Lessons from Africa on Localisation and Digital Shelf Growth, with Anna Adams, Digital Business & eCommerce Executive

Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to unpacking the Digital Shelf APAC edition where we explore the unique challenges and opportunities shaping digital commerce across Asia Pacific. With insights from the region's top experts,
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Welcome back, APAC listeners. In this episode of unpacking the Digital Shelf, the APAC edition, we are broadening our horizons beyond Asia Pacific and heading over to Africa, I'm joined by Anna Adams, the ex-director of e-commerce for Coca-Cola, who led digital shelf and e-commerce for the brand across the region. Anna has also previously led e-commerce across the region for Phillips, so she brings a wealth of experience navigating one of the most diverse and complex regions in the world where shopper behavior, retail maturity, and digital platforms look very different from country to country and different from what we're used to in apac, Europe or the us. Together we will explore how she tackled localization of global strategies for the region, what it takes to build capability in such varied markets, and how social platforms are shaping commerce across countries like South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, and Kenya. Anna, welcome to the show. I'm so excited for this conversation to learn more about this rapidly developing series of markets and how leaders like yourself navigate and manage such a diverse region.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Thanks Theresa for having me. I'm super excited to be here and I'm really excited about shining the spotlight on Africa for digital shelf and digital commerce.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, I feel like this could be a first for unpacking the digital shelf. I'm not sure we've had a guest yet across myself and Lauren Le from Africa. So that is a beautiful segue into our first topic. Many of our listeners may not have been exposed to the African continent, so I'd love to start by having you share a little bit more about it. Which markets are more advanced, which are less mature, and what are some of the nuances in shoppers between the different countries?
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Sure, thanks. Africa is home to 1.5 billion Africans. We're the second largest continent, and I'm going to share some fun facts with you.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Love
Speaker 1 (02:28):
It. By 2030, the largest concentration of the world's youth will be in Africa. Let's just take a moment and pause on that. The largest concentration of the world's youth will be in Africa. The United Nations projects that Africa's population will reach nearly 2.5 billion by 2050. This means that more than 25% of the world's population will be African. That's one in four people being African. That's huge. And by the end of the century, Africa's share of the world's population, it projected to be at nearly 40%.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I'm just going to interject there, Anna. I mean that's so fascinating already. You've already reeled me in. We're seeing around the world such a big decline in birth rate, and so when we look at Africa as a continent, it's kind of the reverse scenario occurring, making it such an exciting emerging market. I'm sure for many global brand manufacturers.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Yes, absolutely. I mean, like you say, rest of the world having declining birth rates in Africa, having this boom, so what does it actually mean? Africa typically is portrayed as poor and underpenetrated lacking access to technology and infrastructure from the old point of view. But let me paint the reality of Africa for you today. The use of the internet has evolved rapidly. In Africa, the continent had around 570 million internet users in 2022, a number that more than doubled compared to 2015 with countries like South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, and Morocco leading with the highest internet penetration rates coupled with mobile connections. It's no wonder that Africa has suddenly become digitally switched on. For example, South Africa has a population of 60 million people, yet there are 124 million active mobile connections. That's 193% of the population. That's almost two sims per person, and even better, that's about three to four devices per person. This 50.8 million internet users representing 78.9% of the population, and it gets even bigger for a country like Egypt. Egypt has a population of 111 million. Egypt's digital landscape is continuously expanding. The country has 116 million active mobile connections. That's 104% of the total population internet usage.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Sorry, I'm going to interject there. Sorry. Because it's so interesting. This adoption of mobile is really interesting, particularly where you're talking about South Africa and two sims per person. What's driving that adoption? Why do those in Egypt have multiple sims? What's driving that behavior?
