It’s all about micro moments, according to Google Southeast Asia and India vice president Rajan Anandan. Speaking at the Retail Congress Asia Pacific 2016, he shared facts about Southeast Asian consumers’ online behaviour, including how the typical smartphone user connects to the internet more than 150 times a day.
Southeast Asia is the fourth largest (and fastest growing) internet region in the world with 260 million users online. That number is expected to grow to 480 million by the year 2020, with 3.8 million new users coming online each month.
With a total of 600 million consumers in Southeast Asia, over 40% are now hyper connected, and that will grow to 80% in the next four to five years. The growth rate of 14% is on par with India, and even four percent faster than China. By 2025, the internet economy in Southeast Asia will reach US$200 billion.
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With smartphone usage so prevalent, Anandan defined micro moments in four categories: I want to know, do, go and buy. With ‘I want to know’, a consumer might look up information about a certain product.
With ‘I want to do’, the info could be about a certain activity. For ‘go’, it may be transportation related, and for ‘buy’, it could be either for an instant purchase, or research on a given product to be bought later.
Providing more facts, he shared that 84% of consumers in Malaysia have used a store locator to find a store, while 89% of people in Indonesia have consulted their smartphone while making a purchase in-store.
Given these facts, every moment matters. “It used to be about building awareness to get consumers to walk into your store, then you’d get them excited and convert them to buy,” said Anandan.
“The world today is very different. Every consumer is connecting to the internet 150 times a day, and the moments that you can build awareness, or drive a purchase, may actually be many. First, it’s important to understand which of those moments matter to your business. And second, how do you make sure that you win every moment?”
Retail in Asia is an official media partner for the Retail Congress Asia Pacific. Follow the conversation from 12-13 October on Twitter with #RCAsia16.