As a kid, Jack Yap spent a lot of time with animals on his grandmother’s farm at Jeram in Kuala Selangor. He loved them and considered them his friends.

When he was seven years old, he witnessed a chicken being slaughtered. Upon realising that they were being killed for consumption, he vowed never to eat meat again. And his compassion for the animals deepened further when he discovered the dark side of factory farming.

“As the global population grows, the demand for food production also grows. This has put massive pressure on the planet to provide enough livestock, water, space and plant nutrients to produce more food,” said Yap.

“Although it is a highly inefficient form of food production, animal agriculture dominates and is responsible for 14.5 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions,” he explained. “I believed there had to be a more sustainable and nutritious way to feed the population, so I began researching plant-based foods.”

This prompted him to launch a plant-based meat startup out of Kuala Lumpur.

Launch in 2018, Phuture provides a range of products, from plant-based mince and burger patties to the High-Fibre Chick’n brand. These items will be widely available at selected restaurant partners and grocery stores by the end of the year.

Also Read: No animals were harmed in the making of this ‘meat’ burger

“One of our key unique selling points is the products themselves.” Yap boasts. “For example, High-Fibre Chick’n. Our leading food technology and research led us to create this plant-based chicken brand, which does not compromise taste, flavour or texture. A perfect balance of soluble and insoluble fibre helped us achieve the desired physical, functional and nutritional profile. We replicated the chicken texture and taste by using our Phuture 4-fibre blend, which includes oat fibre and apple fibre.”

In Yap’s opinion, Phuture’s products will help solve fibre deficiency among Malaysians.

“Although the plant-based food market in the country is rich in high-protein options, it lacks fibre, with Malaysian adults-only consuming about half the required daily amount on average. As this deficiency can lead to life-threatening conditions such as heart attacks and diabetes, we needed to create a plant-based alternative that doesn’t just appeal to the Malaysian palate but directly addresses dietary deficiencies in our community,” said Jack.

Lack of education and awareness

Malaysia is a relatively young alternative meat market. The adoption of plant-based meat products is yet to be widespread when compared to neighbouring Singapore and Indonesia.

“We can attribute the delayed wider adoption of plant-based alternatives in the market to several factors, including education and awareness,” Yap shared. “While Phuture products are priced comparably to their ‘real meat’ counterparts, many plant-based meat options are still priced at a premium due to high development costs. This can then become more of an investment for the consumer. So to purchase plant-based meat alternatives, the consumers need a strong sense of why they are doing it.”

He remarked that having more discussions on and education around factory farming, sustainability, food production, and nutrition is the first step to helping the consumer understand why it is worth it to choose meat alternatives.

Although a nascent market, Malaysia already houses several plant-based meat brands, such as Nanka (minced jackfruit meat) and Phuture Daging (minced meat made out of soy, rice, peas and chickpea protein). OmniMeat also has a presence in Malaysia. This Hong Kong startup makes meat strips, mince and luncheon meat crafted out of shiitake mushrooms, pea, soy and rice.

In April, Nestlé opened a new manufacturing facility to produce plant-based protein products for Asian markets under its Harvest Gourmet brand.

Phuture currently works with restaurant partners to prepare its ready-to-eat meals and has recently partnered with KyoChon in Malaysia, which will offer Phuture on its menu as plant-based alternatives.

Fighting misconceptions

According to Yap, there are some misconceptions about processed food in Malaysia: it is ‘bad’ and ‘unhealthy’ — when, in fact, it is the future and is both healthy and sustainable.

“To remove these perceptions, we need to design food with the right intentions and understanding at the molecular level and with the right food technology and processes. Such food items can address specific nutritional deficiencies, overcome food allergies and nourish people,” he added.

Also Read: Bühler invests in Big Idea Ventures’s New Protein Fund; to invest in up to 100 plant- and cell-based firms

There’s also a lot of room for more financial support, grants, and accelerator and development programmes to increase the region’s global competitiveness in the plant-based meat sector.

The impact of COVID-19

Yap shared the pandemic has caused a lot of people to prioritise their health and well-being, and therefore re-evaluate what they put into their bodies. This has helped create more awareness about the alternative meat market globally and locally, creating more demand for plant-based meats in general.

