The future of omnichannel retail in Asia is inspiring. With the barriers to omnichannel integration falling, consumers are more comfortable switching channels and purchasing goods online, while retailers are evolving beyond physical retail stores to become full-service providers of products, services and experiences.

Today on The Negotiation, we continue our conversation with Patrick Deloy, who is a Managing Director at Merkle, an award-winning e-commerce solutions provider which supports medium to large B2C and B2B companies with the planning, development, localization and long-term support of multi-country e-commerce website deployments in the APAC region.

Patrick’s insights on the future of omnichannel retail in Asia and beyond are a must-listen for all retailers, e-commerce businesses and product owners. He shares his thoughts from the perspective of both a storeowner and an e-commerce entrepreneur trying to figure out how online and offline retail will coexist in the future.

Please enjoy!

Topics Discussed and Key Points:

The merging of omnichannel retail consumers in Asia and the metaverse.
Prominent trends following COVID's emergence.
How curbside pickup became popular.
Why there's still plenty of room for growth in omnichannel retail in Asia.
The fractured ecosystem across APAC.
The concept of total commerce
The partner ecosystem and why it is critical
Why customer experience is everything and how to enable superior customer experience.
The future of offline retail and what customers expect from offline retail.

Notable Quotes

“A lot of people, you know, had an interest in the metaverse, even though they did not know what it really was.”

“South Korea itself is not, you know, a huge country, but it's one of the largest, you know, crypto markets.”

“The response, obviously, to the emergence of COVID in countries across APAC has been very varied.”

“There’s still a big pool of, you know, consumers that have not, you know, done a lot of, you know, online commerce transactions, yet, you know, have not ordered a lot on DTC channels online.”

“Consumers will more and more expect that whatever they do offline is reflected online, whatever they do online is recognized offline.”

“Asian markets have become so important for most international brands that they know, you know, they can't screw it up, right, they have to get it right.”

“There has to be a layer of, you know, centralization, and, you know, enough room for localization as well.”

“Well for us Customer Experience is everything, really, the way we look at it, really only a superior customer experience will make consumers real and loyal advocates for the brand. So only, you know, superior customer experience can help brands as well to outgrow their competition.”

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