Speaker 1 (05:24):
I think the behavior in Africa, and as we double click into different countries, we can go in there. I think the need, there was a time where Africa was just not connected,
(05:37):
And then they got to a point where there was mobile telecommunication services available and people were now switched on. At first, Africa struggled with things like credit ratings because a lot of people are actually unbanked. So prepaid was a very big market in Africa, and prepaid was a very lucrative market because different players offered different freebies and incentives. So you would find a person would carry two different, maybe a blue sim card, a blue prepaid sim card, and a yellow prepaid sim card and get all the freebies from this one, use the airtime, pull it out, and then do that and then switch on to the next one. And then they realize, oh, I'm actually losing the airtime being connected, so it's actually going to be better to have two devices switched onto the network at both times. So really that's where that behavior traditionally came from. And then as we've evolved, the need for being constantly connected has become more and more in demand and people are discovering, they're shopping online, they're streaming, they're browsing, they're banking because we'll touch on it a little bit later, but there's mobile banking through telecommunication platforms like mobile money in Africa, which is very different to the rest of the world.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Fascinating. And it sounds a little bit like Asia where it skipped the desktop era. Is that the same for Africa, that there wasn't a lot of connectivity and all of a sudden we went straight into the mobile era?
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Absolutely. We went straight into the mobile era. I mean, desktops would've been an absolute privilege to have in Africa back at that time. So we completely skipped that. We leapfrog that. Actually, I think if you could call it
Speaker 2 (07:26):
So mobile first. So there's some amazing stats in there that really start to paint a picture around the different markets within the continent and internet connectivity, mobile utilization. How about the retailers themselves? How different are the retailers across the region? Are there key major players that are operating across the many markets, or is it really that each market has its own set of retailers that you are engaging with and need to partner with?
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Retailers really differ. A markets, for example, we have some Pan-African retailers and then we have international players that operate in specific markets, and then we have very strong local players. We have large retailers like KA and Amazon that are present in multiple countries in Africa with different strategies in different countries. Then we have a Pan-African player like Glo, who's a food service aggregator who then operates across four to six countries in Africa and is managed and run at a Africa level with local contextualization. Then this Talibut and Uber Eats who are again operating in multiple countries and very strong local brands. Like in South Africa, there's a very strong E, it's called Checker 60, and it's very famous. It basically delivers your groceries in under 30 minutes in Nigeria, which is a really strong Nigerian brand. Chandana in Kenya, again, a strong local brand and aggregators like Mr.
(09:12):
D in noon across South Africa and then in Egypt. So very different, very different specifications, very different requirements. Every market has a blend of some international and some local players, and it's really about applying yourself and the brand and identifying where you want to play and how you want to win. Of course, this makes it very difficult in terms of providing content to different retailers because each has its own requirements. Some could easily adopt to a digital shelf, others would want just a shared folder of images, and some may not have the capacity at all to even attempt a digital shelf. So really understanding retailers and their positioning was key. And in a place like Coca-Cola where we operated with the system, so Coca-Cola owns the trademark, and then we worked with the Butler network and the customer, the Butler was very strong in helping us drive this change throughout the retail partners.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
And then I assume across the region, you're also not just dealing with an array of different retailers by market, but also potentially dealing with different languages across the different markets. So I assume within some countries there are multiple languages that are spoken. Is that right?
Speaker 1 (10:28):
There are multiple languages spoken across the continent, and I'll give you an example just of two different nuances.
