From automated marketing to advanced hybrid algorithm recommendation, providing more precise product recommendations for onsite customers

TAIPEI, TAIWAN – Media OutReach – 26 April 2022 – Appier today announced the campaign results of implementing its AI-based marketing personalization cloud for EF Shop, a Taiwanese fashion e-commerce brand, which has worked with Appier since 2019 to create a more engaging and personalized shopping experience. Established over 10 years ago, EF Shop is constantly looking for new ways to facilitate customer engagement and provide a more intuitive shopping experience for its onsite visitors. To this end, EF Shop has teamed up with Appier to initiate three-phases of digital transformation that uses AI to meet and exceed what shoppers may need and want during their customer journeys for a corresponding result enhancement.

In Phase 1, EF Shop improved its web engagement through AIQUA’s multichannel automated marketing that resulted in 4X the subscription rate and 3.6X the active subscriber count of the industry benchmark. In Phase 2, EF Shop used one of AIQUA’s recommendation engines that displays personalized product recommendation at each touchpoint and stage of the customer journey to increase the probability and accelerate the speed of transaction. In Phase 3, EF Shop onboarded five other recommendation scenarios with advanced hybrid algorithms to provide a more detailed personalized recommendation, which performed 3X better than basic recommendation. This indicated that AI product recommendation models that integrate text and images help improve website cross-selling capabilities, more accurately predict the potential needs of customers, create business opportunities and maximize the value of products.

EF Shop’s latest products “Anti-UV environmentally friendly antibacterial series”, are eco-friendly garments made from recycled PET bottles, with excellent sun protection and Japanese antibacterial and deodorant functions. Aside from effectively blocking 90% of UV rays, quickly wicking sweat and reducing odors, the products can also reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions by 70%-85%. EF Shop also recommended its Anti-UV products based on the characteristics of other new products, such as recommending this new product to users who have purchased sweat-wicking, quick-drying, breathable, and antibacterial materials. At the same time, EF Shop compared consumers who have recently purchased similar styles and recommends additional items on the shopping cart or checkout page to increase the chance of cross-selling.

The fashion e-commerce market is extremely competitive and fast-paced. To stand out, product recommendation has become one of the essential tools for many e-commerce. Common recommendation engines are mostly popular product recommendations based on sales, or similar product recommendations based on product categories. However, in order to meet the diverse personalization needs of customers, e-commerce brands must provide a more diverse product recommendation mechanism in order to seize the ever-changing sales opportunities.

According to the report from McKinsey & Co, 35% of what customers purchased from Amazon and 75% of what they watched on Netflix are based on the algorithms of product recommendation. If brands can master the essentials of recommendation, they will have a greater chance to win over customers. The advanced recommendation algorithm may also be able to increase the visibility of all products by displaying more comprehensive products to customers, and e-commerce providers may be able to manage inventories more effectively.

“Appier has always been a trusted and long-term partner for EF Shop. Its AIQUA solution has fundamentally transformed how we engage with customers and the level of personalization we are able to provide. From automation to advanced hybrid algorithm recommendation, Appier’s solution empowered us to offer more accurate product recommendations for onsite visitors and boost revenue growth efficiently. We look forward to continuing the partnership with Appier to bring a better shopping experience for our customers”, said Grace Yang, Marketing Director of EF Shop.

Below please find more details about EF Shop’s digital marketing challenges and how Appier’s AI solutions help EF Shop to solve its business pain points.

Three-phase challenges of digital transformation

In general, the challenges of what EF Shop encountered during the three phases of digital transformation are:

● Challenge 1: Lacking an effective multichannel engagement approach
EF Shop, like most e-commerce stores, had multiple channels to reach potential customers but lacked an easy way to manage engagement on all channels, including website, social media, and email. This inability to juggle all marketing channels made it difficult for the brand to capture sales opportunities from all touchpoints.

● Challenge 2: Need for a recommendation engine
As EF Shop grew larger and stocked its platform with more items, it needed a way to better promote its products to shoppers. The recommendation section has always been a great place for shoppers to find relevant products that they may not have thought to look for. At this stage in their business, the client needed a recommendation engine for shoppers to better explore their site.

● Challenge 3: Time for more refined, personalized recommendations
In about a year’s time, EF Shop saw tremendous growth in its business from the basic recommendation feature it adopted in Phase 2. To continue to cater to its shoppers and their evolving need for a diverse range of products and personalization in online shopping, EF Shop needed more advanced recommendations for both products and content.

