Global Digital Marketing & Retail by Alex 101
Inspiration from across the world for retail enthusiasts, e-commerce professionals, marketing lovers and technology fans. Welcome back! I summarized some great links again, I stumbled upon this week.
🇭🇰 Manny pancake shop : fast ordering, no app download needed ; qr on display why don’t we see that convenience more?
Sometimes things can be so simple. Instead of everytime pushing for a new app to install, this restaurant, that I saw in Hong Kong, just has the QR code in the display and if you scan the qr and visit the page, you can simply order via a web interface.
So easy, simple, but so sad we do not see this more often (especially in the West, because in China I did see this much more. But there the ecosystem is different (WeChat/Alipay) so it works a little different.
I think this variant can work very well and save consumers time and hassle.
🇦🇪 UAE ranks second for digital nomads | Vietnam e-competes with Thailand
The UAE do this really well, everyone I speak from the digital nomad community who has worked from UAE praises the safety, the ease of doing things and especially the bustling energetic atmosphere for digital development(s). I think it also affects Europe because talented people move to these locations for the reasons mentioned above.
Dubai and Abu Dhabi are now must-consider destinations on the global digital nomad map
https://gulfnews.com/uae/government/uae-ranks-second-globally-for-digital-nomads-in-2025-1.500188124
Vietnam is in competition with Thailand. One of the battlegrounds to attract nomads is digitization. Vietnam is taking the lead in that now compared to Thailand.
Foreigners with level-two IDs will have access to banking transactions, house rentals, and public administrative services among others, and the secure storage of residence cards and legal documents via the VNeID app.
https://hanoitimes.vn/vietnam-to-issue-level-two-ids-for-expats-in-50-days.755139.html
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia’s e-commerce sales hit $18.5 billion in Q1 2025, up 56 percent YoY
Saudi Arabia is also full in development in e-commerce. It’s highly interesting to follow what is happening there. This article helps getting insights.
E-commerce now accounts for about 18 percent of total retail sales in the Kingdom, indicating significant room for further growth as digital adoption continues.
Cross-Border Boom: Cross-border transactions accounted for 40% of online sales, outpacing the G20 average and highlighting Saudi Arabia’s global e-commerce reach.
Digital Demographics: A youthful, tech-savvy population and increasing digital payment adoption are fueling rapid market expansion.
🇦🇪 New AED Dirham currency sign in UAE
For all international markters/webshop managers or companies who want to expand to UAE, there is a new Dirham currency sign:
Always place the symbol right before the amount, making sure it matches the size and style of the numerals.
Stick to the approved colors, whether you’re using it on screen or in print.
Don’t distort it. That means no stretching, no weird effects.
Definitely don’t use it together with “AED.”
Details 1: including a complete guidenline package: https://blog.tap.company/new-uae-dirham-symbol-guide/
🛑✅ Don’t stop informational content use the checklist with examples
Aleyda warns don’t stop informational content!
Thinking about stop investing in informational content due to AIOs/LLMs? Think again: If you want to get more *meaningful* visibility in AI search -the one that will ultimately translate in conversions, and yes, also traffic. Then it's time to invest in in-depth, useful resources, solving common and/or complex issues related to your business. Help your audience in decision making and buying journey.
Although is true that many times it is the home page the one that gets cited, the sites with the strongest resources, the ones that actually cover a specific, highly relevant area/topic in a comprehensive way with a series of guides/resources/tools, are the ones that win:
Hubspot with their marketing topics academy courses
REI with their expert advice for their popular outdoor products
Wise with their currency conversion pages, expert guides and help center.
So, it's time to double down on *actually useful* informational resources that are meaningful to your customers and business. It's the one that you should have been focusing on in the first place, and will still be meaningful in an AI search era.
Details: https://x.com/aleyda/status/1943411378066543010?t=OfNqOThn2blu8Gt4j4CYVw&s=03
The AI search content optimization checklist: https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/ai-search/ai-search-optimization-checklist/
🍻Creativity gets you customers: tiny luggage storage service in Hong Kong
Sometimes its fun to see how even in the tiniest of places people find a way to make money. I passed this little shop in Wan Chai, Hong Kong, many times without noticing the place. I only noticed it in the evening when their promotion light goes on. It’s really, really tiny but then I discovered it’s a fully automated sshop for luggage storage. Fun right?
🇨🇳 Taobao flash buy: Now that’s how you promote a marketplace & make consumers and sellers happy
Taobao is, simply said the “AliExpress for inside China”, I used it a lot, really a lot when I lived in Shanghai. It’s much more localized for the Chinese market then AliExpress, but I think if I say “AliExpress for inside China” everyone understands. Taobao is huge! I share here their consumption boost initiative that helps merchants as well. Things go so fast in China often at an almost unbelievable speed/scale.
