Business trip to Yangon

I went on a business trip to Yangon, Myanmar, in November 2023, where Cheryl Ang, April Tan, and I traveled together to visit the Shop MM team.

PS: Daraz Myanmar is known as Shop MM

The purpose:

The objective of this trip was to assist the local team in preparing for the 11.11 Sale campaign and to ensure we were on standby to hit the sales target during the campaign period.

The Challenges:

Political issue: Myanmar was facing political unrest, which led to conflict. This affected the audience’s buying power and made logistics difficult to manage.

Limited resources: Myanmar had limited resources due to high inflation and a weak economy. For example, the designers were working on obsolete devices with slow internet and were expected to have a high turnaround. Additionally, the area experienced temporary power cuts imposed by the government for energy-saving purposes.

Hit 11.11 sales target: Worked closely with the local team and implemented backup plans within a short turnaround time to meet the target.

Language barrier: Most of the designers in Myanmar office can’t speak English. However, I needed to communicate the design expectations from the senior executives and assist the local designers in achieving them.

Actions taken:

Streamlined the design element: Focus more on vector graphics rather than raster graphics, as vectors are scalable and have a smaller file size, making file transfers easier.

Plan backup plans before the sales event: Create design templates before the campaign and ensure the files can be easily adapted in case of last-minute changes.

Conducted a Workshop: Using one of their campaign key visuals as an example, I delved into observing areas for improvement and prepared a presentation with technical knowledge to address them.

Design test: Initiated a design test for both design leads to assess their capability to lead.

Result:

Fostered international relationship building: Both the local and regional teams learned from each other, and their relationship became closer after the 11.11 campaign.

Enhanced the brand guidelines: Avoided complicated designs and kept the design files small for easier transfer.

Key experience highlight:

Shop MM did not hit the sales target and was quite far behind. The marketing team had to initiate Plan B with the backup budget to make it work. One such effort was promoting an 11,111Ks instant noodle set offer for a limited time. We quickly decided on the promotion channels, including push notifications, in-app pop-up banners, in-app banners, and social media, to maximise exposure. After that, I worked swiftly with the local designers on the required visuals and get them ready within an hour. When it went live, we stared at the data dashboard and watched the numbers grow. It was such an exciting experience. Throughout the sales period, I observed many strategies to boost order numbers and meet sales targets. I was impressed by the persistent efforts carried out by the team members.

It was great seeing my design in every Daraz market. I guess this is one of the perks of being a regional designer. We also saw that other functions has been busy with all kinds of preparation work for the 11.11 campaign. This includes shooting social media reels, finalising promotional mechanisms, and creative adaptations.

We are well taken care by the HR team. They assisted us in getting meal and transporting with a friendly manner.

After 11.11, we finally stepped out of the building and explored the nearby areas around the office. As part of Southeast Asia, Myanmar reminded me of Thailand and Malaysia. The digital adoption in Myanmar is quite high, with most people in the city owning a mobile phone and using digital payment. This has provided Daraz with a significant opportunity for business expansion.