Key Takeaway
Insight from external data can point to changes and threats affecting your business from every direction. The ability to catch a trend on the rise will allow the team as much time as possible to make proactive decisions that may end up saving the company from a major setback.
Changes in the retail landscape
In the APAC region, the mobile device market faces steep competition. Rising producers coming out of China are threatening the industry’s global historical players by leveraging in-country ties.
Online retailer Lazada is a key distribution channel for many brands selling mobile devices. A Rocket Internet company founded in 2011, Lazada operates in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The brand has raised approximately $647 million from investors including Tesco, Temasek Holdings, Summit Partners, JPMorgan Chase and Investment AB Kinnevik.
Hailed as an “online shopping mall”, and “Rocket’s Amazon clone”, Lazada’s e-tail model began by selling directly from its own warehouses. In 2013, it launched a marketplace allowing third party retailers to sell through its site as well, which quickly grew to account for 65% of its sales revenue by 2014. It’s become the e-commerce giant of Southeast Asia and is now an essential channel for any major brand’s online retail plan in the region.
Acquisition changes the face of competition
In 2016 the other e-tail giant of the east, Alibaba, acquired a majority stake in Lazada, granting customers of both regions access to one another’s markets. What this means for Chinese brands, however, is easier access to and preference in the Lazada marketplace, a perk they also enjoy on Alibaba.
For other major players, the sudden increase in the number of Chinese mobile device brands promoting their products on Lazada was cause for concern. Before the announcement from Alibaba, one brand using Meltwater to monitor Outside Insight spotted rising competitors in the channel coming from China. Simultaneously, they picked up news of Alibaba’s interest in the e-tailer, alerting executives to this coming threat and giving them time to prepare a plan of action.
Based on this insight, the team sprung into action to reevaluate its retail strategy, taking steps to determine how best to approach the channel. The impact of this timely insight was massive. Internal data alone would never have have revealed this trend, and by the time the brand’s sales were affected on Lazada it would have been too late.
Timely access to information about why a particular market change is happening allows for brands to respond faster and make more informed decisions . For industries as competitive as consumer mobile, the ability to access real time insights can have dramatic effects, leading to a competitive advantage that might end up changing the course of a brand’s future.