Ryf Quail returns energized from New Zealand to join Alex Rezvan in dissecting fascinating retail shifts across APAC. They delve into consumer mobility, the impact of currency fluctuations on shopping behaviors, the evolution of rational brand loyalty programs, and emerging quick-commerce opportunities, including rapid jewellery delivery in India. Plus, a deep dive into how Korean brands Musinsa and Coupang are reshaping regional retail dynamics amid China’s efforts to boost domestic spending.
APAC retail, Gen Z shopping, brand loyalty, quick commerce, Musinsa, Coupang, CaratLane, consumer trends, retail strategy, Asia-Pacific markets.
0:00 – Intro & Ryf’s New Zealand Ski Trip
1:21 – Consumer Mobility & Japan’s Tourism-Driven Retail Growth
2:41 – Cross-Border Shopping: Hong Kong & Southern China
3:16 – Singapore-Malaysia Border Retail Dynamics
4:27 – Gen Z & the Erosion of Brand Loyalty
5:43 – Rational Loyalty Programs: Hong Kong & Indonesia
6:59 – Love Bonito’s Innovative Loyalty Experiences
9:59 – Korean Retail Expansion: Musinsa & Coupang
11:47 – China’s Push for Increased Domestic Consumption
13:24 – India’s Jewellery Quick-Commerce Revolution
16:27 – Closing Remarks & Fun Wrap-Up
1. Consumer Mobility:
Japan’s weakened yen boosted tourism-driven retail, with up to 20% of Tokyo’s retail spending from tourists.
2. Cross-border Retail:
Consumers in Hong Kong and Singapore regularly cross borders (to China and Malaysia) for cheaper goods, services, and fuel.
3. Loyalty Shifts:
Gen Z prioritizes rational decisions over emotional brand attachment, reshaping loyalty programs.
Programs like Hong Kong’s U-REWARDS (7-Eleven) engage 60% of the local population.
Indonesia’s Alpha Mart generates 60% of its revenue through its loyalty program.
4. Innovative Retail Experiences:
Brands like Love Bonito leverage physical experiences (Partner Benches) as a unique loyalty driver.
5. Korean Retail Expansion:
Musinsa expands from an online giant in Korea to physical stores in Shanghai, responding strategically to prior investments by Alibaba into Korea.
Coupang is rapidly growing across Asia due to strong cultural exports (K-pop, beauty, fashion).
6. China’s Economic Policy Shift:
China’s new economic priority focuses on boosting domestic consumption amid slower internal growth.
7. India’s Quick-Commerce Boom:
Jewellery delivery in under 50 minutes by platforms like Swiggy, with major retailers like CaratLane capitalizing on urban India’s quick-commerce infrastructure.
Musinsa expansion insights sourced from Jing Daily and Musinsa official site.
Coupang’s regional growth supported by insights from Korea Herald and Coupang website.
China’s consumption policy shift referenced from SCMP article.
Quick-commerce jewellery data from CaratLane and analysis from India Retailing.
Key Insights from the Transcript and Articles:
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello and welcome back to another awesome edition of Five
Things Friday and Mr Reef Quail is back.
Thank you, Alex. I've had a wonderful time in New
(00:21):
Zealand skiing with my family. It's not something I've done for
a long time, but it was a wonderful trip and I've come
back a little bit euphoric actually, just having such a
wonderful time with the kids andmy wife was awesome.
Sorry, I'm ready to go. I'm I'm glad to see you back and
I'm glad to see you back in one piece.
All limbs attached and none are broken.
I am a little battled and bruised I must say.
(00:42):
Oh, OK, All right. And for the sharp eye to
listener or watcher, you'll see that Laura is missing.
Unfortunately, Laura's had an emergency of a baby kind and so
she's not able to join us today.But hopefully you should be back
with us on the on the podcast next week.
So Reef, why don't we start withyou and just jump straight into
(01:03):
this? But what's what's top of mind
for you? I think there's a few things,
there's a few things fighting around.
