A study from a customer engagement platform reveals that consumers in the Philippines are most comfortable with data sharing in Asia-Pacific (APAC), with 92 percent of respondents expressing their willingness to share their personal data with trusted brands.
While consumers in the region are generally well-informed about businesses' data practices, Filipinos emerged as relatively data aware. Specifically, Filipino consumers are aware that organizations use their data (34 percent) and how their data is being used by brands (31 percent).
The Philippines was also found to have the highest number of consumers (70 percent) who are aware of Google's decision to discontinue the use of third-party cookies.
The survey titled "The Consumer Data Revolution in Asia Pacific" explored consumers' preferences, attitudes, and expectations around data sharing and highlighted opportunities for brands to strengthen consumer trust in the imminent cookie-less future.
The report from customer engagement platform Twilio, which drives real-time, personalized experiences for today's leading brands, includes findings from a total of 1,500 consumers in APAC across Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan.
Consumers open toward data sharing
While consumers in APAC are generally not at all averse to data sharing, they place a particularly high level of importance on the relevance of the ads they are served — over half of consumers in the region agree that personalized ads provide them with more options after making a purchase.
In the Philippines, consumers are particularly inclined to favor personalized experiences — ranking first in APAC, along with a general receptiveness toward data sharing. Majority (89 percent) of Filipinos believe that personalization adds value to online experiences and are generally open to brands using first-party data, or data collected directly with consumers' consent, as long as this translates to more tailored customer experiences.
Findings suggest that first-party data collection is linked to better customer engagement — 83 percent of consumers in the Philippines are more willing to engage with or respond to brands reaching out to them, if they know these brands obtained data from them directly instead of through third parties.
Additionally, good experience and transparent policies were found to be the top two drivers for data sharing among respondents in the region — implying the criticality of embracing first-party data collection in building deeper customer relationships.
Higher than any other country in Southeast Asia, consumers in the Philippines expect brands to provide clear information on how consumer data will be used (64 percent) and to ask for consent whenever they use consumer data (69 percent) to strengthen consumer trust.
This supports findings in Twilio's report, where 46 percent of consumers in the Philippines were found to have stopped purchasing from a brand after their expectations for data privacy and transparency were not met.
These insights reflect consumers' increasing proactiveness in safeguarding data privacy as they become more comfortable sharing personal data.
The cookie sunset
With barely two years to go until the cookie sunset, consumers now have higher data privacy expectations, fueled by a growing awareness of the risks associated with third-party data collection and storage.
Regionally, 72 percent of consumers believe in staying away from websites that collect cookies — reflecting a general aversion to third-party data collection, even if most are well aware that rejecting cookies in websites and apps limits brands' ability to personalize customer engagement.
In spite of data privacy woes, consumers in the Philippines were found to be generally more open than most APAC countries to receiving necessary cookies. In APAC, the Philippines had the highest number of consumers who were willing to share cookies for marketing purposes (32 percent).
Moreover, 38 percent of consumers in the Philippines are keen to share cookies if this means websites can better remember consumer preferences — in fact, 53 percent of consumers in the Philippines are comfortable receiving an email after leaving an item in their online cart.
Overall, brand transparency has become critical to winning consumer trust, as 90 percent of consumers in the region will lose trust in a brand if site owners do not disclose the use of cookies and provide an option for consumers to opt out.
Source: Manila Times