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  • Amazon expands anti-counterfeit program

    Amazon expands anti-counterfeit program

    Amazon is expanding its successful anti-counterfeiting program to more countries.

    Transparency is now available to sellers and customers in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, India and Canada, the e-commerce giant announced on Wednesday. Previously it only operated within the US.

    Online marketplaces are rife with counterfeit products sold cheaper than the genuine product, though often at a much lower quality.

    Fellow online marketplace Alibaba revealed its ‘Anti-Counterfeiting Alliance’, launched in early 2017, has resulted in the arrests of 1277 suspects, the shutdown of 524 manufacturing and distribution locations, and product seizures totalling US$536.2 million.

    EBay, as well, launched a program known as ‘eBay Authenticate’ which allows sellers to have items examined by a third-party to ensure the consumers can be confident they’re getting the real thing.

    Amazon’s Transparency program enables marketplace sellers to apply unique codes to their products when they are manufactured. These codes are scanned before orders are shipped to ensure the products are authentic. Online shoppers can also check the unique codes to verify the products they buy.

    “Counterfeiting is an industry-wide concern – both online and offline,” said Amazon customer trust and partner support vice president Dharmesh Mehta.

    “We created Transparency to provide brands with a simple, scalable solution that empowers brands an dAmazon to authenticate products within the supply chain, stopping counterfeit before it reaches a customer.”

    According to Amazon, more than 4000 brands are enrolled in the initiative in the US, and have generated more than 300 million unique codes, stopping over 250,000 counterfeits from reaching customers.

    The program also allows customers to scan products using a Transparency app, and see unit-level information about a product – though currently the app is only available in the US.

    Inside Retail has reached out to Amazon to see if this initiative will be expanded to Australia.

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  • Lazada to launch its first Mid-Year Festival

    Lazada to launch its first Mid-Year Festival

    Following its new theme ‘Go Where Your Heart Beats’, the festival will launch across all six of its markets in Southeast Asia for 24 hours. Lazada held its first Lazada Mid-Year Festival on July 12.

    Consumers will get access to a wide assortment of product deals on Lazada including branded goods and new arrivals. Other benefits during the festival include free shipping deals with participating sellers, and give-away vouchers.

    “Introducing our new Mid-Year Festival during a traditionally quieter shopping season presents more chances in a year for us to bring excitement to shoppers and provide our sellers more opportunities to boost their performance,” said Jing Yin, president of Lazada Group.

    As part of Lazada’s new Mid-Year Festival, the e-commerce company is expanding its ‘Shoppertainment’ strategy with its first region-wide live-streamed game show “Guess It” across six countries. The 30-minute in-app show combines a gameshow concept with professionally-generated live-streamed content.

    A local personality will play host, giving away clues for viewers to guess the price of products.=

    A total of 672 Guess It episodes across the region will feature more than 4000 items from a variety of sellers, with a focus on newly-launched and special edition products.

    Lazada’s live-streamed game show has already resulted in 68,000 new live-streaming account followers in the Philippines, 10 times the number of viewers per average livestream session in Thailand, and double the number per average livestream session in Singapore to-date.

    “Our professionally-generated Guess It content offers a new way to feature brands and sellers, while increasing in-app consumer dwell time and purchase,” said Mary Zhou, CMO of Lazada Group.

    “This is a result of a holistic approach to our shoppertainment strategy – tying in a seller collaboration approach and integrating seamlessly with our payments and customer engagement priorities.”

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  • E-Commerce Giant Lazada Joins Mobile Game EvergleamHill

    E-Commerce Giant Lazada Joins Mobile Game EvergleamHill

    HotNow, the retail marketing platform has announced the soft launch of Evergleam Hill, a casual mobile game where users mine their way to discounts, vouchers, and giveaways. After months of testing, the soft launch version is now available on both the Android Google Play and Apple App Stores, having successfully accrued over 3000 downloads in the past few weeks without any marketing efforts. The game includes new merchant partners including Southeast Asian e-commerce giant Lazada and leading Thai coffee chain D’Oro Coffee.

