Page 44 - AeM_May_2014
P. 44
COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS
Rakuten promotes effective E-Commerce
Marketing in Singapore
In line of its core business of online sales, Rakuten, One of the key hurdles in emerging markets is the low
which has just opened its online store in Singapore in penetration of credit cards, which makes billing of prod-
January of this year, held a panel event on the subject of ucts, and therefore the sale itself, more difficult. Alter-
effective E-Commerce Marketing. nate charging systems are often quite expensive, as
Mr. Masaya from Rakuten pointed out and logistical
Rakuten, being one of the world leading Internet service issues and connectivity are additional obstacles to
companies that just recently had been named among the overcome.
world’s top 10 most innovative companies by Forbes, is
now further expanding into South East Asia, a market In contrast, one key hurdle today in developed markets
the company defined as one of its key growth markets. like Singapore is no longer the ordering or acquisition
To date, Rakuten Singapore already boasts 120,000 process, but the logistical tail which comes along with
goods from over 170 merchants on its online sales plat- the sale, including availability, delivery time, returns
form and could achieve all this in just five months. and claims. According to Google’s Julian Persaud the
online side is by now the easy part although a lot still
Looking at the development of the online market in Sin- needs to be improved. At least s merchant are finally
gapore that is expected to have quadruple its volume till seeing the advantages of e-commerce as most of the
2015, compared to 2010, reaching S$ 4.4 billion, the people are already online and the market needs to fol-
key question to the panel was what are the advantages, low where the customer is. The lack of talent in this
what are the hurdles and where is improvement needed technology industry is another problem, which is why
to be able to meet this target. EDB is sponsoring training and degrees in this area.
Invited panelists were Julian Persaud, Managing Director In the end it comes down to user experience though.
of Google South East Asia; Deepesh Trivedi, Head of Unfortunately, the chances are still high that a locally
Retail and E-Commerce, Facebook, South East Asia; sourced online product by one of the many ecommerce
Masaya Ueno, Head of Business Development division, sites in Singapore will leave the customer waiting for up
Rakuten, Asia; Kiren Kumar, Director of Infocomms & to three weeks for delivery. Ordering something from a
Media, EDB; and Marcus Tan, Co-Founder of Carousell. US webpage like eBay or Amazon only takes 3-5 days
in comparison, as the infrastructure is already more
developed, to the point of perfection, and the logistics
The synopsis of the event is basically the following: No
matter if you are in a highly developed market like Singa- via one of the large logistics providers is traceable and
pore, with an excellent IT infrastructure, or in less devel- quick. This begs the question: why buy something
oped countries like Indonesia or Thailand, over 50% of online in a market like Singapore if it is so slow? As of
the online purchasing process is already done via mobile now, the only reason to do this in such a small country
devices. like Singapore is the feeling of having gotten something
for a very low price compared to going down to Orchard
Road and getting it the same day.
44 Asian eMarketing May 2014 - Multichannel Marketing— SoLoMo
Rakuten promotes effective E-Commerce
Marketing in Singapore
In line of its core business of online sales, Rakuten, One of the key hurdles in emerging markets is the low
which has just opened its online store in Singapore in penetration of credit cards, which makes billing of prod-
January of this year, held a panel event on the subject of ucts, and therefore the sale itself, more difficult. Alter-
effective E-Commerce Marketing. nate charging systems are often quite expensive, as
Mr. Masaya from Rakuten pointed out and logistical
Rakuten, being one of the world leading Internet service issues and connectivity are additional obstacles to
companies that just recently had been named among the overcome.
world’s top 10 most innovative companies by Forbes, is
now further expanding into South East Asia, a market In contrast, one key hurdle today in developed markets
the company defined as one of its key growth markets. like Singapore is no longer the ordering or acquisition
To date, Rakuten Singapore already boasts 120,000 process, but the logistical tail which comes along with
goods from over 170 merchants on its online sales plat- the sale, including availability, delivery time, returns
form and could achieve all this in just five months. and claims. According to Google’s Julian Persaud the
online side is by now the easy part although a lot still
Looking at the development of the online market in Sin- needs to be improved. At least s merchant are finally
gapore that is expected to have quadruple its volume till seeing the advantages of e-commerce as most of the
2015, compared to 2010, reaching S$ 4.4 billion, the people are already online and the market needs to fol-
key question to the panel was what are the advantages, low where the customer is. The lack of talent in this
what are the hurdles and where is improvement needed technology industry is another problem, which is why
to be able to meet this target. EDB is sponsoring training and degrees in this area.
Invited panelists were Julian Persaud, Managing Director In the end it comes down to user experience though.
of Google South East Asia; Deepesh Trivedi, Head of Unfortunately, the chances are still high that a locally
Retail and E-Commerce, Facebook, South East Asia; sourced online product by one of the many ecommerce
Masaya Ueno, Head of Business Development division, sites in Singapore will leave the customer waiting for up
Rakuten, Asia; Kiren Kumar, Director of Infocomms & to three weeks for delivery. Ordering something from a
Media, EDB; and Marcus Tan, Co-Founder of Carousell. US webpage like eBay or Amazon only takes 3-5 days
in comparison, as the infrastructure is already more
developed, to the point of perfection, and the logistics
The synopsis of the event is basically the following: No
matter if you are in a highly developed market like Singa- via one of the large logistics providers is traceable and
pore, with an excellent IT infrastructure, or in less devel- quick. This begs the question: why buy something
oped countries like Indonesia or Thailand, over 50% of online in a market like Singapore if it is so slow? As of
the online purchasing process is already done via mobile now, the only reason to do this in such a small country
devices. like Singapore is the feeling of having gotten something
for a very low price compared to going down to Orchard
Road and getting it the same day.
44 Asian eMarketing May 2014 - Multichannel Marketing— SoLoMo
