Gender equality could boost APAC GDP by 12%

A McKinsey study on gender equality in Asia Pacific has projected an additional $4.5 trillion for GDP by 2025 if the region can advance women’s equality. That’s a 12% increase against business as usual.

There’s a lot to unpack in the report (read it here), but here are the key findings:

  1. All countries in Asia Pacific could boost growth by advancing women’s equality.
  2. There is no one Asia Pacific journey toward gender equality.
  3. Women are heavily underrepresented in leadership positions.
  4. Policy makers, companies, and nongovernmental organizations can consider prioritizing measures in five key areas.

mckinsey gender equality study apac

UPS reveals online shopping trends

UPS’ Pulse of the Online Shopper™ Study has a variety of interesting findings for marketers and ecommerce professionals in the region. Overall, the survey found only 57% of shoppers in Asia are satisfied with their online shopping experience, an improvement of 11 percentage points since 2015, which UPS points to as a slow pace of change.

Let’s break down the findings further…

Importance of free, fast shipping

Asia shoppers enjoy free shipping, on average, with 85% of their online orders, showing just how important shipping is to competitiveness. 65% of respondents say it is an important factor in the checkout process.

Nearly half of online shoppers (46%) say they add extra items to their cart in order to qualify for free shipping. Furthermore, a lack of delivery date (or one that is too far out) was cited by 47% of respondents as reason for abadonding their cart in the past.

convenience factors shopping online apac

Returns important, too

Returns impact on shopper choice, too…

  • 67% of shoppers in Asia say free shipping on returns is important when choosing who to shop with online.
  • Only 47% of shoppers are currently satisfied with the ease of making returns.
  • Actually, only four in 10 have returned an online purchase in the past year.
  • Crucially, 69% made new purchases when returning an online order in-store, and 67% when returning online.

Ship to store on the rise

37% of shoppers in Asia have used it in the past year, with 59% of those planning to use it even more this year. 60% of those who used ship-to-store in the past year bought something else when they were in store. In China the figure was 74% – a great incentive for retailers.

Smartphone trends

Everybody knows the importance of mobile devices in Asia, particularly in China, of course. The UPS study confirms this, revealing that 77% of shoppers in Asia have placed orders on their phones (the highest percentage globally), up from 55% in 2015. In the US, the figure stands at only 48%.

International ecommerce

55% of online shoppers in the survey say they shop internationally online (this was highest in Hong Kong at 82%, and lowest in Japan at 21%). Almost half of these international shoppers (49%) are doing so to source a product not available locally. 39% and 38% of these international shoppers cited better quality and price respectively, as reasons to shop abroad via ecommerce.

There’s a big caveat here though, 77% of those who made an international purchase did so one from a retailer within the Asia region.

Marketplaces at almost 100% penetration amongst online shoppers

98% of Asia online shoppers have purchased from a marketplace. Better prices (64%) and free or discounted shipping (42%) being the main motivations.

marketplace shopping asia

Facebook ad revenue rockets

Facebook advertising revenue in Asia Pacific was reported at $2.1 billion in Q1 2018, up from $1.3 billion the year previously.

Adidas shows good growth in China

The Drum reports ecommerce as the fastest growing channel for Adidas in China (the brand’s best performing market), seeing an increase of 27% in revenues year-on-year.

For all channels, Adidas China saw a 26% increase year-on-year, with the Asia Pacific region up 15% in Q1 2018.

Basket abandonment at 92% in travel industry

Ve Global (“Ve”), has revealed that on-site abandonment is at 92% of all bookings in the travel industry in Asia Pacific.

58 million customer sessions were analysed between January 2017 to April 2018, with travel agents having the starkest problem – 95.5% of all bookings were abandoned.

Lower cost options, coach and ferry operators converting more than 20% of active traffic into bookings. Here’s a breakdown…

cart abandonment in travel apac by product

And if you want to know which APAC country sees the highest abandonment rate, that dubious honour falls to Japan (93.76%). The Australians, on the other hand, were relatively firm-minded, with only 92.01% abandoning their basket.

apac travel cart abandonment by country

Other findings in the research include the revelatin that APAC travel companies can expect to recover one online booking for every 18 remarketing emails sent. The figure is one in 23 in Europe, on average.

Brand safety pretty good in Southeast Asia

Warc reports on Integral Ad Science’s Media Quality Report for Southeast Asia, Hong Kong & Taiwan. The report covers the second half of 2017 in terms of benchmarks for brand safety, ad fraud and viewabilityin display advertising.

IAS puts overall brand risk in the region at 3.5%, well below the global benchmark of 7.9% for H2 2017. Malaysia’s has the lowest brand safety risk for display ads (2.2%), followed by Singapore (2.5%). All other countries in the region were above average, with Indonesia the highest figure at 9.1%.

Global brand risk has been on the rise since H1 2017 according to IAS.