    Developed as HotNow’s flagship game for its proprietary in-game advertising solution, HotPlay, Evergleam Hill has seen approximately one thousand coupon downloads by avid consumers in the past few weeks. To date, the coupons on the game hold a total discount value exceeding THB 2.5 million (US$80,000), highlighting the benefits of HotPlay as merchants have been able to measurably engage with an ever-growing consumer base by effectively bridging virtual gameplay with real-world rewards.

    Nithinan Boonyawattanapisut, CEO and Co-Founder of HotNow said, “Following a rigorous testing phase with the help of a dedicated gamer community, we are thrilled to celebrate this milestone in the development of Evergleam Hill as we welcome new merchant partners onboard. By successfully bridging the worlds of gaming, retail, and virtual currencies, we’ve been able to leverage the existing synergies within these industries to the benefit of our merchant partners and users alike”.

    Set in the eponymous mining village, Evergleam Hill is a mobile role-playing game where players are rewarded with branded prizes, discounts, and promotions with real-world value from participating merchant partners. As a highly interactive game with stunning visuals, players currently have the opportunity to mine their gold chunks for HOT tokens by exchanging them at the game’s bank, the First Bank of Evergleam Hill. HOT tokens can then be used to purchase in-game items. Further updates to the game’s infrastructure will see branded coupons and discounts from retail partners sold within an in-game marketplace which can then be used in real-world transactions at partnering brick-and-mortar retailers. Users will also be able to sell these coupons and discounts to other players through the game’s marketplace in the near future.

    Benjamin Scherrey, Group CTO of HotNow said, “As we work towards the full global launch of Evergleam Hill, it’s important to recognise that our HotPlay platform offers a new, unprecedented form of mobile advertising that is truly the first of its kind. We are excited to be working with these merchants who have taken a progressive approach to consumer engagement and we look forward to supporting them along with our community of game developers as we work to revolutionise the in-game advertising landscape”.

    Participating retail partners at this time are local to Thailand, including American ice cream chain, Baskin-Robbins; Thailand’s coffee chain, D’Oro Coffee; and globally-recognised fast food chain and donut brand, Mister Donut. Apart from food and beverage discounts, Evergleam Hill now features discount coupons from Lazada along with a coupon for a free one-night stay worth THB 6,799 from five-star beachfront resort U Pattaya.

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  • Amazon increases efforts to tackle counterfeit goods

    Amazon increases efforts to tackle counterfeit goods

    Online retail giant Amazon is expanding its product serialization service to Canada, India and some European countries to tackle counterfeit products in the supply chain.

    Amazon Transparency involves the application of unique codes to products to allow the retailer, its customers, brands and other members of the supply chain to authentic every unit of a product.

    “Counterfeiting is an industry-wide concern – both online and offline. We find the most effective solutions to prevent counterfeit are based on partnerships that combine Amazon’s technology innovation with the sophisticated knowledge and capabilities of brands,” said Dharmesh Mehta, vice president, Amazon Customer Trust and Partner Support.

    “We created Transparency to provide brands with a simple, scalable solution that empowers brands and Amazon to authenticate products within the supply chain, stopping counterfeit before it reaches a customer.”

    With Transparency, each brand puts the codes on its products, which is then scanned and verified by Amazon to ensure its authenticity.

    Customers can also use a mobile app to check for themselves, regardless of where they purchased the units.

    Brands also use Transparency to communicate unique unit-level information, including manufacturing date, manufacturing place or other product information such as ingredients.

    Over 4,000 brands are using the service in the US and Amazon said that it has proactively prevented over 250,000 counterfeits reaching customers.

  • Tmall offers new tools for retailers to revamp online storefronts

    Tmall offers new tools for retailers to revamp online storefronts

    Alibaba’s marketplace Tmall has rolled out a suite of tools for brands to customize their online storefronts and offer a more personalized experience for shoppers.