I think the first thing I think as I've dug into this region and
become and moved around, you could really see how mobile the
consumer is in the shoppers in this region and all the time
(01:23):
consumers are taking advantage of moment in time opportunities.
In recent times, we've seen the weakening of the yen in Japan.
And so what's happened is we've seen this amazing surge of
tourism to Japan and Japan is quite a static market in terms
of population. In fact it's shrinking, but
(01:44):
we're seeing growth in retail inJapan and in major retail
precincts 10 to up to 20% of retail spend is driven by
tourism. Now that is mind blowing, right?
You know, major retail precinct in Tokyo, maybe up to 20% of the
(02:06):
of the retail spend is coming from a tourism dollar.
That's a massive achievement fora retailer and that's a big
portion. And then 20% could be a
difference spend, you know, making a lot of money and and
just breaking even, you know, sothat's pretty, pretty
interesting. Then you're seeing, the other
thing you're seeing in the region is there is disparity
between markets. So if you think about Hong Kong
(02:28):
and Southern China as regions, as part of China, Hong Kong has
the legacy of of price, whereas if you drive across the Causeway
into Southern China, things are a lot cheaper.
So what's what we've discovered is that people are prepared to
invest time to find particularlycommodities and things that are
(02:51):
cheaper. So the traditional behaviour in
southern in Hong Kong and southern China is to drive
across the Causeway from Hong Kong to China on Saturday to buy
petrol. Yeah.
To buy groceries, to buy clothes, to buy anything,
because it is just so much cheaper.
More closer to home, because I spent a bit of time in
Singapore, you know, there's a little bridge that drives from
(03:12):
Singapore up to Malaysia to a place called JB or Java Hall.
And so that area is also quite fascinating because Singaporeans
now have their insurance covers Malaysian dentistry.
So they cross the Causeway againinto Malaysia and are buying,
buying obviously services, dentistry, massage to to clothes
(03:38):
and food and what have you. And, and driving back in.
There's some contentious around petrol because petrol pricing is
different on either side of the border too.
But yeah, the law says you don'tlet it come back, leave with
half a tank of gas. You've got to leave with a full
tank of gas. I think.
So there's though something. So people, I think over time
will see those, those, there'll be equalisation around the
(03:59):
region. But right now people are really
taking advantage of currency andTier 1 and Tier 2 markets.
And they're not afraid to it's and they're and they're quite a
vert about it, which is interesting.
Yeah, when you think about the region.
So that's by #1 and, and I thinkclever retailers, we'll start to
think about taking advantage of these moments in time.
(04:20):
The second thing that really interesting, I don't think it's,
I don't think it's unique to Asia Pacific is, is the
discussions around brand loyalty.
We a few weeks ago we talked about Gen Z and we can never
stop talking about Gen Z becausein the next five years.
Yeah. Excuse me, They'll be the
dominant part of the retail spend, but these guys are also
(04:41):
the most connected group. So they actually have the
ability to find information about anything online really
quickly. If they don't go through the
research process, they almost feel a bit of buyer's remorse.
Have they made the right decision?
Right. Yeah.
And you can see it with their politics.
You can see it with their retailexperience.
So what you're seeing is this erosion of brand loyalty because
(05:05):
they're so connected that they're making the, the the
rational is overcoming the emotional part of brand loyalty
because it becomes a very rational decision when when
you've got so much information at your fingertips.
It's the tension. You know, we in the car industry
talk about do I buy a do I buy asports car or do I buy a Volvo
1's a rational decision and one's an emotional decision.
(05:26):
You know, when rational and emotional clutter.
It's very interesting. So what you're seeing is this,
this supplementation of brands by manufactured loyalty
programmes and in Asia and Asia Pacific particularly, loyalty
programmes are enormous. You know, if you look at you
rewards in in Hong Kong, it's, it's, it's the 711 loyalty
(05:51):
programme owned by the DFI dairyfarm group, DFI, 60% of the Hong
Kong population participate in new rewards, which is a reward
programme for 711. Now other store retailers
participate in this programme, but it's come out of 711.