Trilogy of implementing digital transformation

EF Shop looked forward to interacting more closely with customers online and providing its diversified product selection. Appier provided suitable solutions for different stages of EF Shop’s marketing processes, and gradually implemented a digital transformation trilogy for EF Shop.

● Phase 1: Multichannel marketing automation for easier engagement
EF Shop used AIQUA to automatically push out messages to customers on different channels such as its website, the LINE app, and email inboxes. In Phase 1, the client improved its web engagement that resulted in 4X the subscription rate and 3.6X the active subscriber count of the industry benchmark. With AIQUA, the client sent out 1-2 million marketing emails per month and effectively re-engaged dormant users to shop with the platform.

● Phase 2: Fundamental recommendation engine
EF Shop onboarded one of AIQUA’s recommendation engines that displays items that people who “viewed also viewed.” With this one recommendation scenario alone, which shows what people who looked at the item a shopper is currently looking at also viewed, the website was able to display personalized product recommendations to increase the probability of and speed up transaction. This section was strategically featured on product and shopping cart pages, where shoppers are likely to be thinking about what else to buy.

● Phase 3: Advanced recommendation engines with AI
EF Shop onboarded five other recommendation scenarios and, using Appier’s advanced hybrid algorithms, was able to serve shoppers with personalized recommendations. The engines used deep learning to analyze text and images from each viewed product to predict what other similar and relevant products a user may be interested in. The engines also used machine learning to analyze and predict user behavior to recommend products that will likely be viewed or purchased.

The AI-powered engine continues to learn as a shopper continues to interact with content and products, allowing the experience to become more and more personalized as time goes on. This mechanism accounted for a significant increase from the revenue ratio in Phase 2.

Going beyond engagement and recommendation, Appier is working with EF Shop now on new AI applications for better customer experience.

About EF Shop

EF Shop is a Taiwanese fashion e-commerce platform that offers high-quality yet affordable apparel for women, men and children. Founded in 2007, EF shops stays committed to the best shopping experience for its visitors, and provides a variety of styles, continuous innovation and progress in trend design to meet the diverse needs of consumers. The online shop currently has over 10,000 items for its 1.5 million+ loyal shoppers to browse through. Visit www.efshop.com.tw for more information.

About Appier

Appier is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to power business decision-making. Founded in 2012 with a vision of democratizing AI, Appier now has 17 offices across APAC, Europe and U.S., and is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (Ticker number: 4180). Visit www.appier.com for more information.

#Appier

Hong Kong People Are Becoming More “Reactive Cleaners”

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 26 April 2022 – Today, Dyson announces the results of its annual global dust study that includes investigating Hong Kong people’s cleaning habits and behaviours and delves into our understanding of household dust and the potential impact it can have on our well-being.

The study[1], undertaken by 32,282 respondents from 33 countries around the world revealed that 95% of people are cleaning just as much, if not more, than they did last year to ensure their homes remain a clean and healthy space as many continue to be concerned about the cleanliness of their homes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, only 43% of Hong Kong people clean their home regularly while 50% of them are only motivated to clean when their home is dusty, when they can see was visible dust, or dirt on the floor. This is despite more than half of Hong Kong people expressing greater concern about cleaning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dyson’s global survey revealed people in some markets clean more frequently than others. Here in Hong Kong we are cleaning less regularly than the global average, with only 3 in 10 of us cleaning our homes 5 to 7 times a week.

“It is a cause for concern if people only clean when they spot visible dust on the floors as many dust particles are microscopic in size,” says Monika Stuczen, Research Scientist in Microbiology at Dyson. “In fact, by the time people spot visible dust in the home, it is highly likely that there are dust mites in your home.”

Are people cleaning the right spaces in their homes – with the right methods?

The Global Dust Study also explored areas in the home that people were cleaning. While the majority of people vacuumed their floors regularly, other spaces were commonly overlooked. With most Hong Kong people living in compact apartments, airing mattresses outdoors and washing and air-drying pillows and cushions frequently is rarely an option. Only 21% of Hong Kong people vacuum their mattresses despite spending one-thirds of their lives in bed and just 14% vacuum their curtains and blinds, which are often exposed to and can trap outdoor dust and other particles.

