How to optimize in-store operations with financial technology
4 Minutes
We unveil several important retail insights on the Hong Kong retail landscape inside our survey with 451 Research in Q4 2018. The global study surveyed both retailers and consumers across Europe, the US and Asia Pacific. In particular, the APAC survey covered strategic markets in the region for many international businesses: Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and New Zealand.
Get your copy of the Hong Kong retail survey report now, or preview some of the highlights below.
Catering to digitally savvy shoppers
Device ownership is high among Hong Kong shoppers. 97% own a smartphone, tied with Singapore, as compared to large developed global markets like the US (88%). 53% own a health/fitness monitor or smart watch, and 19% own a smart speaker, e.g., Alexa and Google Home.
Hong Kong shoppers are digitally savvy and demand efficiency when shopping
This high device ownership also aligns with three important shopper profiles uncovered during the survey: Spendsetters, Fencesitters and Resisters. 53% of Hong Kong shoppers are Spendsetters, as compared to 34% for the US. Spendsetters tend to be early tech adopters and set the trends for how shoppers spend.
Hong Kong shoppers are savvy in more ways than one. They are quick when picking up on the latest gadgets, and fast to adopt cashless next-gen payment methods, especially when there are better rewards and higher merchant acceptance rate. Hong Kong’s proximity to China, and 1.5 billion Chinese mobile payment users of Alipay and WeChat Pay, means that merchants need to keep up with the expectations of Chinese shoppers.
This presents an opportunity for retailers to offer shoppers immersive shopping experiences to engage them in even more channels. More importantly, retailers can use these channels to create better efficiencies and delightful shopping journeys.
A high demand for efficiency
Nearly 9 in 10 consumers have left a store due to long lines, with 30% choosing to make the purchase elsewhere. Crowds and queues may be a sign of a store’s popularity, but they may also be the reason for lost sales. According to 451 Research’s Global Unified Commerce Forecast, retailers in Hong Kong lost out on US$1.26 billion to long queues in the past 12 months.
Another reason for abandoned carts online and in-store: retailers not providing shoppers’ preferred payment methods –– costing them a hefty US$68.5 million.
To enable more efficient payments, retailers may consider self-checkout, mobile point-of-sale (POS) and look into unified commerce solutions such as order-online-pick-up-in-store. Of course, offering Hong Kongers’ preferred payment methods is a must. Discover the most popular payment options among Hong Kong shoppers, as well as other important insights in the Hong Kong Unified Commerce Market Guide.
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