Retail News CRM

Author: Mei Ling Tan

  • Sincere Fine Watches opening in Changi

    Sincere Fine Watches opening in Changi

    Sincere Fine Watches has opened a multi-brand boutique at Jewel Changi Airport.

    The only luxury multi-brand watch store at the newly opened airport shopping center spans 183sqm and was inspired by Jewel’s dome-shaped facade and modern architecture.

    Glass and rose-gold elements are used throughout the boutique, combined with warm-brown hues on the wooden panels and shades of copper to create a welcoming aura.

    The new boutique brings together 20 international labels, some of them relatively new to the market. They include Armin Strom; Baume & Mercier; Blancpain; Bremont; Graham; Hamilton; IWC Schaffhausen; Longines; Maurice Lacroix; Mido; Montblanc; Panerai; Omega; Rado; TAG Heuer; Tissot; and Tudor.

    Sincere Fine Watches plans more brands and timepieces exclusive to the Jewel Changi store soon.

  • HKBN launches broadband-pay TV bundles

    HKBN launches broadband-pay TV bundles

    HKBN has launched a new range of bundled broadband and pay TV offers for both enterprise and consumer customers, in collaboration with TVB.

    Subscribers to HKBN Enterprise Solutions will be able to sign up for a 100Mbps business broadband service for prices starting at HK$588 on a 24-month contract. The service will be bundled with access to a basic myTV SUPER pay TV pack as well as a sports upgrade pack.

    Meanwhile consumer customers can subscribe to a 100Mbps service for prices starting at HK$198 or a 1000Mbps service for prices starting at HK$238, which will be bundled with the myTV Gold service, as well as a home telephone service and Wi-Fi concierge service.

    HKBN will waive initial installation fees for both the enterprise and consumer packages.

    “HKBN has been striving to disrupt the status quo in the market. After studying the toll levels of current pay TV content in the market, we strongly believe that a great deal of room still exists for customers to enjoy world-class movies, entertainment and sports events at more competitive prices,” HKBN EVP William Yeung said.

    “Today, we aim to further strengthen the dual play of superb broadband service and OTT content through the advantage myTV SUPER collaboration. HKBN will deliver a wave of offers for both the residential and enterprise market as a way to reward our customers.”

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  • Shoppers Stop revamps department store design

    Shoppers Stop revamps department store design

    Indian retail conglomerate calls in German design house to create new concept.

    Indian fashion and lifestyle retailer Shoppers Stop, which operates large-format department stores, home stores and specialty stores across the country, is implementing a new store design concept for its department stores nationwide.

    The new concept is the work of German architecture, design and branding firm Schwitzke, with the first store opening last month in Ambience Mall Vasant Kunj, New Delhi.

    “The objective behind this exercise was to upgrade the shopping experience at our stores,” said Shoppers Stop customer care associate, MD and CEO Rajiv Suri. “We engaged Schwitzke to help us conceive this concept that offers a modern shopping experience to our customers in line with what is happening globally. Carrying all our categories and spread across 60,000sqft, the new outlet opened in Delhi reflects the latest aesthetics in-store design.”

    The new design will be applied to all the retailers’ department stores going forward.

    “Every year, we open between five and seven department stores,” said Suri.

    “These will all be rolled out in the new design format. Anywhere between five and seven existing stores will also get renovated annually to upgrade the shopping experience. It will take us some time to renovate all the department stores, but I think there will be continuous evolution on the concept itself. There could be another upgrade to this concept considering frequent and constant changes in digitisation. So there will be small amendments/updates as we go on.”

    The rollout of the new design will be gradual, with touches and visual elements of the concept temporarily added to the existing 83 Shoppers Stop stores across the territory prior to each location’s full fit-out.

    The company has earmarked a third of its profits for upgrade and renovation of its store network, with the remaining funds allocated to setting up new stores and IT systems upgrades. The firm plans to open 25 new stores this year.