The other week we talked about, we had Ryan, I talked about Ryan
Kohler who is from Alpha Mart, who's CEO of Global Loyalty
(06:14):
Indonesia. Now Alpha Mart is $0.15 in the
dollar of every retail dollar spent in Indonesia.
So that's a big country, right? Yeah, 60% of the revenue for
Alpha Mart is driven via the loyalty programme, right.
So we're talking about massive numbers.
So all of a sudden loyalty programme is removing the
emotional value and putting in the rational benefit, right.
(06:35):
And so there is a, there is a change that's happening, right.
And I think, I think Asians are in Asia in particularly, they
are very rational people. Yeah.
So therefore there, if there is a, a programme that drives that
rational behaviour, then absolutely.
That's the last point of that isthat if there's not a loyalty
programme, there's things that brands are doing which are
(06:56):
rational benefits, which Dr loyalty as well.
So we had Dion sung, the CEO of Love Benito speak and she talked
about loyalty in the context of knowing every customer when they
walked into the store into physical retail.
Yeah. And they're doing things to
create loyalty around the experience.
So the, the one she called out was called the partner benches.
(07:17):
Yeah. Which was fascinating, you know?
So you've got. Yeah.
So there's not a loyalty programme per SE, but what wife
or girlfriend wants to be interrupted by their husband or
boyfriend cutting their shoppingexposition short because they're
having a whinge? So they put these partner
benches outside the store or in the store where the husband or
(07:37):
boyfriend can sit on their with their phone or their gaming
console and not rush the shopping experience.
Right. Says there's other ways to build
loyalty, which is a tangible benefit from the brand, right?
So it's which is not a programme.
So you know, this loyalty, this tangible piece of loyalty where
where there's a rational reward as opposed to an emotional brand
(08:00):
connection, which is it seems tobe eroding.
That's there's a real changing of the guard.
He would reach out, I think. And I think Asia Pacific's are
particularly Asian, Southeast Asian, N Asian countries.
Participation in loyalty programmes really reflect that.
Now very interesting, there's very little for me to to to
comment on that because it it's just the the demographics of the
(08:20):
region plays into a lot of the research about, you know,
loyalty being non existent aboutshoppers going with what's hot
for that generation. You know, people that are
blindly loyal irrespective of many think and I'm well, there's
not much stake here out there soI can't really comment on.
It although I, I, I, you know, it's very funny.
(08:41):
I had a I've been, I flipped. I was a Qantas Platinum frequent
flyer. I'm.
Australian, he changed. And I went and Singapore
Airlines basically were our partner and Qantas were have
just have have lost their way inmany cases.
Yeah, I've had. And tried Singapore Airlines
because they were a partner withthe show.
I had such a wonderful experience with them.
(09:02):
I went that's it change. And as a Gen XR that's quite a
big step to take. I'm like.
That's that's, that's a very bigthing.
I know to to to bust away from your from your airline is not
that. Not I mean, that's the pushing
ground, that's. For a genexa.
So there you go. That's incredible.
My few are based around some of the changes and and trends that
(09:27):
I'm that I've seen or noted. One being that Korean, everyone
loves Korean products, Korean music, K pop, we all know.
But now we're seeing these huge powerhouses such as Mussinsa,
this sort of online marketplace that is huge in Korea and now
expanding into physical stores across China and one of my
(09:49):
favourite cities in Shanghai andlooking at how they're going to
grow their business is setting up their logistics, setting up
all of the infrastructure neededto expand.
So I think it's really interesting again, regionally,
seeing how you do have these cultural powerhouses and it's
not just in popular culture or fashion here, coupon being a
(10:12):
marketplace expanding out throughout the region.
So you're seeing these, I don't know if you've got a specific
commentary on it from mine. It's just an observing element,
right? I've noticed this and I find it
interesting because again, when I, when I apply it to local
knowledge, it's what we're so used to Amazon doing this and
and other marketplaces. And I know Laura's always
(10:34):
talking about marketplaces. But I think it's £2 I think.
