Leverage value from cross border e-commerce

Catering to demand for genuine, quality, foreign products, cross-border e-commerce platforms are driving the development of a completely new ecosystem with sellers and consumers at its heart (see Figure 13 below): It’s a massive opportunity for CPG companies. Cross-border e-commerce is predicted to soar in value; in China alone, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 50 percent has been predicted for the period 2014-2020 (from US$21 billion to US$245 billion).

Think ‘Mobile First’ Asia’s gone mobile: the number of unique users of smartphones in the region will double between 2014 and 2019 (from one billion to two billion),21 Singapore already has the world’s highest smartphone penetration (at 85 percent)22 and mobile internet penetration in Indonesia should top 56 percent by 2019. Today’s Asian consumer expects to remain connected round the clock and CPG companies’ digital commerce strategies have to be built to deliver. That means ensuring information fits screen sizes, contains deep details and appetising images and, above all, is easy to use and navigate from start to checkout.

Develop online-to-offline capabilities By 2020, 65 percent of transactions in Asia will begin online and finish offline. CPG companies must develop seamless online-to-offline (‘O2O’) capabilities that complement and expand e-commerce related opportunities. Amway, the health and beauty products business, shows what can be achieved. The company’s already built seven experience spaces in China, soon to expand to 50. These include interactive installations that allow consumers to better understand its brand and help create unique brand experiences in physical settings. The efficiency of internet-based business models allows stores, and sales representatives in Amway’s case, to offload a large amount of inventory online and focus on more interesting areas in-store, such as serving its customers and creating an experience that reflects the company’s brand values.