Bringing events to the way we shop now: PretePop’s platform for virtual retail events
Written by: Jungmin (Jamie) Kim
COVID has changed the way we shop. Among the trends we see in Asia-Pacific region, here are some of the eye-grabbing ones:
1. Going online — This is a visible one in our day-to-day. Bain/Facebook’s Southeast Asia digital consumer behavior study this year also revealed that 30% of the consumers shopped online for something they usually bought offline. 84% of them tried new apps. In Japan and Australia where ecommerce adoption has been relatively low, its growth has been even more eminent, especially amongst the older generation. Across Asia-Pacific, digitalization of all steps of the purchase funnel is in progress.
2. Live commerce– China, where live commerce was born, experienced an even bigger boom in livestreaming sales during the pandemic. While no other country in the region match up to China on live commerce adoption, it has gained far more traction this year as a new form of shopping that integrates entertainment, social interactions, and information consumption in online space.
Many Korean retailers have already adopted livestreaming as a new sales channel, with the blessing of the government. In Southeast Asia, leading ecommerce players like Lazada and Shopee have also been scaling up livestream-based sales. Even in the absence of an influencer-based ecosystem like in China, viewers are connecting for the brands.
3. Cross-border shopping — Cross-border commerce took a blow in countries when travel restrictions and lockdowns were imposed. There are however signs of it rebounding to its original level after the worst periods, for example in China, Korea, Hong Kong. As online shopping grows around the world, Chinese companies are shipping more goods out of China. Japanese companies are selling to Chinese market using live commerce. All are catching on the wave of digital adoption and where demands are growing.
While these trends were observable in the region in recent years, COVID has accelerated and morphed them into shopping patterns of the new normal. They will likely continue into the future.
PretePop’s offerings seem to be riding on these trends. But the company was actually founded before the 2020 global pandemic. From its inception, it was the region’s unique SaaS platform provider for retail events, supporting the entire online purchase funnel until checkout.
And it is now bringing the retail events to the way shop today — virtually, in highly interactive and connected form, and across borders. It offers dynamic and easy to use templates for organizers of various events, including retail shopping fairs, trade shows, festivals, summits, and brand-owned events, with seamless support service throughout the entire organization process. If you are a brand or event organizer, contact the team for demo.