Global Digital Marketing & Retail by Alex 117
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.
Goodmorning everyone! Happy to see you all back here at my newsletter. Hope you enjoy it again and thank you for reading! As (substack) newsletters have a recommended length for arriving in mailboxes, I need to limit the length. This time only a few topics due to that reason, but highly interesting ones!
🇮🇩 Bank of Indonesia introduces digital payment option for tourists
Do you remember? Not long ago I wrote on Thailands digital tourist wallet. I wrote about that in this edition:
Now, Indonesia, is introducing something similar. It seems like more and more tourist destinations try to lock-in tourists to a digital payment scheme.
Of course this can be extended to much more then a payment system, it can enhance the vistior experience.
Indonesia does things a little different then Thailand. They do not offer a crypto converting wallet like in Thailand:
Bank Indonesia has just launched an innovative new digital payment system for tourists travelling to top destinations like Bali.
The new Indonesia Tourist Travel Pack is being rolled out from Bali’s I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport. Through the new service, tourists will be able to set up and access Indonesian SIM cards with mobile data and phone numbers, as well as chip-based electronic money through an e-wallet.
I think I call digital tourist wallets now officialy a trend 😉
The future of digital tourist wallets:
Very curious how this all will play out, how these digital tourist wallets will also keep on adding value if the -soon to be released- paypal world will also make digital transactions at most parts of the world possible, or when Revolut starts creating such payment gateways Revolut already has integrated e-sims and notifies you when you arrive in a country with all their digital options (really nicely done, as I saw when landing in UAE last week)
Boost the visitor experience with digital tourists wallets
So I think these local inititatives can only survive if they really add value like:
Combine the Indonesian Tourist travel pack with machines & loyalty programmes I wrote about earlier such as “WOW pass”. Check out the details here in another previous post, where I explain the WOW pass in South Korea:Create such a smooth onboarding for these tourist wallets that you can setup the travel pack within minutes after arriving on the airport for example (or better just before departure)
Create extra advantages like : skip the line at tourist hotspots
In case of Indonesia, connect easily to GoJek/Grab and auto top-up
I can think of much more visitor experience boosters with such wallets. These kinds of initiatives are the ones I live for, where cross-border UX meets hyper-local.
You get to design for a global traveler who’s never heard of QRIS (in case of Indonesia), yet make the app feel like it was built with the visitor always in mind.
Also I think there are so many options with these tourists wallets to start the persuasion before the ticket’s booked, a teaser campaign that whispers: “Land with points already in your pocket…”. Something like that! With all user intend advertising possibilities that’s for sure possible.
I really do believe that if you promote these digital tourists wallets in the right way they can help convince people who are in the considaration phase to come to your destination.
Details:
https://bali.antaranews.com/berita/393093/bi-inisiasi-travel-pack-ekosistem-pembayaran-di-bali
🛎️Tip: Follow Max Karpis, Revolut investor for feature watch and insights
I am a big fan of Revolut, the Revolut app is so amazing, constantly they add new features, it makes finance fun and legacy banks obsoleet in my opinion. I so happily used Revolut again in Thailand last week. Trade a bit on crypto while you are in the BTS skytrain and if you are lucky the evening beers taste even better 😉
If you like features, fintech apps and and a product that really helps solving users problems and tests and scales rapidly, I suggest to start follow “Max Karpis”. He constantly tweets on new features of Revolut and sometimes also the reason behind them.
PS, if you like this topic, I also wrote on Revolut earlier in this newsletter an interview with “Antoine le Nel” on Revolut’s growth tactics.
If you don’t have Revolut yet, give it a try, this is a referal link that gives you benefits as well, just I think it works only temporarily: https://www.revolut.com/en-SG/referral/?referral-code=alex04up%21NOV2-25-AR-H1
🧐 AI usage in Europe, Norway leads, Germany lags
After all this is a newsletter on international marketing and e-commerce so this overview of AI usage in fits here perfectly:
Ireland leads the European bloc, with 41.7 per cent of people using AI regularly in their daily lives or work.
Germany is lacking (again) in something digital, that’s not good given it’s ambitions.
Singapore and UAE are at the sole top. Singapore is known for its excellent digital strategy’s and UAE I remember is giving free access to their citizens in a collaboration with OpenAI. These things work and will give them, I think, a clear first-mover advantage as AI adoption accelerates worldwide.
https://www.euronews.com/next/2025/11/14/where-in-europe-do-people-use-ai-the-most
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/group/aiei/ai-diffusion/
🛒Amazon: seller perspective & new features
I like also to think from a marketplace “seller” perspective. Now I found a newsletter that is doing exactly that and it focuses at new features at Amazon. So this is for sure a nice read if you are (like me) into product feature fit, CRO and marketplaces (but many things are also valid for pure players of course).
Read for example on:
Amazon buries “product bundles” suddenly and how to counter that
Amazon is removing “decision fatigue” by “help me decide” → it analyzes shopper intent and behavior, then delivers one clear recommendation, not a list.
I always loved the “Amazon Vine” project, I think it’s very smart. Basically it means if you start selling a new product, first to give it away for free to power users in exchange for reviews (social proof). Now this is even possible before you list your product, helping sellers and customers.
Great newsletter⬇️⬇️
https://huntersinsights.com/p/amazon-doesn-t-want-you-to-choose-it-wants-you-to-stop-searching
🫠Citation time: Hierarchical control can hinder innovation and effectiveness
This citation from Vala Afshar, grabbed my attention as it resonates with a recent experience at work. I think this is a great reflection on it and much better phrased/said/written then I could have said it:
Hierarchical control can hinder innovation and effectiveness.
It does not make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.
You have to be run by ideas not hierarchy. The best ideas have to win, otherwise good people do not stay. —Steve Jobs
Via https://x.com/ValaAfshar/status/1988558035137044667
Thanks to all readers:
Thanks for reading, liking and subscribing, it means a lot to me! Next edition again more practical elements from the digital world!
Contact me via LinkedIN → https://www.linkedin.com/m/in/alexbaar/
Checkout my archive of previous newsletters if you want to read more :