Zalora creates a seamless shopping journey from intent to delivery

ZALORA’s Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer, Achint Setia, spoke about the latest Southeast Asia Trends report for 2022 in an interview. Setia discussed how businesses pivoted to digital during the pandemic and how this led to the development of ‘shopper tainment’, which involves entertaining users while they shop. Setia also noted that offline searches for restaurants and malls have increased significantly, leading to a strong uptick in demand for consumer products such as swimwear, sunscreen, and athleisure. The report also found that consumers are increasingly comfortable with both real and virtual worlds and are constantly struggling between the two. Thus, there is an increased demand for personalized shopping journeys that are more humanized. Setia mentioned that ZALORA has taken initiatives to bridge the gap between online and offline shopping experiences by partnering with leading brands in Southeast Asia and creating innovative shopping experiences through pop-up activations. Setia highlighted that businesses need to constantly adapt to the evolving economic and political situation and that it is important to streamline experiences across touchpoints and to constantly go back to the customer to understand what makes their shopping journey more convenient.

Setia also spoke about hyper-consumerism in Southeast Asia, noting that e-commerce is growing at an exponential rate, and customers are looking for seamless experiences between the offline and online worlds. There is also an extreme desire for flexibility, convenience, and control over online shopping, which has led to the popularity of digital payment instruments and ‘buy now pay later’ options. Shopping festivals have also become a big part of the hyper-consumerism trend in Southeast Asia, with double-digit events almost every month. Customers expect engagement from retailers every 15 days, and brands looking to capitalize on this trend need to ensure that they have a strong online presence to drive seamless journeys for customers from intent to purchase to delivery. Personalization and segmentation are key pillars of successful strategies, and ZALORA has scaled up its loyalty program, ZALORA Now, to offer experiences to customers, from discovering better products to early access to big events and faster delivery options.

Setia concluded by saying that brands need to make sure they offer value for money and hassle-free experiences to build long-term relationships with customers. ZALORA engages customers through a variety of experiences and continues to prioritize personalization and segmentation to drive consumer engagement with its Southeast Asian customers. As the economic and political situation in the region continues to evolve, businesses need to remain agile and focus on providing convenient and streamlined experiences across touchpoints to keep up with changing consumer demands.

To know more, watch the full interview.