Latest / The Retail Podcast / Singles’ Day, Black Friday & Quick Commerce: APAC Retail’s New Peak Season

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Singles’ Day, Black Friday & Quick Commerce: APAC Retail’s New Peak Season · The Retail Podcast

• 0:00
  Hi, I'm Brief Qual, Managing Director of NRF retails Big Show
• 0:03
  Asia Pacific and this is Five things Friday APEC edition.
• 0:18
  Hello. We're all popping one hour,
• 0:19
  yeah. I think there is a there is a 5
• 0:22
  things Friday, part of which all of the Co presenters that we
• 0:25
  have there I was in popping along with.
• 0:28
  Anyway, fantastic, lovely to see you.
• 0:30
  I haven't seen you for a couple of weeks.
• 0:32
  I'm still on the road. I haven't stopped being on the
• 0:34
  road. Where are you today?
• 0:35
  I'm coming you from a hotel in London, but I've been Barcelona,
• 0:39
  South of France. I was cricket went well.
• 0:42
  Just as an aside, the cricket went well, very well.
• 0:44
  And and the rugby you and why don't you start self, OK.
• 0:48
  I want to talk about how things are changing to become something
• 0:51
  so much a part of our lives without us realising things like
• 0:55
  singles Day, Black Friday, which didn't exist before and suddenly
• 0:59
  now is like the season for it. So when I was in China, I was
• 1:03
  really surprised to find out that singles day is like stretch
• 1:07
  for five weeks. So while 1111 is still the day,
• 1:11
  but every other conversation is like, oh, leading up to it.
• 1:14
  You can already buy this now the pre book this, pre buy this.
• 1:17
  So so that's happening. And then Black Friday, we all
• 1:20
  know that that's that used to be just one day or maybe stretch on
• 1:24
  the weekend with the following Monday.
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  But now it's like, I think 10 days one month.
• 1:32
  What's happening? Well, we all know what's
• 1:34
  happening is not doing as well as before, but you know, and so
• 1:37
  they're trying to lengthen the time so that they can do better
• 1:39
  and better and better. But I don't know if that's
• 1:42
  actually good for consumers are. You tell me about Black Friday
• 1:45
  in Southeast Asia. Is it?
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  Does it permeate through all countries?
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  This is a thing? How big is it?
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  So in Singapore is way bigger than Malaysia, for example,
• 1:53
  because the understanding what Black Friday is completely very
• 1:56
  different. Nobody's selling the idea what
• 1:58
  Black Friday is except that it is an e-commerce day.
• 2:01
  We all know the story of how how Black Friday started back in the
• 2:04
  States and back in I think the days where it is really about
• 2:10
  oh, the one day that you look forward to for e-commerce right
• 2:13
  before way before singles day. So in Malaysia, when we talk
• 2:17
  about Black Friday, it is often with what?
• 2:20
  But if you just talk about sales day at the end of the month
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  because you know their salary, then they will be picking it up
• 2:26
  very quickly. So it is not at the same speed
• 2:29
  in every country in Southeast Asia for Black Friday.
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  How's the line in Australia? Australia, that's what's going
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  to be my point. Australia is it's it's a monster
• 2:37
  of a day. And in fact, I was saying, but
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  before we started Black Friday, like you're talking about when I
• 2:43
  was a kid, it didn't exist. Like now it's like shifted the
• 2:46
  whole retail coming. I mean, as a a Christian
• 2:49
  country. So Christmas is a big deal,
• 2:51
  right? And really you can't if you want
• 2:52
  to run a show in Australia, you can't get a retailer turn up to
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  a show after September for a lot of money because it's getting
• 2:57
  ready for Black Friday through the disaster.
• 2:59
  But it starts at the start of of November.
• 3:01
  Like it's crazy. I'll be I I buy motorbike gear
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  and I am getting deals from the 1st of November.
• 3:07
  And but this, this period, what's really lovely about
• 3:10
  Australia is that in part from being being with part for
• 3:13
  myself, of course, is the fact that, you know, that this is
• 3:17
  starting to see look of some positive economic size.
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  So we're being told by Australian Retailers
• 3:23
  Association, the and some of the analysts.
