In an era of social commerce and live shopping, learn how brands tap on social listening insights for a personalised shopping experience in Asia.

Marketing and commerce are no longer a one-way street. Before, brands were used to inundate consumers with a plethora of campaigns to drive demand for their products. Today, brands need to be consistently hearing on the ground and design products and campaigns in mind that meet the needs of their customers. Preconceived notions can be deadly to their sales.  

With proficient tracking and analytics, online retailers have an added advantage compared to their brick-and-mortar counterparts. With social media, brands can engage individually with consumers during every part of their customer journey. It’s through these interactions do brands gain valuable consumer insights in real time. How can they leverage on these then?

 

Southeast Asia’s Rapid Ascension To The eCommerce Throne

Being the land of golden opportunities, McKinsey reported that the region could experience robust double-digit annual growth, between 15% to 25%. The eCommerce market in Southeast Asia is expected to triple in size to reach around $230 billion in gross merchandise volume by 2026. Yet, based on China’s historical trajectory, there will be a long runway for growth in this sector.

Considering this accelerated growth, it’s no surprise that businesses across all industries want a piece of the pie. Brick-and-mortar brands are dedicating more resources to their online channels. While venture capitalists are making dramatic investments in budding eCommerce platforms. Established Chinese platforms (Tencent & Vipshop) are taking the opportunity to make their regional debut.

 

Social Commerce Takes The Driver’s Seat

Bain & Company’s 2022 SYNC Southeast Asia Report finds 60% of Southeast Asian consumers are discovery-led when shopping online, with social media accounting for almost half of the discovery process. 80% prefer using online platforms to discover and evaluate products. 

In this region alone, social commerce is poised to be $13 billion. Brands can sell directly to consumers by integrating their online stores to the social media platforms. Consumers no longer have to be redirected to a website to browse the product catalogue or make purchases. 

We observed a shift from “going shopping” to “constantly shopping” with the high adoption of smartphones and participation in digital marketplaces. Consumers now widely embrace buying anything from anyone, anywhere in the world and have it delivered to their doorstep speedily.

Today, brands are shifting from a digital ad campaign towards a social commerce one. Samsung Electronics is one example targeting millennials and Gen Zs in Southeast Asia through Instagram shop as a way to introduce merchandising opportunities to the usual discovery process, in hopes of turning these scrollers into shoppers for their Samsung Lifestyle TV products.

Campaigns are multidimensional and much more personalised to a consumer’s needs. Brands need to learn to integrate real-time feedback into their marketing process. Enter social listening - the one tool that brands can’t do without. 

 

What Is Social Listening?

With social listening, businesses are equipped to monitor relevant real-time conversations, actions, and trends on various channels. Brands will be able to identify engagement opportunities around their brand, competitors, and the corresponding industry. 

The Value of Social Listening

Each market within Southeast Asia has highly differing consumer traits and fragmented market dynamics. Southeast Asians have a strong desire to belong in a community and building strong relationships is more important to them than their global counterparts. And this sense of communal belonging affects the way they buy.

With social listening, brands give attention to consumer demands and attach importance to their responsiveness to feedback. Brands are able to stay connected with consumers on the ground. Based on the feedback provided, brands can cater directly to different consumer demographics with a personalised strategy. Consumer needs can be comprehensively and clearly monitored across every stage.

Shopee, for instance, leapfrogged directly to a mobile-first experience. Tapping on the sense of belonging, Shopee developed games to make the platform interactive and fun and in the local languages. They encouraged customers to share videos of themselves playing, which helped the app gain popularity in the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam.

3 Benefits of Social Listening

1. Determine the service capability and quality of customer service so they could be better informed to advise on consumption decisions and represent the brand.

2. Analyse consumers’ purchasing demands and motivations while comparing their competitors’ performance at each stage and apply targeted campaign optimisations.

3. Provide consumer insight analysis that shapes and drives new product development, to ensure that the product meets consumers’ needs.

 

How Can eCommerce Brands Integrate Social Listening Into Their Marketing Campaigns?

A successful eCommerce ad relies on optimising based on how, when and where people are accessing the platform; as well as telling a coherent story across multiple digital touch-points. 

Social listening provides the precision and intel to empower brands to finetune their social content to its environment for higher chances of campaign success. Here are some practical ways online retailers can incorporate into their customer acquisition journey.

Identify New Channels & Consumer Demographic

The diversification of channels is an emerging trend in Southeast Asia. With a plethora of platforms, consumers are at liberty to explore different channels and choose those best suited to their needs. Social listening helps brands identify the next emerging social commerce platform and explore potential partnerships to secure market share.

Also, through brand and related topic mentions, retailers may identify potential customers that may benefit from their line of products. In the Philippines, Pepsi launched the #PepsiHitSaSarap campaign via Twitter encouraging consumers to share their favourite meals to pair with the soft drink. Through the brand hashtag, Pepsi could identify new traits and insights to better engage the millennials and Gen Zs on social media. 

Anticipate and Ride On Consumer Trends

Brands are encouraged to go beyond monitoring mainstream platforms if they want to catch consumer sentiments unfiltered.  Social listening tools can scrape through thousands of discussions on indie platforms, like Discord and Reddit, to provide valuable and authentic engagements in real-time.  

Compared to a traditional product showcase, Toyota tapped into the interests of the huge 3.1M follower base of the Formula 1 subreddit to promote a video with two Formula Drift drivers racing with the Supras and accomplishing different stunts. Leveraging on the momentum for sports cars and racing topics, Toyota engaged organically through action-packed storytelling than hard-selling the cars. 

Engage With Regional Influencers For Live Shopping

Despite TikTok’s accelerated growth (29%), Facebook (87%) and Instagram (81%) still reign supreme in user adoption in Asia Pacific. Furthermore, 92% of users would trust influencers more than celebrities when it comes to product recommendations. It’s highly recommended that brands still identify and curate influencers from mainstream social apps. 

Discerning who your brand ambassadors are and where they are featured can impact your brand’s affinity and goodwill. Through social listening, brands can identify and curate influencers based on their content. The right partnership can connect with consumers on a deeper level and lead to a significant bump in sales. 

During mega-sale days, Lazada Vietnam created more than 400 influencer-led livestream episodes per day, attracting a 5-6 times jump in viewership – and its total orders during Singles’ Day nearly doubled. On 12.12, sales from LazLive increased 7 times, and its SuperShow touched 26 million views, contributing to a 20-fold increase in sales.

P&G-owned skincare brand, Olay, launched a series of livestream interactions led by influencers with a P&G scientist from Singapore where consumers can post their questions about Olay Retinol. The live content was gamified through trivias and other activities to win the product while interested viewers could click on the link provided to find out more. The campaign led to a huge uplift in sales and brand awareness for the skincare brand. 

 

Conclusion

In the next few years, social commerce will continue gaining momentum with an expected 100 million social shoppers by 2025. The influx of new platforms in a region with diverse markets calls for a more personalised end-to-end shopping experience. Only through social listening can brands keep up and respond efficiently in real-time  

Interested in launching your brand in Southeast Asia? Connect with our team for more regional insights today.

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