The 6 retail megatrends post pandemic. We highlight six retail megatrends that we see materialising post the COVID-19 pandemic: (1) The ongoing rise of e-commerce, driven by the proliferation of mobile and ubiquitous internet; (2) mobile first — proliferation of smartphone devices and consumers who are who connected 24/7; (3) omnichannel being the new standard; (4) social media now playing a critical role for consumer purchasing decisions; (5) retailers using big data to gain better visibility on consumer behaviour; and (6) retailers moving from the retail-centric model to the engagement-centric model.

ASEAN’s potential for reinvented retail. ASEAN ranks third in world population size and seventh in GDP output, and yet e-commerce remains largely untapped, accounting for only a fraction of total retail. Among the main drivers of the rise in the e-commerce sector for the region is the presence of shopping portals like Alibaba-owned Lazada, Shopee and Tokopedia. At this point, competition forces remain local as the digital retail market ecosystem is still in its infancy, but can potentially go beyond its borders as its ecosystem develops. With the market at an acceleration point in terms of internet and mobile penetration, and with new shopping behaviours coming to the fore, multiple opportunities using different channels or “omnichannel” trade have emerged for ASEAN.

ASEAN omnichannel winners. Our top picks in ASEAN include CPALL, DAIR, HOME, MAPI, MRDI, MWG and RRHI. These companies are adapting to the megatrends via: (1) utilising a combination of OOH and in-home performance; (2) splitting their ecommerce strategy while still recalibrating brick and mortar; (3) measuring category evolution in line with changing shopper behaviours; (4) looking into food home delivery as a new channel to capitalise on; and (5) expanding their target markets. We also highlight SEA Ltd. as another top pick to play the omnichannel theme as it is well positioned to benefit from the rise in e-commerce throughout the entire ASEAN region.