“This is very heartening to see, given the state of the environment. We hope that this increased demand will create more opportunities for companies like Phuture to innovate further and create healthy and sustainable alternative meat solutions,” he noted.

As the business grows, Phuture has plans to take its products beyond Malaysia. “We have designed the High-Fibre Chick’n range to address the dietary fibre gap found in most Malaysian diets. But this is not just a local problem but a global burden. Therefore, we aim to extend our fibre solutions to more places, especially in Southeast Asia.”

Funded by accredited investors based in Singapore, Australia, and the US, Phuture Foods is currently out to raise follow-on investment. “This funding will help us develop our products further and support our expansion into new markets,” he concluded.

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Image Credit: Phuture

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We have seen an acceleration of digital transformation in the last year and a half. Companies today face an urgent need to regenerate all business interactions and brand experiences into something more adaptive and remote.

While some businesses might find this transition tricky, it is proving to be a significant opportunity for entrepreneurs and startups in the age of the “new normal.” Compared to established businesses, startups can incorporate digital transformation practices swiftly.

There is no need to upgrade, change, or optimise legacy operations. The natural adaptability of entrepreneurs makes the adoption of digital transformation easier to process.

That is why all startups should take advantage of this opportunity to address prevailing issues of the day.

How customer-centric is your business?

As the customer engagement journey is now in disarray, customer-centricity has come into question. How ready are businesses to adopt new ways of ensuring they ‘follow’ a customer thoroughly — from awareness to conversion and beyond?

How are startups ensuring they can fully maximise customer lifetime value?

Also Read: How HackerNoon uses customer-centric approach to build meaningful new features on their platform

The business opportunity that customer-centricity presents is immense. According to our data and the work being done with the Infobip Startup Tribe, organisations that have shifted their focus from only improving products to meeting customer needs first have experienced an 80 per cent increase in revenue.

Startups are in a solid position to embrace modern digital practices ahead of more traditional companies, to address customer-centricity. Let us take a deeper look at how digital transformation can help with that.

Data-driven decision making keeping the customer in mind

The last 18 months have helped data and analytics become more visible in business, and many entrepreneurs are turning to advanced AI capabilities to modernise their existing applications while quickly and more efficiently harnessing user data.

By incorporating more AI-based technology into business models, it’s possible to gain access to vast volumes of big data that can drive critical decisions — such as 360° customer profiles.

When deploying the right technology, you can connect insights from all online and offline sources — from websites, apps, contact centres, customer relationships, enterprise resource management, loyalty cards, even payment systems, and more. In doing so, they unlock a full view of customers.

With access to these valuable insights, startups can provide fast and personalised customer support. This is critical to providing an everyday customer experience and will help to prevent and avoid a fragmented and impersonal user journey.

Omnichannel experiences are no longer a luxury

New ways of working and doing business have conditioned customers to get what they want when they want and however they want it.

Today, more than 50 per cent of consumers expect to receive a customer service response within 60 minutes. They want equally speedy response times on weekends as they’ve come to expect on weekdays.

Also Read: Why a customer-centric digital marketing strategy is the way to go?

The perpetual engagement imperative means that businesses not switched on 24/7 all year round are putting themselves at a disadvantage to rivals with more efficient operations in place.

Today’s consumers don’t dwell on a single channel. A Microsoft study shows that 66 per cent of consumers used at least three different communication channels to contact customer services. They visit points of sale and websites, leave feedback through mobile apps, and ask questions for support teams on social media.

Combining these interactions makes it possible to create complete digital profiles for customers whenever they interact with your business, helping entrepreneurs provide significantly more immersive experiences.

Pervasive rewards for customer-centricity

Although digital transformation could begin with addressing just one facet of a startup’s operations, its benefits can be far-reaching for employees, consumers, and stakeholders.

It can limit the mundane tasks required of workers, offer greater levels of personalisation for clients, and free up new skills to be developed in other areas of a business.

This, in turn, helps to build a more positive and virtuous work culture of engaged and invested teams that know the value of fresh ideas and new perspectives.

Seize opportunities in the startup ecosystem

As funding and accelerator programmes are starting to re-emerge, startup decision-makers have an excellent opportunity to adopt new approaches, technologies, and tools to ensure that business navigates the age of the new normal with the greatest efficiency.

Also Read: Is customer-centric approach applicable in B2B structure?

