E commerce shopping is booming in this regions because of its geographical diversity and under developed infrastructure making the internet a method or a mean of caching inaccessible territories. According to commerce mill, Internet usage in this region equates to 6% of the world Internet users making penetrating this market lucrative for e commerce business ventures. In a break down of this region Internet usage Singapore and Malaysia is ranked at the top, with Singapore penetration at 74. 2% and Malaysia at 65. 8% with a total of 23 million users In these countries. They are followed by Thailand at 26. % with 18 derived from the total of the population of each country and figures are quoted from e commerce mill source data sources from Wisped,January 2014. According to commercial. Mom 91% of Internet users in Malaysia shop online. The top categories that are shopped via the web are Travel valued at 268 million, followed by insurance at 184 million and Fashion and Accessories at 184 million. In terms of demographics 44. 1% of Internet users are male and 55. 9% female and the largest age group users are between the ages of 21-29 years old at 48. 4%, followed by the age group of under ass’s at 33. 2%.
The Internet user In Malaysia is highly educated with 89. 9% of the users having a university level education. These figures are an indication that a luxury online menswear site has a market that s using currently using the Internet and also using the web for making Fashion and Accessories purchases. Key to the success of the online luxury site is that 10% of the shoppers spend more than ARMOR which as an equivalent of 283,33 euros and 5% spend more than ROOM equivalent to 566,67 euros. The key competitors active in the luxury e commerce landscape are reborn. Com with an Lax ranking of 1376, myself. Com ranked at 417 and outpatient. Mom at 3 836. Dominating the market Is myself. Com which Is classified as a luxury online site but offers mass market product majority are local brands and offer these at discounted rises. It offers product categories for women, kids, men, beauty and home. Women, men and offers outerwear and accessories. This is perhaps the one online luxury platform and is present in Malaysia and other South East Asia country. It concept is that is it a flash sales site and carry over 800 designer labels and ships to more than 21 countries and has a membership base of 2. 3 million. Reborn also trade offline and has a standalone store. Hauteur’s. Mom online website is under construction and when searched a number of negative customer reviews show up suggesting that this site has failed as customers are still waiting for orders places in December 2013. From the name of the site, one assumes that it is probably an online site that offered haute couture brands. According to VS. Daily this site is by invitation only and is a flash sale e commerce platform were customers receive up to 70% off retail. The Malaysian male luxury consumer has the same characteristics to that of the Singapore consumer in that he is educated, well traveled and most importantly tech savvy, shops abroad and online.
The luxury consumer in Malaysia is concentrated in Koala Lump were big luxury brands have a number of stores. The consumption of luxury brands according to New York Times comes from three tiers, one being the wealthy tiers of billionaires, self-made millionaires and the entrepreneurial minded middle class. With large luxury brands dominating the market there is a rise and a need for niche luxury brands for this market. These are luxury brands that do not fall under the luxury conglomerate LIVE and Kiering do not have resources to enter the South East Asia markets.
This discerning luxury customer is looking for an alternative from the mainstream and in search of premium and luxury brands with a unique point of view. The current offer of premium and luxury menswear brands that are available to the consumer are Hugo Boss, Dunghill, Salvatore Farrago ,Paul Smith, Davidson , these brands are positioned as premium brands and entry luxury. In mid to high tier luxury brands such as Christian Dior, Hermes, Lanolin, Given, Louis Button. On premium and luxury brands with a contemporary appeal, only a handful are present in Malaysia, these are luxury brands such as Keno, Marc Jacobs and Pravda.
There is also a small portion of high end denim lifestyle brands such Tentatively and Declared which are high end denim lifestyle brands. Based on the small number of contemporary luxury brands and premium denim brands, this indicates that there is a need to offer contemporary and premium brands for this market. The brands selection is aimed for the customer who is tiered of mainstream luxury brands and is looking for a luxury brands that have a contemporary and unique. The selection is aimed at a customer who does not follow rules and is confident individual and mixes contemporary luxury with classic luxury.
He keeps ahead of the trends and keeps informed by what is on trends thru social media and fashion magazines both local and international print. The proposed luxury brands for the online store that will be on offer to this customer are Come Des Garçon, Staid and Voltaire, Dries Van Note, Victor and Roll, Raff Simmons,Jill Sander, Saint Laurent Men, Bellman Men and The Couples Men. Come Des Garçon has stores in Singapore and Malaysia. On the site we will offer exclusive and limited edition designs. Dries Van Note has a store is Singapore and Malaysia, Victor and Roll strong presence in China and a store in Vietnam but not In Malaysia.
