# READYWIN WITH THE EVOLVING DIGITAL CONSUMER

Marina Bay Sands, Singapore21st November, 2018

Exclusive Insights From

Staying Ready for the Connected Consumer

Maya Hari, VP, Twitter,

APAC

Rajan Anandan VP, Google, India & SEA

Johan VranckenMD, Nielsen,

Singapore

Conor McNamaraHead, Business Development,

AWS, APAC

Exponential advancements in technology, the proliferation of mobile devices and instant access to the cloud have empowered consumers like never before. Consumers now live in an Easyverse™, where they expect businesses to understand their needs intimately and design connected experiences that are instant, easy and personalised.

But do retailers and brands have what it takes to meet the ever-changing expectations of the ‘Connected Consumer’?

#Ready brought together some of Asia’s most influential retailers, investors and technology leaders who shared insights on the evolving retail and consumer landscape, and discussed what leaders can do to accelerate the process of getting ready for consumers.

The sessions featured

• In-depth analysis of consumer data from Twitter and Nielsen that helped get a better understanding of the ‘Connected Consumer’ • Inspirational leadership lessons from Google, Amazon, Sequoia, Warburg Pincus and Amex• Technological innovations from China • Impact of futuristic technologies like AI and blockchain on retail brands• Insights on how brands can shift their business strategy and processes to win with the connected consumer, and how Capillary can help

Understanding the ‘Connected Consumer’

APAC’s 2 billion-strong internet users are growing by 8% annually and the region’s digital economy is projected to top US$1.12 trillion by 2021. To cash in on this multi-billion dollar opportunity, businesses need to first understand the connected consumer - their preferences, motives, and triggers, and effectively use this information to design exceptional consumer experiences. Here are some insights into APAC’s Connected Consumer according to Nielsen

• 98% of APAC consumers have made an online purchase, 3% higher than the global average of 95% • On average they spend 6.5 hours online every day and expect brands to create a delightful experience at every turn• Connected consumers invest in experiences, spend heavily on travel, events, gaming, and consumer electronics

Speaker : Johan Vrancken, MD, Nielsen, Singapore

The rise of the ‘Millennial Shopper’

While brands prepare to focus on the connected consumer, they should also pay specific attention to an important consumer segment - The Millennial Shopper. By 2020, half of the world's millennials will be from Asia.

According to Twitter, millennials are

1. Tech-savvy & tech-addicted: • Hyperconnected and consume content faster and in larger volumes with a particular affinity to videos • They can remember and recall content in just 0.25 seconds, faster than any other generations • 42% of Asian millennials shop on mobiles every week and 69% of millennials prefer shopping only on mobile devices

2. They are driven by purpose and equality • 75% of them expect brands to contribute to their wellness • They want brands to stand for a cause or support a movement • 57% of them will buy or boycott a brand based on its position on a social/ political issue

3. They are travel and fitness-obsessed • 76% of them are constantly scouting for new places and experiences • 65% only look for holiday information just prior to booking • Clean eating and fitness are a priority

Speaker : Maya Hari, VP, Twitter, APAC

The New Gen Leader

To attract, engage and retain the connected consumer, businesses need to look beyond conventional approaches and rely on technology to address changing consumer needs effectively. However, adopting technology alone is insufficient, the most significant change needed is in the mindset of business leaders.

#Ready showcased inspirational sessions on how Google, Amazon and leading investment firms like Sequoia, Warburg Pincus and Amex enable their leaders to succeed in a disruptive world.

Unlock 10X Innovation

Google empowers its leaders by encouraging them to think big and by creating an environment where it is ok to fail.

Here are 7 leadership tips to unlock 10X Innovation

• Moonshot Thinking - If you are going to do something, it usually takes the same amount of work to improve 10% and 10X times. Think differently and reimagine the problem to obtain 10X results • Have an audacious vision and confidence in yourself and your team. • Create an environment where failure is ok. Moonshot projects usually fail. But some will succeed and they will compensate for the failures• Don't micromanage, empower employees instead. But make sure the leadership team is aware of progress in all projects• Have enough things so that even if a few things work it will dramatically increase success• Analyse why things didn't work and if it can’t be fixed stop it quickly. Don’t experiment forever• Nobody remembers your failures except you. You are remembered for the big wins. So focus on achieving many big wins and don’t agonise over your failures

Speaker : Rajan Anandan, VP, Google, India & SEAand Richa Goswami, Head of Total Brand Experience, Asia Pacific, Johnson&Johnson

It’s Always ‘Day One’ Mindset

No lesson on leadership will be complete without mentioning Amazon. The retail behemoth has 600,000 employees, is 24 years old and worth over $1 Trillion. Yet founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos believes that every day is day one. ‘Day One’ means that Amazon will always act like a startup. To act like a startup, Bezos requires Amazon employees to do four things.