    The platform’s “Flagship Store 2.0” solution pulls both analytics and popular technologies together into the Tmall app, offering brands new tools to revamp their existing flagship online storefronts and provide each consumer a personalized page based on their previous shopping patterns. It also allows brands to display and order offline specials and inventory through their newly designed online stores.

    “We aim to offer new tools to all brands and merchants on our platform to transform their operations with digital technology,” said the president of Taobao and Tmall Jiang Fan. “By supporting players on our marketplace to push the New Retail boundary, we will reinforce Tmall’s position as the go-to platform for innovative e-commerce and brand new shopping experiences”.

    This is the most significant upgrade of Tmall’s flagship stores since its PC-based launch in 2008. With Flagship Store 2.0, Tmall is opening its back end to independent software vendors so they can develop new virtual shopping spaces for online store operators. At the same time, Tmall will start including 3D and augmented reality product-display technology in its apps, allowing customers to, for example, see how a piece of furniture will look in their own living room or let them “try on” lipstick in a virtual mirror before placing an order.

    Another feature of the Flagship Store 2.0 solution is the ability to connect brands’ Tmall flagship online storefronts to their offline outlets. This means online shoppers can browse and purchase from a similar product assortment as offered at the brands’ physical locations. The seamless integration can bolster store traffic, both online and offline.

    The use of demographic analytics and a shopper’s history by brands means customers will get a unique, more individualized product recommendations on the platform, along with privileges based on their Tmall membership status.

  • Walmart to relist Seiyu in global business revamp

    Walmart to relist Seiyu in global business revamp

    Walmart says it plans to relist its Seiyu retail business in Japan on the stock market, freeing capital to focus on its China and India business units.

    While the US retailer will retain a majority interest in Seiyu, it believes floating the unit will allow it to operate more independently.

    The move is part of a three-year business plan for Seiyu, part of a broader push to reshape Walmart’s international business.

    “As the parent loses the wherewithal to support low-performing overseas units, revamping those operations has become imperative,” observed Nikkei writer Kento Hirashima.

    Walmart had previously been tipped to sell the Japanese business unit, but has discarded that option.

    Seiyu also plans to expand its online grocery retail business and boost its range of fresh produce and prepared foods.

    Walmart forged an investment and operational alliance in 2002 before Walmart took full control six years later and Seiyu was delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

  • Suning.com ranked China’s most-valuable retail brand

    Suning.com ranked China’s most-valuable retail brand

    Suning Holdings’ retail subsidiary Suning.com has been ranked China’s most valuable retail brand, finishing 13th on World Brand Lab’s 16th “China’s 500 Most Valuable Brands” list.

    This was the second consecutive year Suning finished in 13th place with its brand value totaling RMB269.198 billion (US$39.093 billion), an increase of 17 percent compared to last year. Its listed brand value has increased by a factor of six since 2009.

    In the past year, Suning.com announced operational revenue of RMB244.96 billion ($36.479 billion), up 30.35 percent year on year; and a sales volume of RMB336 billion ($50.16 billion), an increase of 38.39 percent.

    By the end of March this year, the company owned 12,329 offline brick-and-mortar stores in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Japan, covering diversified consumption scenarios that include Suning Retail Cloud Franchise Stores, SuFresh (fresh food supermarkets), Suning Xiaodian (providing neighbourhood products and services) and Redbaby (maternal and child supplies stores).

    Last February, the company announced the acquisition of 37 Wanda department stores nationwide and in June, it acquired 80 percent of Carrefour China to improve its full-scenarios ecosystem and expand its all-categories merchandise retailing by reinforcing its market competitiveness in fast-moving consumer goods operations.

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  • Fave Wants to Be Merchant Super App

    Fave Wants to Be Merchant Super App

    Singapore-based Fave is onboarding merchants quickly to distinguish itself, as competition in the mobile rewards and mobile wallet space heats up.

    Fave has recently moved into the fringes of financial services, with a pilot project to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) obtain micro-loans from financial institutions. The move appears to follow similar moves by lifestyle apps such as Grab, that offer micro-loans to consumers in other parts of Southeast Asia.

