Ineffective digital practices are keeping APAC retailers from tapping the opportunities that omnichannel offers for driving sales and brand awareness, according to martech firm dotdigital.

Rohan Lock, dotdigital’s APAC regional director, discussed this topic at the recent E-commerce Expo Asia conference in Singapore, where he spoke on how omnichannel engagement can help retail brands to ace their holiday sales.

Basic segmentation based on information such as the customer’s gender, location and birthday, is not being done by 60% of APAC retailers, he reported

“A lot of people are just batching and blasting and ignoring the customer. It’s just mind-boggling to think of it,” he said. (For more details, read WARC’s report: APAC retailers are missing the mark thanks to ineffective digital practices.)

While that’s hardly good practice at any time, it’s even worse during the holiday season, he suggested, when “there are a lot of opportunities for sales, for gathering more data”.

“There’s also a big opportunity for cross-selling and up-selling to our customers and to create a stronger relationship with our current customers as well,” he added.

Retailers need to raise their omnichannel game, he argued, especially with APAC consumers shopping everywhere, anywhere and on-the-go.

“During the holiday season, when people are coming to your site, they are looking on the train, they are looking on the bus. They cannot remember where they were. You’ve got to help them to come back,” he said.

Push notifications or abandoned cart reminder alerts, for instance, can facilitate their return. Using the different channels that customers want is crucial, from SMS and email, to push notifications and live chat.

Highlighting live chat as a channel that retail brands should really consider, he said: “People want everything now. They are not willing to wait – it’s the same thing on the website.

“If we don’t find one on the site, we are 50% less likely to buy – that’s straight out of the gate. If we don’t have live chat, they are saying it’s 77% less likely to buy.

“Live chat is just another channel for customers to engage with you, but from that point on, you can ask them for their email address or their phone number.”

Sourced from WARC