I think with those guys though that, and I think you got to
start with, you made the point. Korea has the product, Korean
culture, fashion, beauty, top, they have culture, right, which
means that that's a powerful pace.
And so being able to export thatroute right now is really
appealing. Coupon is, you know, well
(10:56):
connected with the Korean market, obviously, because it's
a Korean marketplace. So on the back of really strong
product, they're able to expand across the region, you know, and
I think the third thing is I think it's also a bit of a
reaction in Korea because probably three years ago,
probably just after COVID, even,you know, Alibaba dropped a
billion dollars in infrastructure into Korea.
(11:18):
Wow. And so that really upset the
apple cart with Korean retail because they were going, holy
cow, what are we going to do? These Chinese retailers are
going to come and take everything.
And there was a big lobbying of the government to put
protectionist mechanisms in play.
You know, the horse had bolted by that time.
But I think, I think this is this, this, this, this career
(11:40):
going out and exporting is very much a reaction to the inbound
that's been coming in from from particularly China.
On China, and this is just a game observing rather than
comment, commentating on, on thepolitical landscape.
But when you look at Chinese growth, you, you see or you will
notice that domestic demand has not grown as fast as they would
(12:02):
like, but now it's a national priority or strategic priority.
And I think the commentary here is how for me, it's interesting
whenever I see coalition's come together for this greater good
and the greater good is how do we get our consumers to buy
local and to buy national. There are these challenges that
(12:22):
still need to be worked out. It was an interesting
observation from my perspective.Yeah.
And I think, I think, I think that's the things that on this
point is this is a shift in economic policy from the Chinese
government as we know. But I think that if you think
about big retail, big retail conglomerates, their biggest
customers is probably their own employees.
Yeah. So you think about China.
China has been very spoiled. They don't need international
(12:44):
product. They've got everything can be
made domestically in China. Yeah, it's actually about
creating the demand to to actually because they've got the
population to the same, you know, the electric car market or
the the lower in manufacturing. But I think at the end of the
day, this is a shift in a shift in policy in the Chinese, in the
Chinese domestically. And I think the Chinese they
(13:06):
want to they what they want themto consume.
And it hasn't always been a consumer market like some of the
Western countries. So this is a shift in mindset.
And then flying over to India, which again, every time I do an
Indian story, sort of blows my mind.
You know, again, what we're usedto seeing Tata in so many
different brands, but obviously Tata also makes jewellery.
(13:27):
And what's the thing here? If we look at European brands
such as Pandora, I was looking at their delivery.
The what, what, how long does ittake for delivery in the UK?
And it's about one to two days in.
In India, one of the highest newcategories that sort of booming
in quick commerce is jewellery and jewellery to be delivered in
(13:49):
minutes, in 15 minutes or under which I was like, I know you've
got a specific use case that you've had experience of.
But again, these are sort of these little waves, little
echoes of trends that I think when we look at growth
opportunities across the world. You think, OK, maybe some some
categories are underserved from an infrastructure perspective,
(14:13):
but we're here, we have one of them, the main brands in India
offering under 30 minute delivery, which I just thought
was incredible. I don't know if you want to
Share your story. Yeah.
Well, I think, I think just adding to this, I think the
quick commerce piece, I think it's, it was led by grocery.
And when, when grocery takes hold of a retail e-commerce
(14:33):
category, it the tide rises all by so it drags everyone along.
So grocery is a is a routine purchase as opposed to buying
jewellery, which is more sporadic.
But I think if you put this quick commerce concept concept
together is a low wage cost, high density living, big
populations in in an urban area.You could play it across
anything now because Indians areso used to it and are kind of
(14:55):
happy to pay for it. The use case we talked about was
that the conversation I shared with you around I had lunch with
in I think November, December last year with the CEO of the
Retail Association of India and his wife while we're in Sydney
visiting for the cricket. And we had, there was a good bit
of banter there. I can tell you that right now,
but we won't talk about that now.
But what's really interesting was I said I was asking where
(15:18):
could quick commerce stretch to?What are the categories?
