Global Digital Marketing & Retail by Alex 69
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.
🇹🇭 Campaign from Trip.com: BTS takeover in Bangkok
I am visiting Asia, among Bangkok. I wrote on Bangkok’s retail scene earlier on LinkedIN. So check out that post for more details. What I noticed now was a big campaign from Trip.com. Trip.com is the “booking.com” from China to summarize it in short. Trip focuses more on steep discounts than booking.com so you can often find very good deals on Trip.com. I remember, when living in China I used their services regularly (CTrip). It’s open for everyone and has multilingual support, give it a try!
While walking in Bangkok a couple of days ago, I saw Trip.com everywhere. They had a complete BTS (skytrain system) takeover, never saw anything like that, they were really all over the station(s), on clocks, on digital displays on the trains itself, on the stairs, really everywhere and at the same time I was also targeted at X. Very well done!
I tried to read a bit more on this campaign and the strategy behind it, could not find so much, but what I did find was a very cool idea - a live streaming centre-. Live streaming is very popular across Asia and Trip.com made a center to facilitate it. Read more via the link below.
My earlier post on retail in Bangkok on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/bangkok-great-retail-inspiration-alex-baar-1f/
🇹🇭 Understanding the trigger of your (potential) customer
I am always on the lookout for a good promotion. This one made me smile while walking in Bangkok. A boxing machine placed at Khao San Road, famous as a party area. They know their (potential) customers, offering a “beer and punch combination promo”🤣
🪧PostID’s on Meta important for campaign scaling and agency steering!
In the past, I’ve used Post IDs to identify poorly performing ads and track their performance in Google Analytics (GA). By combining insights from Meta and GA, I could dive deeper into user behavior, helping me optimize audiences and improve campaign performance.
Anirudda Mishra, who regularly shares great advertising tips, recently posted this informative infographic on Post IDs and their importance. I am sharing it here for those who might find it helpful!
It’s important to understand “PostID” goes beyond just tracking and are valid for both paid and organic posts. As Anirudda puts it:
Improve your performance
Social Proof
Your ad’s engagement (likes, comments, shares) builds trust.
Post IDs let you carry that proof
across campaigns.
Recycling Wins
Create once, reuse across multiple campaigns without starting from scratch.
Optimizations Made Simple
Meta’s algorithm favors high-engagement posts, and Post IDs let you stack the engagement for better results.
If you’re serious about scaling campaigns, Post IDs aren’t optional—they’re essential.
More from Anirudda: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aniruddha-mishra/
🇪🇺 In which EU regions is online shopping most popular?
Eurostat has released a heatmap or interactive infograhpic with details on EU on and offline shopping behavior. Utrecht (Netherlands 🇳🇱) has the highest penetration with 87.8%, while Albania (🇦🇱) has only 16%.
If you look at the figures you see -also in Europe- there are lot’s and lot’s of opportunities for online and crossborder sales.
By contrast, there were 20 regions in the EU where less than 35.0% of the population bought or ordered goods or services over the internet in 2023 (yellow shade in the map): 6 regions in Romania, 5 in Italy and also in Bulgaria, 3 outermost regions of France and a single region in Poland. Finally, in only 2 EU regions, fewer than 1 in 5 people made use of e-commerce – the Bulgarian region of Yugoiztochen (19.8%) and the French outermost region of Guadeloupe (18.7%).
14 Countries below 50%
29 Countries below 75%
Details: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20241129-2
📱Testing Firsty: A step towards global connectivity – lessons from a week on the road
While traveling I always like to test apps, see the differences between countries in design and features or just to test useful travel apps. I am now testing “Firsty” an e-sim app for travelers. Firsty, recently secured €5.1 million in seed funding to advance its mission of providing free global mobile data connectivity.
I think a great mission, they provide free and paid mobile connections and great they received funding. I am using their service for a week or so now, and it’s not the easiest business. So many different devices, configurations and complications before an e-sim works sometime. But I guess in the future this will all be much much easier.
