In a significant shift towards a customer-centric approach, seamless retail has emerged as the new standard in the Asia Pacific region. The latest report by KPMG Asia Pacific and GS1, titled ‘Navigating the Future of Seamless Commerce in Asia Pacific: How Retailers are Driving Customer Experience, From Technology to Sustainability,’ delves into how businesses and consumers are embracing these strategies across diverse markets.
Remarkable advancements in digital transformation have placed the customer squarely at the center of attention, marking a new era in retail. Previously dominant concepts like “multichannel” and “omnichannel” have given way to a highly customer-centric approach. According to the report, seamless retail—defined as a brand’s ability to recognize and integrate the customer journey across multiple platforms and services—has become a baseline expectation in most surveyed markets. Today’s consumers anticipate seamless integration of social media, delivery innovations, apps, websites, automated messaging, and traditional brick-and-mortar stores.
Anson Bailey, Head of Consumer & Retail for KPMG in Asia Pacific, emphasized, “Putting consumers first by adopting seamless, connected capabilities across the entire organization is no longer just a competitive edge, but a necessity for those who want to lead the market. ‘Navigating the Future of Seamless Commerce’ seeks to play a key role for the industry to identify opportunities, spurring innovation to better develop more successful customer experiences and journey maps.”
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The report surveyed about 7,000 respondents across 14 markets in the Asia Pacific region, including China, Hong Kong SAR, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, India, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. It also includes insights from senior C-suite executives from leading retailers, brands, and e-commerce marketplaces.
Key trends transforming the retail landscape include:
- Remarkable Diversity: The e-commerce landscape is marked by intense competition among platform players to capture consumer spending. Consumers prioritize a wide variety of products and fast, reliable delivery when choosing a platform.
- Gen Z at the Forefront: Social commerce is gaining traction among Gen Z, with platforms like TikTok influencing purchasing behaviors and necessitating brands to reassess their supply chain strategies.
- Retailers Embracing AI: AI enhances the relevance and accuracy of product recommendations, though consumer concerns about privacy and lack of human interaction persist.
- Digital Payments on the Rise: Digital payment preferences vary, with e-wallets gaining traction in Southeast Asia, while debit/credit cards remain dominant in more developed markets like Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea. In China, Alipay leads.
- Loyalty Programs Empower Retailers: Effective direct-to-consumer strategies rely on data collection through loyalty programs, which are becoming increasingly valuable.
- Sustainability as a Baseline: Brands must integrate diversity, ethics, and social responsibility into their core offerings, providing sustainable experiences without eco-premiums. Consumers, especially Millennials and Gen Z, demand authenticity and action from brands regarding sustainability.
Patrik Jonasson, Senior Director of Global Retail at GS1, stated, “Product sustainability, supply chain transparency, and circularity are becoming central to overall business operations. Soon, ESG reporting will be indistinguishable from the need for a seamless exchange of trusted product data. Companies will need to exchange information that is trusted and can be understood by all of the actors across today’s complex global supply chains, including the consumer.”
As the Asia Pacific retail economy approaches pre-pandemic levels, consumer expenditure is expected to slow down due to rising costs. Retailers must engage consumers effectively in this challenging climate to gain market share, particularly as spending habits recalibrate.
For more insights, download the full report at kpmg.com/ASPACseamlesscommerce.
About KPMG
KPMG is a global organization of independent professional services firms providing Audit, Tax, and Advisory services. KPMG is the brand under which the member firms of KPMG International Limited (“KPMG International”) operate and provide professional services. The term “KPMG” is used to refer to individual member firms within the KPMG organization or to one or more member firms collectively.
KPMG firms operate in 144 countries and territories with more than 236,000 partners and employees working in member firms around the world. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such. Each KPMG member firm is responsible for its own obligations and liabilities.
KPMG International Limited is a private English company limited by guarantee. KPMG International Limited and its related entities do not provide services to clients. For more details about our structure, please visit home.kpmg/governance.
About GS1
GS1 is a neutral, not-for-profit organization that provides global standards for efficient business communication. We are best known for the barcode, named by the BBC in 2016 as one of “the 50 things that made the world economy.”
GS1 standards improve the efficiency, safety, and visibility of supply chains across physical and digital channels in 25 sectors. We enable organizations of all types and sizes to identify, capture, and share information seamlessly.
Our scale and reach include local Member Organizations in 116 countries, more than 2 million user companies, and 10 billion transactions every day. This helps ensure that GS1 standards create a common language that supports systems and processes across the globe. Find out more at www.gs1.org.