• 3:26
  So we're talk, we're expecting Black Friday to be something in
• 3:29
  the magnitude of 5% bigger than last year and the biggest in
• 3:32
  recent history. So we're talking about 6.8
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  billion Australian or 4.4 billion US from Friday to
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  Monday. So over 4 days.
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  And it's and, and in terms of Australian dollars only the US
• 3:42
  $50 are probably about 6,000,000, but I would say it's
• 3:45
  probably that's probably 5 million.
• 3:47
  So, yeah, so it's the talking about roughly $800 Australian
• 3:50
  per person for the weekend space.
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  And people are sorry, people are shopping because of obviously
• 3:55
  bleeding into Christmas. They're buying stuff for
• 3:57
  themselves. They're looking for savings,
• 3:59
  right? That's the drivers.
• 4:00
  But you know, this is, you know, where's this is positive growth
• 4:04
  for retail in Australia. And it starts, it's the
• 4:06
  beginning of the season. So this weekend is massive and
• 4:09
  there's a lot of positive feeling in Australian retail.
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  Now I purchased something on LinkedIn a few weeks back, but
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  it's it's looking really, really positive.
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  And or, and the end it like as I was saying, you on Friday
• 4:20
  tomorrow on this at the end of this week, if you're in the
• 4:22
  office or you probably work from home on a Friday, that's
• 4:25
  probably more. No, I work in the office. 100%
• 4:29
  Alex is in a hotel in London. He doesn't even know where he
• 4:32
  is. But the point of that I'm making
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  is that is you're having, you're having a conversation with
• 4:38
  someone and they'll get an e-mail about a special and they
• 4:41
  go, can I just, can I just call you back in 10 minutes?
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  Because all the time bound you have to, you have to buy this a
• 4:46
  boat. And I've been getting emails
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  like this for like 30 days. I'm like losing my mind.
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  I'm like, Oh, I've got to, I've got, I can't even see that.
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  So it's like it's inside. It's crazy.
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  But the, the, the positive out of it, all of it is there's real
• 4:57
  green shoots. And we think in Australia
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  particularly from, from this, this Friday to Boxing Day, 26
• 5:02
  December, it's going to be our best series season in living
• 5:05
  memory because it's been pretty rugged for a long time.
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  And that's really good for from from a show organised point of
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  view. Because if when we take, when
• 5:11
  retailers are making sales and they've got smiles on their
• 5:14
  faces, they buy tickets to shows like ours, which is good.
• 5:17
  That's my way. Sure is true.
• 5:18
  What about Cyber Monday? Is that is that?
• 5:21
  Yeah, don't get anything. It's it's, it's just part of the
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  deal. It's, it's a, it's basically
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  it's all talked about as one festival.
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  So it's from from Friday to Monday.
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  Yeah. It's just, it's we we do quite
• 5:32
  often people say BFCM. Oh.
• 5:34
  Really. Wow.
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  I wouldn't know what that meant. And maybe you're like, are you
• 5:38
  doing BFCM? I'll be like, yeah.
• 5:41
  OK, cool. So I'll go with at the
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  conferences that I've been attending, one of the biggest
• 5:46
  differences that I noticed this year at mapping, which is
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  ultimately commercial real estate people that have got
• 5:51
  billion dollar shopping centres or assets in different European
• 5:56
  countries all come there to talk about.
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  And for the last five years it's been doom and gloom, shrinking
• 6:01
  assets, poor return on investment.
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  This year everyone feels that they've turned the corner and
• 6:06
  retail property is back. And so therefore one of the
• 6:10
  drivers of that in Europe, specifically European cities,
• 6:14
  Berlin, Madrid, London, Paris, is the fact that Asian retailers
• 6:19
  making comeback and some of those Asian come companies such
• 6:23
  as Balabalu, which is children's clothing and they have, I don't
• 6:27
  know, over 1000 stores already in Asia.
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  And Mr DIY, who? Actually Malaysian I.
• 6:34
  Know this one? Yeah, All right.
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  Yeah. And they're doing phenomenally
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  well and they've and they're black.
