PUMA South East Asia takes home a double win at Retail Asia Awards 2023 for E-commerce and Marketing Excellence

The sportswear global brand successfully shift to online business during the pandemic, which allowed them to remain available to its customers whilst also expanding its market share.

PUMA South East Asia has won two prestigious awards at the Retail Asia Awards 2023. The company has won the International E-Tailer of the Year award for Malaysia and the Marketing Initiative of the Year award for Singapore. 

With a strong focus on the online business in Malaysia in 2020, PUMA was able to put together a robust system that allowed efficient use of available inventory in its warehouse across marketplaces and build a strong logistics and fulfilment setup to support thousands of orders a day. 

This resulted in significant gains in efficiency across functions, with a drop in customer queries to less than 0.2% of order volume from over 1% in 2021 due to a robust fulfilment, logistics, and CRM setup. 

PUMA increased its order fulfilment capacity from 10,000 orders per week to over 50,000 orders per week without any breaches of their service level agreements or cancellations. They also reduced the average order delivery time from almost a week to over 40% of orders being delivered by the next day. 

This shift led to PUMA ranking amongst the top two to three sportswear brands on Lazada and Shopee by sales, and the number one brand by units and buyers. PUMA also became the most visited website after Nike amongst sports brands in the Malaysian market.

PUMA was able to push awareness of its key collabs like AMI, Hello Kitty, Roma Kitsune, Garfield, etc. to build a strong lifestyle position in the minds of the consumer. The company was the leading global sportswear brand on e-commerce in terms of unit sales (#2 in value) with more online customers buying Puma than any other sports brand in 2022 in Malaysia. The company is a strong #3 in the Philippines in online sales despite the presence of several other global players for far longer and is pushing constantly to reduce the gap versus #2.

In addition to winning the International E-Tailer of the Year award for Malaysia, PUMA also won Marketing Initiative of the Year for Singapore for their PUMA Star Footwear: Nitro series.

Running and PUMA have always gone hand-in-hand, making it one of the brand's most vital categories. PUMA has even teamed up with some of the world's most elite track and field athletes, including the legendary Usain Bolt and long-distance star, Molly Seidel. 

PUMA had yearlong NITRO-led campaigns; RUN XX NITRO launch campaign in March, PUMA Community- Runs and that culminated with PUMA sponsoring the SCSM in December, which saw close to 40,000 runners from over 70 countries participating.

PUMA executed a comprehensive 360-degree marketing strategy to promote the new RUN XX NITRO, including in-store promotions and media engagement. The RUN XX NITRO, designed to address specific biomechanical issues faced by women, was promoted through the PUMA DELIVERY RUN, where food was delivered by Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) who introduced participants to the features of the shoe.

To engage media and KOLs, PUMA organised a 4km run led by PUMA ambassador Joy Kuan, which ended at the BUGIS+ venue, where participants could experience the product first-hand.

PUMA also launched the PUMA Community Run, which offered four scenic routes across different locations in November. The event brought together a community of like-minded individuals who share a passion for fitness and provide immersive experiences for runners.

After the run, participants could enjoy the PUMA Run Village, an experiential post-run event that included a fuel zone, a recovery zone, and a product zone to discover upcoming products.

The yearlong engagements have generated significant PR coverage and value, generating around $250,000 for print, online, and social media.

PUMA SEA's achievements in Malaysia and Singapore demonstrate the company's ability to innovate and adapt quickly to changing market conditions, as well as its commitment to delivering high-quality products and services to its customers. 

The company's focus on collaborations and partnerships, as well as its investment in cutting-edge technology, has helped them to stay ahead of the competition and continue to grow its business in the region.

The Retail Asia Awards is presented by Retail Asia Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2024 awards programme and be acclaimed for your company's exceptional products or initiatives in the retail industry, please contact Jane Patiag at [email protected].