Saturday, 11th November 2017 was Singles Day in China. An Alibaba created online shopping frenzy which saw around US$25bn in sales. Around 90% of those sales were done over a smartphone. Australian products were the third biggest overseas sellers. Alipay processed 1.48bn payment transactions – up 41%. Swisse products emerged as the top selling imported product. Alibaba processed 325,000 transactions a second. The system did not crash, and the first package arrived in 12 minutes. Alibaba collects data from the 500m consumers and is now able to target those consumers with offers. Facial recognition cameras in store can now identify physical shoppers and then target them with specials and information. It’s known as ‘Personalisation’.
Retailing is changing and so is the way we pay for stuff. Tapping cards is a well-accepted practice but tapping your phone to pay is less so. Currently only 1% of payments made in Australia are done through a phone tap. That is changing rapidly. ANZ has Apple Pay but the others are still arguing over rival systems. It is a huge growth area in the US so it will ultimately come down here with its virtual assistant and chat bots ordering groceries and other services on your phone.