How diverse can it get? Jewellery was the costume,
jewellery was the category. So Kumar's wife was saying,
well, it was our niece's birthday lunch that day on on a
Saturday and said we got up in the morning, we went for a walk,
I got online, I bought a whole bunch of costume jewellery.
(15:39):
It arrived in half an hour all wrapped and then we went to
lunch. So wow, you know, they're like.
It's incredible. This is not reading it out of
this. She's like, this is they're
living it, which is just, I'm intended just to go to India to
buy stuff that comes really quickly.
Imagine that it's like, it's just cost, like you thought the
jury. The day I'm going, I can tell
(16:00):
you a real story of someone I know who does it all.
The time, yeah, No, exactly. I mean the other thing here is
the platforms that are enabling this that you can.
See where Swiggy, yeah, Swiggy isn't amazing, but Swiggy is
definitely the one, you know, they're they're the ones who are
doing amazing things and really pioneered quick commerce in in
India. Fantastic.
(16:20):
So, OK, I think obviously without Laura, we're a little
bit lost, but. We're almost, we're almost
rudderless, I would suggest. I felt like I'm skipping.
It's almost like me snowboardingdown a mountain with actually
any directional control, which is.
Forget the thing, she just insults us anyway.
But you. Stupid boys.
We've got so many floors, I'm pretty much used to it.
(16:40):
It's OK. And as I always like saying on
that bombshell, that brings us to the end of our Five things
AIPAC edition. OK, Thanks, Sophie.
Have a wonderful week. OK, thanks.
Bye. Bye.
Hello and welcome back to another awesome edition of Five
Things Friday and Mr Reef Quail is back.
Thank you, Alex. I've had a wonderful time in New
(00:21):
Zealand skiing with my family. It's not something I've done for
a long time, but it was a wonderful trip and I've come
back a little bit euphoric actually, just having such a
wonderful time with the kids andmy wife was awesome.
Sorry, I'm ready to go. I'm I'm glad to see you back and
I'm glad to see you back in one piece.
All limbs attached and none are broken.
I am a little battled and bruised I must say.
(00:42):
Oh, OK, All right. And for the sharp eye to
listener or watcher, you'll see that Laura is missing.
Unfortunately, Laura's had an emergency of a baby kind and so
she's not able to join us today.But hopefully you should be back
with us on the on the podcast next week.
So Reef, why don't we start withyou and just jump straight into
(01:03):
this? But what's what's top of mind
for you? I think there's a few things,
there's a few things fighting around.
I think the first thing I think as I've dug into this region and
become and moved around, you could really see how mobile the
consumer is in the shoppers in this region and all the time
(01:23):
consumers are taking advantage of moment in time opportunities.
In recent times, we've seen the weakening of the yen in Japan.
And so what's happened is we've seen this amazing surge of
tourism to Japan and Japan is quite a static market in terms
of population. In fact it's shrinking, but
(01:44):
we're seeing growth in retail inJapan and in major retail
precincts 10 to up to 20% of retail spend is driven by
tourism. Now that is mind blowing, right?
You know, major retail precinct in Tokyo, maybe up to 20% of the
(02:06):
of the retail spend is coming from a tourism dollar.
That's a massive achievement fora retailer and that's a big
portion. And then 20% could be a
difference spend, you know, making a lot of money and and
just breaking even, you know, sothat's pretty, pretty
interesting. Then you're seeing, the other
thing you're seeing in the region is there is disparity
between markets. So if you think about Hong Kong
(02:28):
and Southern China as regions, as part of China, Hong Kong has
the legacy of of price, whereas if you drive across the Causeway
into Southern China, things are a lot cheaper.
So what's what we've discovered is that people are prepared to
invest time to find particularlycommodities and things that are
(02:51):
cheaper. So the traditional behaviour in
southern in Hong Kong and southern China is to drive
across the Causeway from Hong Kong to China on Saturday to buy
petrol. Yeah.
To buy groceries, to buy clothes, to buy anything,
because it is just so much cheaper.
