"Commerce Marketing Conference―Customer Experience (CX) Transforms Brand Value" was held. Vol.4
On July 29, the "Commerce Marketing Conference—Customer Experience (CX) Transforming Brand Value" was held at Dentsu Inc. Hall. This article covers Part 4 of the event.
Part 4:
What Are the Solutions from Dentsu Group Companies? Vol.1
This conference was planned based on the insights and network of the newly established Commerce Marketing Department within the Dentsu Solution Development Center. The event featured solutions from global Dentsu Group networks like iProspect and Dentsu Isobar (Part 4), as well as diverse domestic group companies including Dentsu Digital Inc., Dentsu Tec, DENTSU DIRECT INC., Dentsu Retail Marketing Inc., and Dentsu tempo Inc. (Part 5).
Chief Business Transformation Officer Emmanuel Flores stated, "Global e-commerce sales are projected to reach $3.45 trillion in 2019 and $4.21 trillion by 2020. This amount is also forecast to account for 14.7% of total retail sales in 2019. Furthermore, in China, e-commerce accounts for 33.6% of total sales." He introduced the current state of e-commerce, which is evolving primarily in Europe, the US, and China.
While the market is growing uniformly, it is understood that e-commerce market trends are not uniform and vary by country. Regarding Japan, Flores stated, "It forms the second-largest e-commerce market in Asia-Pacific after China. While the number of buyers is not expected to change significantly over the next five years, the average purchase amount per buyer is projected to grow by 2.7% by 2022. Globally, it can be considered a market with significant opportunity."
Nate Shurilla, Global Director of Commerce at iProspect, explained the data utilization trends in commerce marketing advancing among European and American clients. iProspect noted, "Contact points differ by country and product category, so we've created a framework that covers the entire commerce landscape while accounting for these differences." He further explained, "Japanese companies should also utilize e-commerce data more effectively. The data left behind by consumers helps understand the big picture—what they searched for, which shops they actually visited, and which products they purchased."
Regarding the reason for the joint presentation by the two companies, Flores explained, "By teaming up, we can provide support covering the entire e-commerce spectrum, from customer acquisition to CRM." He continued, "The collaboration between iProspect, which excels in marketplace marketing, and isobar, which excels in marketing utilizing owned sites and social media, enables us to provide comprehensive e-commerce marketing support to companies."
In Part 5, themed 'Dentsu Group Solutions,' speakers included Dentsu Inc.'s Atsushi Nemoto, Dentsu Tech's Takushi Mizutani, Dentsu Retail Marketing Inc.'s Tetsuhiro Kurata, DENTSU DIRECT INC.'s Nobuyuki Shimizu, and Dentsu Digital Inc.'s Ryohei Mitsuhashi, who explained each company's solutions.
Mr. Nemoto stated, "We are now in an era where a dramatic digital shift has occurred on the consumer side, and where suppliers must fully support and contribute to consumers' lives to enhance brand value. Therefore, Dentsu Inc. established the Commerce Marketing Department in January to strengthen our capabilities in the commerce domain."
He added, "In this era, there are three phases for addressing the challenges faced by attendees. The first is monitoring data. The second is modeling behavior using data. The third is designing CX that incorporates unprecedented emotional experiences based on data. In this design phase, OMO (Online-Merged-Offline) design becomes extremely important, and being data-driven rather than impulsive is crucial. We believe that properly executing CX operations is what contributes to our clients' businesses and is the key element."
Furthermore, as the Dentsu Group, we are driving innovation across three key areas.
"The first is the payment ecosystem. Applying coefficients derived from Western research to the Japanese market reveals that, with approximately ¥7 trillion in cart abandonment in e-commerce, reducing or eliminating friction in payments could potentially increase sales by ¥3.3 trillion.
Offline, closing deals through conversation and communication—like customer service and hospitality—is standard practice, and only a fraction of stores use shopping carts. We question whether today's self-service online shopping cart model is truly optimal for shopping. We believe we can contribute to our clients' businesses by driving innovation from our core strength in communication, reducing or eliminating this 3.3 trillion yen worth of friction.
Second, as the boundary between online and offline shopping blurs, online marketing has become dominated by left-brain-oriented approaches starting with search queries. Yet, there remains a scarcity of methodologies, tools, and case studies that stimulate the right-brain, or emotional, domain. Just as offline shopping includes emotional purchases like impulse buys, we aim to eliminate the online/offline divide, creating a pleasant and enjoyable shopping experience. We believe our strength in creating moving experiences across various media can be leveraged in this area too.
Third, with the proliferation of messaging apps and devices offering alternatives to phone calls, we aim to innovate in creating more proactive customer communication. We don't mean to complain, but when customers face issues that can't be resolved online and try to call for support, spending nearly an hour just to find the customer service phone number damages the brand.
In addressing these areas and the challenges faced by our clients, we intend to propose solutions by optimally combining the resources of the Dentsu Group," he stated.
Mr. Mizutani then explained "Robotics Applications in Commerce Marketing." He stated that Dentsu Inc. believes AI, IT, and robotics will accelerate in the retail commerce sector. "Particularly, as customer acquisition, in-store fixtures, backend logistics systems, and customer data become interconnected, stores will move closer to unmanned operations. Payment systems will also become smarter. We believe robots will play a central role in this evolution toward next-generation stores."
He also demonstrated a scenario using a robot developed by a Chinese company within an apparel store. When a customer searching for a T-shirt asks the robot, it either checks inventory via API connection or searches the product database using a chatbot. It also connects to the CRM system via facial recognition to identify the customer.
"The robot itself doesn't contain all the tools; fundamentally, it connects to various APIs via the cloud. While not yet operational in Japan, in China it's already assisting with navigation at the Shanghai Art Museum and helping with security and surveillance. At Guangzhou Airport, it answers customer questions and provides flight information. We believe robotization in the retail sector is indeed feasible," he stated.
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