Opinion | Want to get consumers to buy into your brand? Digital is the way forward
The market is being reinvented – and this presents a huge opportunity for businesses to develop a true sense of purpose and organise themselves accordingly
After the past few weeks of cold weather, it is entirely likely that many shoppers who would normally flood to Tsim Sha Tsui and Causeway Bay to browse boutiques and department stores are bundled up at home (or at coffee houses), and have taken to their laptops and mobile phones instead to satisfy their shopping desires.
But the weather is not the only driving force changing the shopping landscape. Anyone seeking evidence that digital commerce is booming in China needs only to look to Singles’ Day 2017. The event smashed all previous records, with Alibaba Group Holding alone raking in 168 billion yuan (US$25.3 billion) in sales in just 24 hours, up from 120.7 billion yuan last year. Alipay, Alibaba’s mobile wallet app, recorded 256,000 payment transactions per second as shoppers from more than 200 countries and regions stocked up on an unprecedented range of products.
Recent research by Accenture reveals that the relentless rise of mobile technologies has been a major contributor to a majority – 94 per cent – of Chinese consumers now expecting their offline and online shopping activities to be integrated into a seamless omnichannel journey. They want to buy as and when they wish, often crowdsourcing opinions and recommendations on social media. They also look for hyper personalised experiences, where their shopping needs are anticipated and product information is delivered to them predictively – before they even know they want it. Indeed, 76 per cent of urban Chinese consumers consider receiving real-time, bespoke offers as a defining feature of the modern shopping experience.
As online competitors seize an ever-increasing share of the marketplace, they are calling the whole rationale of traditional retail into question.
What do retailers really stand for nowadays? A strong brand and enthusiastic workforce are still important, of course. But they need to dig deeper and ask what their brand really means to consumers, what it can do for them, and what makes it unique.