Southeast Asia’s online retail penetration growth also outpaced that of Brazil, China or India, going from 5% in 2020 to 9% in 2021. This represents an 85% growth from last year compared with 14% for Brazil, 10% for India and 5% for China.

2

The pandemic has changed the consumers’ purchase journey

During the pandemic, new digital habits arose as consumers coped with the change.

Southeast Asian consumers are buying online more often and are doing so for a wider range of categories compared with 2020. Around 80% of channels that consumers use in the discovery and evaluate stage—in other words, the main channels they use before arriving at a purchase decision—are online.

In this report, we give a breakdown of how Southeast Asian consumers think and behave in every stage of the purchase journey. How do they discover new products? What channels do they turn to, and when, during their research? Learn how consumers browse, research, compare brands and make their purchase using social media, ecommerce marketplaces and even offline channels.

3

In the battle for loyalty, product quality and experience, not just price, win over consumers

Digital consumers shop across even more platforms on average now—7.9 websites in 2021 compared with 5.2 in 2020. More than half of consumers, 51%, also say they’ve switched from their most purchased brands in the past 3 months.

While price remains an important reason for switching, people cite other reasons too. Better product quality, better availability and faster delivery times all feed into consumer decisions on which sites to use the most.

We also examine a new frontline in the battle for customer loyalty: Environmental, Social and Governance factors. ESG now counts as among the top cited reasons consumers switch brands in Southeast Asia. People are willing to pay more for a product that’s sustainably and responsibly sourced, although some product categories are more sensitive to ESG factors than others.

Discover the role ESG plays for consumers, how much premium they’re willing to pay and which categories are most affected.

With stay-at-home orders changing from country to country, how much spending is taking place from home and how much of it will remain once restrictions are lifted?

Even when COVID-19 restrictions ease and no longer poses a big risk to the majority of the population, 86% of food delivery and 75% of time spent shopping online from home will remain.

We share more details about how some of these buying activities will change and which categories are most likely to benefit, as well as some perspectives from business leaders on the future of work.

6

Investments fuel digital disruptions in the region

Investments continue to flow regardless of the pandemic, providing a much-needed boost to emerging companies. The value of all private equity and venture capital investments reached around US$3.6 billion in Q4 2020 alone, exceeding quarterly levels last seen in 2019. Southeast Asia’s deal value for the whole year totalled US$9.5 billion, higher than Brazil’s (US$5.6 billion).

In this report, we discuss in detail the type of firms likely to benefit and the trends driving investor appetite.

As Southeast Asia becomes the new ecommerce powerhouse, the report lays out 6 crucial strategies for companies and chief marketing officers to implement to take advantage of the region’s digital boom. We call these “The Six Rs”:

1. Rewrite a digital-first agenda
2. Rewire your business model
3. Reimagine consumer engagement
4. Refresh product offerings
5. Re-envision the role of sustainability
6. Re-align to the post-pandemic hybrid lifestyle

Along with the insights we’ve presented in this report, these 6 strategies define the path that brand owners and chief marketing officers need to take at this pivotal moment to capitalise on the growth of Southeast Asia.