Unlike traditional mobile providers, Firsty removes the complexity of (e)SIM switching or restrictive data plans. Users download the app to seamlessly connect to mobile data in any country and have the ability to pause and retain unused data.
Speedinvest Partner, Jeroen Arts added: “Firsty's vision of free global telecom is bold and disruptive. At a time when Europe is prioritising innovation, Firsty stands out by combining scalable technology with a global vision, challenging entrenched players. We’re confident they will redefine how people stay connected across borders, and we’re excited to back their growth.”
I think Firsty can optimize their app with a couple of best practices, a short list of things, I encountered so far:
Button for upsell (and menu) can be covered by chat window.
Checkout process often fails or is very slow and there are lots of drop off moments there.
Connection drops regularly getting support works then via WiFi, but it seems there are not full API detections yet to read my configuration so I need to do quite some manual tasks, which they made easier by providing screenshots but I think it will be better if they read my configuration remotely.
Startup screen of the app loads a long time with no indication or whatever (just yellow) , both on the e-sim 5g network or via WiFi.
After purchasing “Fast” I can easily add more days but not easy downgrade to a lower subscribtion.
It’s unclear wether a China e-sim uses the Hong Kong or a global network to avoid censorship when traveling. The apps’ country selection or info field can provide more info on that avoiding the need to contact support.
I had already downloaded the app at home, but when I tried to find it in the play store today, I cannot find it it says my device is not supported, although I have an e-sim enabled phone and a flagship carrier (OnePlus)
When offline you cannot access any support, which is a bummer because then you need it. At least some documentation and advice should be available offline, and some option to prepare all info that the support department need offline, that is then send then you have a WiFi connection. When traveling you do not always have the best WiFi connections, best is to prepare things and send over when the connection is there. It helps speeding up the issue solving process.
There is not yet an integrated service to also get calls via the e-sim, which is possible and greatly helps using apps that need local number verification for example.
Many best practices in CRO are not (yet) followed so huge opportunities f.e. I did not get a popup notification with a purchase suggestion,after arriving in a foreign country and having WiFi on. Huge opportunities there directly after landing everyone goes on the airport WiFi.
I think they do have voice based support which is good, I saw a microphone in the chat, haven’t used it though but this can work!
This app has so many opportunities to sell advertising space when it all works smoothly and they have build trust. Would be great if they made an ad portal to advertise relevant services when you are abroad, I can imagine this can really, really work! Great app for partnerships and advertisements.
I used the referal link generated from within the app, from my ANDROID device, but I get a referal link to the APPLE store, when I use the link on my desktop. They use “one link’s” device detection system, but I guess they haven’t set it up well. Normally you should best go to a landingpage with referal information and USP’s, I guess.
Integrating AI services will also help incredibly much, improving the customer experience.
Wanted to purchase for one country, could not deselect current country.🙃
Sometimes connection is very slow if I watch an ad, this should be prioritized or free from any speed limits (the ad watching).
Well I can write much more on it. To summarize: very nice to see a European startup with huge potential these days. There are not many of them so we should encourage and support! Huge opportunities! But they have quite some work to do.
Details: https://tech.eu/2024/11/19/firsty-raises-5-1m-to-increase-data-connectivity/
Details: https://www.firsty.app/
🖥️AI vs. Focus Groups: can machines truly understand your users?
With all the AI innovations, sometimes we think we can do everything with AI including creating persona’s or mirroring focus groups. This article explains that AI is very useful if you are working on understanding your users, but it falls short in uncovering genuine user behaviors and needs. Interesting read and useful for every product manager or product owner.
When product teams use AI (or any tool), its vital they understand its limitations and strengths. AI can refine and simulate, but it can’t replace the hard-won insights that come from observing and interacting with real users. My case is not rejecting AI as a tool, but about using the right tools for the right job.
That’s it for this edition.
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