Featured in CommonWealth Magazine (Read original post)
Online shopping demand continues to grow, with Taiwan’s 2022 retail online sales reaching a record high of NT$493 billion (US$15.1 billion), according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs. However, data from the Mirai Business Research Institute shows that the growth rate of “pure play e-Commerce” peaked in Q2 2021 and has been gradually slowing down, with a growth rate of only 0.76% in Q1 2023.
The <91APP Retail Research> revealed another aspect of the retail industry – OMO brands saw consecutive annual performance growth from 2020 to 2022, mainly benefiting from the virtual-physical flow driven by brick-and-mortar stores, leading to e-Commerce growth and an overall expansion of physical retail. This indicates that the virtual-physical channel fluidity in the Taiwanese market has opened the way to a mature OMO omni-channel era.
However, as consumers become more accustomed to navigating between virtual and physical channels, brands need help to collect complete transaction trajectories and optimize the omni-channel shopping experience to increase sales growth.
What is the next growth driver for retail brands? How can Super Apps, which satisfy consumers’ diverse needs, help brands consolidate their OMO advantage?
Providing Diverse Services and Experiences! Super Apps Help Brands Continuously Create Operating Benefits
Super Apps can help brands fully unleash their omni-channel operation tactics in the mature OMO era. Their key value lies in providing one-stop functions, including shopping, payment, and membership within a single APP, allowing consumers to break free from switching between multiple tools in OMO scenarios and enjoy a seamless omni-channel shopping experience. This also enables brands to create benefits across channel integration, member management, and data application, solving the problem of slowing growth and generating subsequent benefits.
- Channel Integration: Integrate the fragmented behaviors of consumers navigating virtual and physical channels, providing the most convenient and suitable transaction method to meet diverse shopping needs.
- Member Management: Flexibly design festival marketing campaigns tailored to “individuals” and “occasions,” launching promotions such as coupons, point accumulation, and gift redemption to attract new customers and activate members.
- Data Application: Integrate virtual and physical data to gain insights into transaction trends, precisely aim at target audience for precision marketing, and launch best-selling product bundles to boost sales.
Three Key Implementation Guidelines for Building a Customized Super App
Retail brands looking to introduce Super Apps can refer to the following suggestions and formulate implementation guidelines based on their brand requirements:
Consolidate E-Commerce and Brick-and-Mortar Store Consensus
Many brands often face the challenge of inconsistent performance and expectations between brick-and-mortar stores and e-Commerce, making the OMO journey relatively winding. According to 91APP’s observation, the common trait of successful OMO-adopting brands is their ability to eliminate conflicts between departments and channels while providing brick-and-mortar stores with a comprehensive support mechanism.
Therefore, when building a Super App, brands must reach an internal consensus before discussing integration needs and provide brick-and-mortar stores with comprehensive training to ensure that all parties benefit from OMO.
Build Super App Functions Based on Targeted Objectives
Super Apps allow brands to add necessary functions based on different task-oriented goals. If a brand wants to enhance member management, the Super App should display membership levels, upgrade qualifications, and provide real-time inquiry services of spending and membership points.
Furthermore, suppose a brand wants to deepen OMO operations. In that case, the Super App should offer features like BOPIS (buy online pickup in-store), split delivery, digital stamp, and flexible point redemption across channels, creating more motives for consumers to experience both the virtual and physical channel.
Collaborate with Partners with Both Technical and Experiential Capabilities
Partnering with technically and experientially capable partners is crucial for strategically reducing Super App implementation risks. By discussing with external partners and referring to industry implementation experiences, brands can avoid falling into “technical debt” situations and reduce future additional development and operational burdens.
For instance, when assisting POYA in developing a Super App, 91APP initially gathered input and agreement from various departments within POYA to outline the essential functions and services. 91APP then utilized its expertise in the retail industry to collaboratively design a smooth member cross-channel consumption process, enhancing the OMO shopping experience and supporting POYA in upholding its prominent position in the beauty retail sector.
Brands Introduce the Most Fitting Tool Based on Development, Imbuing OMO with New Value
Reviewing the retail market in recent years, OMO has become the main theme for business development, helping brands integrate virtual and physical channel resources to eliminate online and offline boundaries and meet consumers’ diverse shopping needs.
Brands’ OMO investment processes vary, and they can choose appropriate application tools based on their current development goals and scale. 91APP suggests that brands should first establish consistent awareness of OMO goals across departments, try using universal omni-channel retail solutions to solidify the OMO foundation, and then introduce more advanced OMO tools based on their operational status and requirements.
For example, in a brand’s OMO race, the APP plays an important role, providing a smooth mobile native interface and personalized push notifications to deepen member management gradually. The advanced Super App function helps the brand eliminate departmental parochialism and unleash the app’s diverse applications, refining more potential OMO value.
Super Apps can create more OMO possibilities and drive new business trajectories for brands. Therefore, by introducing Super Apps at the appropriate development stage and aligning with their operational strategies, brands can build stronger growth momentum through diverse and refined services.
