Retailers are experiencing an explosion of online fresh food sales in Asia – a phenomenon that traditional retailers are trying their best to grab the coattails of, according to a leading regional retail analyst.
According to IGD research, online sales in Asia will go from a market share (of overall retail sales) of 3.8 percent in 2017 to 11.1 percent in 2022 across the Asia Pacific region. By value, online sales in Asia will expand by USD 1 trillion (EUR 855 billion) to USD 4.2 trillion (EUR 3.6 trillion) in 2022 – more than the totals of the European and North American markets combined.
Growth in online sales in Asia is creating new opportunities for seafood distributors, according to Shirley Zhu, program director at IGD Asia in Singapore. Tie-ups between traditional and online retailers are one new feature of Asian retail, said Zhu, who pointed to supermarket firm RT Mart in mainland China, which has teamed with JD.com to introduce the latter’s online offerings to its bricks-and-mortar stores.
Zhu said Asian retailers are shifting to cooking more product in-store as a means of adapting to new consumer demands for transparency and convenience. Likewise, retailers are shifting to convenience concepts like meal-packs of uncooked seafood paired with suitable raw ingredients for home cooking.
“There is a trend towards smaller, better stores with foodservice as retailers seek to service neighborhood communities,” Zhu said.
Zhu pointed to a Tesco Lotus [a joint venture co-operated by United Kingdom-based retailer Tesco store in Thailand as the latest example of the trend.
Retailers are similarly using data to pinpoint key consumption times and product selections to target particular products at particular consumer groups and periods of the day, week, month, or year.
Zhu advised the seafood sector to embrace new technology being rolled out by retailers in the region.
“Get retailers to share their data with you,” Zhu said.
Photo courtesy of IGD