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  Who would think that you would blend retail, entertainment and
• 6:43
  DIY? But that is at the heart of what
• 6:46
  Mr DIY does. And so it's a fantastic, I think
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  into what could potentially be a multicultural High Street with
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  Asian retailers dominating in certain sectors that they've
• 6:59
  done well at home and and now they're expanding into Europe.
• 7:02
  So I think that's an interesting trend to watch.
• 7:05
  Coming back to you for you in for the second one.
• 7:07
  Yeah. So talking about expanding of
• 7:10
  expansion of a trend, there is a trend that I've not believed in
• 7:13
  and I want to say I'm still not believing in it because I, I
• 7:17
  kind of think, you know, setting up the infra just to do it is
• 7:20
  really too much. And the margin erosion is just
• 7:24
  going to be, I mean you're not going to make business that way.
• 7:27
  So I'm talking about quick commerce.
• 7:29
  So now a lot of people think quick commerce just from the
• 7:31
  front and side is like, oh, I'm doing this, I'm asking for, I'm
• 7:36
  buying it and it's going to come to me within an hour.
• 7:38
  And I think in South Korea or a lot part of the China, this is
• 7:42
  becoming less and less time. It can be 30 minutes, it can be
• 7:45
  15 minutes, it can be as quick as that.
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  And it's become like an everyday infrastructure.
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  So I guess in those countries, in certain very specific cities,
• 7:54
  I think it work really well because I think the way the
• 7:57
  roads or the way they've got it planned, the way they have got,
• 8:01
  you know, the, the sheer size of riders, I think that worked.
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  But in a country like many others, I mean, I was really
• 8:08
  sceptical when they talk about India picking up quick commerce.
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  And today India's quick commerce is even bigger and better ahead
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  than the traditional quick than the traditional commerce
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  e-commerce. I mean, so it's like, what?
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  I'm bad fault, but I'm still gonna stand strong.
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  No quick commerce in Malaysia, I'll tell you.
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  I'll tell you and I, we spoke. We spoke at NRF APEC.
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  We did. We got.
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  This we had we had big basket from India.
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  So are there a grocer speak and and and Ashutosh is the is he's
• 8:38
  only advisable that she's a lovely man and he's sort of a
• 8:41
  head of sort of last mile. So he's the guy who's
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  implementing like implementing it like it's insane.
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  And he talks about the market dynamics.
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  But you said to me, don't tell anyone about this, that we don't
• 8:51
  need to have anyone. No, you know, I mean, if you ask
• 8:57
  the customer, the customer is going to say, yeah, I want it,
• 9:00
  but it's really we can't deliver it.
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  That's the point and. And Ashutosh's point was too he
• 9:06
  he in his ass for big basket. They put delivery times against
• 9:10
  items and if they put a delivery time which is faster than
• 9:13
  something else, people want to buy the faster ones irrespective
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  if it was 7 minutes or 13 minutes.
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  Doesn't. You don't need it.
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  Maybe you don't. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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  Who needs something? Who needs an apple in 7 minutes?
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  I mean, maybe you do. I mean maybe you've got a
• 9:25
  teacher you need to give a present to.
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  But the point I'm trying to make is like like people were making
• 9:29
  this in diets. This is 7 minutes and this is 9
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  minutes. I'll buy the seven minute 1
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  because it like it'd be different types of bananas.
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  Result. It's like crazy anyway, so who
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  knows what this is? All the consumers.
• 9:37
  Here. OK, moving on to your reef for
• 9:39
  the final one. Right, so the fit to finish off,
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  we are going to talk about my favourite retailer in Asia.
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  I, I, I, I have a bit of a punch on for this retailer.
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  I'm going it's the Japanese. I'm going to share my screen.
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  How do I do this? I'm going to add to stage here
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  we go look at that. So this is Don Don Donkey.
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  This is Pan Pacific International Holdings.
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  They're the 4th. They have a whole, these guys
• 10:02
  have they're a retail conglomerate in Japan, they're
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  the fourth biggest in Japan. They've got outfits in Europe.
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  They've got all sorts of different things, but this is
• 10:08
  their sort of their sort of popular culture slash grosser
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  slash all sorts of things. So yeah, it's in, there's two
• 10:15
  sides in Singapore and they're all over Asian and it's a it's a
• 10:18
  juggernaut in Asia Pacific, particularly Southeast Asia.
