This is what aCommerce Group CEO Paul Srivorakul said when e-commerce logistics player SingPost announced it would create a futuristic mall that combined online and offline shopping, in pursuit of the omni-channel retail dream — a dream that is quickly becoming a reality in the U.S. and China.
Referring to a seamless shopping experience across stores and the online channel, omni-channel retail is considered the elusive Holy Grail in retailing due to the politics and logistical challenges of integrating often independent online channels with their brick-and-mortar counterparts. But so far, Southeast Asia has been late to the game, with its focus (reasonably so) on building up pure-play e-commerce first.
In 2016, we expect to see serious movement in the region from offline players moving online, and vice versa. 2016 will be the year in which offline brands will go online due to the plethora of online marketplaces available, as well as the presence of full-service e-commerce enablers.
Southeast Asia is on the cusp of an e-commerce golden age.
For B2C players, the appeal of adding offline operations to the mix includes enabling faster last-mile fulfilment and delivery. In Southeast Asia, Vietnamese electronics retailer Nguyen Kim (acquired by Central Group) is able to pull off same-day, 4-hour deliveries because of the massive offline retail footprint it has.
E-commerce players with a traditional offline arm, such as MatahariMall, Cdiscount and Central, will be in an advantageous position to execute on this. However, 2016 will also have B2C pure players looking into this, as logistics and last-mile in Southeast Asia increasingly struggles with industry-wide capacity bottlenecks.