More closer to home, because I spent a bit of time in
Singapore, you know, there's a little bridge that drives from
(03:12):
Singapore up to Malaysia to a place called JB or Java Hall.
And so that area is also quite fascinating because Singaporeans
now have their insurance covers Malaysian dentistry.
So they cross the Causeway againinto Malaysia and are buying,
buying obviously services, dentistry, massage to to clothes
(03:38):
and food and what have you. And, and driving back in.
There's some contentious around petrol because petrol pricing is
different on either side of the border too.
But yeah, the law says you don'tlet it come back, leave with
half a tank of gas. You've got to leave with a full
tank of gas. I think.
So there's though something. So people, I think over time
will see those, those, there'll be equalisation around the
(03:59):
region. But right now people are really
taking advantage of currency andTier 1 and Tier 2 markets.
And they're not afraid to it's and they're and they're quite a
vert about it, which is interesting.
Yeah, when you think about the region.
So that's by #1 and, and I thinkclever retailers, we'll start to
think about taking advantage of these moments in time.
(04:20):
The second thing that really interesting, I don't think it's,
I don't think it's unique to Asia Pacific is, is the
discussions around brand loyalty.
We a few weeks ago we talked about Gen Z and we can never
stop talking about Gen Z becausein the next five years.
Yeah. Excuse me, They'll be the
dominant part of the retail spend, but these guys are also
(04:41):
the most connected group. So they actually have the
ability to find information about anything online really
quickly. If they don't go through the
research process, they almost feel a bit of buyer's remorse.
Have they made the right decision?
Right. Yeah.
And you can see it with their politics.
You can see it with their retailexperience.
So what you're seeing is this erosion of brand loyalty because
(05:05):
they're so connected that they're making the, the the
rational is overcoming the emotional part of brand loyalty
because it becomes a very rational decision when when
you've got so much information at your fingertips.
It's the tension. You know, we in the car industry
talk about do I buy a do I buy asports car or do I buy a Volvo
1's a rational decision and one's an emotional decision.
(05:26):
You know, when rational and emotional clutter.
It's very interesting. So what you're seeing is this,
this supplementation of brands by manufactured loyalty
programmes and in Asia and Asia Pacific particularly, loyalty
programmes are enormous. You know, if you look at you
rewards in in Hong Kong, it's, it's, it's the 711 loyalty
(05:51):
programme owned by the DFI dairyfarm group, DFI, 60% of the Hong
Kong population participate in new rewards, which is a reward
programme for 711. Now other store retailers
participate in this programme, but it's come out of 711.
The other week we talked about, we had Ryan, I talked about Ryan
Kohler who is from Alpha Mart, who's CEO of Global Loyalty
(06:14):
Indonesia. Now Alpha Mart is $0.15 in the
dollar of every retail dollar spent in Indonesia.
So that's a big country, right? Yeah, 60% of the revenue for
Alpha Mart is driven via the loyalty programme, right.
So we're talking about massive numbers.
So all of a sudden loyalty programme is removing the
emotional value and putting in the rational benefit, right.
(06:35):
And so there is a, there is a change that's happening, right.
And I think, I think Asians are in Asia in particularly, they
are very rational people. Yeah.
So therefore there, if there is a, a programme that drives that
rational behaviour, then absolutely.
That's the last point of that isthat if there's not a loyalty
programme, there's things that brands are doing which are
(06:56):
rational benefits, which Dr loyalty as well.
So we had Dion sung, the CEO of Love Benito speak and she talked
about loyalty in the context of knowing every customer when they
walked into the store into physical retail.
Yeah. And they're doing things to
create loyalty around the experience.
So the, the one she called out was called the partner benches.
(07:17):
Yeah. Which was fascinating, you know?
So you've got. Yeah.
So there's not a loyalty programme per SE, but what wife
or girlfriend wants to be interrupted by their husband or
boyfriend cutting their shoppingexposition short because they're
having a whinge? So they put these partner
benches outside the store or in the store where the husband or
(07:37):
boyfriend can sit on their with their phone or their gaming
console and not rush the shopping experience.
