Nearly half of Singapore retailers struggle with brand awareness

Ad and email fatigue emerged as the primary obstacle.

About 43% of Singaporean retailers face significant challenges with brand awareness at the beginning of the consumer journey, according to Twilio.

The survey, conducted at the National Retail Federation’s 2024 Retail’s Big Show Asia Pacific, identified ad and email fatigue as the primary obstacle, affecting 32% of retailers. Other challenges include limited understanding of consumer behavior (29%) and difficulties in measuring marketing effectiveness (28%).

“In an increasingly noisy and competitive landscape, retail businesses are challenged to retain their customers’ attention and ensure that they are considered at all stages of the consumer journey,” said Nicholas Kontopoulos, Vice President of Marketing, Asia Pacific- Japan at Twilio.

“Retailers must look beyond run-of-the-mill methods and consider how they can elevate their marketing efforts to create a more engaging brand experience and reach customers on their preferred channels,” he noted. “This can go hand-in-hand with using AI and zero- and first-party data to create more precise and personalised communications.”

The survey also found that 24% of retailers struggle with brand conversion and 22% with retention. To combat these issues, 45% of retailers are using customer data to personalize experiences, whilst others are increasing communication channels (22%) and interaction frequency (18%).

Moreover, the report highlighted that 63% of Singapore consumers prefer interacting with brands online through digital channels, though 25% still favor brick-and-mortar stores. 

In response, retailers plan to explore new engagement methods like influencer partnerships (29%), gamification (22%), and live streaming (18%) over the next year.