Hong Kong people were less concerned about household dust and also showed less knowledge of what makes up dust, tending to focus on cleaning up the more obvious hair and dirt from outside. Only 5% knew that dust mite faeces and carcasses are a major component of dust. A quarter were extremely worried about bringing in dust/dirt from outside.

Are pet owners aware of what their pets may carry?

Beyond becoming more frequent cleaners, the pandemic also saw a global surge in pet ownership and 57% of households across the world now own a pet[2]. 25% of Hong Kong respondents own a pet. However, awareness of what other creatures may reside on their pets is low, which is a concern.

• 80% pet owners are unaware that pollen can reside on their pets
• 72% pet owners are unaware that house dust mite faeces can reside on their pets
• 44% pet owners are unaware that bacteria can reside on their pets
• 63% pet owners are unaware that skin flakes can reside on their pets

“Many people think that pet hair is the biggest problem as it is the most visible,” says Monika. “It is unsurprising that people are unaware of the other particles that may reside on their pets because these particles tend to be microscopic in size.”

People often think that pet hair triggers allergies[3]. However, some allergies are triggered by allergens found in pet dander – the dead skin cells that furry mammals such as cats, dogs and rabbits shed. Finding outdoor space for grooming can be challenging in Hong Kong and while 2 in 3 dog owners and 3 in 5 cat owners groom their pets at home at least once a week, 7 in 10 of them only groom with a brush or comb. This may reduce the amount of pet hair they shed around the home; but microscopic particles remain on their pets that can potentially be spread around the home.

At Dyson, our research shows us that the best way to tackle dust is to remove it from the home completely. The Dyson Global Dust Study reveals that more Hong Kong people (42% compared to the global average of 32%) feel that vacuum cleaners are the most effective in removing dust from the home. A vacuum and a wet cloth remain the top cleaning tools favoured by Hong Kong owners at 62% and 61% respectively.

“Using a wet cloth to clean surfaces is fine, but the sequence of cleaning tools matter. Dampening dust on floors – even fine dust invisible to the naked eye – could mean that you’re creating a habitat more favourable to dust mite and mould proliferation,” explains Monika. “Dust is most effectively removed with a vacuum cleaner first, before going on to wipe surfaces. Even then, it is important to use a vacuum cleaner with effective filtration and sealing technology to ensure that whatever you vacuum remains trapped and is not expelled back into the home.”

“We hope this research inspires you to think about what is in the dust in your homes,” explains Monika. “Just because it is out of sight does not mean it should be out of mind. The microscopic dust particles like pet dander and dust mite allergens may have a larger impact on your health and well-being than particles you can actually see with the naked eye.”

To discover more findings from Dyson’s Global Dust study, visit the Dyson Newsroom.

ABOUT THE DYSON GLOBAL DUST STUDY 2022

The Dyson Global Dust Study 2022 is a 15-minute online survey undertaken by 32,282 respondents across 33 countries, including United States, Australia, Japan, China, South Korea, France, Britain, Germany, Spain, Italy, Turkey and more. Fieldwork was conducted between November 2021 to March 2022 and data has been weighted at a ‘global’ level to be representative of different population sizes.

In 2022, the Dyson Global Study has conducted in Hong Kong for the first time, with 1,000 respondents, to provide a local in-depth view of Hong Kong people’s cleaning habits and behaviours and delves into our understanding of household dust and the potential impact it can have on our well-being.

DYSON TECHNOLOGY

Using Dyson vacuum technology is one way to ensure that you’re cleaning both the visible and invisible dust in your home. The Dyson V15 Detect cordless vacuum is engineered to provide up to 240AW of suction power, powered by a Dyson Hyperdymium motor that enables the pick-up of microscopic particles. Once picked up, Dyson vacuums are designed with a five-layered filtration system to capture up to 99.99% of particles as small as 0.3 microns – the size of some bacteria and viruses[i] – and expel cleaner air into your home.

