How PUMA Southeast Asia sped up growth, even amid global economic slowdown

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic growth was halted globally because of movement restriction measures implemented to contain the virus’ spread. In some sectors, especially retail, growth even took a significant step backwards due to the lack of foot traffic in physical stores.

Despite the challenges posed by the global pandemic, PUMA Southeast Asia found ways to turn the situation to its advantage. Living up to its mantra of “Forever Faster”, the sports brand went full speed into its digital efforts to grow its online sphere at a time when consumers had begun truly embracing e-commerce for all their shopping needs.

Being ahead of the curve has paid off: Within two years, PUMA achieved record-breaking growth, winning awards and hitting online milestones in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

COMMITTING TO A DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

To initiate its digital transformation, PUMA was committed to providing all available resources, ranging from increasing staff headcount to setting up third-party logistics (3PL) facilities.

The brand tripled the size of its e-commerce resources and established dedicated teams for different functions like marketing, sales, retail and merchandising. This enabled shorter reaction times, customised support and greater agility across all its digital platforms.

On the operations end, movement restrictions in both Malaysia and Singapore did not deter PUMA’s successful migration to new, modern 3PL facilities in both countries last year. Thanks to the migration, PUMA was able to increase inventory offerings fourfold and achieve greater operational efficiency. A shorter lead time was the result – making customers very happy indeed.

When it came to marketing, PUMA adopted a full-funnel, data-driven strategy, appointing media agency m/SIX to drive its brand and performance marketing efforts as the company pivoted to a digital-first approach. PUMA’s own marketing team swiftly adapted to new skillsets when it came to producing creative digital content. With its Singapore office as a hub for Southeast Asia, it struck a balance between localisation and a centralised brand performance strategy, enabling the content to be used in all markets in the region while ensuring consistent and strong growth across all channels.

Mr Sanjay Roy, general manager of PUMA Southeast Asia, said that PUMA’s strong values and principles made its digital transformation possible. “We emphasised reforming our digital skills through a mentality shift, a highly collaborative environment and the continuous implementation of new technologies within the company. At our core, we preach a shared love for PUMA and the desire to see it excel and outrun not only our competition, but the brand itself – where everyone strives to be better than before.”

HITTING MILESTONES DESPITE OBSTACLES

Behind the successes of the digital transformation were grueling challenges for the young team, with the most daunting being the lack of available data to work from. In the early months, the team focused on building the database and strategies suited for the region and across multiple markets.

A relentless drive to get things off the ground eventually paid off. Compared to the measured but steady growth of PUMA’s online brand presence that began back in April 2019 with just the puma.com platform, the brand saw an explosion of sales and accolades from November 2020 onwards across multiple online platforms.

That month saw PUMA’s first mega campaign participation, for which it was named the 4th Best Selling Sports Brand in Lazada Malaysia’s 11.11 sale. The momentum continued into December’s 12.12 campaigns, in which it beat out competitors to achieve the title of 1st Best Selling Sports Brand on Zalora Malaysia, 2nd on Zalora Indonesia and 5th on Lazada Southeast Asia.

In short, 2020 was a good year for PUMA Southeast Asia, which demonstrated a triple-digit growth compared to 2019.

This year, PUMA is far from slowing down. During the 6.6, 7.7 and 8.8 mega campaigns on Shopee Malaysia, it was the No 1 best-selling sports brand, in addition to being named Shopee’s Top Mall Seller in the Men’s Fashion category. It has seen double-digit percentage business growth compared to last year, with its e-commerce arm growing by almost three digits in percentage since 2020, and it looks set to continue racing ahead with new sale records for the final quarter of 2021.

The COVID-19 pandemic showed that huge changes can take place in mere moments. But as PUMA Southeast Asia has demonstrated, being “Forever Faster” means that you can outrun competitors, leap past challenges, soar above obstacles, and break new records in the digital world.

Learn more about how PUMA is working to be “the Fastest Sports Brand in the world”.