Organisation:
iKala
Resource Link:
Published in 2022, Link
My Key Takeaways
Do you remember the time where “product ambassadors” would share perspectives about state-of-the-art plasticware and home gadgets over physical get-togethers?
They were pretty convincing.
I’m not sure about you but my family definitely had a regular cadence of new products to play with. Some were more “wants” than “needs”, but we thankfully also got high quality ones that lasted decades.
Social commerce in SEA is scaling the above model to a whole new level. Social media platforms enable greater interactivity and trust building between brands and an even larger number of buyers.
Highlighting my takeaways from an iKala report based on a survey of 1,600 social shoppers and more than 23,600 social sellers across Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore.
Why Social Commerce?
Unlike the marketplace model, social sellers generally don’t need to pay commissions to social media platforms.
They can maximise revenues by extending holiday season sales and prominently emphasise discounts and sales (a key draw for 67% of consumers, Pg 9) in their marketing campaigns.
Here’s an example of conversational commerce using bots and hashtags
During a Shoplus-supported Facebook Live session by Unilever skincare brand “Ponds”, interested customers simply used the “HeartYourSkin” hashtag and were automatically led to a Messenger conversation where a bot collected their orders.
The 1.5 hour campaign led to more than 71,000 comments, a 2.88% increase in conversions and a 10% growth in orders.
Social selling pitfalls to avoid (pg 13):
📦 Expensive shipping (51% of shoppers)
📦 No return or exchange policies (41%)
📦 Lack of customer service (34%)
📦 Lack of payment options (24%)
📦 Difficult checkout processes (21%)
SEA consumers are willing to pay and wait for international shipping, WITHIN reason (Pg 16)
📦 56% of consumers would pay less than US$4/kg for orders
📦 25%: US$4-10/kg
📦 18%: more than US$17/kg
—
📦 62% of SEA consumers would wait more than 6 days for parcels to arrive
📦 Only 9% expect delivery in less than 3 days
Use these insights to manage your logistical cost and turnaround time.
Cheatsheet on each SEA market’s preferred payment method (e.g. BNPL, P2P, credit/debit card, digital wallet) (Pg 17)
Most abovementioned methods are familiar to European/UK companies but you might be surprised by the importance of cash on delivery (COD) in Thailand (preferred by 46% of consumers) and the Philippines (66%).
Why Cash is King (Pg 18)
📦 70% of customers experienced product fraud
📦 67% – preferred inspecting products before paying
📦 44% – undelivered product
📦 33% – distrust of entering payment details online
—
Social commerce still face some friction points like expensive shipping costs, lack of or unclear return/exchange policies and poor customer service.
This is an opportunity for forward looking European/UK companies to trial new technologies and channels, and unlock new growth in Singapore and Southeast Asia.
Follow my LinkedIn post here.
About Zhilin SIM
Having worked and lived in Singapore, the Nordics, China, Spain, UK, I’m now based in Paris.
I’m fluent in English, French and Mandarin, and I’m learning Arabic because it’s a beautiful and fascinating language.
My team creates and supports one-many initiatives connecting corporate and startup ecosystems in Europe to business and innovation opportunities in Singapore and Southeast Asia.
I’m passionate about horticulture, watercolour, startups/tech as well as French cuisine, Peranakan kueh techniques and other global cuisines.
Feel free to connect with me if you think my network in Europe and Asia could be of benefit to your business and innovation activities.