(10:37):
In Egypt, which is a country that I had launched digital shelf in, I'm a native English speaker, and I was collecting data in English because English is what I'm expecting to be spoken in Egypt widely. And it is, but the second language is actually Arabic, and I needed a digital shelf that is in English and in Arabic, so it can be relative to the market there. And I really struggled to get the Arabic content. It's not a straightforward push a button, convert English into Arabic, you cannot do that, you make such mistake. And then let's take a little flight across to its neighbor who's Morocco, and you would think everything I just learned in Egypt I can implement in Morocco. But actually the English is not a first language there. It's not even a second language. The language is French and Arabic. And again, I could use a little bit of what I learned in Egypt from the Arabic that I used for the digital shelf, but then I had to collect in French and again, a completely different ballgame. So collecting data for digital shelf in the local language is so important because you cannot simply just say, translate. You would probably be prone to many, many errors.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yeah, it's so interesting. I mean, I spent some time working in the UK a number of years ago and working across different European markets and had the same challenges within certain markets like Belgium. There were several languages that were spoken, and like you said, you can't just adopt a translation approach. I think as an international player you get identified or found out very quickly and it's very hard to then be accepted and be credible as a brand within a local market. And so what we found we had to do and within our space was hire those that were native speakers for that language in order to ensure that we could maintain our relevancy for our brand operating across those different countries in Europe. So I assume it's very similar to what you're talking about here.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Oh, a hundred percent. Theresa could not have collected data in a local language without a local language expert on the ground. And that is a very unique requirement from digital shelf being run in the US and in Europe because oftentimes it's one language that's being rolled out. It's probably predominantly English like you've already called out. So local language expert, very important.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
This is what I was just going to say actually. If you are listening and you are currently managing one country with one language, think about how lucky you are given some of the complex challenges that Anna and her team and those operating in a continent like Africa are having to manage. So yeah, there's so many layers of complexity operating across such a big and diverse region like the African region, and it sounds like an absolutely overwhelming task to manage the size and scale the diversity, especially when regional teams are typically smaller. They're not necessarily as well resourced as markets like the US or the UK, for instance. So how did you approach localization of things like product content across such a diverse set of markets with multiple languages and do so in a scalable way?
Speaker 1 (14:30):
I have to reflect on both my experiences leading across big brands across the continent, but Phillips and Coca-Cola digital content was being aligned from a global perspective. Yes, it's a global capability. We are building global would have a strategy and look to connect with us local leads in the market to roll out and deploy all theoretically good on paper, not so easy in real life. It's always easy on paper, always easy in paper. We've spoken previously about the brand showing up correctly, but what does this actually mean when you talk about it in context of the digital shelf? And that means things like your APL imagery, your content, your image is looking really sharp, really crisp, really recognizable sizes and shapes may differ per market. And we have local brands that know global toolkit will cater for. So how do we factor that in descriptions, features, benefits, ingredients such an important thing because that's what helps you stand out and be searchable.
(15:32):
Search words, just the linger of the country. Is Coca-Cola a Coke? Is it cola? Is it a pop? Is it a fizzy drink? Is it soda? The list goes on. So really building that into how you approach this and then lifestyle content and videos. How do you engage with your audience and your consumer? And are we showing appropriate content for consumers and ratings and reviews, which I know it's a big one right now because that's what helps you win in the AI game. How do you build that in and how do you make sure it's relevant to the product that you are actually showcasing? Language is absolutely critical in this digital shelf and the local language of the country is what works no English for all approach, because that's not what will drive discovery of the brand and engagement of the product in the local market.
(16:24):
So might seem like a simple press of the button to convert from English to Arabic, but it's not the solution. And what I've seen firsthand is that there are some bumps along the way. I mentioned a little bit about Egypt and Morocco and I thought I could reuse, but you can't actually, when you contextualize that language into the local markets, you need to be able to build a model that's ready to scale. And there's a way to do that. At first, what I would do is I would look at a readiness and a maturity assessment. What does the market look like? What do the players and the retail partners look like? Are they ready to adopt a digital shelf and what do they require from that perspective? So before I go into a market, I actually would actually do a readiness impact assessment and find out who would I be a partnering with and what would be the requirements because each retailer, as we've discovered is different. So really contextualizing that global strategy into local requirements, that's really important.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
And did you work through defining a tiering system at a market level? And how did you go about that to work out which markets were the tier one, tier two, and what did that mean for your approach to product content localization for those priority one markets? You invested at a certain level, but priority two it looked a little bit different. Can you talk us through that?
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Yes. I mean there's no cookie cutter approach, and like we said, there's no one size fits all where it comes to digital shelf or even the language if we double click on it. So let me take you back a little bit. When I started the initiative with digital shelf in Africa, typically Africa was considered a tier three market. The US was generally, typically market one and Europe. Some of Europe then would be emerging. So the APEC region would come in as tier two and then tier three Africa. And then I really had the challenge, or I'd like to say the opportunity to position Africa as the growth engine because we've talked about the stats, we've talked about the booming population, we've talked about the drive for the youth being digitally connected. And just by putting that size of price forward, I found that we were able to navigate and negotiate getting Africa into a tier two market, which was great, which means, right, great, we're getting some focus with the emerging markets where we are playing with our big sister.
