Southeast Asia’s e-commerce industry has taken a quantum leap in the last two years. As per research, e-commerce grew by 35.2 in Southeast Asia in 2020.  It is further estimated to grow from $120 billion in 2021 to $234 billion by 2025. The eCommerce boom triggered by Covid-19 has been accelerated by the Omnicorn mutant.

“It is clear that the pandemic continues to push people online at an aggressive pace. People in South East Asia are forming new habits related to online discovery, consideration, and purchase,” said Benjamin Joe, the vice president of Southeast Asia & Emerging Markets, Meta. 

Southeast Asia eCommerce surge and the hustle to stay ahead 

All the six major economies of Southeast Asia have experienced a dramatic uptake of the e-commerce adoption post-pandemic. 

The Philippines experienced the most surge by 73 %, followed by Indonesia (41%), Malaysia (34%), Singapore (10%), Thailand (9%), and Vietnam (7%). 

With the increasing demand, even the competition and expectations have increased. More retailers are entering the eCommerce space, and the customers are looking out for quick assistance and buying experience while purchasing online. The performance of the employees plays a significant role here. For your e-commerce to thrive and succeed in the competitive landscape, it is crucial to upskill and make your employees future-ready. 

Most industries in Southeast Asia have realised the importance of employee skill development and are putting in efforts to provide the best learning and upskilling opportunities for their employees. For instance, one of Malaysia’s largest oil  and gas companies used a skilling suite like Disprz to provide role-based skilling to their employees. Moreover, they could cater to personalised learning needs with AI-driven content engine recommendations designed for their skill-building.

With e-commerce acceleration in Southeast Asia, employee upskilling has become even more important to be the frontrunner in the industry. For staying agile and win in the e-commerce space, Southeast Asia businesses need to rethink their learning and development strategies.

Here are a few tips for adapting to the changing skill needs:

Spot and bridge the skill gap 

Start your upskilling journey by analyzing where your business is currently and what are your future goals to win in the Southeast Asia e-commerce market. Once you set the right goals, determine and benchmark the skills needed to reach those goals. 

Linking learning programs with e-commerce objectives can help achieve the best business outcomes. So, once you identify employee skill gaps, plan your upskilling program to ensure they are aligned with business targets and goals. Each learning module should lead to set of competencies to meet targets and respond to ever-changing e-commerce demands successfully. Strengthen your upskilling program by taking a result-driven approach to achieve the desired e-commerce outcome.  

Take the blended approach by combining theory and practice

Confining to just theory might not help the employees understand pragmatic topics for dealing with challenging e-commerce situations. A perfect blend of theory and practice is pivotal for providing impactful learning experiences to Southeast Asia employees. 

Explore various learning formats like videos, blogs, podcasts etc. Blend classroom training with self-paced training. Conduct assessment to evaluate the understanding of a certain topic. You can even have a mock call assessment to find if the employees can handle tough situations and provide timely feedback to fill the performance gaps. 

Dive deep into insights with analytical driven learning

Data-driven insights can help a business make informed decisions and succeed. Why don’t you apply the same strategy to e-commerce skilling and development?

Learning analytics has the power to lead the employees in the right direction. With the help of an analytics builder, you can garner vital metrics and track the learner’s progress. You can step in at the right time to understand the learner’s needs and requirements for making the learning sessions meaningful and relevant to an individual. 

Measure and improve skilling programs consistently

After investing valuable time and resources to offer learning opportunities to your employees, you would want to ensure they are leveraging it. So measure your skilling program effectiveness and take feedback from the employees to make your programs more effective.

Moreover, the Southeast Asia eCommerce market is constantly evolving. So make sure your learning programs evolve with these changing trends. For increasing adoption, it’s important to keep the content updated and relevant. Therefore assess your programs and make amendments regularly.

Conclusion 

The paradigm shift of Southeast Asia customers to digital shopping might appear overwhelming to many e-commerce businesses. However, you can prepare employees to address the surge in demand with the right learning approach. By equipping them with the right skilling tool, you can help them outperform and capitalise on every opportunity that comes their way.