    There are all these consumer super-apps, but then, actually we are like a merchant super-app platform,» said Fave’s chief executive Joel Neoh.

    Fave distributes coupons for the merchants while rewarding customers with cashback. After its launch in 2017, Fave acquired the Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia units of Groupon. Neoh was the founder of Fave Malaysia (originally GroupsMore) and previously led Groupon’s Asia-Pacific business.

    So far, the platform has more 25,000 merchants on its platform in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, where the company had acquired the units of Groupon. In September 2018, Fave raised $20 million in Series B funds from existing investors Sequoia Capital India, SIG Asia Investments and venture capital firm Venturra Capital, which is backed by Indonesia’s Lippo Group.

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  • Tmall Global launches new English-language website

    Tmall Global launches new English-language website

    Tmall Global today launched its first English-language website to attract more merchants and businesses from around the world to join China’s largest cross-border online shopping platform.

    The portal makes it easier for sellers of all sizes to capitalize on burgeoning demand from Chinese consumers for high-quality imported products.

    Tmall Global already features 20,000 international brands in over 4,000 categories from 77 countries and regions. This outreach aims to make Tmall more appealing to small, medium-sized and niche brands from other countries with products that would sate the demands of China’s post-1995 generation.

    The website details Tmall Global and the solutions it offers to overseas merchants entering the China market. It includes steps on how to open a flagship store on Tmall Global and tap direct import tools, such as Tmall Overseas Fulfillment (TOF), a new initiative launched later last year to provide international merchants a low-cost, low-risk way to take a first step toward selling to China before making a more full-fledged market entry.

    The portal also provides tools that streamline the process to join Tmall Global. Businesses wanting to open a flagship store can fill out a questionnaire and input basic information about their operation. That information will be pre-screened, and qualifying applicants will be contacted within 72 hours. Apart from offering assistance during the onboarding process, Tmall Global will also advise merchants on how to optimize their operations after they establish a presence on the platform.

    “Tmall Global’s mission is to connect high-quality international brands across the globe with Chinese consumers. We believe the launch of this English-language website will expedite the process for brands and merchants to introduce their products to Chinese consumers. The website will widen our reach to merchants, especially to those medium and small sized businesses around the world,” said Yi Qian, Deputy General Manager of Tmall Global.

    In addition to English, Tmall Global plans to launch other language versions of its entry portal for merchants, including Spanish, Japanese and Korean.

    Tmall Global has notched significant growth in the past year and looks to continue the strong momentum. In 2018, the number of new flagship store openings on Tmall Global doubled from the previous year, and that growth rate is expected to accelerate further this year.

  • Amazon offering free international shipping on Prime Day

    Amazon offering free international shipping on Prime Day

    Amazon’s massive annual sale, Prime Day, will kick off on Monday, July 15th and run for 48 hours until 5pm AEST on Wednesday, July 17th.

    For the duration of the event, Prime members will also enjoy free expedited international shipping, with no minimum order threshold, on all Prime eligible products through the global store.

    “We all love a bargain, and last year’s Prime Day confirmed this, being our biggest day since the launch of amazon.com.au,” Amazon Australia country manager Rocco Braeuniger said.

    “We are excited to announce that this year will be even bigger, with Prime members down under not only being the first in the world to have access to Prime Day but also having the longest Prime Day event worldwide.”

    Prime Day deals will be split across all categories, including TVs, smart home, kitchen, pantry food and drinks, toys, fashion, video games, books, as well as everyday essentials.

    According to Amazon, small and medium-sized businesses surpassed US$1.5 billion in sales globally during last year’s Prime Day, with Brisbane-based Astivita noting it was the company’s “biggest single day of online sales ever.”

    “It was mainly down to one product, a monitor,” Astivita chief executive Joseph Mizlkovsky said.

    “We are excited to be taking part again this year and we will be discounting that same product at an even lower price, alongside a number of bathroom products.

    “We hope that customers will snap up the change to shop our products at brilliant discounts, making this Prime Day even bigger than last year for us.”