Right. Says there's other ways to build
loyalty, which is a tangible benefit from the brand, right?
So it's which is not a programme.
So you know, this loyalty, this tangible piece of loyalty where
where there's a rational reward as opposed to an emotional brand
(08:00):
connection, which is it seems tobe eroding.
That's there's a real changing of the guard.
He would reach out, I think. And I think Asia Pacific's are
particularly Asian, Southeast Asian, N Asian countries.
Participation in loyalty programmes really reflect that.
Now very interesting, there's very little for me to to to
comment on that because it it's just the the demographics of the
(08:20):
region plays into a lot of the research about, you know,
loyalty being non existent aboutshoppers going with what's hot
for that generation. You know, people that are
blindly loyal irrespective of many think and I'm well, there's
not much stake here out there soI can't really comment on.
It although I, I, I, you know, it's very funny.
(08:41):
I had a I've been, I flipped. I was a Qantas Platinum frequent
flyer. I'm.
Australian, he changed. And I went and Singapore
Airlines basically were our partner and Qantas were have
just have have lost their way inmany cases.
Yeah, I've had. And tried Singapore Airlines
because they were a partner withthe show.
I had such a wonderful experience with them.
(09:02):
I went that's it change. And as a Gen XR that's quite a
big step to take. I'm like.
That's that's, that's a very bigthing.
I know to to to bust away from your from your airline is not
that. Not I mean, that's the pushing
ground, that's. For a genexa.
So there you go. That's incredible.
My few are based around some of the changes and and trends that
(09:27):
I'm that I've seen or noted. One being that Korean, everyone
loves Korean products, Korean music, K pop, we all know.
But now we're seeing these huge powerhouses such as Mussinsa,
this sort of online marketplace that is huge in Korea and now
expanding into physical stores across China and one of my
(09:49):
favourite cities in Shanghai andlooking at how they're going to
grow their business is setting up their logistics, setting up
all of the infrastructure neededto expand.
So I think it's really interesting again, regionally,
seeing how you do have these cultural powerhouses and it's
not just in popular culture or fashion here, coupon being a
(10:12):
marketplace expanding out throughout the region.
So you're seeing these, I don't know if you've got a specific
commentary on it from mine. It's just an observing element,
right? I've noticed this and I find it
interesting because again, when I, when I apply it to local
knowledge, it's what we're so used to Amazon doing this and
and other marketplaces. And I know Laura's always
(10:34):
talking about marketplaces. But I think it's £2 I think.
I think with those guys though that, and I think you got to
start with, you made the point. Korea has the product, Korean
culture, fashion, beauty, top, they have culture, right, which
means that that's a powerful pace.
And so being able to export thatroute right now is really
appealing. Coupon is, you know, well
(10:56):
connected with the Korean market, obviously, because it's
a Korean marketplace. So on the back of really strong
product, they're able to expand across the region, you know, and
I think the third thing is I think it's also a bit of a
reaction in Korea because probably three years ago,
probably just after COVID, even,you know, Alibaba dropped a
billion dollars in infrastructure into Korea.
(11:18):
Wow. And so that really upset the
apple cart with Korean retail because they were going, holy
cow, what are we going to do? These Chinese retailers are
going to come and take everything.
And there was a big lobbying of the government to put
protectionist mechanisms in play.
You know, the horse had bolted by that time.
But I think, I think this is this, this, this, this career
(11:40):
going out and exporting is very much a reaction to the inbound
that's been coming in from from particularly China.
On China, and this is just a game observing rather than
comment, commentating on, on thepolitical landscape.
But when you look at Chinese growth, you, you see or you will
notice that domestic demand has not grown as fast as they would
(12:02):
like, but now it's a national priority or strategic priority.
And I think the commentary here is how for me, it's interesting
whenever I see coalition's come together for this greater good
and the greater good is how do we get our consumers to buy
local and to buy national. There are these challenges that
(12:22):
still need to be worked out. It was an interesting
observation from my perspective.Yeah.
