My previous article mentioned China’s ecommerce and mobile commerce spending power which they showcase to the world come every November 11th during Singles Day making more than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.
South East Asia Is The Next BIG Mobile Commerce Powerhouse
Not far behind with tremendous huge growth and development status would be South East Asia (SEA) which is made up of 11 countries (Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam).
SEA have a total population of 648 million (and growing fast!).
The top countries in this region that is leading the way in massive digital ecommerce spending would be Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Here’s a glimpse of their digital population. If taken as a single bloc, SEA’s large population of digital users can stand in comparison with leading global markets like US, Europe and China for all digital activities (internet, social media, mobile and mobile social) :
According to eMarketer, digital ad-spending for these 6 countries will increase by double digits in 2017 and 2018 while mobile ad spending will more than double during the forecast period surpassing $2.20 billion and accounting for nearly 69% of digital ad expenditures by the year 2021.
Heavy Smartphone Adoption Spurs Mobile Commerce Growth
Thanks to heavy smartphone adoption, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam will see the strongest growth in mobile ad spending among SEA.
Why are companies willing to invest so much moolah into mobile ad spending in SEA? Because the region has such a HIGH volume of mobile users which presents a HUGE opportunity for mobile commerce, hence the massive amount allocated for mobile ad spending.
Mobile commerce is skyrocketing in South East Asia as more consumers there are getting more familiar to spending online with their mobile devices.
It’s no wonder that Alibaba bought over Lazada (SEA’s largest ecommerce marketplace) for $1 billion. And not to be left out from a piece of the SEA ecommerce pie, Amazon recently launched in Singapore.
With such tremendous ecommerce growth opportunities, many online businesses have been scrambling to improve their mobile site experience and to ensure that their business is omni-channel to cater to the growing consumer segment from developing countries.
Omni What?
Omni-channel. It means having a multi-channel sales approach providing consumers with a smooth integrated shopping experience.
The customer can be shopping online from a desktop or mobile device where they can easily locate the product from your site or social media with the ability to make payment seamlessly.
With omni-channel, your online business is available and integrated with your brick and mortar (if you have one) where customers can call in to place an order with the phone or complete the checkout process via social media like FB, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
The omni-channel sales experience is crucial to ensure that your customers have a good buying experience be it in person, mobile, desktop and social media.
What Do Businesses Need To Do?
For a start, make sure your online business have a mobile friendly and responsive site so consumers can have a good mobile shopping experience with your site.
Ensure that your business is found on social media like Facebook where visitors can complete their purchase directly in FB without being bounced all over in the checkout process.
If you’re selling items that are :
Fashion related stuff : clothing, accessories, sport wear, eye wear, watches, jewelry, etc
Beauty : skin care, cosmetics
Food & drinks
Baby products
Pet products
Crafts
Consumer electronics
Auto accessories
(I may have missed out some other categories as these are the main ones)
Please have an Instagram and Pinterest account to upload images of your product being worn and used in every day life scenarios to make it easily shareable.
The new generation of mobile shoppers rely on image heavy social media recommendations from friends.
And they love to share and communicate via mobile.
We have a WhatsApp share feature where visitors can easily share your site and product page to their friends on WhatsApp which is great tool for product recommendations.
If you need help getting your online business to be mobile friendly, omni-channel with a good marketing strategy, contact us and we’ll be more than happy to help.
From the team at InstanteStore to you, Happy Selling as you prepare for the holiday shopping crowd.