2022-08-04

91APP (Stock code: 6741), the first SaaS company listed in Taiwan, released the “2022 D2C Brand Commerce Whitepaper”. The report found that 81% of brands have increased their investment in managing members across all channels to enhance marketing and sales efficiency in response to the D2C (Direct-to-Consumer) trend. Furthermore, in addition to integrating omni-channel system services for D2C digital deployment, 73% of brand owners believe that “store clerks with digital empowerment” is the successful key to OMO (Offline-merge-online) transformation.

According to this survey, successful OMO transformation for retail companies depends on creating value for “consumers,” “store clerks,” and “brands”, including creating a seamless shopping experience across all channels for consumers, increasing store clerks’ performance through both offline and online channels, and facilitating growth cycles for brands through breaking down the barriers of online and offline.

One of the successful keys of OMO is “store clerks”

Steven Ho, Chairman at 91APP, known as the godfather of e-Commerce in Taiwan, emphasized that store clerks are the front line of brick-and-mortar retailers to serve consumers. While they are skilled in direct communication and interaction with consumers through their personal Instagram and LINE accounts to increase their personal sales performance, the majority of the brand headquarters have yet to implement effective strategies to support their store clerks in the digital realm, including digital services and sales. Even though some brands have deployed digital platforms and e-Commerce tools, without proper performance incentives such as profit-sharing to motivate store clerks to promote e-Commerce, so that store clerks’ performance can be increased in both online and offline channels, the brands may not only lose consumers easily, but also fail to achieve omni-channel membership management. Besides, the store clerks may also have difficulties to cooperate, resulting in an inability to achieve the growth momentum of OMO.

Steven stated that the layout of OMO is more than just introducing e-Commerce and integrating systems. The key is to enable store clerks to encourage more consumers to participate in the OMO cycle, which can stimulate sales and promote performance growth. According to this survey, the brand owners believe that “store clerks with digital empowerment” is a crucial factor affecting brand growth after OMO transformation. Among successful OMO brands, an average of 25% of online sales can be attributed to store clerks’ efforts, demonstrating that the service value of store clerks transcends channel limitations and significantly drives brands’ omni-channel performance.

Brick-and-mortar retailers and store clerks are the biggest advantages of offline retail. Steven suggested that brands should first identify their core competitiveness and then integrate digital capabilities to maximize efficiency.

The value of D2C is to assist retail brands in accumulating first-party data

From the point of view of brands, the critical value of D2C operations is that consumer behavior and data from omni-channel of members can be integrated into the brand’s own retail data center. This allows brands to analyze and identify different consumer groups with various product preferences and purchase frequencies, leading to the development of targeted communication strategies, so as to contribute to precision marketing and increase efficiency.

91APP assists brands in gaining insights into consumer behavior and needs through Marketing Cloud’s analysis models and data tools. Effective member segmentation can be achieved based on consumers’ activity levels, recent purchase probabilities, and product preferences. Through this segmentation, brands can plan marketing materials and tailor messages for different consumer groups, and leverage APP push notifications to increase member e-Commerce ordering rates and offline store traffic. By adopting data-driven omni-channel operations, brands can achieve success with the support of 91APP.

D2C is the mega trend of e-Commerce, but many brands have no clue to achieve D2C even though they are willing to implement transformation. Steven stated that the most effective way for brick-and-mortar retailers to exploit the advantages of D2C e-Commerce, since OMO can extract the benefits of brick-and-mortar retailers, so as to quickly enter the D2C e-Commerce market and grasp the key to digital transformation success.

The “2022 D2C Brand Commerce Whitepaper” includes observations on the digital transformation of retail brands, big data analysis from OMO brands, and survey data from main brand operators in various categories, such as clothing accessories, beauty and health, home living, 3C electronics, gourmet specialties, and maternal and child supplies, to provide a strategic basis for companies that are in the process of transformation.

For more information, please refer to 91APP’s “2022 D2C Brand Commerce Whitepaper”. (available in Chinese only)