by Martin Li

Consumer spending habits have gone through three stages during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia, said Mia Fawzia, marketing chief of JD.ID.

JD.ID is the e-commerce joint venture of JD.com in Indonesia, which is combination of direct-to-customer and marketplace platforms.

“The three stages can be named adjustment, adoption and realignment through accepting the conditions under the pandemic,” Fawzia shared in the latest edition of Kompas Talks, which was hosted online by Indonesia’s national newspaper Kompas.

JD.ID marketing chief Mia Fawzia in Kompas Talks

“During the adjustment phase in March-April 2020, there were large-scale purchases of health products including hand sanitizers, vitamins, and masks. Supply of these products is limited in the market,” said Fawzia in the online talk named E-commerce Strategy in the Pandemic Era.

“At the adoption stage, there was a significant increase in shopping activities via e-commerce platforms,” she said.

Since the end of Eid – the Islamic holiday ended July 31 – consumers in the country had adapted to pandemic conditions as reflecting by changes in spending patterns.

“One of these changes is that online shopping has become more commonplace,” she said.

JD.ID is committed to strengthening ties with consumers by maintaining product quality. In the long run, according to Fawzia, this strategy is more effective than using excessive discount promotion methods to increase the number of transactions on the platform.

Fawzia predicted that more than half of consumers won’t return to their old spending habits including shopping offline, even after the pandemic.

“Once consumers are satisfied with shopping on JD.ID, they will decide to continue and keep coming back. Even though we don’t have as many customers as other platforms, the increase in sales every month shows that our strategy is right, “she said.

E-commerce transactions in Indonesia would increasing by 400% from now to 2025, according to a report by Kompas on August 7, citing the country’s coordinating minister of economy Airlangga Hartarto.

The increase is mainly driven by the people who depend on online transactions during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the report. The digital sector, valued at US$135 billion, is a potential growth engine for the economy in Indonesia in the future.

“I hope the digital sector will be able to support economic growth during the pandemic, especially in the third quarter of 2020,” the minister was quoted as saying in the Kompas report.

(bjlihao3@jd.com)

by Rachel Liu

Why livestreaming is attractive to Chinese consumers? Kevin Jiang, president of International Business at JD Fashion and Lifestyle cites two main reasons. The first is the massive lower-tier market in China, where the customers have a lot of time to spend, and sometimes even higher dispensable income than first-tier city customers. The second reason is that smart phones and 5G network expenses are affordable in China, enabling many customers to watch livestreams and short videos very conveniently. With the popularity of livestreaming, Jiang believes all luxury brands should be open to doing livestreams.

On August 5^th, a webinar was jointly hosted by Jing Daily and Content Commerce Insider (CCI) titled, “Next-Level Livestreaming: How Luxury Brands Can Profit from China’s Top E-Commerce Trend”.

What should luxury brands be aware of when doing livestreaming? Jiang points out on the event that livestreaming is one of the key tools to increase customer awareness of a brand in China. Luxury brands also need to find the appropriate KOL with proper content to represent the brand and reach out to the right audience, and effectively handle customer inquiries to create conversions. Livestreaming on an e-commerce platform will greatly help brands convert consumers from being aware to making transactions.

Jing Daily’s editor-in-chief Enrique Menendez moderated the conversation, Sky Canaves, editorial director of CCI, Masha Ma, owner and lead fashion designer of MASHAMA, and Anny Fan, a top luxury KOL in China also participated in the discussion. Nearly 600 people, primarily representatives from fashion brands, registered for the event.

The “Next-Level Livestreaming” whitepaper released by Jing Daily and CCI points out that the GMV of e-commerce livestreaming has skyrocketed from RMB 20 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) in 2017 to RMB 430 billion yuan ($61 billion) in 2019, representing almost 9% of all online sales and 1% of total spending on consumer goods. The COVID-19 outbreak has made livestreaming more important than ever. While many luxury brands have worked with major e-commerce platforms, it’s also necessary for them to catch up with the livestreaming trends on their own.

Although livestreaming is very important for luxury brands to build brand awareness and generate sales, Jiang also suggests brands “don’t put everything in one basket”. Livestreaming is only one of the many available tools, and building brand awareness requires a systematic approach including articles, short videos, advertisements and more.

JD is doing everything to help luxury brands who are interested in livestreaming to practice on the platform. JD Luxury has opened a livestream channel especially for luxury products on JD Live. For luxury brands, it’s important that customers can enjoy the same premium experience through livestreaming, and JD will help brands maintain a high standard for their live shows and protect their brand images.

(liuchang61@jd.com)