead-up to 9.9 Super Shopping Day, a sales event held on 9th September annually by Shopee, and brought back its iconic Shopee Shake game. To play Shopee Shake, customers open their Shopee mobile app and shake their phone at specific times of the day to win discount coupons.
Source : EuroMonitor International 'Top 100 Retailers in Asia 2020'
