Last March 19-20, the Asia Pacific Post (APP) Cooperative e-Packet Steering Committee Meeting was held at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in PAsay City Philippines. It was attended by representatives of the member postal operators of the APP e-Packet project such as Australia, Cambodia, Hongkong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Macau, Philippines, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Thailand and Vanuatu.

APP ePacket project was organized in 2015 for postal operators in Asia Pacific region to take advantage of the booming e-commerce market and for Post to play a vital role in the e-commerce service. 

The meeting is organized by APP Office with local secretariat/arrangements from PHLPost and was presided by Japan as the SC Chairman.

Article by Alvin Fidelson, PHLPost

Alibaba celebrating the 10^th anniversary of their successful “Global Shopping Festival” recorded yet again record sales, reporting $30.8 Billion up 27% on last year’s record numbers.  Lazada, South East Asia leading ecommerce market place recorded 20 million shoppers

But the two retail giants no longer rely on quick one off special offers for them the success is about Entertainment. Building long term relationships with Better improved interactions and Fun. 

Globally there is a lot of focus on user experience or “UX” nowadays. As Joe Tsai, co-founder of the Alibaba Group, aptly put it, “Retail is entertainment”. And some in the internet coin it as “Retail-tainment”, just like the word “info-tainment”.

Retail-tainment is a strong vehicle to create Interest, Desire, Action under the tried and tested, old school Marketing model of AIDA(Awareness-Interest-Desire-Action). While Awareness is attained via established event dates like 11.11, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, consumer’s “Interest-Desire-Action” will depend on marketplace provider’s system and promotion activities.

Image: Lazada Singles Day Super Show

For example, the interest and desire of consumer is created via social interaction, live show and audience engagement. As reported by Lazada, 50 million vouchers were given through popular games, 5 million viewers and 50 thousand fans joined the Lazada 11.11 Super Show in Malaysia and Thailand. Also, Alibaba “See Now, Buy Now” event allows live audience and viewers to buy products they see on the fashion catwalk in real time using their smartphones. To create even more interactivity between brands and participants, viewers were able to vote for their favourite look with a new feature called “Play Now”.

Watch Video on Alibaba "See Now, Buy Now" event

Commentary by Maverick Chung

Source:

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/324785

https://tamebay.com/2018/11/alibaba-celebrates-the-first-decade-of-its-global-shopping-festival.html?utm_source=bm23&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Alibaba+celebrates+the+first+decade+of+its+Global+Shopping+Festival&utm_content=Posts+from+Tamebay+for+12/11/2018&utm_campaign=TB+-+Newsletter+-+2018&_bta_tid=20400879535476388982569550065476072739324930528954454278667280895419347987193015547689899383321863576149

https://www.lazada.com/sites/default/files/press-releases/Lazada_11_11_Shopping_Festival_registers_record_breaking_performance.pdf

Image Source: Screen Capture from https://www.alizila.com/video/see-now-buy-now-2018/

https://www.facebook.com/LazadaSingapore/photos/a.2112499748817403/2112501595483885/?type=3&theater

India, a piece of ecommerce pie with huge growth potential, over 120 million people are expected to shop online in 2018 and over 340 millions of smartphone users. This is the pie that eBay could not resist. After revoking the deal from Flipkart, refusing their brand to be used by Walmart (ie. new owner of Flipkart), eBay is making a comeback to India introducing eBay India. eBay India will reopen in early 2019.

Along with the relaunch efforts, a new payment system is announced. Previously eBay used PaisaPay, now they will use Paypal, this will enable sellers in India to sell globally.

Other notable developments in India are listed below:

• Flipkart, after getting acquired by Walmart for US$ 16 billion, is expected to launch more offline retail stores in India to promote private labels in segments such as fashion and electronics. In September 2018, Flipkart acquired Israel based analytics start-up Upstream Commerce that will help the firm to price and position its products in an efficient way.
• Paytm has launched its bank - Paytm Payment Bank. Paytm bank is India's first bank with zero charges on online transactions, no minimum balance requirement and free virtual debit card
• As of June 2018, Google is also planning to enter into the E-commerce space by November 2018. India is expected to be its first market.
• E-commerce industry in India witnessed 21 private equity and venture capital deals worth US$ 2.1 billion in 2017 and 40 deals worth US$ 1,129 million in the first half of 2018.
• Google and Tata Trust have collaborated for the project ‘Internet Saathi’ to improve internet penetration among rural women in India

Commentary by Maverick Chung

Source:

https://tamebay.com/2018/12/ebay-india-prepares-re-open-cross-border-selling.html?utm_source=bm23&utm_medium=email&utm_term=eBay+India+prepares+to+re-open+for+Cross+Border+selling&utm_content=Posts+from+Tamebay+for+07/12/2018&utm_campaign=TB+-+Newsletter+-+2018&_bta_tid=06826536145476388982569550069073387166706414605113622859691587547695010103455847159370731018341756623445

https://www.ibef.org/industry/ecommerce-presentation

Image Source: https://hqcorporateoffice.com/ebay-headquarters/

While USPS is plagued by its issue with terminal dues and losses due to falling letters volumes and higher cost of pension and health, Pos Indonesia faces an awkward situation of increasing ecommerce parcel volume, higher cost and fixed regulatory pricing.

Market Volume of Indonesia

McKinsey reported that Indonesia daily online parcel volume is estimated grow six times more (4.4 million) than current volume. This amount to a gross merchandise value of USD 65 billion by 2022.

Pos Indonesia challenges

According to Pos Indonesia president, Gilarsi Wahyu Setijono, Pos Indonesia is financially stable however the burden of shipping packages is bleeding the bottom line each passing quarter. Profit fell 18 percent last year.

Higher operating cost due to inadequate infrastructure (roads and bridges), and national obligation on Pos Indonesia to deliver (over 18,000 island) and operate post offices (4,800 offices) at commercially nonviable locations.

Delivery pricing is fixed due to government regulations that places Pos Indonesia in a disadvantage to private shipping competitors. While regulators are sympathetic to Pos Indonesia situation, the reason of price fixing is for the masses. “Strictly speaking, rates are only fixed for personal deliveries. The idea is to make sure that regular people can afford to send packages to family and friends.”, said Rudiantara, Minister of Communications.

Moving Forward

While there is no direct way of solving the problem faced, Setijono is restructuring Pos Indonesia. He’s spinning off a logistics unit, building a new business to handle digital payments, and planning the company’s first-ever bond sale, a 1 trillion rupiah issuance ($60 million).

Commentary by Maverick Chung

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-11-18/online-shopping-boom-tests-indonesia-s-postal-delivery-system

Image Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kantor_Pos_Tebet_-_panoramio.jpg