(19:11):
Okay, great. But then when you look into Africa and in the country there, a country like South Africa is far more advanced in digital commerce than for example, Uganda is or Zambia is. Egypt is far more advanced than Ghana is or Sudan is. So how do you figure out how you, and then you're going to tier those markets as well. So I would typically cascade that tiered approach into which of the countries in Africa I would win it. And it was typically South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Ghana, no, sorry, not Ghana, South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda. Those were typically the ones that I would hit very quickly. And then applying, what do you need? Because again, each one is different. Would each one require a full digital shelf solution? No, probably not, because retailers are very different in those markets. So how do you actually go about identifying what's the opportunity? And that's why that readiness assessment is so important in that pre-kickoff phase because it tells you whether you're going for a full solution or can you actually find an MVP where you can achieve a version of a digital shelf but achieve it through a lighter route.
(20:26):
Maybe you just do it for top skews because every market, for example, in Coca-Cola and in Phillips in my experience, had their own unique skews. So if you could achieve 80% of the skews that are being sold in the language that is being spoken, then you're probably going to win. And that's exactly how to drive it. And the way to win that conversation in the local markets is to talk about the global success stories, leverage that. We knew that shopper conversion went up 40% when a digital shelf was rolled out, share of search went up five times. Just having the digital shelf that you were able to track helped you reduce outer stocks. And these are very powerful metrics that you can leverage in helping drive these conversations no matter how small a market.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Yes, yes. So that's really interesting, Anna, and one of the things that you've just touched on with respect to tiering is how you are able to navigate and convince global for Africa to be perceived as a tier two market as opposed to tier three. And there's lots of listeners out there that are working within regional offices that need to garner more investment from global and be perceived as important as a region or more important than they are today. You've talked about sizing the opportunity. How else did you go about convincing global that Africa is such an important market for the organization and the brand over the short and longer term? What are some of those practical tips you could give regional teams to help convince their global counterparts that these regional markets are worth greater investment and focus
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Working across the African continent for the last five to seven years leading this? I think what's really important for the local teams, the local regional teams to support that global counterpart in terms of this rollout is really understanding your local insight and leading with it because that's where your strength is. This is where the rubber really hits the road. If you can share these local insights and how unique this market is, what's the shopper behavior, what's the retailer dynamics, the platform capabilities, this gives so much information to the global teams who don't see it because they're not on the
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Ground. That's right.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
So adopt that mindset of we're partners here, Global's my partner, I'm a local enabler. So think of it as a partnership, be very clear in terms of the needs and the constraints of your market. Be very transparent, what's possible, what's not possible. And we've spoken about this, retailers differ, country strategies differ. Language requirements are different. I mean something like the type of ingredient you disclose, for example, on a product, on a soft drink, it's actually regulated. So be very, very clear on what those local nuances are because just saying putting an ingredient list is not enough. Adopting a test and learn mindset, try and pilot the new tools and show the frameworks from global and then share the feedback whether you pass or fail and fail forward. Like we say, look to learn and then see what works, what doesn't, and what do you need to adapt? So be agile aligning on your shared kpi. It's just tracking one thing consistently that everybody speaks the same lingo, everybody's looking at the same thing, and it just makes demonstrating progress much easier. And then showcasing your local wins, celebrating those successes, no matter how small they are,
(24:20):
That really helps build credibility with the global team and really could help unlock more support and more investment.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
There's so much sage advice in there. I think in essence what you are saying is take the global team on a journey.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Absolutely. Is the key takeout here, right? Like you say, they're not on the ground then they're not necessarily immersed in your market day in, day out. And it's your role to surface those insights to help the global team understand the differences, the nuances, and also the opportunity in order to garner that greater focus and investment unlock from global.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Absolutely. Absolutely. It's completely a collaborative relationship. It's not global rolling out and waiting for you to, it's not for waiting for it to come down to your market. It's global, bringing scale, structure, framework, practices, local, bringing innovation information, insight, agility, and all the cultural nuances. So that is where you really get the excellence of the digital shelf when you marry those two.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