Read about Taobao Flash how they try to boost growth, incredible!
Taobao Flash Buy, the instant retail arm under Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, will pour CNY50 billion (USD7 billion) into consumer and merchant subsidies over the next 12 months to boost spending and drive growth.
The platform will roll out store subsidies, product subsidies, delivery subsidies and reduced or waived commission fees to ensure that merchants maintain their profit margins and can grow their business, Taobao Flash Buy said today.
🇨🇳 🇭🇰 🇲🇴 Greater bay area more and more entangled: innovation hub = boosting
While I traveled the Hong Kong - Guangdong (Shenzhen) - Zhuhai -Macau area and crossed all borders many times, you get to see and understand, how much potential there is in this area. It’s safe, its heavily connected via all means of transport and maybe the most modern transportation system there is in the world. Everywhere there is heavy heavey tech adoption and usage. It’s really the second “Sillicon Valley” a-like area in the world. So much inspiration. Of course there can be criticism at some things, as everywhere, but the way the area is getting glued together is impressive.
Take the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge I took, a very impressive bridge between the cities and it’s so easy to take transport over the bridge. There are buses going 24 hours a day, every 5 minutes or so, for as little as 6 or 7 euro. Everything is so well organized and so optimized for huge crowds!
Same for the new Hong Kong, Kowloon West Train station where you can take various high speed trains into China Mainland. Don’t fancy the train or bus? Well then just take the subway across the border, also possible! And that’s just three examples! There might be still border checks, unlike EU, but the border checks are soon even more simplified. The transport efficiency quality, safety and affordability and ease make all up for that.
I share it here not only because I think it’s very cool but it’s often not known in the West what is happening here. They are creating a nearly perfect environment for doing (tech) business.
Between 2017 and 2021, the GBA registered 1.77 million invention patents, achieving an annual compound growth rate of 21.74 percent. The Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou technology cluster has ranked second in the Global Innovation Index by the World Intellectual Property Organization for five consecutive years.
For young entrepreneurs, the GBA combines scale with support. It is home to 63 companies on the Global Unicorn List for 2023, with Shenzhen ranking sixth globally with 33 unicorns. Joint measures between Qianhai and Hong Kong provide targeted support, including policies for venture capital and intellectual property development.
https://www.dimsumdaily.hk/huanggang-port-to-implement-single-card-clearance-system/
https://www.ft.com/content/3de5d369-07ff-4457-a574-6d2a377d4c5d
🌐AliExpress contextual menu in product overview
I regularly buy on AliExpress, but also I like many features they have in their app! They constantly add /test new features.
This one (see video) is there now quite a while, and I did not see it in other retail apps yet. As it is now a longer time available in AliExpress, probably a feature/product fit.
When you touch an item in the overview a context menu pops up as an overlay of the prodcut image, that gives you a few options:
This is a repeated item
The image is offensive
Uninterested in this category
Not interested in this
Similar items
I think really nice. Not only it helps the user experience and encourages people to stay in the app, but it gives AliExpress so much global information like:
Track which product traits get rejected by country, region, or demographic.
See trends in what people explore after rejection.
Refine category and bundle logic based on engagement patterns
🇺🇸 Marketplaces account for 42% of total ecommerce growth in the U.S.
Ok, it’s via research from a firm directly related to marketplaces but still. This recent report indicates a trend. It’s not that pure players don’t have value, but the growth is in marketplaces:
“There’s been an explosion of the sheer number of brands, and it’s hard for the consumer to discover so many brands,” said Daniel Hillyer, vp of sales and marketing at Cymbio, whose clients include brands like Balmain and Reebok. “These retailers have become like a search engine, effectively, for brand discovery.”
So it’s essential to have your masterdata and on site search and discovery really well optmized.
Entering the landscape in 2025 means competing against massive players like TikTok Shop and Amazon, which, unlike higher-end retailers, are known for their discounting practices.
Brands selling on marketplaces using Cymbio’s platform averaged 40% year-over-year growth in 2024, with some surpassing 200% or even 300% across top marketplaces like Macy’s, Amazon, TikTok Shop, and Saks.
The study also revealed that nearly 30% of brands that onboarded to Cymbio in 2024 had never sold on a marketplace before, demonstrating the untapped growth potential in this channel.
Many opportunities ahead for marketplace optimization and onboarding specialists!
Looking ahead, Cymbio projects that marketplaces will account for more than 53% of all ecommerce growth by 2030. For many brands, the challenge will no longer be whether to sell on marketplaces, but how to do so efficiently and at scale.
https://channelx.world/2025/07/marketplaces-drove-over-40-of-ecommerce-growth-in-2024
Thank you for reading. Connect via: Alex Baar