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  • Lazada activates official Olympic partner status

    Lazada activates official Olympic partner status

    Southeast Asia e-commerce platform Lazada Group has activated its Olympic Games partnership as part of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) long-term partnership with parent Alibaba Group.

    As an official Olympic partner in Southeast Asia, Lazada will help Olympic stakeholders further the reach of the Olympic Movement and connect with the region’s fans.

    “We believe Lazada’s digital footprint will assist us in spreading the spirit of the Olympic Games far and wide across this important region, particularly with a younger audience,” said Timo Lumme, MD, IOC television & marketing services.

    “As an e-commerce pioneer in the region, Lazada seeks to continuously accelerate progress in Southeast Asia and encourage every individual to pursue and ignite new possibilities,” said Lazada Group CEO Pierre Poignant. “We are honored to be activating Alibaba’s partnership with the IOC under our brand and look forward to bringing more Olympic-related moments to this region over the next nine years.”

    Lazada will use the advertising and promotional opportunities connected with using Olympic marks and imagery, including marks from National Olympic Committees. The editions leading up to 2028 include the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, the Olympic Games Paris 2024, the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028 and the Olympic Winter Games 2026 in a city yet to be selected by the IOC.

    Lazada held a series of local-engagement initiatives themed “Every Small Inspiration Matters” during the weekend, starting with internal employee events across the region.

    “As Southeast Asia’s leading eCommerce platform by the scale and by reach, we are capturing and also contributing to the heartbeat of the region,” said Mary Zhou, chief marketing officer at Lazada Group. “Through this partnership, we hope to further extend the heart of the Olympic Games and its meaningful values to Southeast Asia.”

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  • Shopee on top of the 10 m-commerce players in Vietnam

    Shopee on top of the 10 m-commerce players in Vietnam

    Shopee heads the list of the top 10 m-commerce players in Vietnam for the first quarter of this year.

    The findings were released in a ranking by Iprice Group and App Annie Intelligence, which ranked shopping apps according to the number of monthly active users. It noted that mobile shopping is quickly becoming an important feature of e-commerce business in Vietnam.

    According to Google and Temasek’s report last year on the Southeast Asian ‘e-conomy’, more than 90 per cent of Southeast Asians are now connecting to the internet primarily through their smartphones, making this region one of the most mobile-first globally.

    Iprice Group also noted that during last year’s Singles’ Day, the rate of consumers accessing its e-commerce platform by mobile has risen rapidly from 62.5 per cent in 2017 to 80.4 per cent last year.

    Facing these customer behaviour trends, online retailers in Vietnam are now scrambling to improve and promote their mobile apps. Shopee, in particular, has invested a lot on campaigns to attract consumers to its app.

    “Shopee has focused on mobile from the beginning and built its user interface around it,” read an assessment report by marketing research agency Econsultancy last year. “This made users’ mobile shopping experiences faster and more intuitive – users can buy or sell their items in less than 30 seconds – allowing Shopee to capture a large group of mobile users in Southeast Asia and Taiwan.”

    Ranked number two of the top 10 e-commerce players in Vietnam is Shopee’s biggest regional competitor Lazada. This is perhaps a more surprising result, as according to Iprice Group’s previous report, which ranked Vietnamese e-commerce companies based on average website traffic, Lazada’s monthly traffic has been on a decline that puts them in third place behind Shopee and Tiki.

    However, when it comes to mobile, the e-commerce giant is now shifting to put a bigger emphasis on mobile shopping.

    Ranking in the top five behind Shopee and Lazada are apps from three local e-commerce platforms: Tiki, Sendo and Adayroi. These three companies also have been achieving positive results in terms of average website traffic for the recent quarter, making them worthy opponents for the two regional companies.

    Behind this top five in the ranking are AliExpress, Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba – all of which are currently not officially operating in Vietnam.

    Lotte.vn – the South Korean hypermarket group’s local subsidiary – rounded out the top 10 m-commerce players in Vietnam rankings.