I think that's really, really valuable advice. So related to that conversation, regional teams are usually stretched, as we talked about. They're usually small and digital shelf talent can be really hard to find in Africa. I mean it's hard to find in Australia, let alone I would say a continent probably like Africa. And you've done some really clever things with global teams to build capability locally. So what would be really helpful is to unpack what are some of the skills that you had to build locally within your team, and how did global help to lift that maturity
Speaker 1 (26:20):
With regards to these global resources that are available to us and bringing it down into the local context. You'll recall we spoke about a market readiness assessment. Part of that included understanding who do we have in this team to help us roll this out? And in some cases, like you've called out, there's nobody you need to build those skills, you need to build those. And one of the clever ways is to, I mean there were a few clever ways, but one that really works well is looking at local graduates that are coming out of the system. One of the best ways to actually find that local translator for me in one of the non-English speaking markets was to actually get a young marketing tech, data grad to join us. They need to do an internship, we need to obviously support and develop talent and growth and how do I marry these two needs?
(27:26):
Took some negotiating and some processes to get through that and get that person on board, teach them what the digital shelf is because they are digitally native, of course, get them into the project and help them help us with the data collection. But that's just one arm on the executional front, I think if I could call it, there's another arm because that was local from a global perspective. We spoke about sharing all the insights, sharing all the specific cultural and market nuances. There's a global lead that would be sitting and doing some of that work, doing the content generation helping us build the digital shelf, et cetera, bring them on board for a two three month STE, a short-term experience, the short-term assignment, let them come and sit in the market to actually understand how are we collecting the data, see the process that we go through, how do we speak with the governance controls to actually see that this information is actually correct and a soda is a soda when translated into French or Arabic and not meaning anything else.
(28:29):
So really inviting and building that prioritization with global. So it's really about finding a balanced approach in terms of the resources that you need and negotiating one so that they can see the impact that you are driving collectively together. And then this is a learning experience for everybody. It's a learning experience for the people in the ground because if a global representative comes and sits with you for a few weeks or two or three months, they're actually sharing all the other experience they've come across from other parts in the world. And you'll probably be able to pick up at things a lot faster being in person, and that person will be able to see how you do business locally. How are you actually going around collecting data? How are you building the shelf? How are you engaging with customers? Where does this all fit together? And they're actually able to take that back. So it's really a value for value learn for learn approach that you're taking.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
And then they become a bit more of an advocate for your market as well, don't they? Absolutely. It extends your team back into the global team. There's value both sides with that fusion of bringing that, like you say, the global best practice, the frameworks, the standards, the learnings to your local market and your local market team members instilling knowledge and imparting knowledge and insights. So bringing those two together really is where great things can happen essentially to build that local capability
Speaker 1 (30:04):
For sure. That's where the magic happens because you cannot exist one without the other. It's not approach of a global may have a playbook or a recipe for success and say, this is how you should implement it, but you really have to take the local person on the ground to absorb that, contextualize that, strip out, maybe the pieces you don't need, add in pieces, you might, and then come up with your own unique formula.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Yes, and upskill your team along the way,
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Upskill your team along the way for
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Sure, which is great. So I want to switch gears now and talk a little bit about social platforms that are shaping digital commerce in Africa with obviously such high mobile concentration, which you talked about before. Social I assume would play a really key role within the shopper journey. So for our viewers and listeners out there, can you walk us through the key platforms across different countries and the influence that creators are having on buyer and shopper behavior?
