NocNoc: Meeting customer expectations with localization and AI

The Asian retail & eCommerce sector has gone through a rapid evolution in the last few years. Credit goes to the increasing mobile penetration, availability of data, and growing number of online shopping platforms. Today, customers are more inclined towards online shopping due to the convenience it offers, providing a significant boost to the eCommerce industry of the region.  

According to a DBS Bank report, eCommerce sales in Southeast Asia increased from USD 4 billion to USD 184 billion between 2012 and 2024, as more customers switched to eCommerce as their preferred mode of shopping.  

To understand the changing dynamics of the Asian retail sector and how brands are meeting customer expectations, we sat down for a conversation with Anupong Tasaduak, CEO of NocNoc, one of the leading home and living online marketplaces popular across Indonesia and Thailand.  

Hyper-personalization is a must-have for brands

Asia is home to some of the world’s most dynamic and diverse shopping habits, presenting a unique landscape for both traditional retail and eCommerce growth. 

The shopping behavior of the consumers in the region is largely influenced by the growth of mobile commerce, localization, and AI-powered personalization. Although 80% of consumers want personalized experiences, many brands still struggle to use their data effectively to deliver tailored interactions that shoppers expect.  

According to our CX Maturity retail report, 45% of brands face obstacles with marketing personalization. The main reason is that most brands still rely on basic personalization, like using a customer’s first name, a strategy that doesn’t work anymore.  

Anupong explains that there has been a major shift from transactional eCommerce to lifestyle eCommerce in Southeast Asia, which means customers nowadays expect brands to create hyper-personalized experiences. They need everything to be matched to their requirements and delivered at the right time and right place. And to offer that level of personalization, brands are increasingly leveraging data and digital technologies. 

Entering new markets is often challenging 

In regions like Southeast Asia, where there is huge cultural diversity, brands often find it difficult to meet their customers’ expectations, especially if they operate in multiple regions.  

NocNoc believes that the main challenges in expanding to other Southeast Asian regions are culture and language variations, as well as channel fragmentation. 

Culture and language variations: A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work for brands today, as customers’ preferences across different geographies are different.  

For example, Indonesian shoppers tend to prioritize promotions and price when buying online, while customers in the Philippines place greater emphasis on price and convenience. Anupong thinks that localization and personalization as two important strategies that should be adopted to address these challenges.  

Channel fragmentation: Communication channel preferences are quite common in the Asian region. 

For example, in Thailand, people prefer using LINE, while in Indonesia, WhatsApp is the main communication app. So, brands must choose carefully through which channel they want to reach out to their customers to gain maximum attention. 

Winning customer trust across borders through localization  

As NocNoc operates in both Indonesia and Thailand, which differ in language, culture, and preferences, localization has been a priority for the company. 

To achieve their key goal to provide a personalized experience that resonates with each customer segment, they have even created their website in both Thai and Indonesian languages.  

Additionally, the company ensures that most of the customer communication remains local, for which they craft and deliver their messages in the Thai language.  

“We use the regional strategy, but with localization. So, it means we have a regional team to set up the brand guidelines and campaign guidelines. But for localization, we allow them to do everything to localize campaigns, the language, and the content that matches each country.”, says Anupong. 

Traditional channels are still important in retail & eCommerce 

Although the retail and eCommerce sector is undergoing a rapid digital transformation, traditional channels such as SMS and email have not lost their importance. According to our analysis, email is the top channel across the most common automated use cases in retail, such as order confirmation, delivery notification, product launches, and more. And 56% of brands still trust email-based marketing platforms as their primary tool. 

For NocNoc, both SMS and email are key channels in their customer communication strategy. SMS is used mainly for transactional use cases, such as notifying customers about delivery and order confirmations, and some promotional activities, such as announcing flat sales and discount coupons.  

On the other hand, email acts as their core channel. “It is matched for the lifecycle campaign or loyalty program. And if we want to follow them post-purchase, I think email is very easy to connect, engage, and personalize the content for our customers.”, says Anupong. 

Transforming customer experience with AI

Advanced AI technologies like GenAI are helping eCommerce brands to create engaging content from existing data sets using text, audio, video, and images in response to concise prompts.  

According to Anupong, GenAI is shaping the future of the retail & eCommerce sector. He shares that their company has been actively using GenAI for visualization, which makes product discovery easier for customers. Additionally, customer communication is another area where they have been using GenAI-powered chatbots to help customers with their orders. 

Importance of choosing the right communication partner 

For brands like NocNoc, which operates in multiple regions or plans to expand beyond one geography, partnering with the right communication provider is crucial for their growth. However, with so many options, it can be difficult for brands to identify the most suitable partner. 

Anupong explains that, for NocNoc, there are three deciding factors. Firstly, its scalability, whether they can support expansion into additional countries or not; secondly, their language and localization capabilities, including knowledge of regional use cases. Lastly, technological reliability to ensure integration failures don’t occur. 

Infobip has been helping NocNoc stay connected with customers instantly, locally, and build long-term relationships. Using our SMS solution, the company establishes immediate communication, such as sending order confirmations, delivery updates, installation schedules, and service reminders. Whereas email is used for sharing visually engaging content such as home-living inspiration, personalized product suggestions, and renovation tips.  

Infobip, with its technological competence and strong local presence, has played a vital role in empowering brands like NocNoc in enhancing their customer communication strategy to drive engagement and growth across regions.