Raff Simmons has a stores in Singapore and Bangkok but not in Malaysia. Saint Laurent has stores in Singapore and Bangkok. Bellman has a store in Singapore and not in Malaysia. The Couples, a premium lifestyle brand that is not currently distributed in Malaysia. Gadding and Voltaire has a store in Singapore but not in Malaysia Come des Garçon brand is one of the influential brands in fashion and is known for collaborating with local influential brands and designers from emerging markets. An example of such collaboration is the collaboration with I. T a Chinese brand. This brand originated in Japan but based in Paris.
Gadding and Voltaire will bring the rock aesthetics with a sophisticated appeal. It will be marketed to the consumer who is urban and edgy with a touch of grunge. This brand is part of the Paris fashion week calendar. Dries Van Note collections are known to be cool, exotic and yet chic. For his collection he has drawn inspirations from urban culture and clothes are known for their simplicity and attention to detail. Victor and Roll are Dutch designers whose aesthetes are influenced by the Dutch heritage and brand appeal and identity is distinguishable by its preppy and yet sophisticated appeal.
Saint Laurent men’s ready to wear collection under the creative direction of Heed Sliminess is edgy and is a mixture of rock and preppy appeal. Raff Simons is Belgian designer and combines tailoring with a twist His collections are clean and sophisticated with an element of deconstruction. He has expended his brand to include footwear and opting for the sneaker as a key silhouette for this range. Bellman offers beautifully tailored pieces and Spring 2014 collection has been termed bedaubs sailor and biker boy combines. Their collections are referred to as been eclectic.
The brands selected are brands that are a mix of brands that are in Malaysia and others are not. The brands selected that have offline presence will attract traffic to he site. The brands that do not have offline presence are brands that are present in could be familiar to the customer. For those already in Malaysia the online store will only offer items that limited edition lines as to not compete with the offline store collections. The added advantage for these brands that currently have stores is the opportunity to reach a wider audience and to show cases their full product offer, which will include accessories, footwear and beauty.
For the brands with no offline presence the online store will be a platform to test market interest of the brand in the region. The online atmosphere and environments will be that of curate brand selection that caters to a contemporary luxury lifestyle. It will feature up and coming trends in the international markets, street style trends both local and international. Each designer collection will be accompanied with a bio of the designer and latest catwalk collection where the customer will be encourage to vote for their favorite looks and items from the next seasons catwalk shows.
This will assist the buyers on future selections of the upcoming season and in a sense the customer becomes the selector. The site will Ochs on full selling price points and only offer discounts on past season items and drive promotion thru beauty products that will be on the site as part of the designers lifestyle offer for example Flower Boom by Victor and Oral will be available for purchase along with ready to wear and accessories. Indonesia has one of the biggest online users and its population is among the most connected in the world.
According to technician. Com, out of population of 250 million, 83 million people use the Internet and this equates to 15. 4% online penetration. In 2010 online sales rose to 68% from 3% in 2003 and in 2013 there were 9 million transactions and total sale recorded at $478 million. The market is expected to soar to $10 billion by 2015. With regards to product categories shopped on line, travel is the biggest followed by electronic and gadgets which are purchased by the male online shopper. Female shoppers buy fashion related items at discounted price point.
With regards to the age groups 39% are between the ages of 25- 34 and the largest age group of online shoppers are in the age group of 15-24 and the account for 53% of online sales. These figures are an indication as to why Indiana e commerce is the most attractive raked out of the South East Asian countries. Along with these promising sales growths and market share what makes the online business a viable method to penetrate the Indonesian luxury market thru e commerce is that retail space is expensive and this could be a restriction for niche brands with limited resources that want to penetrate this lucrative emerging country.
Coupling the restriction of retail space is the social and political intervention and by law international distributors are obligated to form partnerships with local distributors. All these factors make internet retailing an alternative mode to sell odds in Indonesia. Solid growth in GAP in disposable income resulting in the consumer to increase their spending according to Remuneration. The size of the middle class is on the rise making this an attractive market for luxury brands. According to Remuneration the luxury markets was expected to be valued $742. 5 million a 10% increase from 2012.
In the offline luxury brands, Indonesia has brands such as Given, Fend’, Balancing, Channel and Hermes. These brands are shopped both by the locals and they also benefit from tourism that Indonesia is known for. The local luxury customer s exposed to a number of international brands who that penetrated the market to benefit both from the locals as well as the tourist luxury customer. Like Malaysian, Indonesian also tend to travel in order to buy luxury to destinations such as Bangkok and Singapore. According to Remuneration Indonesia is projected to outperform Singapore.
With regard to luxury e commerce, Indonesia appears to be unkempt with Reborn being a key player in this category offering luxury brands at discounted prices. Given that majority of online shoppers in Indonesia are bargain shoppers perhaps there is room for more flash sales luxury commerce. However like Indonesia the luxury brands consumer is also suffering from brands fatigue and craves for new and niche brands. The brand selection for this market will mirror that of the Malaysian market but product mix will be driven by discounted items rather that full selling value items.
