Spire talks about retail trends at International Franchise Conference 2018

Spire Research and Consulting group’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Bahar was honored to be a guest speaker at the International Franchise Conference 2018. The conference was held on 21 April 2018 in Kuala Lumpur, organized by the Malaysian Franchise Association.

Jeffrey Bahar shared insights on the growth of the regional retail industry, focusing on key trends and the attractiveness of various emerging markets across Asia.

With global retail sales set to rise from USD25 trillion in 2018 to USD28 trillion in 2020, the Asia Pacific is expected to record USD10 trillion in retail sales by the end of 2018.

Bahar highlighted that Asian players were also among the top 250 global retailers in 2016, with China’s e-commerce player JD.com and Japan’s retailer Seven & I Holdings at the 28th and 20th rankings respectively.

With technology development, urbanization and the rise in working women, customers are demanding more innovative services, and retailers are responding. For example, Starbucks’ Reward App allows customers to redeem points to promote brand loyalty.

Jeffrey shared some interesting facts about the regional retail landscape. For example, the average Filipino dines out 42 times in a month (2015 figures), while 92% of Vietnamese shoppers still shop for groceries in-store, with beverages accounting for 40% of purchases.

Bahar’s presentation deck on “The new frontier: where to expand 2018-2020 and what’s happening around the world” can be found here.

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