About Dyson

• Dyson is a global technology company with engineering and testing operations in the UK, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. Dyson employs over 14,000 people globally including 6,000 engineers and scientists.
• Dyson’s research programme now spans the US, Japan, China, Philippines, UK, Singapore and Malaysia. In the UK the restored World War Two Hullavington airfield has been transformed in Dyson’s second UK Technology Campus. Alongside Dyson’s 750-acre campus at Hullavington, the 75-acre Technology Campus in Malmesbury completed a multimillion-pound refurbishment programme in 2019.
• In November 2020, Dyson announced that it will double its portfolio of products and enter entirely new fields by 2025 – taking it beyond the home for the first time. The company revealed a £2.75 billion investment plan into new technologies and new products over the next five years. The investments will be focused in Singapore, the UK, and the Philippines, and are backed by plans to hire additional engineers and scientists in fields such as software, machine learning and robotics.
• Dyson’s campus in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, UK, is home to The Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology which opened in September 2017 and in 2020 became the first education provider to be given New Degree Awarding Powers. Dyson has invested £31.5 million into The Dyson Institute to date. The Dyson Institute’s Undergraduate Engineers pay zero tuition fees and earn a full salary. As well as their degree studies, they work on real-life projects alongside world-experts in Dyson’s global engineering, research and technology teams on Dyson’s UK Campus. From day one they contribute to new technologies to improve lives all around the world. It is more than a job, and more than a degree, and although the aspiration is that they remain long after graduation, they are not tied to Dyson.
• The James Dyson Foundation works internationally to inspire young people about engineering: from school children up to university students and graduates. The James Dyson Award is the James Dyson Foundation’s international design competition, which celebrates, encourages and inspires the next generation of design engineers. It’s open to current and recent design and engineering students.

#Dyson

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

With its global headquarters in Southeast Asia, 30 years of expertise, and strengthened R&D capabilities, JJ-Lurgi is now expanding its leadership worldwide.

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 26 April 2022 – JJ-Lurgi, the life sciences joint venture of diversified industrial conglomerate, Jebsen & Jessen Group, and industrial gases and technology provider, Air Liquide, announces today a new global strategy to expand its market presence beyond South East Asia, with a five-year goal to have 50% of its business growth to come from beyond the region. The expansion marks a key milestone for Jebsen & Jessen Group, with JJ-Lurgi being its first business unit setting its sights on international markets.

The announcement of this new global strategy coincides with a significant milestone for JJ-Lurgi as it commemorates its 30th anniversary this year. The company is celebrating 30 years of growth and expansion — beginning as a small Malaysian-based company to becoming today a leading technology supplier for the oils, fats, oleochemicals, and biofuels industries in South East Asia and China. Capturing the majority of the market share, JJ-Lurgi is currently a market leader in the South East Asian oleochemicals industry.

The oleochemicals market was valued at nearly US$ 27.3B in 2021 and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 6.2% from 2021 to 2027. Produced mainly by processing plant-derived oils, oleochemicals are essential for everyday life and are commonly found in cosmetics, soaps, pharmaceuticals, and other chemical products.

“This new strategy will allow JJ-Lurgi to tap on opportunities in the global market as we enter our next stage of growth,” said Jakob Helms, Chief Executive Officer of JJ-Lurgi. “As the market leader of the oleochemicals market in ASEAN and China, we are excited to accelerate and scale our business on a global scale. We look forward to developing our core competencies and technologies to bring the best to our customers across more markets.”

“We are proud of the successes that JJ-Lurgi has achieved in the past 30 years to become one of the industry’s market leaders in the region. The new global strategy signifies an important milestone for Jebsen & Jessen Group, reflecting our commitment to the Group’s Advance & Build strategy as we grow our existing businesses,” said Per Magnusson, Chief Executive Officer of Jebsen & Jessen Group.

With the new strategy in place, it sets a blueprint for JJ-Lurgi’s expansion and further solidifies JJ-Lurgi’s silent but steady growth beyond ASEAN. Over the past years, the company has already fulfilled orders from countries outside the South East Asia region, such as Brazil, Paraguay, the United States, and Pakistan, worth over US$ 15.8 million. As part of the global strategy, the company has identified South Asia, and North and South America, as its initial priority markets for expansion.

This major move will also see JJ-Lurgi strengthening its research & development (R&D) capabilities by tapping into the region’s growing and diverse talent pool, with investments going towards a new R&D department. With an enhanced focus on R&D, JJ-Lurgi aims to develop new technologies, backed by German technology, that are attuned to its clients’ needs. This will fuel the improvement of the company’s technological capabilities, product offerings, and market expertise, which will benefit new and existing customers and partners.

