TAIWAN EXPO SHOWCASES E-COMMERCE SOLUTIONS
Asia’s retail industry is now at a turning point. While traditional brick-andmortar shops continue to reign supreme in many countries in Asia Pacific, some markets here have either started to see the increasingly significant role of, or have already integrated e-commerce into their respective operations, be it for business-to-business, or business-to-customer transactions.
Today, many companies and brands have started utilizing the digital platform—with some trying to gain a bigger online presence, while others are setting up shops to capture a wider market segment now moving towards this platform.
And these firms are reportedly setting their sights on Southeast Asia—specifically Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, and Indonesia—which is expected to be home to a $200-billion ecommerce sector by 2025, according to Google-Temasek’s eConomy SEA Spotlight 2017 report. The same report further claimed that in 2017, Southeast Asia saw more $10 billion worth of goods sold online, up by more than 80 percent from the $5.5 billion recorded in 2015, or a 41 percent compounded annual growth rate.
Taiwanese expertise
The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (Taitra) took stock of the significant growth potential of e-commerce in Southeast Asia, where the market is scaling aggressively, as it mounted last May the 5th Discover Advanced Trends in E-Commerce Exhibition (DATE Expo).
Held from May 29 to 31 at the Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall 1, DATE Expo primarily featured Taiwanese exhibitors offering smart solutions to enable companies to better utilize digital technology in their operations. Through the exhibit, salons and lecture halls, the said expo had aimed to offer more local and foreign companies an understanding of e-commerce industry trends as a means to expand their application and participation.
More specifically, the Expo focused on smart retail, social network marketing, logistics, fintech, big data, startups, and e-commerce innovation to fully represent online and offline integrations, technology services, and applications.
“We are focusing on Southeast Asian market. Mainly our exhibitors are Taiwanese, local exhibitors, but we are also holding events like the e-commerce salon wherein we invite speakers from Southeast Asia so we tried to attract visitors from (this region),” Ming Li, project manager for exhibition at Taitra, explained on the sidelines of the exhibition.
Some of our Taiwanese companies are also really interested in developing markets in Southeast Asia such as Vietnam and Thailand. This year, we added another topic about smart retail—it’s a trend and some of our taiwanese companies play into this kind of technology,” Li further said.
Taiwan, which has a mature e-commerce industry, is looking to leverage on the potential of countries in Southeast Asia such as Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam which, according to Taitra, have huge demographic dividends and are seeing their e-commerce revenues growing by double digits every year.
“Taiwan has excellent geographical advantages, high education standards, and very comprehensive experience in brand and e-commerce platform operations. We anticipate that Taiwan will become the center that connects Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia to create Asia’s first common market for global e-commerce,” Taitra said.
Excellent turnout
Data from Taitra showed that close to 4,600 visitors attended the three-day 2019 DATE Expo, a clear sign of the growing interest and attention being given to the prospects of e-commerce. Exhibitors were given a chance to meet potential customers to whom they showcased their respective products and innovative solutions that will allow them to enhance their digital operations and presence.
The expo likewise featured 31 sessions on industry status, trends, and e-commerce solutions, headlined by representatives fromAmazon Global Selling and Amazon Business (Taiwan), JD.com (Indonesia and China), Malaysia Ecommerce Association (Malaysia), Shopback (Singapore), Thai eCommerce Association (Thailand), O’Mall (China), KOLSA (Korea), and FACY (Japan). Also held were practice seminars, wherein smart retail and crossborder e-commerce firms, including exhibitors such as 28Mall from Malaysia, FACY as well as Taiwan Zhongsheng Enterprise, TRANSBIZ, and E-MYGO from Taiwan, shared their success stories.
These lectures and seminars offered highly valuable insights for the visitors at the most opportune time as the global retail industry anticipates a disruptive revolution brought about by e-commerce.
As shown by the excellent turnout at Taitra’s DATE Expo, Taiwan, with its mature e-commerce industry, aptly showed that it is truly well positioned to cash in on the potentially lucrative opportunities arising from the growing interest of companies across Asia to find smart, innovative solutions that can help them build a stronger e-commerce platform.