If you are a decision-maker in a startup, the ball is in your court to leverage these opportunities and future-proof your business with customer-centricity.

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Are you a startup seeking to scale internationally? Listen to the newest Global Class podcast episode featuring Jan Van Casteren, Head of Europe at Flexport. The company is a freight forwarding and customs brokerage company based in San Francisco, California

In this episode, Van Casteren talks about the early days of Flexport, how it had to be a global company almost from day one, and how Flexport had to adapt core values in order to scale and manage a global footprint.

Learn about some of the often overlooked parts of expanding to new markets and how to build a strong team.

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This article was first published on Global Class.

Image Credit: Global Class

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Physical retailing is not dead, so long as retailers develop innovative ways to create a memorable experience for consumers.

Malls may die a slow (or fast) death if the following foundations of transparent, real-time data, and synergy between stakeholders, are not made a reality today. In Singapore, three factors can compete with the rise of online shopping.

Firstly, an operating model of win-win relationships exists between all stakeholders, including landlords and merchants, with consumers in the centre.

Secondly, a fundamental shift from silos and distrust to trust and cooperation and thirdly, a data infrastructure (hardware and software) that enforces trust and provides superior business insights and changes in productivity.

The retail mall of tomorrow will not succeed unless they have complete real-time data visibility and sharing, just like e-commerce marketplaces.

Shop in any online marketplace today, from multiple stores. This marketplace has real-time and itemised information about every single purchase that you make.

Step into any mall today to buy your latte and bagel, your pair of shoes and your dress; the mall doesn’t have this information.

A critical edge that e-commerce marketplaces have over physical malls is the real-time visibility of granular sales data. E-commerce marketplaces can tell you how many people shopped at midnight and how many transactions were made, and what that average basket size was per transaction. Malls cannot.

Also Read: How can European companies win in Indonesia’s e-commerce market?

Systems, contracts and approaches in offline retail today is outdated, and thus the physical retail ecosystem cannot keep pace with the exponential growth of e-commerce.

Actual omnichannel retail with malls requires complete data visibility. No one has achieved this before because of POS fragmentation, the difficulty of integration, and a non-data centric approach.

Take a look at any POS system in any shop, in any mall in Singapore. Right this minute, POS machines all over the island are clocking in thousands of transactions concurrently.

The problem?

Malls today are not equipped with the systems to view, analyse and use this data to grow with merchants and delight customers.

Again, e-commerce marketplaces can, and they routinely tell the market and each of their merchants how many people shopped at what time, how the merchant did on the day compared to their competitors and the whole market. Malls, on the other hand, are unable to provide this information in real-time.

Inability to respond to crisis

For example, during a lockdown of 14 days, should a mall be able to understand how sales fare day to day, before, during, and after the lockdown? In reality, yes, they should, but it hasn’t been reflected in all malls. It is information that the vast majority of malls do not have, and therefore, no merchants receive as insights.

Also Read: Offline is the future of online retail

It makes it challenging to negotiate subsidies and waivers in tripartite discussions, turning to pictures of empty malls and ‘he-said-she-said back and forths.

Based on observations in the industry, it is commonly known that landlords and merchants distrust each other as a rule of thumb. They doubt the data each present, question each other’s intentions and actions, and each party claims that the other does not share data transparently.

You only have to look at any social media post within merchant groups, business publications, and the conversations and comments that unfold to understand the intensity of these feelings.

Is this the only way to operate? With distrust and keeping our cards to our chest?

Workable models for data transparency

Why is it that merchants are more than happy to share all sales data with e-commerce marketplaces? Why is it that retailers routinely sync their customer database with tech giants like Facebook and Google for loyalty and retargeting purposes?

These business relationships are underpinned by the three principles shared above—an operating model of win-win, trusting relationships, and an automated, scalable data infrastructure.

E-commerce is new, shiny, and revolutionary. Physical marketplaces, on the other hand, has been around for centuries. With this, malls must disrupt themselves and meet evolving consumer demands and behaviours.

Also Read: Carousell acquires Ox Street to double down on its re-commerce efforts in Greater SEA

We already know that tech giants like Amazon, JD and Alibaba own their retail stores and complexes. Perhaps it is time for big tech to disrupt and best landlords at their own game?