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Sure. Like we've talked about, Africa is very switched on, extremely switched on. And the secret to winning from any brand perspective is being always on from that perspective in every channel. So to meet the customer where they are. And this means that your messaging and your content needs to be consistent and that your brand looks the same. Doesn't matter whether someone's sitting on Amazon or someone's sitting on another platform in Africa, consumers shop typically across Instagram, TikTok and WhatsApp. Those are really strong platforms, but there's a little nuance, again, like we say in Africa, in Kenya and Uganda, WhatsApp is not so cool. They actually shop off Telegram. So you've got to then keep your mind open to the fact that I'm going to have these three or four platforms for the general approach to Africa when I get to Kenya and need to tailor and accommodate Telegram.
(32:12):
So understanding where your customers are absolutely critical to winning the conversion. There's nothing more frustrating than people hearing of a fantastic deal and don't know where to find it. And that's the fastest way to drive competitor conversion. So that's not where you want to be. With regard to the influence of content creators and influencers, in terms of Sharper Journey, we spoke about the world's coming from Africa, so this very switched on Gen Z population. They experience a brand for the first time digitally, and so do most of us actually every day you are 90% more likely to touch a brand digitally than any other way. And so for brands to stay relevant, they must go above and beyond typical branded content. They need influencers, they need content creators, they need a showcasing of products in different platforms, and they need that awareness and the help and the need to help drive that recruitment and the loyalty of that customer.
(33:17):
And with the evolution of Agen search that's now come, and the more content that's engaged, that's the higher your chance of your brand being recommended. So that's how critical and important influences and content creators have become. Shopper journeys have changed from traditional breadcrumbs and searches. It's now all about a EO and has it kicked in and it's going to recommend two to three products, which really means digital content and capability building has a bigger place than ever to play in the success of brand staying relevant. And again, we know if you're not digitally relevant, you're not being shopped. And that's really critical.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Absolutely. So sounds like social penetration really high. You've talked about key platforms in Asia, we see conversational commerce is really huge, a lot of smaller vendors engaging directly and selling through WhatsApp and Telegram. Is the same thing happening across African markets with respect to Telegram and WhatsApp, or is conversational commerce still emerging in the market?
Speaker 1 (34:31):
Oh, it's absolutely growing. And so is social commerce. I mean, we've just come out of one of the most interesting weekends, right? Black Friday, and I'll give you a good example here. We've got a big pure player in South Africa and they've run all their deals over social commerce and then other players have gotten the conversational commerce route. Here's the top three, top five deals, shop them now. So conversational commerce, growing absolutely fast in Africa, growing rapidly, particularly through platforms like WhatsApp due to the continent's mobile first environment and the high messaging app penetration. So this trend is really transforming businesses and brands and helping them sell directly. And it has huge potential going forward. I mean, this need to be ever connected and this need to be able to browse, to shop, to click, to convert, to pay all within one system.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
Super easy. Super easy. That's right. Exactly. And very few steps to go from discovery through to conversion. Yeah, exactly. Your demographic makeup of the region and mobile first kind of engagement approach, it lends itself really well to the uptake of conversational commerce. So yeah, it definitely feels like an area of growth that you'll continue to see in that region.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
And it caters for everyone and every business and every brand and an umbrella because you could be a small player and do this very easily, you could be a big player and do this very easily. It really is. So it provides such an agile platform to help drive customer conversion.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
So interesting. And you've just touched on something else that's triggered me to take us down another path, which is you just talked about Black Friday. So in Australia, what has happened with Black Friday and Cyber Monday is it's become black November. And what we are seeing now is retailers really starting to promote early November right through until I think most retailers have started backing out activity in the last day or so. And so I'm keen to understand what is happening across different markets in Africa from a Black Friday, cyber Monday point of view. Has it become a month long kind of celebration of sales or is it still very much focused around the core dates like you see in other parts of the world?
