While European countries dominate the target destinations this year, mainland China is the top target market in the Asia-Pacific region (Apac) and the fourth-most-popular globally, with 27 per cent of retailers looking to expand there.

This is followed by Hong Kong in sixth position (24 per cent), Japan in seventh (22 per cent) and Singapore in ninth (21 per cent).

The top three globally were Germany (35 per cent), France (33 per cent) and the UK (29 per cent), according to the real-estate consulting firm’s study of more than 150 major international brands based in the Americas, Apac and Emea (Europe, the Middle East and Africa).

• Mainland China and Hong Kong maintained fourth and sixth places while Japan (seventh), Singapore (ninth) and Australia (11th) all rose in the ranking from 13th, 18th and 15th.

• Most markets saw increased interest for 2016 versus 2015, with the exceptions of China and South Korea, which softened somewhat.

• Interest in Southeast Asia surged, with Malaysia (10 per cent), Indonesia (9 per cent), Thailand (8 per cent), Vietnam (8 per cent) and the Philippines (8 per cent) all receiving more than double the interest they saw in 2015, when all markets secured between 1 and 3 per cent.

When questioned about the risk factors for them in the coming year, brands indicated that escalating real-estate costs (56 per cent) and unclear economic prospects (42 per cent) continued to be at the forefront of their minds.

“We’re seeing more of a challenging economic environment, and concerns such as high operating costs and a lack of quality space mean retailers are somewhat warier this year,” Henry Chin, CBRE’s head of Apac research, said yesterday.

“However, even as markets such as [mainland] China and Hong Kong are seeing a slowdown, we see increasing numbers of opportunistic retailers looking to enter markets like Hong Kong, supported by strong underlying consumer demand.

“Japan and Australia remain attractive, while Southeast Asia showed strong growth due to opportunities for retailers around an expanding middle class and stronger economic growth.”

Joel Stephen, senior director and head of retailer representation in Asia, said: “There are still opportunities for retailers to grow their business in the Asia region – as underscored by the region having four of the top 10 most popular destinations worldwide.

“The goal now for all brick-and-mortar retailers is to build an engaging offer that encourages people to stay longer and spend more.”

About 83 per cent of brands suggest their plans for physical store expansion this year will not be affected by the growth of e-commerce.

From a retailer perspective, only 22 per cent of the brands are concerned about stiff competition from online retailing as a threat to their business.

Retailers are cautiously optimistic about expanding their physical sales network.

About 17 per cent have large-scale ambitions, with many retailers looking to open more than 40 stores this year, up from 9 per cent last year. Two-thirds are looking to open up to 20 stores.

“A physical store presence in key locations is still critical to the strength of a brand’s image,” Stephen said. “Stores still need to create an emotional affinity with shoppers, and customers still feel a need to go into stores, to physically touch a product and enjoy the feel-good factor associated with a particular brand experience.

“The store is integral to the shopping journey and can be used in different ways, such as to click and collect, research of the product or brand, or to test the product. It isn’t solely about the transactional side.”

A new trend saw a fifth of brands, largely from the Americas and Emea, stating their intention to expand into travel hubs – such as airports and train stations – this year, as this will give them access to high footfall in busy locations.

However, for Apac-originating retailers, shopping malls remained the most preferred destination by far at close to 90 per cent.

While globally the key concern for brands in lease negotiations was “lease length”, Apac-originated retailers were most concerned with turnover rent clauses as the most important characteristic.

“The average income of Thais is US$5,000-$6,000 per year. In higher-income countries, such as Malaysia and South Korea, it’s about $10,000,” more than Bt350,000, he said.

Strategic reforms in industry, agriculture and services are needed to allow Thailand to move from a country with low annual growth in gross domestic product of only 2-3 per cent back to one with high growth of 5 per cent.

The government is now on the right track in launching clusters and innovations to stimulate local industry. It has launched many stimulus measures to support small and medium-sized enterprises and agriculture, especially farmers, Tos said.

“Where we would like to see progress is in the service sector,” he said.

More than 6 million Thais travelled abroad last year. They spent Bt170 billion on travel costs and shopping, up 10 per cent from 2014, he noted.

“It is quite worrying as annual growth in domestic spending is no more than 2 per cent. Despite the rising number of inbound tourists, their spending here is increasing by only 2 per cent per annum, which is very low.

“The question I would like to raise with all concerned people is how to attract both Thais and foreigners to spend more in Thailand,” said Tos, adding that the tourism and retail sectors contributed about 25 per cent of GDP. Tos is involved in the government’s “Pracha Rath” project aimed at boosting the economy.