Transformation involves upgrading physical systems, changing the hearts and minds of these organisations, and maintaining open mindsets surrounding legacy SOPs and beliefs, such as data sharing between stakeholders.

Building alignment, consensus and trust are close to our hearts which is why we created The Future of Retail Asia Podcast interviewing retail ecosystem leaders from all around Asia.

Unlocking value, revenue and investments into the retail ecosystem

As more retailers opt for the omnichannel approach, the question arises of how these value-adds to the consumer and drive higher sales and revenue.

Ultimately, it all boils down to creating a seamless online to offline shopping experience for the customer. That can only be enabled with data that lay latent and trapped in the fragmented Point-Of-Sale systems market in Singapore’s retail scene.

For retailers and brands, showing data is the ‘proof of the pudding’ – driving more sales effectively and harnessing data to do that predictably and efficiently, is what will save the retail ecosystem, not arguing about rents.

Interestingly, it will also be why the largest brands in the world, FMCG brands like PepsiCo and CocaCola, P&G and Unilever, would invest more money.

Do you think they would be interested to know how their SKUs move every hour, day and week in the mall or retail ecosystem?

Also Read: Beyond e-commerce: How omnichannel experiences can shake up SEA retail

Understanding demand flow to plan marketing, manufacturing and distribution better saves brands billions of dollars a year if achieved – this unlocks tremendous value.

Fintech partners like banks, card issuers and e-wallets would love to understand customers, purchases and how they perform in the market, and predictable and measurable ways to acquire and have users spend more with them.

Show your partners the data of how spending can be increased, and you will see money flow in like a gushing river – all because you can show these partners how they can increase ROI and decrease costs – while all other competing malls struggle to calculate rental monthly.

The Great Singapore Sale (GSS) has died. The only honourable way is to recreate a new, data-centred and customer-centred version of it.

When was the last time you saw a GSS print ad and specifically went to town to catch the sales?

The popularity of the GSS has dwindled sharply in recent years, and this has been prominently replaced by catchy online ads and jingles shouting every double number you can imagine (11, 22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 77, 88, 99), but that doesn’t have to signify its death.

Could the Great Singapore Sale be reincarnated and brought back to life with real-time data, omnichannel marketing and engagement?

Want to give people real-time sales figures in the malls? Top-selling brands and shops for the day?

You need aggregate real-time data.

Want to challenge your shoppers to shop all day if the mall hits S$10 million spend for the day everyone in the mall receives a S$10 voucher?

Also Read: B2B e-commerce platform EI Industrial attracts seed funding from Cocoon Capital, Beenext

You need aggregate real-time data. Any omnichannel future, customer-centric future, experience innovated lot – requires aggregate real-time data.

The best part is that the technology, the processes, and the steps already exist to make it happen.

The Fair Tenancy Framework, while a good start, will not work by itself, as the rental calculation isn’t exciting for retailers and even malls. Growing top line is.

If there is one thing that retailers care about, it is sales. Growing whole retail ecosystems, whether it is a mall or a precinct, requires every party working together in the ecosystem, for the good of the ecosystem. This interestingly applies to malls, but to also precincts (for example 600 merchants in Kampong Glam, or in Chinatown).

If data can unlock how to double or triple spend in a mall, that’s what will work, and you only need to look at e-commerce use cases to see how to bring it into the mall.

The future of offline retail is an exciting and promising one for landlords, tenants, and shoppers alike, if and only if all of the above happens.

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Gamification has become a buzzword in recent years. Simply put, gamification uses game elements in a non-game context, offering a great way to retain customers.

It’s a growth strategy straight out of China, which has seen many major e-commerce companies, including Alipay, Alibaba’s Taobao and Pinduoduo, incorporate gamified elements into their apps to increase user engagement and draw in repeat customers.

Learning from the Chinese experience with gamification, many Vietnamese companies have started to leverage the strategy of incorporating gamification in business as a solution to target customers more engagingly and effectively.

Growing gamification adoption in Vietnam

The value of the gamification market worldwide has skyrocketed from US$4.91 billion in 2016 to US$11.94 billion in 2021, according to Statista.

In the Asia Pacific, the gamification market is projected to grow exponentially at a rate of 27 per cent. China and India will help drive the market by focusing more on using gamification to enhance user experience.