About JJ-Lurgi

JJ-Lurgi Engineering is a joint venture between Jebsen & Jessen Group and Air Liquide Global Engineering & Construction Solutions. We are a market leader in South East Asia with a growing global presence. The synergy of our German engineering roots elevated by a new generation of in-house expertise based in Asia keeps us attuned to our clients’ needs. With more than 30 years of experience, we produce highly customisable products that fit our clients’ needs, reducing waste and cost. Our technologies include: Oil Seeds Extraction, Edible Oil Refining, Fats Modification, Oleochemicals and Methyl Ester (Biodiesel).

For more information, visit us at www.jj-lurgi.com.

About Jebsen & Jessen Group

We are an ASEAN focused industrial conglomerate. Our business spans manufacturing, engineering, and distribution activities.

We have five core business units: Cable Technology, Ingredients, Life Sciences, Packaging and Technology. Through our network of companies spanning 31 locations, including 10 manufacturing facilities in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, our 3,000 people work as one to develop meaningful products and services for the 20,000 customers we serve.

For more information, visit www.jjsea.com.

#Jebsen&JessenGroup

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

An ecosystem of native and third-party integrations provides visibility and control across the entire attack surface

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 26 April 2022 – Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), a global cybersecurity leader, announced the launch of Trend Micro One, a unified cybersecurity platform with a growing list of ecosystem technology partners that enables customers to better understand, communicate, and lower their cyber risk.

Organizations are battling on all fronts to face mounting cyber risks from their complex and growing attack surface with stretched teams and siloed security products. The unified security platform approach delivers a continuous lifecycle of risk and threat assessment with attack surface discovery, cyber risk analysis, and threat mitigation and response.

Inaugural partners of the Trend Micro One technology ecosystem include: Bit Discovery, Google Cloud, Microsoft, Okta, Palo Alto Networks, ServiceNow, Slack, Qualys, Rapid7, Splunk, and Tenable.

Kevin Simzer, COO of Trend Micro, shared, “We are so proud that ecosystem partners and even some competitors value integrating into our platform. Collectively we help enterprises fight the bad guys known as cybercriminals. Alone we are strong, but together our industry is unstoppable in helping customers eliminate security gaps anywhere, identify internal and external enterprise assets, and take critical steps to mitigate them.”

According to Gartner®, “vendors are increasingly acquiring or developing these adjacent technologies and integrating them into a single platform. The benefits are best realized when this integration minimizes consoles and configuration planes and reuses components (e.g., endpoint agents) and information.[1]”

“We all know that digital transformation is table stakes for the post-pandemic enterprise. But this comes with additional risks: a bigger target for threat actors to aim at and more visibility and security coverage gaps for them to hide in,” said Jeremiah Grossman, CEO of Bit Discovery. “Trend Micro’s approach stands out from the crowd — notably with its blend of multiple sources of asset and risk visibility, including external attack surface visibility powered by Bit Discovery. Trend Micro’s platform helps customers quickly get a prioritized and comprehensive understanding of their attack surface.”

As a unified platform, Trend Micro One delivers powerful risk assessment capabilities, but the ecosystem partners extend that to make it the most complete in the industry. Joint customers benefit from truly connected visibility, better detection and response capabilities, and comprehensive protection across security layers and systems.

Trend Micro One supports this approach by enabling customers to:

• Discover the attack surface: Identify, monitor, and profile cyber assets in customers’ environments.
• Understand and continuously assess risk: Analyze risk exposure, the status of vulnerabilities, the configuration of security controls, and types of threat activity.
• Effectively mitigate risk: Ensure the right preventative controls and take swift action to mitigate risk and remediate attacks across the enterprise by leveraging Trend Micro’s threat and risk intelligence.

To find out more about the Trend Micro One platform, please visit: https://www.trendmicro.com/en_hk/business/products/one-platform.html

About Trend Micro

Trend Micro, a global cybersecurity leader, helps make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Fueled by decades of security expertise, global threat research, and continuous innovation, Trend Micro’s cybersecurity platform protects hundreds of thousands of organizations and millions of individuals across clouds, networks, devices, and endpoints. As a leader in cloud and enterprise cybersecurity, the platform delivers a powerful range of advanced threat defense techniques optimized for environments like AWS, Microsoft, and Google, and central visibility for better, faster detection and response. With 7,000 employees across 65 countries, Trend Micro enables organizations to simplify and secure their connected world. www.trendmicro.com.hk

#TrendMicro