HONG KONG, Dec 6, 2019 - (ACN Newswire) - The third Asian
E-tailing Summit, organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development
Council (HKTDC), concluded yesterday with close to 1,500 e-tailers
and business professionals from related sectors in attendance. The
event brought together myriad business leaders, offering a one-stop
platform for participants to focus on e-commerce prospects in the
region and explore the latest industry trends.
|
The third Asian E-tailing
Summit, organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council
(HKTDC), concluded yesterday with close to 1,500 e-tailers and
business professionals from related sectors in attendance. The
event offered a one-stop platform for participants to focus on
e-commerce prospects in the region and explore the latest industry
trends. |
|
With the theme "The Internet
of Things' Expanding Influence in Online Retailing", the first
plenary session of the Asian E-tailing Summit examined how the
Internet of Things (IoT) can assist e-tailers to stay ahead of the
competition. |
|
Nicholas Kontopoulos, Head of
Adobe DX Commercial APAC Marketing, Adobe |
The summit featured two plenary sessions along with multiple
breakout sessions and workshops. With contributions from more than
60 renowned guests and speakers, the discussions covered successful
e-tailing developments and solutions in Hong Kong, Mainland China
and across Asia with the aim of creating business opportunities for
participants.
As online shopping continues to mature and consumer preferences
shift further away from bricks-and-mortar retailing, competition in
the market is becoming increasingly fierce. With the theme "The
Internet of Things' Expanding Influence in Online Retailing", the
first plenary session examined how the Internet of Things (IoT) can
assist e-tailers to better manage supply chains, process data more
efficiently and create unique customer experiences, helping them to
stay ahead of the competition.
Coexisting opportunities and challenges in e-tailing
Speaking at the plenary session, TJ Wu, Director of Centre of
Excellence, SAP Customer Experience Greater China, said he regards
IoT as an enabling tool for e-tailing that will help to create more
opportunities for customer acquisition and assist in optimising the
customer experience. He said he foresees the emergence of a new
business model with the development of IoT. "Today, retailers still
charge piece by piece, and 'one-product, one-price' is going to
continue for some time. However, in the not-distant future, there
will be a new business model: retailers will charge by subscription
like Netflix and Amazon, charging by usage or even by volume," he
added.
Joseph Lee, Executive Vice President of Sales - APAC, Mirakl Inc,
took an example of his previous project with an airport shopping
mall in Singapore to explain the application of IoT in product
delivery to customers' homes or hotel rooms. As Mr Lee stated, IoT
is already having a significant impact across the supply chain. He
said that knowing how to analyse and use the massive amount of data
brought about by the advent of IoT is essential and the role of
data scientists will become more important.
IoT has brought tremendous new opportunities as well as challenges
to the e-tailing sector. Mike Shapaker, Chief Marketing Officer,
ChannelAdvisor, pointed out that the implementation of IoT can
sometimes lead to consumer privacy concerns. Emphasising the
diversity of regulations in different regions and countries, he
reminded people in the industry to pay close attention to
regulations and comply with them strictly. Regarding the success of
IoT, Mr Shapaker said true success comes "when we do not talk about
it anymore".
Tapping huge potential in the Asian market
With the pioneering Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
e-commerce agreement now in place, a favourable business
environment is flourishing in the region and the push is now on to
deliver economic growth through cross-border e-commerce. The second
plenary session at the summit assessed how a thriving cross-border
e-commerce market will be shaped by Southeast Asia's increasingly
affluent middle class.
Terry Iu, Head of Digital Natives, Facebook, said the market for
Facebook, Instagram and Facebook Messenger is growing very rapidly
across Asia Pacific, with great potential and huge opportunity in
Southeast Asia in particular thanks to the region's dynamic
landscape. Given the fact that Asia is leading digital
transformation, Mr Iu considered artificial intelligence (AI) as
the backbone of everything that will happen in the future. He
believed it is necessary for e-tailers to have both "information
power" and "implication power". "We not only know who the users are
but can also predict what users like," said Mr Iu.
Michio Takahashi, Vice General Manager, Cross Border Trading
Business Department, Rakuten, Inc, agreed that technology should be
the key driver for innovation, emphasising that the implementation
of innovation needs to be the industry's top priority. He shared
Rakuten's two factors for the implementation of successful
cross-border retailing, namely a close partnership with local
platforms and proper logistics solutions. For example, his
company's partner in the mainland is JD.com, which has inventories
in numerous export destinations to ensure products can be shipped
to customers swiftly.
