An additional one billion digitally-native consumers, in eight fast-growing countries, are set to create new growth opportunities for retailers and brands, a new study by Accenture has found.
According to the study, The Next Billion Consumers: A Fast Growing Opportunity for Digital Commerce, approximately 1.4 billion new consumers will enter the market in Bangladesh, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, and the Philippines.
Accenture said that these new consumers will represent more than a third (36%) of the population of these combined countries, and their behaviours are likely to offer important insights for companies looking to 'capture the next wave of commerce-driven growth'.
'Digital-First Thinking'
“These new consumers are relevant to companies that operate in these countries today as well as the multinationals looking to grow their footprint and balance their global portfolios,” said Fabio Vacirca, Global Commerce Lead, Accenture Song.
“However, strategies based on the western model of consumerism—the steady evolution from brick-and-mortar to digital commerce models that occurs over decades—won’t work for these consumers. Companies will need to be digital-first, leapfrogging older legacy approach.”
With digital commerce easing traditional barriers to entry into these markets, this population growth is likely to present an opportunity for tech-savvy brands – especially considering that most multinationals are currently not capable of serving this demographic, Accenture noted.
Digital commerce revenues have quadrupled in these markets since 2017, equating to $211 billion (€194.4 billion) in 2022.
Digital Shopper Archetypes
Four core digital shopper archetypes were identified from 3,000 digital consumers surveyed across the eight countries – digital native purchasers, digitally savvy millennials, digital native content creators and digital alpha influencers – all of which already spend 'significant time' discovering and considering brands online before making a purchase.
“This moment is similar to the tectonic shift the telecommunications industry had when consumers leapfrogged landlines to mobile or similarly in the movement from the theatre to streaming services," Vacirca added.
"The companies that will gain first-mover advantage will recognise they need to be as digital on the inside as they are on the outside and reinvent their commerce model to meet the needs of their future consumer.”
© 2023 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest Technology news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