• 10:20
  I mean, you and you've got it in Malaysia and you just can't walk
• 10:23
  into these stores and not buy something.
• 10:24
  It's just epic. Is this picture?
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  This picture is the one in Australia, is that right?
• 10:29
  No, we don't have them in Australia.
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  Not yet. No, no, I would.
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  I might ring. I might ring them and say, look,
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  you need to come to Australia, I'll take you because this is
• 10:39
  this. This place is awesome.
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  It's so. And it's a gross like.
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  It's a it's like food and snacks and and groceries are.
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  Fruits are known for they they actually like everything.
• 10:49
  Yeah, so anything Japanese culture, like, you know, things
• 10:51
  like anime get things long Hello Hello Kitty pop stuff.
• 10:57
  Very interesting food. Yeah, 100 all kinds of and you
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  it's also you walk in and it's very hard to get out so.
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  You can't see the road out aside from that and the music is on
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  repeat is on rewind is the same song.
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  Anyone in Southeast, anyone in Southeast Asia knows the Don Don
• 11:18
  Donkey track and probably could. If I said to you and sing the
• 11:21
  Don Don Donkey song, you just whip it out.
• 11:25
  But what what Pan Pacific Holdings is doing?
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  I want to talk about the still because the concepts also, it's
• 11:30
  a real tourist destination driver.
• 11:31
  So it's and then it's a destination retail.
• 11:34
  So in Singapore, for example, there's only two sites, one in
• 11:36
  Suntec and one in Orchard Rd. But in Japan, the Japanese yen
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  has been the weakest it's been since the 1970s.
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  It's really struggling. And so there's been obviously
• 11:45
  massive growth in retail tourism.
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  And to meet that demand, PPIH Don Don Dokies owners have
• 11:52
  announced they're launching destination retail for tourists
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  in Japan. So in Osaka, in Tokyo there and
• 11:59
  a bunch of other bigger cities, there'll be, there's 8 new
• 12:02
  stores, 300 square metres to 1000 square metres.
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  They're not small stores, right? Big to capitalise on people who
• 12:09
  are coming to Japan and wanting a retailer tourism experience.
• 12:13
  And this is, this is, you know, what would you say you?
• 12:16
  And it's the epitome of Japanese retail in terms of the way it
• 12:19
  looks and feels. Yeah, and the way they buy, the
• 12:21
  way tourists buy is not the same like how a normal customer will
• 12:24
  buy. Yeah.
• 12:25
  It's not about buying and putting in the basket.
• 12:28
  It's about buying and putting it into a luggage.
• 12:30
  So you, you you could go in without luggage and you could
• 12:33
  buy luggages at Don Don Donkey. You live with maybe say, 3
• 12:37
  luggages of all kinds. That's crazy, you know?
• 12:41
  This looks like, for me an an extension like Mini.
• 12:43
  So who again is another Asian retailer?
• 12:46
  Yeah, yeah, phenomenally well. But the interesting thing about
• 12:50
  Donkey is how it's being run and also how how every store is so
• 12:56
  empowered to just sort of do their kind of marketing, do
• 13:00
  their kind of decoration, do their very it's.
• 13:03
  Very non Japanese in terms of command and control.
• 13:06
  Japan is very much down structure, whereas Don Donkey is
• 13:09
  completely counter to that. So I reckon for most Japanese
• 13:12
  retailers, this would blow their mind in terms of the way they're
• 13:15
  managed. As you and said, the stores are
• 13:17
  totally empowered to to do their own thing.
• 13:19
  The store managers put the sale prices up.
• 13:21
  They do that. They make the decisions of how
• 13:23
  their store runs and that's very Japanese too, which is, which
• 13:26
  makes it unique. Oh, fantastic.
• 13:28
  Well, that's. Brilliant.
• 13:28
  Well, listen, we, we've hit our time.
• 13:31
  Thank you so much for giving up your time and sharing what's top
• 13:35
  of mind for you. And I look forward to seeing you
• 13:38
  next. Week, thank you very.
• 13:39
  Marcelini, see you again.