In this edition of Weekly Focus APAC: Majority of Singapore Shoppers Will Switch Brands; Australian Online Ads Climb 7.1% to £4.98bn; Brands Still Not Impressing Singapore Consumers; Shopee Opens New Regional HQ in Singapore; and Resulticks Looks to Grow SEA Footprint.

Majority of Singapore Shoppers Will Return to Brands For Personalised Discounts

Some 71.4% of Singapore consumers will purchase from a brand again, after trying its products for the first time, if they are offered discounts that are personalised and relevant.

Another 61.8% said they had discovered new products through online ads, revealed a survey by Criteo, which polled 1,000 local consumers to evaluate motivations for loyalty, repeat purchases, and willingness to try new brands. Conducted in partnership with Qualtrics and Dynata, the study looked at all product categories including groceries, consumer electronics, apparel, and jewellery and luxury goods.

It found that 74.9% of Singapore consumers would consider buying from brands that offer the best value for their money, while 54.6% would do so for a wide selection of products.

In comparison, just 39.5% would purchase from a brand again for loyalty points, the survey found.

Some 48.5% acknowledged that their purchase decisions were affected by brand values, while 46.1% would buy again from the brand if its values were aligned with their own values.

Criteo's Southeast Asia-Pacific managing director Alban Villani said: "Singaporean consumers are exposed to a lot more promotions and discounts, [and] more desensitised to price differences as a result. [Since] Singaporean consumers are open to trying new brands, brands that want to stand out and drive brand loyalty among consumers will need to find new ways to appeal beyond low prices and loyalty programmes.

Australian Online Ads Climb 7.1% to £4.98bn

Brands and agencies in Australia increased their digital ad spend by 7.1% for the 2019 financial year, ended June 30 this year, when it hit AUD$9bn (£4.98bn).

Search and Directories accounted for 45% of the overall spend, with General Display contributing 37% and Classifieds taking up the remaining 18%, according to Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Australia's latest Online Advertising Expenditure Report.

Put together by PwC, the report noted that growth for the year was lower than the 11% registered in 2018, attributing the slowdown to the dip in Australia's overall ad market. It added, though, that online revenue across all categories saw growth.

Australia's mobile ad market, which included search and display, climbed 28.4% to AUD$4.6bn (£2.55bn). IAB said the emergence of 5G in the near future would drive up data transfer speeds and provide new opportunities for growth in this segment.

Video still was the fastest growing format in the display market and now accounted for 44% of total display ads. Total video advertising clocked AUD$1.5bn (£830.03m)

IAB Australia's CEO Gai Le Roy said: "When we look some of the notable drivers of this growth, it's clear that small and midsize business investment in digital is growing at a higher rate than traditionally larger advertisers.

"It is proven that a slower advertising market offers the brave marketer an opportunity to invest in order to take market share so it will be interesting to see how vertical category investment unfolds over the medium term." Le Roy said.

Brands Still Not Impressing Singapore Consumers

Customer experience in Singapore still is lacking, with just 39% describing their experience with brands as emotionally positive and 38% getting what they needed when interacting with brands.

Another 41% said it was easy to interact with brands, according to the second instalment of Forrester's annual Singapore 2019 Customer Experience Index. The survey polled 4,027 consumers in the country and assessed 16 brands in four sectors, including banking and government, across three areas: emotion, ease, and effectiveness.

Overall quality of customer experience remained unchanged at 55 points out of 100, with the multichannel banking industry scoring the highest average of 58.9 and the public sector the lowest at 52.2, the study found. The automotive and home insurance industry registered an index of 55.8 while airlines clocked 55.1 out of 100.

Forrester's principal analyst and author of the report, Tom Mouhsian, said: "Our study has once again shown that Singaporeans maintain very high expectations and that it's hard to earn a 'wow' from them.

"Brands that want to move the needle on their customer experience quality should focus on emotion--how an experience makes customers feel has a bigger influence on their loyalty to a brand than effectiveness or ease in every industry," Mouhsian noted.

Shopee Opens New Regional HQ in Singapore

The e-commerce operator has launched its new regional headquarters in Singapore, boasting an office space that spans 244,000 square feet and able to house 3,000 employees.

Located in Kent Ridge, the new site indicated the company's commitment to invest in Singapore where it looked to help groom tech talent and drive the startup ecosystem, it said.

Shopee's chief commercial officer Zhou Junjie said: "Shopee has grown from a startup to the region's leading e-commerce platform in less than four years. Singapore has been our headquarters, even when we were just 10 employees strong.

"Going forward, as technology advances and the e-commerce landscape evolves, Shopee will continue to invest ahead of demand and build more advanced capabilities to better serve our users," Zhou said.

The Singapore homegrown company currently has operations in six other markets in the region including Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

In its second quarter 2019, Shopee said it processed 246.3 million orders across the region and recorded a gross merchandise volume of USD$3.8bn (£3.12bn). Its adjusted revenue increased 201.7% year-on-year to hit USD$177.4m (£145.77m).

Resulticks Looks to Grow SEA Footprint

Resulticks has unveiled plans to expand its presence in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines, where it hopes to tap increasing demand from brands for omnichannel marketing tools.

Citing findings from its own study, the martech vendor said 40% of businesses had too much data and lacked data integration across different systems. Six in 10 said their current software vendors failed to meet expectations for multichannel campaign orchestration.

Its co-founder and CEO Redickaa Subrammanian said: "Like many aspects of commerce in the digital age, omnichannel is an area of tremendous opportunity that is often talked about but rarely done well."

Resulticks touted the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities in its customer data management platform, to help brands better offer "seamless customer journeys" and individual interactions with customers, in real-time.

It added that brands would be able to tap its products to centrally manage marketing campaigns across all relevant channels, such as e-commerce platforms, mobile apps, social media, and email. It also used technologies such as QR codes and location beacons to bridge the offline and online channels.

Resulticks' offices in the region include Singapore, India, and Australia.