_Adopting Retail Digitainment to Stay Relevant

Retail digitainment has been creating waves in China and Southeast-Asia in the last three years. “Digitainment,” a mash-up of digital and entertainment, refers to content driven by live streamers who entertain and interact with their followers during the process of selling their products. Worth more than S$20 billion in China alone, this trend is expected to grow with the increasing popularity of live streaming e-commerce platforms.

The retail digitainment industry has spurred Singapore’s educational institutions, such as Nanyang Polytechnic’s Singapore Institute of Retail Studies (NYP-SIRS) and the Singapore Media Academy (SMA) to launch a joint Professional Certificate in Digital Retail Entertainment. NYP-SIRS has also initiated a new Professional Conversion Programme in New Media. These programmes are collaborations with trend leader, Alibaba-Taobao University.

Pundits in China tout digitainment as the future of e-commerce. Brands that can entertain and interact effectively with their customers online through entertaining and witty banter, live stream comments and information sharing, are perceived to be more authentic and in tune with their followers as compared to those which use digital platforms purely for commercial transactions. 

Companies are increasingly looking to hire influencers or key opinion leaders to sell their products online, with some investing in their own in-house ecosystem of live streamers supported by a team of sales and marketing specialists to create a hybrid online selling platform. 

Local e-commerce platform, Shopee, offers sellers a live stream platform to interact with their audience and encourage customer purchases through the experience.

Besides live streaming, Retail Digitainment: The New Online Experience showcases other ways of successful digital adoption by local retailers. Regardless of methodology, one thing is for sure – retailers who continue to resist digitalisation may soon be eliminated.

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