For retailers and brands, data is king. The more information you have, the more insights you can use to drive personalisation and loyalty campaigns. So how is sportswear retailer Puma approaching CRM and lifecycle marketing in Southeast Asia?
At an event hosted by SAP, Puma’s director of e-commerce Southeast Asia, Ankit Madhogaria, shared how Puma is using technology to connect with consumers in an increasingly competitive retail landscape, highlighting the importance of personalisation, omnichannel marketing, and AI-driven insights in driving loyalty and sales. Madhogaria oversees six markets: Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand.
The data challenge in retail
There is no one-size-fits-all CRM playbook, especially across Southeast Asia. But the starting point for any implementation is a robust database. It is essential, he explains, that your team collects accurate information from customers – both in-store and online – that good software platforms, or tools can integrate, affording a single view of all the touch points, transactions and interactions with individual customers.
Madhogaria says Puma has found it challenging to get offline customers to give us data. “It’s relatively easier on the online side, because in the process of checkout, it’s just a button, and customers will generally be part of your CRM program. However, when it comes to offline interactions, customers are less willing to share their data unless they have a strong reason to do so.”
The first type of data is what you need to communicate, like a phone number or an email. The second type is personal to the consumer and can become events, such as birthdays, anniversaries, and first purchase rates. And the third type is behavioural data, such as which channels a customer uses to make purchases.
“If you capture these three types of data, all of them can give you strong opportunities in the future to create campaigns to have more engagement with the customer, because that is very important. If you solve this over time, you will have to try a lot of things, to experiment, to learn and try different types of campaigns, which will put you in a good place to be successful and have enough baseline information so that you can scale your campaigns.”
Personalisation in practice
Powered by SAP Emarsys’ customer engagement platform, Puma has been redefining personalisation at scale, driving loyalty through smart lifecycle strategies tailored to each market across the region. Through the platform, Puma is delivering impactful omnichannel engagement, from onboarding through to reactivation, to building long-term customer loyalty.
Personalisation is easy if you have the tools, says Madhogaria. “If you are capturing your data correctly, and if it is woven together with your catalogue, the tool can generate recommendations for you that can be embedded within your emails.”
Enabling this widget in Puma’s emails resulted in improved click-through and conversion rates. The tool took away all the headaches of planning a campaign. “Thankfully, because the variation across multiple countries is also captured by what customers are buying, that variation is already accounted for by the tool.”
One standout result Madhogaria shared was an automation campaign Puma used to generate excitement by adding some cross-sell promotions to transaction-related emails, which typically have a higher open rate than traditional marketing communications, such as for delivery advice or receipts.
For example, if someone bought a running shoe, Puma would recommend “completing your look” with a promotion for a t-shirt or shorts that will go with the shoes, or if they bought a t-shirt, Puma would recommend the best-selling shoe at the time.
“When we started these cross-sell campaigns, we measured what percentage of our customers returned within 30 days. That number is already high for us. It used to be that almost 16 per cent of customers returned within the same month. By activating this campaign, we were able to increase the number to 19 per cent. Although this may not seem like a significant jump, the efficiency has increased by almost 20 per cent, which is a considerable boost and substantial in revenue terms.
“This was a super successful campaign. And I think this is something that all of you should do, because your customers will open transaction communications. If you can make them more relevant and easier to drive your following transactions from it, it will happen.”
Birthday campaigns have also proven successful, especially in Southeast Asia, where Lazada and Shopee celebrate their birthdays with sales promotions. Puma decided to test celebrating Puma’s birthday, launching the Puma Birthday Bash.
“The results were phenomenal. Compared to a typical friends and family campaign, the celebration of Puma’s birthday with similar discounts saw an almost 60 per cent uplift in offline revenue and nearly triple the online revenue.”
Almost 60 per cent of revenue from the campaign came from repeat customers – nearly 20 percentage points higher than is typical online and 10 per cent higher offline. What resonated is that Southeast Asian consumers care about events like the Birthday Bash, as they believe the discounts offered in a birthday campaign must be good. Madhogaria advocates that brands create such occasions within their brand as a key part of their CRM journey.
Building loyalty across Southeast Asia
Also vital is understanding what channels consumers use across different markets. In the Philippines, for example, it is “super critical” to use Viber, says Madhogaria. Thais use Line, Vietnamese use Zalo.
Across different markets, consumers will respond to various triggers. For example, Thais are most likely to engage with membership programs and offers, driving higher levels of uptake than in other markets, such as Singapore. New lines and celebrity engagements will inspire Filipinos.
Knowing such nuances is important, he says, and that means trying out different strategies to figure out what works and going deeper and deeper into that.
For Madhogaria, the key to loyalty lies in constant experimentation: “We have created a lot of events, but think more and more about new ideas and take time out at least once a quarter for brainstorming with the retail team, and talk to partners to see what your industry peers are doing.”
Puma’s journey shows that successful CRM in Southeast Asia goes beyond data collection – it’s about testing, learning, and delivering campaigns that resonate locally. By combining accurate data, regional understanding, and the right technology, brands can turn insights into loyalty and measurable growth.
