Mary Reschar, Head of Product Marketing, Fluent Commerce
Generation Zalpha are children born from 2010 onwards, including Gen Z and the up and coming, Gen Alpha. They are shopping and using social media at a much younger age and are already having a significant influence on the retail industry in Asia.
Previous generations would ask their Mum for a chocolate bar at the supermarket checkout. Today, kids are asking Mum and Dad to purchase a 7 step skincare routine they’ve already added to their cart after they watched their favourite influencer use it.
YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram are becoming increasingly powerful when influencing Gen Zalpha. TikTok Shop has swiftly risen to prominence as a game-changer in the social commerce space, launching in select Asian markets in 2021. Today retailers can create a seamless and interactive shopping experience that combines the best of entertainment and ecommerce. So how can Asian retailers prepare for this new era of shopping?
1. Get accurate inventory
It doesn’t matter what channel your customers come to you from, you need to have accurate inventory. What you have, where you have it, and exactly when they can get it is the foundation to making a sale. If you don’t or don’t do it well? They’ll move onto your competition in one click.
If you want to get customers from research to conversion faster, feature both online and in-store inventory levels. You can drive online urgency by promoting low inventory levels. Or showcase location-specific inventory to drive people to stores. To pull off either scenario, accurate, real-time inventory data needs to be shared between your stores and ecommerce sites.
Social media shopping can also mean flash sales. Imagine a Black Friday peak experience when you least expect it because an influencer decided to put up a video with one of your products. Is your inventory data ready for that? If not, that’s a lot of cancelled orders and lost customers.
Your website speed also needs to be fast to respond to flash sales and surges in demand. It’s not just about getting the data, it’s about speed and avoiding latency.
2. Display Fulfilment Options & Plans
Once you’ve got real-time inventory, your customers know you have what they want but do they know when they can get it? Gen Zalpha lives in an era of ‘now’, so you need to give them a lot of options, such as:
– Pickup at X store near you in 1-2 hours
– Select a time window to pickup at X store
– Deliver to your house between 1:00 – 5:00 pm
– Deliver to your house in 1-2 days
A 5-10 day delivery estimate doesn’t cut it anymore. Convenience is everything, whether the consumer needs it now at their home or at a store they choose en route to their final destination. You can lose the sale if you don’t show enough.
3. Nail your Product Detail Page (PDP)
The Product Detail Page (PDP) is the new homepage. This is where Gen Zalpha is landing. Why? Because they’re searching for the product they want. The likes of ChatGPT, Perplexity, Alexa, and Siri make it possible. Gone are the days of shopping by brand. Gen Z knows exactly what they want and they want options for how to get it.
It is therefore critical for the PDPs to support:
– Early-stage discovery: When consumers are browsing at the highest level
– Assessment: When they’re investigating and even comparing specific products and their specs
– Confirmation: When consumers want to validate their decisions
To ensure you get the customer real-time inventory and accurate delivery estimates on the PDP, are essential to your conversion rates. Then you can get creative. Try to go beyond basic product specs and share details on materials, manufacturing practices and even whether your products are sustainable (maybe even a sustainable delivery option). Feature content from creators and consumers who use (and love!) your products.
If you want to boost average order value (AOV), you need to create PDPs that 1) provide the essential and information and 2) keep customers on-site and engaged with your products. Display complementary items often bought with the primary item featured on a PDP. For example, if someone is looking for brown shoes, you might want to recommend a matching belt?
Of course it isn’t just the PDP that brands need to use to communicate what stock is available and when customers can get it, this needs to be everywhere your consumers land, think TikTok Shop, video or in gaming platforms.
Soon, your PDP (and website) could be obsolete, so getting your inventory and delivery estimates ‘in the game’ or ‘in the social platform’ will be critical because the purchase journey will move forward. Don’t leave Gen Zalpha hanging. Give them the information they need to buy from you and keep coming back for more.