The breakout sessions and workshops at the summit were welcomed by
the participants, who appreciated the opportunity to interact. One
question from the audience involved concerns about the price
differences across different sales channels. Daphne Lee, E-commerce
Director, PANDORA Jewelry Asia-Pacific Limited, said that PANDORA
product prices may differ in different countries and regions. For
example, given factors such as tax rates, product prices in
Australia tend to be lower than in the mainland, whereas the
official retail and e-commerce prices stay the same. She said that
PANDORA aims to enable customers to embrace online shopping by
creating exclusive online products. "The basket size of online
shopping is usually higher than offline due to the free delivery
threshold," she added.
Nicholas Kontopoulos, Head of Adobe DX Commercial APAC Marketing,
Adobe, suggested that retailers need to ensure they have quality
content on their websites since customers will do a lot of research
online before purchasing, including browsing the brand's official
website. As such, he said that physical stores are becoming more
like "showrooms" where customers would go to interact physically
with the products they wish to buy. For this reason, he said it was
necessary to implement omni-channels that combine online and
offline retailing.
Focusing on customer demands
Industry breakout discussions on the second day of the summit
focused on two key sectors - fashion and toys. "Walk Fashion's
Online Runway" and "Omnichannel Sales Come to Toyland", allowed
participants to grasp the latest e-commerce business opportunities
in these specific industries.
Toshio Yamada, CEO & Founder, LIFESTYLE ACCENT INC, said that
one of the company's strategies is "making clothes together and
making growth together". The brand's accessibility on almost all
social media platforms encourages customer communication and
interaction, which enables the company to produce clothes that
align with the requirements of customers. He gave the example of
the brand creating a special mosquito-repellent fabric for clothes,
specifically at the request of customers.
Diane Yoon, Vice President, CarrieSoft, introduced one of the major
trends of the toy market in South Korea, saying that the current
market is growing because purchases by adults are getting bigger
and toys are no longer just for children. In relation to
promotional strategies, she said the company has produced
animations featuring its cartoon characters for its own TV channels
with the aim of engaging children and their parents at the same
time.
Five technology-focused events create synergy
The HKTDC is holding a total five events at the Hong Kong
Convention and Exhibition Centre this week. In addition to the
Asian E-tailing Summit (4-5 December), the HKDTC SmartBiz Expo (4-6
December), HKTDC Hong Kong International Franchising Show (4-6
December), Business of IP Asia Forum (5-6 December) and
DesignInspire (5-7 December) are running concurrently. They aim to
help SMEs cope with the opportunities and challenges brought by
innovative technologies and market changes, as well as driving
business-development momentum.
Websites
SmartBiz Expo: http://www.hktdc.com/fair/smartbizexpo-en/
Asian E-tailing Summit:
http://www.hktdc.com/ncs/aes2019/en/main/index.html
Hong Kong International Franchising Show:
http://www.hktdc.com/fair/hkifs-en/
Business of IP Asia Forum:
http://www.hktdc.com/ncs/bip2019/en/main/index.html
DesignInspire:
http://www.hktdc.com/ncs/designinspire2019/en/main/index.html
Please download more photos from here. https://bit.ly/2sMymOZ
About HKTDC
The Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) is a statutory body
established in 1966 to promote, assist and develop Hong Kong's
trade. With 50 offices globally, including 13 in Mainland China,
the HKTDC promotes Hong Kong as a two-way global investment and
business hub. The HKTDC organises international exhibitions,
conferences and business missions to create business opportunities
for companies, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs), in the mainland and international markets. The HKTDC also
provides up-to-date market insights and product information via
trade publications, research reports and digital news channels. For
more information, please visit: www.hktdc.com/aboutus. Follow us on
Twitter @hktdc and LinkedIn.
Source: HKTDC
Contact:
HKTDC Communications & Public Affairs Department:
Clayton Lauw, Tel: +852 2584 4116, Email: clayton.y.lauw@hktdc.org
Ruder Finn Asia:
Ivy Chan, Tel: +852 2201 6475 / 6686 9106, Email: Chani@RuderFinnAsia.com
Winky Chow, Tel: +852 2201 6474 / 9485 5148, Email: Choww@RuderFinnAsia.com
Charlene Wan, Tel: +852 2201 6438 / 6189 9495, Email: Wanc@RuderFinnAsia.com
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