In Vietnam, MoMo is at the forefront of the trend toward gamification with offerings such as MoMo Academy, MoMo City, and the most recently launched MoMo Jump. It allows users to jump into gift boxes that appear on the road to collect coupons, promotions, and discounts to use various services available in MoMo e-wallet.

Vietnam-based one-hour delivery startup Loship is also upping its engagement tactics by launching two new gamified features called Daily check-in and Quest hunt.

BAce Capital suggested the strategy– their partners are directors at Ant Group. Drawing on their knowledge of Chinese trends, Loship incorporated mini-games into its app, just as China’s Pinduoduo added gaming to its e-commerce platform. 

“It was not something done with a strong sales objective in mind, but rather an experience that would allow customers to enjoy. Users visit Pinduoduo without any specific intent, much like visiting a real-world shopping mall. Likewise, Loship users may pull up the app for gaming, not shopping, but wind up making purchases,” Loship CEO Trung Hoang Nguyen shared.

Another startup that has incorporated gamification into its platform is Fika, a dating and social networking platform focusing on female users in Asia. With gamification, Fika broke the mold of traditional dating apps.

Also read: How gamification is increasing productivity during COVID-19

Each day users will receive a series of mini-challenges such as “Match someone new today” or “Text 2 days in a row”, etc., and for each completion, users will receive a Fika Coin reward. These Fika coins are used to unlock many premium features in the Fika app, such as seeing who liked you, rewinds, unlimited likes, etc. 

Gamification done right is key

Gamification is supposed to be a product longevity booster, not a replacement for the app’s inherent utility. Gamification plays a pivotal role in improving the user experience, engagement, and appeal of the app.

Let’s walk through some of the benefits that gamification brings to the table:

User retention

Gamification is a retention machine when done well. All gamification types have the same standard hook, where you can log in daily, perform a specific action to get rewards. Psychologically, these rewards motivate users to keep going on with the game and achieve more rewards. T

The principle here is that high-frequency usage would cultivate a user habit, leading to user stickiness. This user stickiness is tied to purchasing products.

China’s Pinduoduo is a leader in using gamification to promote frequent usage and purchases on its platform. The average number of monthly users in Pinduoduo increased more than twofold from 195 million in 2018 to 487 million in 2020 thanks to this engagement strategy.

Vietnam-based Loship has also followed this strategy to develop its daily check-in challenges. Each time users check-in, they are granted a certain number of Lo-points, which can be redeemed for in-app vouchers and coupons.

“While each check-in doesn’t generate direct revenue for Loship, the product experience eventually ties back to commerce if/when users redeem their points. This theoretically should yield a higher customer lifetime value,” shared the Loship representative.

User acquisition

Games that require users to invite or introduce their friends are the perfect vehicle to acquire new users. 83 per cent of consumers say they either completely or somewhat trust recommendations from family, colleagues, and friends about products.

Vietnam’s MoMo uses the referral program to have existing users invite their friends to install the app in exchange for extra turns to play games and incentives of VND500.000 for each successful referral.

The highest amount receivers get their name displayed on the app’s leaderboard feature.

Referral mechanics was also the fuel that propelled Pinduoduo to spectacular growth at its inception. Once the user is hooked, they’ll happily acquire on behalf of the company.

As such, the company can reach out to more potential customers without any advertising dollars invested. 

Data collection

Gamification can help companies understand their customers on a deeper level. When playing games, users reveal their preferences regarding time, capacity, attitudes, and willingness to pay, allowing for more precise targeting.

This insight becomes the foundation of better customer experience and engagement, leading to loyalty and trust. Historical data can also be used to make better predictions and build more effective marketing campaigns. 

In the case of Fika, for instance, Fika encourages users to take on mini-challenges such as “Match someone new today” in exchange for Fika Coins.

The more users join the challenge, the more insights and customer data are revealed. Fika can build up robustly personalized constantly and matchmaking algorithms to find more meaningful connections for their users.

Gamification is not a trend. It’s a future

Gen Z makes up 1/7 of Vietnam’s 92 million population. Being in tune with this large and growing generation of consumers means mastering gamification – and applying this tactic to the business context.

With the impact of COVID-19 leading people to aggressively search for online entertainment, more and more applications coming to market, and the concept of gamification gaining more credibility, it is only a matter of time before gamification takes off in a nation that loves gaming like Vietnam.

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