“We are working in four major strategic areas, which are to provide assistance and support to SMEs, to enhance the development of border towns as trade centres with [Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia and Vietnam], to make trade with the CLMMV market easier, and to boost the tourism and education sectors.

“We [Central Group] have provided support to local communities throughout the value chain. This includes provincial-product development, procurement of local farm produce, providing market-places with retail space and events to promote such community products, and initiating a ‘Big Brother’ project by hosting short- and long-term coaching and business seminars for small and medium-sized entrepreneurs in the communities.”

He said Central Group was operating 14 sub-projects to support SMEs as well as lower-income earners, such as farmers, community products and Otop (One Tambon One Product), and younger entrepreneurs living in the cities.

For instance, six products have been selected by the group for its pilot projects for provincial product development. They are sweet tamarind in Phetchabun, bananas in Angthong, longan in Lamphun, Sang Yod rice in Phatthalung, longkong in the Southern region, and mangosteen in Rayong.

“We have provided turnkey support in developing those agricultural and community products from the beginning. They include product design and development as well as packaging, and selling those products at the group’s retail channels, such as Central Food Hall and Tops,” Tos said.

He added that about 60 different events would be hosted by Central Group this year to support SMEs, farmers and community products.

Tos said the group so far had nurtured 278 SMEs for selling products in its retail network, generating annual income of about Bt600 million. Income from SMEs is expected to reach Bt790 million this year.

Kriengsak Tantiphipop, CEO of The Emporium Group, is also involved in the Pracha Rath project initiated by the government and the private sector to generate income and stimulate spending in the country. He said he had proposed two key ways to raise tourism revenue.

They are the reduction of import duty on luxury products, which would make Thailand a real shopping paradise, and the creation of man-made attractions to lure more “quality tourists” from all over the world.

“In Thailand, the import duty charged on luxury products is now as high as 30-40 per cent. The country would be able to compete neck-to-neck with duty-free [markets] such as Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong if the government reduced the duty to not more than 10 per cent,” he said.

“The tourism authority anticipates about 32 million in-bound tourists visiting Thailand this year. With a revamp of the import duty, I expect the country would gain another 20 million foreign tourists. It would also encourage Thai shoppers to spend their shopping money in Thailand.”

Lazada Thailand is celebrating its fourth anniversary with a four-day “Birthday Sale” from tomorrow to Friday. The campaign will offer discounts of up to 90 per cent across a wide selection of categories.

“In our four years of operations in Thailand, we have recorded rapid growth and many opportunities remain, especially as SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises] in Thailand join local and international brands in realising the potential of e-commerce,” said Alessandro Piscini, chief executive officer of Lazada Thailand.

“We have seen the habits of Thai shoppers evolve, with more time spent online with the growth of social media. Now people are more familiar with shopping online, and we see a trend which shows they have migrated to shopping via their mobile.

“Lazada Thailand is committed to [making] shopping effortless for our customers, and we will continually invest in our platform to ensure great shopping experiences. “Currently we have up to 8,400 merchants on our platform and we are expecting to see more merchants join us in the near future.”

This year, Lazada Thailand aims to introduce new services including “helloPay”, a one-stop solution for online and offline payments.

Plans for the year also include priority delivery and “Fulfilment by Lazada”, allowing merchants to leverage Lazada’s inventory and logistics capabilities to handle large orders easily.

The company is also bringing the shop-in-shop feature to the Lazada mobile app, giving brands exclusive visibility to the fast-growing complement of Lazada app users.

Lazada Thailand says it will also continue to attract more sellers to its marketplace platform. Sellers can take advantage of its end-to-end model, from order to delivery. They can also benefit from having direct access to Lazada’s established customer base, infrastructure and analytics.

Lazada Group has cemented its position as a major online shopping and selling destination in Southeast Asia. The company has announced US$1.3 billion (Bt46 billion) in annualised gross merchandise value (GMV) across the six countries in which it operates – Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam.

Lazada’s performance has been underpinned by the growth of mobile and an expanding product range, as well as its commitment to build its own logistics operations for better customer experience.

Mobile contribution to GMV hit 60 per cent at the end of 2015 as more customers embraced shopping on mobile devices. Lazada Android and iOS apps reached almost 30 million cumulative downloads.

Company president Chai Chaiyawan said Intage (Thailand) had conducted a study on Thai Life’s image through both qualitative and quantitative research involving 4,000 consumers, 1,000 in Bangkok and the rest upcountry. Of the total, 1,500 respondents held life-insurance policies, 500 did not, and 2,000 were a random sample.