And I think, I think, I think that's the things that on this
point is this is a shift in economic policy from the Chinese
government as we know. But I think that if you think
about big retail, big retail conglomerates, their biggest
customers is probably their own employees.
Yeah. So you think about China.
China has been very spoiled. They don't need international
(12:44):
product. They've got everything can be
made domestically in China. Yeah, it's actually about
creating the demand to to actually because they've got the
population to the same, you know, the electric car market or
the the lower in manufacturing. But I think at the end of the
day, this is a shift in a shift in policy in the Chinese, in the
Chinese domestically. And I think the Chinese they
(13:06):
want to they what they want themto consume.
And it hasn't always been a consumer market like some of the
Western countries. So this is a shift in mindset.
And then flying over to India, which again, every time I do an
Indian story, sort of blows my mind.
You know, again, what we're usedto seeing Tata in so many
different brands, but obviously Tata also makes jewellery.
(13:27):
And what's the thing here? If we look at European brands
such as Pandora, I was looking at their delivery.
The what, what, how long does ittake for delivery in the UK?
And it's about one to two days in.
In India, one of the highest newcategories that sort of booming
in quick commerce is jewellery and jewellery to be delivered in
(13:49):
minutes, in 15 minutes or under which I was like, I know you've
got a specific use case that you've had experience of.
But again, these are sort of these little waves, little
echoes of trends that I think when we look at growth
opportunities across the world. You think, OK, maybe some some
categories are underserved from an infrastructure perspective,
(14:13):
but we're here, we have one of them, the main brands in India
offering under 30 minute delivery, which I just thought
was incredible. I don't know if you want to
Share your story. Yeah.
Well, I think, I think just adding to this, I think the
quick commerce piece, I think it's, it was led by grocery.
And when, when grocery takes hold of a retail e-commerce
(14:33):
category, it the tide rises all by so it drags everyone along.
So grocery is a is a routine purchase as opposed to buying
jewellery, which is more sporadic.
But I think if you put this quick commerce concept concept
together is a low wage cost, high density living, big
populations in in an urban area.You could play it across
anything now because Indians areso used to it and are kind of
(14:55):
happy to pay for it. The use case we talked about was
that the conversation I shared with you around I had lunch with
in I think November, December last year with the CEO of the
Retail Association of India and his wife while we're in Sydney
visiting for the cricket. And we had, there was a good bit
of banter there. I can tell you that right now,
but we won't talk about that now.
But what's really interesting was I said I was asking where
(15:18):
could quick commerce stretch to?What are the categories?
How diverse can it get? Jewellery was the costume,
jewellery was the category. So Kumar's wife was saying,
well, it was our niece's birthday lunch that day on on a
Saturday and said we got up in the morning, we went for a walk,
I got online, I bought a whole bunch of costume jewellery.
(15:39):
It arrived in half an hour all wrapped and then we went to
lunch. So wow, you know, they're like.
It's incredible. This is not reading it out of
this. She's like, this is they're
living it, which is just, I'm intended just to go to India to
buy stuff that comes really quickly.
Imagine that it's like, it's just cost, like you thought the
jury. The day I'm going, I can tell
(16:00):
you a real story of someone I know who does it all.
The time, yeah, No, exactly. I mean the other thing here is
the platforms that are enabling this that you can.
See where Swiggy, yeah, Swiggy isn't amazing, but Swiggy is
definitely the one, you know, they're they're the ones who are
doing amazing things and really pioneered quick commerce in in
India. Fantastic.
(16:20):
So, OK, I think obviously without Laura, we're a little
bit lost, but. We're almost, we're almost
rudderless, I would suggest. I felt like I'm skipping.
It's almost like me snowboardingdown a mountain with actually
any directional control, which is.
Forget the thing, she just insults us anyway.
But you. Stupid boys.
We've got so many floors, I'm pretty much used to it.
(16:40):
It's OK. And as I always like saying on
that bombshell, that brings us to the end of our Five things
AIPAC edition. OK, Thanks, Sophie.
Have a wonderful week. OK, thanks.
Bye. Bye.
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