• Be obsessed with the customer • Focus on results over process • Make high-quality decisions quickly • Embrace external trends quickly

Adopting this ideology can help businesses stay agile, nimble and ready to meet the needs of the connected consumer.

Speaker : Conor McNamara, Head, Business Development, APAC, AWS

Lead with Empathy and Curiosity

Leaders from private equity and major investment firms have a ringside view of high performing startups and businesses. They shared their insights on how effective leadership ensures that an organisation scales, undergoes transformation and remains attractive to investors.

Lessons on scaling • Focus on making decisions fast instead of finding the perfect solution • Don’t try to scale too quickly. Spend time on building the product & platform and invest in the right technology and people • Focus on getting the unit economics right before scaling as it will help during tough times

Staying an attractive investment • Have an ambitious vision for the future and the ability to take calculated risks • Establish your core values and mission and ensure that all decisions are guided by it • Be open to learn and unlearn fast and foster a culture of ownership

Managing Disruption • If you don't disrupt somebody is going to do it for you. Figure out how your business can be disrupted and do it before it is too late • Transformation and disruption are constant. You need to keep enhancing your business every day

Strategy Vs Execution • Focus on building a great strategy then execute it relentlessly. Otherwise, you'll go really fast in the wrong directions • Strategies are now common and available for everyone to replicate. The difference between winners and losers is defined by how well the strategy is executed

The panel concluded that leading with empathy, curiosity and a ‘Day One’ mindset will ensure that you create sustainable value for customers, employees, investors, and the community.

Speakers(L - R) : Hitesh Bharwani, Co-Founder & CEO, Kanmo Group, Vishal Mahadevia, MD Warburg Pincus, GV Ravishankar, MD, Sequoia Capital, India

and Harshul Sanghi, Head, Global Investments, American Express

Lessons from China’s E-commerce revolution

China has been spearheading disruption in the retail & e-commerce industry over the years. Understanding how they tap into unmet consumer needs and replicating some of the examples of disruptive technologies can equip leaders with the ability to satisfy the connected consumer.

Here are 3 rules you can follow to replicate China’s success

Rule 1: Give customers EXACTLY what they want - Or someone else will

• Focus on convenience and cost • Once you remove the resistance, the artificially suppressed demand is released. Digital tools have the ability to release latent demand • Remember that your business is not immune to disruption. If it can happen to bicycles, it can happen to any product or service

Rule 2: Digitise and reimagine Operations ASAP

• Reimagine business models based on ‘Independent Assets’ • It markets, sells and delivers the service all by itself. It doesn't need any support which means you can scale endlessly • Bike sharing exploded because it used powerful digital disruption that increased convenience • Most companies limit digitisation to improving processes rather than completely rethinking the business

Speaker : Jeffrey Towson, Prof. Peking University China & China Expert

Rule 3: Get ready for super platforms- And for industry boundaries to fall

• Consumers don’t need separate apps for similar services. Try to get all your offerings integrated into one experience • Move into different industries where your consumers can be served - Alibaba is building hotels • We may end up in a world where consumers will have access to 15 - 20 Super Apps that cover everything about 1 aspect of life (mobility, healthcare, entertainment etc.)

E-commerce in China is growing at an explosive pace. Here are some of the implementations we can expect in the near future • Cashierless stores and automated warehouses that can connect with them • Alibaba will launch fully automated hotels with smart devices and robot staff • Fully digitised retail stores by JD.com and Alibaba

We don't even know how a supermarket will look like in the next 3-5 years. For consumers, everything is nice. For platforms, it's amazing. For content creators, it is great. But merchants and brands will get turned upside down. People will follow the phone.

The future of retail is a race, where logistics will be a critical entity and people who don't have assets like data will feel left behind.

Creating value in the evolving retail landscape

In the Connected World, businesses will have to think beyond process-centricity and customer-centricity to create value.

Here’s how businesses can transform their operations and get ready for the connected consumer

• Understand the Connected Consumer and their needs • Customer data will be the holy grail for personalisation. Create processes and systems that identify true customer identity • Deliver insights-based personalisation • Think beyond transactional data and focus on using behavioural and psychographic data • Contextual Marketing, Content Personalisation, Personalised Products & Services will be integral parts of the connected experience • The common theme amongst successful brands in the connected world is the ability to use Design Thinking to reimagine the customer engagement experience

Answer these questions before setting off on the road to digital transformation

• Do you map customer journey and personas? • Do you understand customer behaviour? • Is your customer data useful? • Are your customer interactions contextual and relevant? • Do you have the right team, tools, and processes to support customers?

To succeed in the connected world, organisations need to reimagine their business model with the connected consumer at its core. Merely investing in tools will not suffice, organisations need to design process to optimise employee training and establish smart processes to delight the connected consumer.

