With its excellent digital infrastructure, high internet and smartphone penetration, and prime position as an international finance and logistics hub, one would expect Hong Kong’s digital commerce market to be one of the most successful in the region. In reality, however, the region was relatively slow in embracing online retail.

Analysis by JP Morgan in 2020 showed that eCommerce as a percentage of total retail in Hong Kong was only 7%, and a surprising four out of 10 citizens did not use eCommerce at all.

Hong Kong’s eCommerce scene may have had a slow start, but fast forward to 2022 and things have changed drastically! There has been an accelerated uptake in digital commerce across the board. Hong Kong’s total eCommerce sales are expected to reach US$29 billion by 2024, a compound annual growth rate of 8.3%, compared to US$22.9 billion in 2021.

According to Visa, in 2021, over 52% of all shopping that occurred during the pandemic was done online, and 45% of Hong Kong shoppers expect to continue making online purchases even after the pandemic subsides.

As a result, more retailers are leveraging online-to-offline (O2O) or offline-plus-online (O+O) models to boost their sales. Four out of five traditional brick-and-mortar retailers in Hong Kong are now using online sales channels and marketplaces, such as Shopline, to target new consumers and grow their businesses. This trend highlights a golden opportunity for entrepreneurs and businesses looking to expand or set up a company in Hong Kong, particularly in the eCommerce sector, to capitalize on this growing market. However, not everyone is fully equipped to embrace the sudden uptake in online shopping or consumers’ expectations.

Hong Kong shoppers seek community and trust

This adoption of digital commerce as the new norm is great news for international retail brands as Hong Kong clocks one of the highest cross-border spends in the region. The earlier JP Morgan report also found that 70% of the region’s total eCommerce spend is due to cross-border shopping, with the top three origin markets being mainland China, Singapore, and Japan.

This signals a huge untapped market that retail and eCommerce businesses can capitalize on—if they can first succeed in winning customer trust and building a community.

According to KPMG, 73% of Hong Kong shoppers are willing to pay more for products and services if the company is perceived to behave ethically. Consumers also value organizations that provide transparency, act with integrity, and operate in good faith.

And trust often starts with consistent and proactive engagement. For brands, the ability to deliver highly differentiated digital customer experiences across the entire customer lifecycle, regardless of online or offline, will be key to building a competitive edge in this hotly contested market.

Engage with Hong Kong consumers by using communication APIs

As a digitally savvy population, Hong Kong’s consumers expect retail organizations and brands to invest in enhanced digital capabilities that deliver seamless, hyper-personalised, and secure digital experiences.

Unlike other APAC regions where technology adoption is slower amongst the elderly, Hong Kongers across all age groups appreciate access to digital commerce and customer service, according to the KPMG 2020 Customer Experience Excellence Report.

Communication APIs are your not-so-secret sauce to turning every customer into a returning customer. They’re easy to deploy, simple to use, and most importantly, allow you to engage, empathise, and meet customer expectations across multiple channels including SMS, chat apps, voice, and video.

SMS: Your staple for consistent, proactive communications

If you’re looking for a reliable channel to send marketing messages, notifications, and promotions in Hong Kong, then look no further than SMS.

Unlike other parts of the world, where daily conversations have migrated over to chat apps, Hong Kongers are still highly active on SMS. According to Statista, over 365 million SMSes were sent out in Hong Kong monthly compared to 603 million that were received. Considering the fact that official announcements and promotional material would form the bulk of received SMSes, the numbers suggest that Hong Kongers remain very responsive on this traditional channel.

Also, let’s not forget that SMS still retains the title of top digital channel, with an astounding open rate of 98%. SMS can be used to send reminders and notifications, conduct customer surveys, and act as a backup for other messaging channels.

Best of all, 8x8’s SMS API has been proven to improve customer satisfaction and trust, especially if it’s used to send one-time passwords (OTPs) for greater account security.

Chat apps: Meet customers where they are

With social media messaging app use in Asia being the highest in the world, there’s every reason for retail and eCommerce businesses to be able to engage with their customers on chat apps.

Even more so in Hong Kong, where WhatsApp and WeChat dominate online conversations. Of the 7.5 million people in Hong Kong, more than 6.6 million of them use WhatsApp. Up to 44% of Hong Kong’s population uses WeChat as well, mostly to engage with friends, family, and businesses in mainland China.

With WhatsApp and WeChat being the 2nd and 4th most popular communication apps in Hong Kong respectively, it works in every business’s favour that 8x8’s Chat Apps API  can be easily integrated into an existing CRM. With just a single API, retailers can send rich content and instant messages in two-way chats with customers across seven different chat apps (including WhatsApp and WeChat!). This gives your customer service agents better reach into peripheral markets and niche demographics.

Voice: Offer human-centric service and privacy all at once

Even with the surge of self-service options and chatbots, shoppers still want to be able to reach out to a live person for assistance with complex matters. Retailers should not underestimate the power of voice in an online marketplace because it is a medium where tailored advice and personalised offerings can be made with ease. This presents an opportunity for Hong Kong service providers to get ahead of their competitors, particularly since Hong Kong customers have cited lack of empathy as one of the worst aspects of local customer service.

More importantly, digital voice calls have an added privacy advantage over traditional phone calls: the ability to implement call masking. 8x8’s Voice API allows for automatic call masking that replaces a customer’s real number with a virtual number during calls. Enhanced user privacy, native fraud protection, and assisting with data privacy regulatory compliance are some of the key reasons why Voice APIs are key to securing customer trust.

The advantages of Communication APIs

Communication APIs come pre-built and are highly customizable to your needs. They integrate right into existing customer relationship management (CRM) tools, such as Zendesk or Salesforce, and are often able to automate messaging workflows for internal process optimization. This allows retailers to refocus time and effort on high level requests that demand personalisation and the human touch, while  automated messaging handles simpler notifications (which customers prefer to handle themselves, anyway).

And if you’re choosing between SMS, chat apps, or voice, why limit yourself to only one when engaging with a global business hub like Hong Kong? When combined with 8x8 Connect—a unified, multi-channel communications management platform—you’ll have access to all conversations channels at a glance, and receive data-driven insights to help you personalise customer engagement across the end-to-end consumer journey.

Get in touch with us at hello-cpaas@8x8.com to find out more about using communication APIs to optimise your customer engagement workflows, and win over the trust and loyalty of shoppers in Hong Kong.