Shopping Behavior in Asia by Laurent Sausset

The Far East will be the next middle-class market for retailers and manufacturers in all categories. Name brands are especially sought, especially when they are sold by department stores where customers can be assured that they are not fakes. Retailers like Tesco, Walmart, and Carrefour are already in the region, but there is plenty of room for more modern retailers as consumers gain more discretionary income.

Laurent Sausset has been surveying customers in the Far East for many years through his company, DistriSurvey Ltd. He understands their likes and dislikes, shopping behaviors, and the differences among them, by country and ethnic background.

In Shopping Behavior in Asia he discusses all aspects of retailing in the region including such topics as location, parking and traffic patterns, promotions, product assortment, pricing, signage, customer loyalty, and employee training. He offers specific examples and recommendations for success, category by category.

Whether your niche is appliances, packaged goods, furniture, books, DIY, personal care, sporting goods, or leisure products, you will find useful information that will lead to a better understanding of your potential customers in Asian markets.

Seeing is believing in the minds of most Asian consumers and Sausset helps you “see” how to succeed in Asia.

(200 pp., ISBN 978-0-9830436-5-2, paperback)

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Market Commonalities and Differences
   Traditional shopping behaviors
   Demographics
   A few details about income and households
   Living arrangements
   Physical conditions in a market
   Local culture

Chapter 2: Seeing Is Believing
   The importance of observation
   Observation and perception
   A few keys to better understand Asian shoppers
   It’s Confucianism again
   Seeing—something measurable
   Believing, being tricked or missing a chance
   The principle of charity

Chapter 3: A Visit to a Store
   A typical shopping trip
   Shopping gallery and food court
   The hypermarket
   Hypermarket: The non-food floor
   Apparel and accessories
   Hypermarket: The food floor
   Checking out

Chapter 4: What Location Means in Asian Markets
   Visibility
   Accessibility
   Catchment area
   Gravity Laws
   Competitive environment
   Cannibalization
   The real three challenges
   Sidebar: Being careful with numbers

Chapter 5: A Nice Price Is Not Enough
   Poor people need low prices
   Price: The sole reason for selecting a store?
   Caveat about price satisfaction
   Price sensitivity
   A tale about psychological price and price elasticity
   Price and value for money
   How Asians define quality
   How local minorities perceive prices

Chapter 6: The Ambiguities of Promotions
   If it’s on promotion, it must be bad
   High-low and EDLP
   Promotion with deferred benefit
   Country variations
   Promotions with immediate effect
   Are Asians different when it comes to promotions?
   Loyalty to brands or loyalty to promotions
   Promotions and four customer profiles

Chapter 7: The Key Is Assortment
   Assortment as criterion to select a store
   Width and depth of assortment
   Show me something new
   There are many kinds of shopping malls downtown
   Store brands and private labels
   For minorities too, the key is assortment

Chapter 8: Service, Facilities and Staff
   Facilities: Entering a store
   Shopping environment
   Trolleys or shopping carts
   Locating products
   Locating prices
   Cleanliness and resting areas
   Product shortage
   Checkout counters
   Staff competence
   Staff attitude

Chapter 9: How to Create Loyal Customers in Asia
   Exclusive shoppers and membership cards don’t imply loyalty
   Satisfaction does not imply loyalty either
   Supermarkets: Try to differentiate with imported foods
   Hypermarkets: Make shopping easier and diversify the non-food selection
   Department stores: Surprise your customers
   Perfume, cosmetic and soft-line retailers: Provide a creative content
   Category killers: Showcase your expertise
   Leisure products: Focus on modernity

Chapter 10: A Few Words about the Future
   The “PR x SF x AT” formula
   The notion of quantity
   A problem with trust
   Retail density
   Electronic commerce and new concepts

Chapter 11: The Growing Asian Middle Class Presents New Challenges

Bibliography

Index

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