Speaker 1 (37:22):
Oh really, I feel like I should be wearing an Alice Wonderland costume growth now, black Friday, it's a monster in Africa, is it? It's, and it's across the markets, across the tier one markets, across the tier two markets, across the tier three markets. And it's different typically, and a little bit of a bigger picture here. Typically it was all about gadgets and phones and TVs and fancy gadgets, maybe air fryers because that was what everybody was after. But now it's actually due to the economy, it's now about food. It tells you interesting. That's what it's about in Africa. It's not about the big, big ticket items. It's not about the TVs, the laptops, the phones, et cetera. It's really about food and everyday essentials. So that's telling you a little bit something about the African market, their need to consume. And that then again, lends itself to these brands like beverage brands, food brands, their content needs to really stand out. But from that perspective, is it Black Friday weekend? Is it Cyber Monday, black November is what it's called typically. But now Africa has decided we don't want to wait until November to get your money. We're moving. We roll it out in October and call it Black Friday.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
And this is the interesting thing, and this is slightly off topic from a African market point of view, but I feel like every retailer is trying to outdo the next retailer in order to secure spend earlier and earlier. And the question is, what is the cannibalization that's happening as a result for what would normally be potentially full price sales coming into Christmas? And so I think it sounds like what's happening in Africa is very much happening here. And the question is, are we going to start buying for Christmas in July and start to experience Black Friday, right? That is definitely, definitely based on the way we seem to be heading across different markets. So I'm going to get us back on track. We've seen to have taken a bit of a diversion talking about and exploring Black Friday. There's something that I was really interested to hear more about what's happening in your part of the world, but getting us back on track, based on all of your experience, how do you think global brands can better support local markets to succeed on the digital shelf?
Speaker 1 (40:03):
I think global brands can really help local markets by being more flexible in their approach. So really being open to understanding that different markets would require different degrees of customization. And with markets as diverse and emerging like Africa, we did and we demonstrated that global can provide the strategy, the framework, the tools and the guidance and all that knowledge and experience of how they've seen mature markets and the challenges and that they've shared and how they've overcome it. And I think Global has a big role to play in that. And I think they need to step in and sometimes provide a little bit more hands-on prep work because they've got the expertise, they've got the guidance, and you really need to maybe in some markets, walk somebody, walk the younger market through the process, help them build the work, help them upskill the resources on the ground and help them unlock investment. So I think there's really a big opportunity for that. I think they also
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Have,
Speaker 1 (41:11):
Oh, sorry,
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Just reflecting on what you were saying and then continue. But it feels like based on what you've just covered, and when we step back and think about it, a lot of global offices, they are ahead on the maturity curve is essentially what you're saying. So how can they impart some of those learnings that from a journey point of view to help you accelerate in that local market? I think that's really, really sage advice and global teams just recognizing that the local market is earlier in its state of maturity. I think it's a really important point.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
Absolutely, absolutely. There will be the need for global teams to have the ability to be flexible because we spoke a little bit about lighter versions of a digital shelf co-creating these MVPs. I think being open to understanding the flexibility in that approach, really important, and then enabling the organization, because that's what it is about. It's about enabling the organization as a whole to win and win despite resource constraints and investments constraints. So really leveraging what's available, providing support, guidance, expertise to help deliver that maximum impact. And I really believe that global leaders can empower local decision making. They really have the experience and the knowledge in this environment.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
So many great tips there. And finally, I'm going to get one or two soundbites from you little bit in reverse. Can you provide, as I said, one or two tips about how local regional offices can better partner with their global counterparts to drive digital shelf success?
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Number one tip, think of this as a partnership. It's a partnership. It's not a rollout, it's not a deployment, it's not a wait until you're ready. It's really a partnership. So really embrace that lead with your local insight. So share as much as you can about your local markets so that global can understand how this market differs and it helps the global team understand it better. So lead with the local insight, embrace the partnership mindset, and be really, really crystal clear about your needs and constraints. That for me is really, really key.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
Well, that is a whole lot of value right there in terms of things to consider in order to better partner with your global counterpart, but also you've shared some really, really valuable advice around how global teams can better support local regional offices. So that's really a wrap. Thank you so much, Anna, for joining us on this episode. We've really enjoyed, or I've really enjoyed the conversation with you today. And thanks again to all of our listeners for tuning into unpacking the digital shelf, the APAC edition with me, Theresa Spurty.