MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Amid economic headwinds and evolving consumer expectations, four in five retailers across the Asia Pacific (APAC) region remain confident in their customer engagement strategies for the year ahead. This is according to new data released by Twilio, the global customer engagement platform, during the National Retail Federation’s 2025 Retail’s Big Show Asia Pacific.
While confidence is high, the survey reveals that APAC retailers face mounting pressure to maintain customer loyalty in a value driven, price sensitive landscape. More than one in four (27%) respondents identified maintaining customer trust and loyalty as their top challenge, surpassing concerns about price related dissatisfaction (23%) and communication hurdles around pricing or product availability (21%).
Despite mixed market conditions, 43% of retailers anticipate both opportunities and challenges – confidence is translating into bold strategic moves. Retailers are increasingly prioritizing loyalty and re-engagement, with 28% citing it as the most promising untapped growth area. This renewed interest in loyalty programs is joined by a focus on product discovery (24%) and post-sale care (18%), signaling a comprehensive approach to strengthening the customer journey.
Retailers are also expanding their technological toolkit to support these efforts. Key investments include:
- Personalized offers and loyalty programs (25%)
- Conversational AI (27%)
- Increased human agent support (22%)
“Confidence is high in the region, which is fantastic. However, the brands that truly shine will be the ones that actually do something with that confidence,” commented Nicholas Kontopoulos, Vice President of Marketing, Asia Pacific & Japan at Twilio. “Customer loyalty is under pressure. Building resilience means responding to customers with empathy, relevance and precision. And that begins with a data-driven, customer-first approach.”
Leading retailers across the region are already demonstrating how a renewed focus on loyalty, powered by real-time data, is yielding tangible business outcomes.
- ZALORA, one of Asia’s premier fashion e-commerce platforms, unified its customer data and equipped teams with self-service capabilities reducing campaign turnaround times from weeks to mere minutes. This agility doubled conversion rates, underscoring the power of streamlined, data driven engagement.
- Pomelo Fashion, known for its trend- orward offerings across Southeast Asia, leveraged tailored product recommendations to enhance product discovery. This resulted in a 50% uplift in engagement and contributed to a 15% increase in revenue.
- Central Group, Thailand’s retail giant, integrated customer data across its online and offline channels to supercharge its loyalty program. The group activated over 80 personalized engagement use cases, resulting in a tenfold increase in campaign revenue directly linked to these efforts.
These case studies highlight a critical shift: loyalty is no longer confined to rewards points. For today’s APAC retailers, it is a holistic strategy.
The insights were derived from a survey of 288 APAC retail professionals conducted during the National Retail Federation’s 2025 Retail’s Big Show Asia Pacific held from June 3–5, 2025.