The research found that consumers had good feelings about the Thai Life brand. The satisfaction index was 2.2, higher than the average of 1.94 for the overall life-insurance industry.

Consumers saw the Thai Life brand as solid and distinctive. It was seen as a leader in terms of product innovation, interesting and memorable TV commercials, and providing clear information about its products. Its agents are knowledgeable enough to point consumers towards insurance policies that meet their needs. As well, it offers convenient payment channels.

Thai Life Insurance earned a very high score in the brand-awareness category. Consumers think of Thai Life first as a brand with high standards and innovative products and services.

Reputation and stability valued

In addition, a highlight of the brand is its television commercials, which are creative and have impressive content.

The findings indicated that Thai Life Insurance is a brand that ensures a high level of satisfaction in terms of both products and outstanding, fast service, particularly in settling claims.

Non-clients were impressed with its TV commercials, saying that if they decided to buy life insurance, Thai Life would be a top brand as they consider their choices.

The study found that among the criteria for deciding to buy life insurance, the reputation and stability of a brand ranked 26 per cent, the hospital network, the clients have not to reserve the money when they get the medical benefits worth 11%, the claim process 8 per cent, and fast service 8 per cent. Uncomplicated policy conditions ranked 6 per cent and the rest is for a reason of the other side.

“At the same time, the research also found that the agent channel is still the main one that consumers choose when buying life insurance, with an 81-per-cent proportion, because it is reliable, is easy to access, and they can choose a policy that meets their requirements,” Chai said. “And when a problem occurs, the client can contact an agent directly.

This preference is followed by bancassurance at 16 per cent and telesales at 5 per cent, he said.

The research found that convenience and speed of dealing with claims were the main factors defining service excellence.

Debuted in Thailand as the first market in Asia, two new flavours, “Lay’s Honey Butter” and “Lay’s Popcorn Caramel”, are intended to meet growing demand for new products. In the Asia-Pacific region, 69 per cent of consumers said in a survey that they purchased a new product during their last grocery-shopping trip.

The launch is supported by a |360-degree campaign, including a TV commercial featuring brand ambassadors Nadech Kugimiya |and Urassaya “Yaya” Sperbund, eye-catching out-of-home media, |retail and in-store media, and |digital and social-media engagement.

On-ground activities will be |highlighted by a “disruptive sampling troop” – a caravan of bee |mascots riding on motorbikes and bee-shaped drones chasing a gigantic pack of Lay’s Honey Butter – to boost the buzz around Bangkok.

Lay’s Honey Butter is available in pack sizes of 26 grams priced at Bt10, 38 grams at Bt15, 50 grams at Bt20, 65 grams at Bt25, and 73 grams at Bt30 in convenience stores, supermarkets, and mom-and-pop shops nationwide.

Lay’s Popcorn Caramel comes in pack sizes of 38 grams at Bt15 and 65 grams at Bt25, exclusively |available in 7-Eleven convenience stores.

About 600 suppliers were invited. TU management addressing the group included Thiraphong Chansiri, president and chief executive officer, and the company’s global director of sustainable development, Darian McBain.

The presentation included a full explanation of the 12 fundamental principles of TU’s business-ethics and labour code of conduct.

Management stressed the importance of compliance and highlighted that suppliers who did not work to meet the standards established would be unable to continue working with TU.

Afterwards suppliers were invited to sign the code of conduct, signalling their commitment.

Thiraphong said: “I am delighted that so many of our partners signed a pledge to comply with our business-ethics and labour code| of conduct. It is a positive sign that we are all able to move forward together in order to improve|how the Thai seafood industry operates.

“Thai Union’s vision is to be the world’s most trusted seafood leader, and as a company we understand this can only be achieved when business is conducted sustainably and responsibly. We want to ensure that our business partners in our supply chain understand how important these issues are to Thai Union and are fully aware of how best to comply.”

McBain added: “Thai Union’s policy is clear: We do not tolerate human-rights violations and we will continue to work to make sure that the workers in our supply chain can enjoy free and fair employment that respects their rights and dignity.

“Events such as this, which help our suppliers understand they must comply with our code of conduct, is one way we are working to achieve our goals. The code of conduct is an important part of our wider |sustainability strategy, ‘Sea Change’, which aims to deliver real and lasting changes to the way both we and the Thai and global fishing industries operate.”

In the past 18 months, Thai Union has terminated relationships with 16 suppliers because of forced-labour or human-trafficking violations. The company has also reduced the number of vessels it conducts business with from over 2,000 to just 400 to ensure better visibility and control of labour conditions.