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  • Nissan Spain To Cut 600 Jobs From Barcelona Plant

    Nissan Spain To Cut 600 Jobs From Barcelona Plant

    The Spanish arm of Japanese carmaker Nissan has reached an agreement with unions to cut 600 jobs at its plant in Barcelona, or almost 20 percent of the plant’s workforce. The layoffs, a mixture of voluntary redundancies and early retirements over the next year, were a condition for a planned investment of 70 million euros ($79 million) in a new painting facility, Nissan said in a statement on Thursday.

    Nissan, which has five plants and employs around 5,000 people in Spain, reached the agreement after more than a month of negotiations with unions. As part of the deal, any further changes to the workforce are to be negotiated separately with unions.

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  • Panasonic Flags First Profit Drop In 8 years

    Panasonic Flags First Profit Drop In 8 years

    Panasonic Corp warned profit this financial year would fall for the first time in eight years as costs to boost battery output rise and it moves to overhaul some businesses amid investor pressure to find new avenues of growth. The Japanese conglomerate expects operating profit for the year through March 2020 to slump 27 percent to 300 billion yen ($2.7 billion) from a year earlier. That is well below analyst expectations of a 12 percent decline, according to Refinitiv.

    The company is looking at a 15 billion yen loss at its automotive unit this year, it said on Thursday. Panasonic expects costs to ramp up battery production in Japan and China for a planned electric-vehicle (EV) battery joint venture with Toyota Motor Corp to weigh heavily.

    Toyota and Panasonic said they will set up a new company early next year to focus on technology that could be used to offer personalised services in the home.

    Panasonic switched its focus to corporate clients such as automakers a few years ago to escape price wars in lower-margin consumer electronics. The shift, which involved a vast migration of TV engineers to the automotive unit, helped the company restore profit growth, but its non-consumer businesses did not grow as fast as the company had hoped.

    “Over the last three years, we aimed for stable revenue and profit growth focusing mainly on the automotive business … but development costs and insufficient abilities to adjust to rapid battery production expansion limited our profits,” Panasonic President Kazuhiro Tsuga said. The business was also squeezed last year due to production delays for Tesla Inc’s mass-market Model 3 sedan.

    Panasonic is Tesla’s exclusive supplier of battery cells and industry watchers have said the Japanese company needs to cut its reliance on the U.S. electric carmaker.

    Elon Musk, Tesla’s mercurial CEO, last month blamed Panasonic for the production delays. He previously said Tesla was looking for other battery suppliers for its new Shanghai car factory.

    Tsuga, however, told a post-earnings press conference on Thursday that Panasonic’s relationship with Tesla remained good.

    “We are not just a supplier but a partner,” he said.

    Panasonic is set to deepen its partnership with Toyota, announcing earlier on Thursday they would establish a joint company to develop “connected” services to be used in homes and urban development. Panasonic also said it would sell its solar battery research arm and a solar battery plant in Malaysia to China’s GS-Solar for an undisclosed amount.

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  • Hydro Flask Starts in Hong Kong

    Hydro Flask Starts in Hong Kong

    Hydro Flask, the US brand of high-performance, insulated stainless-steel flasks targeting the outdoors market, has launched in Hong Kong.

    From this month, Hydro Flask products are being sold by Hong Kong retailers through an expansion of the company’s partnership with the Primer Group. Products will be stocked through outdoor and sporting goods retailers, lifestyle stores, travel retailers and gourmet grocers.

    “We’re excited to expand our strong relationship with Primer to bring Hydro Flask to Hong Kong. It’s a key part of our global expansion and influences markets beyond Asia,” said Mike Wallenfels, VP of global sales at Hydro Flask.

    The brand’s launch is timely as growing numbers of Asian consumers are purchasing reusable containers in preference to single-use plastic and paper cups, for environmental reasons.

    The company produces containers suited to cold drinks, coffee, beer, wine and food, along with backpacks, casual clothing and accessories.

    Hydro Flask is a subsidiary of listed company Helen of Troy Limited.