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  • E-commerce sales up in New Zealand with 16 per cent last year

    E-commerce sales up in New Zealand with 16 per cent last year

    New Zealand consumers spent $4.2 billion online last year, a 16 percent increase in 2017, according to the latest e-commerce report from NZ Post.

    This compares to just 2 percent annual growth in bricks-and-mortar shopping, the postie said in a statement released last week.

    The rise in spending was driven by Kiwis shopping online more often, with consumers hitting the ‘buy’ button 22 times each.

    Last year also saw the emergence of ‘super shoppers’ – with nearly 10 percent of the 1.8 million Kiwis who shopped online last year spending over $9000.

    The report found that spending with New Zealand online stores grew nearly twice as fast as spending with international online stores, though roughly a third of the dollars consumers spent online in 2018 overall went overseas.

    Around 12 percent of online shoppers used to buy now pay later methods, such as Afterpay, last year – with younger users and women being the majority of users.

    The most prominent online shoppers in New Zealand are women aged between 30 and 45 who live in rural areas, NZ Post found.

    “NZ Post is delivering well over half of all parcels bought online in New Zealand and we’re proud to be integral to that moment of joy when your online shopping parcel arrives,” Bryan Dobson, NZ Post’s chief marketing officer, said.

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  • Vietnamese e-commerce platform Tiki set to raise US$100 million

    Vietnamese e-commerce platform Tiki set to raise US$100 million

    Vietnamese e-commerce platform Tiki is raising another US$100 million from a Northstar Group-led funding round.

    The deal, was initially aiming for $75 million, but has been scaled up with support from Tiki’s current Korean backers, and may pull in as much as $150 million if certain KPIs are met.

    Tiki, which acquired competing platform Lazada last year, is now Vietnam’s second-largest e-commerce player after Shopee. It attracted a $44 million investment from Chinese industry partner JD early last year, and recently extended its national logistics operations in partnership with Vietnamese firm Unidepot.

    “Supply chain is a billion-dollar industry in Vietnam with surprisingly rapid growth,” said Tiki CEO Tran Thai Son. “However, Vietnam’s supply chain has not achieved its peak efficiency. For example, for an order worth 100,000 dong, logistics costs can be up to [25,000] dong.”

    Tiki’s infrastructural investments have seen the firm accumulate losses of around VND1 trillion ($43.3 million) over recent years.

  • Indonesian e-commerce site Tokopedia generates record sales

    Indonesian e-commerce site Tokopedia generates record sales

    Tokopedia, an Indonesian e-commerce site backed by SoftBank and Alibaba, said on Wednesday it generated a record $1.3 billion in gross merchandise volume (GMV) during Ramadan sale, amid soaring demand for online retail.

    The company said its biggest sales, recorded on May 17, resulted in a total transaction value that was higher than combined sales from the first six years.

    “Those transactions are happening across 97% of sub-districts in Indonesia and involved 5.9 million sellers,” said Tokopedia founder and CEO William Tanuwijaya.

    The start-up secured $1.1 billion in a funding round in December, led by Japan’s SoftBank Group Vision Fund and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Sources say Tokopedia is valued at $7 billion.

    Shopping for clothes and gifts during the holy month of Ramadan is a significant part of the culture for Indonesia – the world’s largest Muslim-majority country.

    The Southeast Asian nation of over 260 million people is seen among the most promising global e-commerce markets, buoyed by a younger generation shifting their preference to online shopping.

    The Indonesian internet economy reached $27 billion last year and is poised to grow to $100 billion by 2025, according to Google-Temasek 2018 study.

    However, its logistical challenges are massive. The country’s 17,000 islands are sprinkled across an area bigger than the European Union, with logistical costs swallowing up around a quarter of Indonesia’s gross domestic product.

    Tokopedia’s Ramadan sale success reflects that e-commerce retailers are trying to overcome difficulties faster than expected amid higher usage of smartphones.

    Tanuwijaya told reporters that Tokopedia, which does not have its own inventory, was experimenting with artificial intelligence to predict demand and store stock in advance in partnership with warehouse operators.

    Rivals Bukalapak and Shoppee have not made their Ramadan sales public.

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