Author: Anatole Rousseau

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One of the big differences that I can see is the different brand landscapes and different types of emerging business models. For instance, in France, the main contributor is the drive – pick out in-store. In the ASEAN region, which is very different from one country to another, you have a big emergence of bricks and clicks. In Australia, 4-5 years ago, the market was at around 3-4% in e-commerce, and it is now slightly moving – and generating more than 10%. There has been a big shift with the emergence of online purchases, which can take various forms. Bricks and clicks have been developing themselves strongly towards e-commerce: in the Middle East, you have the appearance of players like aggregators – platforms that will connect the consumer with the closest store. But at the same time, lots of different players are emerging everywhere, and obviously, the strong presence of Alibaba Group in all South-East Asian countries and Amazon in the Middle East and Japan.

In this landscape, you cannot have a one-size-fits-all approach.

It is really about understanding the different environments, mapping the players, and learning the different patterns so you can build a strategy.

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We need to think about several phases of reaching the consumer: Start with awareness, evaluate, and move to bonding and advocacy. It depends on the level of development and your strategy for a specific country.

An e-commerce platform will give you an opportunity to focus on the evaluation and the buy. However, every single of these pillars is evolving, and their lines are getting blurred. For example, in China, there is no traditional ‘path’ – everything is faster, and the content needs to come to the consumer. We are moving from mass targeting to deep and sole targeting.

I think things will move most in terms of the experience. How can you give something intangible, such as the taste of the product, through a digital experience?

I think in the next couple of years, this is where we will provide something that is exciting. I don’t know which technologies would enable this, but I think it is something that has the potential to really influence the way consumers shop.