The rapid migration to digital technologies driven by the pandemic has done little for digital experience (DX) maturity in the ASEAN region, according to a new report by Sitecore, Ecosystm and AKQA.
The report found that while businesses in Singapore have the highest digital experience maturity, the region overall lags behind with a score of two out of five, in part because they haven’t realised the full potential of their marketing technology stack.
The report rated DX maturity based on Sitecore’s Digital Experience Maturity Model (DXMM) which assessed organisations’ current capabilities on a five-stage digital index – ranging from organisations that are at the beginning of their digital experience journeys to those that set the benchmark that other businesses aim to achieve.
Banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) providers have the highest level of maturity, with 40% scoring a 4 or 5, while retailers have done particularly well across the region. Manufacturing and Governments have a lot of work ahead of them in creating leading digital experiences.
“Southeast Asia will be home to 310 million digital consumers by the end of this year, and their readiness to use technology presents tremendous opportunities for businesses,” said Nick Boyle, Vice President, Asia, Sitecore.
Of the factors contributing to digital maturity, businesses in the region are strongest in driving robust executive vision and organisational strategy; and in their people and process strategies. However, these efforts are often slowed down by gaps in their marketing technology stack. With only 56% of businesses having integrated their marketing technology stack, and just 50% supporting their martech stack with sophisticated optimisation.
The findings illustrate digital adoption efforts in the region with many bright spots, including more investments in building experiences that are not only easy and effective but also memorable to earn the loyalty of customers. Businesses also show a greater propensity to invest in data driven decision-making, optimisation, and marketing technology (martech) to improve their DX maturity levels.
A separate study by Ecosystm found that 13% of businesses across ASEAN and ANZ were forced to start their digital transformation. These were often the companies who were convinced that they would never have to become digital businesses, and likely represent the 11% of firms that eventually launched a website in 2020. 25% of organisations are accelerating their digital transformation and 38% are refocusing their digital transformation as the needs of customers rapidly changed. Only 2% of businesses interviewed did not change their digital strategy in 2020.
“Companies need to align their digital experiences around their customer needs. Companies who do this well are going further to recognise that customers don’t segment their view of the business by channel, so when considering customer journeys, it’s important to look at the full picture of how your customers are engaging with your business beyond just digital touchpoints. It’s also not a once and done exercise,” said Eric Orton, executive technology director AKQA, ANZ.
The research covered responses of 600 digital and customer experience decision-makers and influencers from ASEAN and ANZ in 2020: 100 respondents were interviewed, each from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand. The sample was spread across Financial services (20%), Manufacturing (25%), Retail (25%), Government (10%) and Others (20%).
This article first appeared in www.warc.com
