KPMG at NRF 2024: Retail's Big Show Asia Pacific

Everything retail is human. Everything human is digital….

In June 2024, the US based National Retail Federation (NRF), for the first time, brought its Big Show to the Asia Pacific region at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.

More than 7,000 people turned up (sell-out), including over 250 exhibitors and a host of media.

While less than a fifth the size of the Big Show mothership held in New York every year, the first Big Show in this region demonstrated the strong demand for a world class retail conference in Asia Pacific with the organizers already planning for the event to grow next year, potentially doubling in size.

So, what did we learn? The days of the simple shopkeeper are well and truly behind us. So many speakers focused on the key thematics of:

• the digitally empowered customer and their rapid adoption of technology at scale,
• the need for continuous and compelling innovation to stay relevant and in demand,
• the importance of highly efficient and holistically integrated business models to deliver the best customer experience across the front, middle and the back office.
• the use of data to deliver a single view of the customer across platforms, locations, and devices,
• the role that AI has already been playing for many retailers across the value chain and the potential to upscale solutioning through generative AI; and
• sustainable retailing moving beyond the nice to have to the compulsory ticket to play.

In this context, KPMG in partnership with GS1, launched its first ever Seamless Commerce insights report capturing data across 14 markets and 7,000 consumers in Asia Pacific to identify the common threads across physically and culturally diverse geographies. The ground-breaking report highlights key trends such as:

• the rapid growth of social commerce across the region, with Gen Z making it clear that the ability to shop through their preferred social platforms and engage with live streaming is critical to their shopping experience,
• competitive pricing and delivery experience is the cornerstone for successful ecommerce retail models across the region,
• payment pathways continue to move away from cash towards to mobile banking and e-wallet enablers as the preferred payment models,
• while 45 per cent of consumers want access to omnichannel retail platforms, 31 per cent are happy to only shop online, and just 24 per cent prefer the physical store environment exclusively; and
• when it comes to sustainability, over 65 per cent of shoppers are prepared to pay more for a product, if it is good for the planet and its people.  

And as for the NRF Asia Pacific highlights?

For me, there were three.

The transformation of the iconic Thai retailer Jim Thompson as it seeks to become Asia’s first ever lifestyle brand. This 70-year-old business, famous for its silk apparel and home furnishings had a 91 per cent awareness level in Thailand, but very few locals ever purchased the product, regarding it primarily as a tourist brand.

When CEO Frank Cancelloni took the helm three years ago, the business was in poor shape after a failed attempt to take it upmarket and make it a luxury brand. What did he do? What all great retailers do. Reposition the product, reposition the brand, and jettison the loss-making segments to drive sales and margin growth leading to the most profitable performance for the business in 5 years and winning the 2024 Retail Transformation of the Year award by Retail Asia in the process.

Then there was the opening keynote by Chris Thomas Moore, Global CTO for Dominos. Another long-established business that reinvented itself 15 years ago by changing its pizza recipe, and then became seriously addicted to tech innovation launching multiple new initiatives that drove product quality and customer experience well ahead of many of its peers, including the introduction of its very own pizza delivery app on Apple Car play.

Finally, at the invitation-only SAP Show Floor to Shop Floor event, David Llamas, the Global Chief Digital Officer for Thailand’s Central Group blew us all away with next level tech innovation including the world’s first shoppable metaverse and its proprietary crypto currency that allows shoppers to earn reward points. What? This retail conglomerate that has 1,800 stores, across 100 cities, including 70 malls, food, fashion, homewares and health and wellness retailers. The group is well advanced on AI search and discovery, advanced analytics (including leveraging LLMs for deep learning), hyper personalization, next gen ecommerce and e-logistics. I simply didn’t see that coming ….

Of course, our team has more to share and have no doubt that NRF is here to stay in the region. Going forward it will be the must-attend event for good retailers wanting to be better, and great retailers wanting to raise the bar.

The dates for 2025 are already locked down from 3 to 5 June.

The KPMG team looks forward to seeing you there! 

Get in touch: James Stewart