Kuala Lumpur, April 13- Criteo, the performance marketing technology company releases seasonal data to help eCommerce businesses better engage consumers.
Based on consumers’ online browsing and buying activity, the three weeks leading up to Ramadan, and more specifically, the third week of Ramadan represent the biggest opportunity for retailers to engage consumers when they are actively browsing and purchasing items for upcoming celebrations. During this period, there was an average of 67 percent uplift in online retail sales and 14 percent uplift in online travel sales.
Criteo’s data also revealed that Ramadan traditions influence shoppers’ behaviour throughout the day. During the fasting period in the day, eCommerce transactions were lower at 71 percent, compared to 76 percent for the period prior to Ramadan. However, after breaking fast, there is an increase in eCommerce sales to 29 percent, from 24 percent pre-Ramadan, representing a timely opportunity for retailers to reach out to shoppers.
“Ramadan is an important festive season in Malaysia. The online shopping sphere in Malaysia is already thriving. Therefore, retailers already need to be providing a seamless shopping experience, and retailers who fail to do so are less likely to have sales conversions. By personalising the online shopping journey, and targeting users with the right products at the right time, retailers can then deliver the most impactful content at every point in the customer journey,” said the General Manager of Southeast Asia region at Criteo, Alban Villani.
Criteo analysed more than 8 million online transactions from 143 retailers based in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Other key findings from the report include:
• In Malaysia, there were more than 32 million visitors to online retailers during the 4 weeks of Ramadan.
• Website traffic and eCommerce sales increased from three weeks before Ramadan and spiked during weeks three and four, with an increase of 110 percent and 77 percent respectively.
• During the start of Eid el-Fitr, there was a decline of 44 percent in online sales and 20 percent in website traffic. However, in the week post-Eid, online sales rebounded, increasing 35 percent.
• During weeks three and four of Ramadan, online mass merchants were the biggest growth driver – with an increase of 87 percent and 52 percent respectively.
• Online travel sales increased 24 percent on average over Ramadan. Unlike retail sales, there was a22 percent increase even during Eid; retailers can continue to engage shoppers throughout the celebrations.
• The cross-device journey – 46 percent of shoppers were found to be viewing products across multiple devices, with one in four shoppers switching devices at least 3 times during their purchasing journey.
“In addition, retailers need to embrace omni-channel marketing – as we continue to see the rise of offline-to-online and online-to-offline (O2O) shopping habits. Our data shows that during the period of Ramadan, shoppers are browsing in stores and purchasing online, and vice-versa. However, whichever way you look, mobile will still be the foundational building block and key driver in O2O retail. Half of the retail transactions in Southeast Asia are already taking place on mobile,” Villani added.