Speaker: Krishnakumar Natarajan, Executive Chairman, Mindtree | Panel (R - L): Aadarsh Baijal, Partner, Bain, Mukesh Valiram, Executive Director, Valiram Group, Karen Chan,Head of Digital, APAC, C & J Clark,

Victor Loh, Head of Loyalty/Digital Marketing, Petronas and Badri Narayanan, Global VP, B2B Ecommerce & Route to Market, Unilever

The Impact of AI & Blockchain on Businesses

AI and Blockchain have been making ripples across customer experience, supply chain, financial services and more. According to our experts, while AI has made significant strides in enabling retailers and brands, however, blockchain technologies are not yet matured enough to see full-fledged applications.

Here are some key insights from the discussions

• AI can significantly impact retail by enabling customer tracking, personalised recommendations, dynamic pricing, etc.• However, AI is still not mature enough to replace personal interactions• Blockchain will have major applications in supply chain and logistics in the near future

Speakers : Subrat Panda, Head of AI, Capillary Tech , Anjali Kumari, Senior Director, Product Capillary Tech | Panel (R - L): Ram Ramchandran,CEO ZPX, HongZhuang Lim, CEO, XSQ,

Pavel Bains, CEO, Bluzelle and Darius Sit, Managing Partner, QCP Capital

How Capillary helps accelerate the process of being Ready for the Connected Consumer

Capillary’s technology solutions help businesses get ahead of the digital evolution and stay ‘Always Consumer Ready’. Over 300 marquee brands across 30+ countries, including Pizza Hut, VF Brands, Walmart, Al-Futtaim, Valiram, KFC, Starbucks, Madura Garments, Courts and Samsung, trust Capillary to enable easy and seamless consumer experiences. With over 300 million consumers and 35,000 stores on the platform, Capillary is Asia’s leading SaaS product company.

Here’s how Capillary helps your brand to stay Customer Ready

Understand Your Consumer

• Gather consumer data from all touch points and get a single view of the connected consumer • Understand consumer journeys, behaviour and preferences to enable data-driven marketing, and personalise experiences. • Run surveys, gather feedback, analyse results, and take actions to improve Net Promoter Score • Capture cross-channel clickstream data to engage consumers at the right moment • Optimise your marketing campaigns through insights gained from timely retail analytics reports

Speaker : Aneesh Reddy, Co-Founder & CEO, Capillary Technologies

Personalise Every Engagement

• Build effective campaigns and improve your marketing RoI easily • Create relevant and personalised promotions and offers • Experience the power of real-time customer engagement while gaining from end to end data privacy and double authorisation • Know each consumer’s channel preference to enable targeted communication through the right channel and with the right context • Leverage dynamic offers to send personalised rewards at each and every interaction • Bring personalisation and immediacy in your interactions with your consumers on social channels to create an aspirational, friendly and relevant brand

Deliver Omnichannel Experiences

• Improve purchase experience and get a single view of orders, inventory, and maximise conversions by enabling consistent, connected experiences between your physical and digital assets • Offer your customers the freedom to order anywhere and at anytime • Build chatbots, native mobile apps, PWAs or social apps to enrich your consumer’s commerce experience • Allow consumers to browse your entire inventory and never lose an in-store sale due to an out of stock product • Get a real-time, single view of pending orders and available inventory across physical, online stores, warehouses, and marketplaces. • Marry the entire user journey - create an integrated ordering, payment and delivery ecosystem

Maximise Customer Loyalty

• Build and manage your loyalty programs easily with a mobile-first, automated solution • Online or offline, allow your consumers to earn and redeem rewards instantly • Build dedicated loyalty program apps and deliver a seamless mobile experience • Create event-based triggers that reward consumers at the right time in the purchase cycle • Promote cross-shopping by bringing consumers of your sister or partner brands under a single umbrella • Facilitate rich consumer loyalty experiences with a holistic view of all consumer activity across channels

Unlock the Potential of AI

• Reduce the dependence on data analysts and make decisions with zero effort • Auto detect the best campaigns, offers, and channels for every customer • Personalise offers, messages, products, and channels at the moment of interaction • Identify consumers and personalise the experience right from first touch point and throughout the entire journey • Automate reporting and understand changes in business over a given period of time • Drive sales growth through personalised recommendations

How Capillary Helps Offline Retailers

There is a major data divide between Offline and Online Retailers. Bridging the data divide is important to give offline retailers a fighting chance. We have enabled stores to use microphones and cameras in a non-intrusive manner to help gather insights on

• How many customers visit your store • Which demographics they belong to • Where do they spend time in your store • What are they talking about

There’s a new retail renaissance underway. Brands that get the elements of transformation right and stays consumer ready will be poised to unlock immense growth opportunities. Capillary is proud to be at the forefront of leading this exciting new era of innovation.

Find Out How Capillary Helps Global Brands Stay Consumer Ready!Visit https://www.capillarytech.com/customers/ to learn more.

Additional ResourcesTo view the video recordings, testimonials and images from #Ready, visit https://www.capillarytech.com/ready-event/

The Way Ahead