Dentsu Aegis Network Malaysia uncovers insights in automated e-commerce
Dentsu Aegis Network Malaysia has shared its findings in automated e-commerce, a concept which the advertising group believes will help brands build sales loyalty through online replenishment of goods automatically.
The insights discovery project was carried out in collaboration with InsightzClub, a tech-oriented market research and analytics start-up established in Malaysia and Singapore last year as part of the muru-D accelerator programme, which is backed by Australia’s Telstra.
“At Dentsu Aegis Network, we were curious to discover missed opportunities for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) businesses as the digital economy picks up. So we recently queried 500 shoppers. Ironically, the survey was called ‘The Non-Shopping Experience’ to uncover insights and deep motivations in helping brands build sales loyalty via e-commerce,” said Sue-Anne Lim, Chief Data Officer, Dentsu Aegis Network Malaysia.
“If our concept is successful, this also means brands that are not quick enough to adopt such automated innovation will face a harder challenge to acquire customers from other competing brands in the future,” explained Sue-Anne.
The survey looked at online and offline purchase behaviours and attitudes towards four categories, namely personal care, health care, home care and baby care, and tested the possibility of replenishing goods automatically. Here are some key findings:
- Baby products such as diaper and milk powder has a purchase frequency that doubles all other products, while health supplement has the longest usage duration before repurchase occurs. But across all categories, purchase cycle is very predictable – up to 89% for infant milk powder. Even the lowest scoring category of home care products has a predictability of 69% of fixed buying frequency.
- Baby-related products hold the greatest brand loyalty and particularity.
- Home care has the highest possibility of brand switch but still 38% of shoppers prefer to stick to their current brand. What this really means is by just automating the shopping basket, marketers can almost guarantee 4 unit sales out of 10 incidences.
- When asked on their brick and mortar experience, majority of them cited ‘time consuming’ and ‘having to physically carry the items home’ as their biggest bane. Especially for baby products, an average of 39% parents are frustrated and stressed out when needed to rush to the store for replenishment.
- The greatest epiphany of our discovery was the positive acceptance of the automated replenishment concept, shoppers list the products they want to be automatically replenished at their doorstep without them having to repetitively order for it. Suddenly, we see the vast majority of supermarket shoppers, 81% of them picking up great interest in shopping online.
- The rest of the surveyed population cited ‘uncomfortable in receiving products automatically’ and ‘need to see if it works properly’ as reasons for indifference. Though what’s really interesting is, only less than 3% of the parental population showed disinterest in the concept which speaks volume about market potential.
Figure 1: Percentage of Offline and Online Shoppers (left) versus Interest in Automated Replenishment (right)
“We all know that e-commerce success is heavily reliant on many other adjacent industries such as device penetration, web connectivity, developed logistics and infrastructures and payment channels. But unlike our neighbours, our challenge here is more behavioural than infrastructural. From this survey, we confidently conclude that behaviours can be modified and cultivated as long as the solution provides ease and not redundancy,” concluded Sue-Ann.
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