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  • Daimler CEO Says His Successor Will Have A Tough Job

    Daimler CEO Says His Successor Will Have A Tough Job

    Daimler’s next chief executive will have a tough job to restore margins at Mercedes-Benz, current boss Dieter Zetsche told Reuters on Wednesday, as Mercedes-Benz launched a new luxury electric car to rival Tesla.

    Zetsche, who bows out as CEO on May 22, said the German luxury carmaker needed to find a way to rebuild margins after research and development (R&D) costs at Mercedes-Benz ballooned.

    “There are many challenges ahead. We are in a situation of an economic slowdown. It is not going to be easier going forward,” he said on the sidelines of the launch event near Oslo.

    Pressure to develop electric and autonomous cars has led R&D costs at Mercedes-Benz passenger cars to rise to 14 billion euros ($15.7 billion) from around 8 billion euros four years ago, Zetsche said.

    At the same time, China, the world’s largest car market, has seen sales momentum slowing for nine months in a row, with a 5.2 percent fall in sales in March.

    Mercedes-Benz’s large electric car will hit showrooms this summer, years after Tesla launched its Model S in 2012.

    Daimler has been cautious about embracing mass production of electric vehicles at Mercedes-Benz amid concerns about operating range and customer acceptance.

    The company took a 9.1 percent stake in Tesla for around $50 million in May 2009 to learn about battery technology but sold its stake for a $780 million profit in 2014.

    Daimler launched an electric car under the smart brand in 2010, but waited until 2014 to build an electric Mercedes-Benz B-Class.

    Daimler, like other manufacturers, has struggled to make electric cars profitable, although the cost of battery packs is expected to fall as they invest in ramping up battery cell production.

    ING analysts say the total cost of ownership, including fuel prices, could reach parity between electric and combustion engined vehicles by 2025.

    In an effort to make a profit with electric cars, Daimler has opted to manufacture the Mercedes EQC in a way that enables it to be built on the same production line as a combustion engined car, retooling existing plants.

    Daimler is investing more than 10 billion euros to expand the electric EQ model range and is building battery cell production facilities.

    The Mercedes EQC will have an operating range of 445-471 kms, with a base version costing below 60,000 euros to make it eligible for Germany’s electric car environmental bonus.

    Asked whether Daimler was too late to the electric vehicle trend, Zetsche said: “For the past 40 years I have heard that German manufacturers have missed all the important trends. But apparently, customers still like cars from manufacturers that have missed the boat.”

    Zetsche took over as CEO of DaimlerChrysler in 2006 and took the decision to sell Chrysler, returning Mercedes to the top-selling luxury brand globally in 2016 and defending the title ever since.

    Zetsche said Daimler’s future hinged on making electric cars profitably.

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  • Philipp Plein opens First Single Brand Store in Singapore

    Philipp Plein opens First Single Brand Store in Singapore

    Switzerland-based fashion house Philipp Plein has opened its first single-brand store in Singapore.

    Located at Marina Bay Sands, the two-level flagship store spans ​​236sqm with separate entrances for the men’s and women’s areas.

    Menswear is located on the first floor, which is decorated with the brand’s distinctive crystal skull design. Clothing is arranged on the right-hand side of the shop, with accessories on the left.

    The womenswear collection of clothing and accessories is located on the second floor.

    The store is part of a broader expansion by the fashion house in Asia: more new stores will soon be opening in Seoul and Bangkok and another in Kuwait.

    Founded in 2008, Philipp Plein now has 250 single-brand stores worldwide.

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  • Waze app gains Pandora integration on Android and iOS

    Waze app gains Pandora integration on Android and iOS

    Waze, Google Maps’ rival, and Pandora, the music streaming company have just announced they have teamed up to offer Android and iOS users the option to soundtrack their travel experience on mobile phones.

    If you’re a Pandora fan, you’ll now be able to listen to your favorite tunes on both iOS and Android devices across all tiers of the music streaming service, as well as personalize your experience directly inside the Waze app via an embedded audio player.

    Thanks to the new Pandora integration, drivers will now be able to navigate and listen to music simultaneously without ever leaving the map. Since the integration goes both ways, if you open Pandora, you’ll be able to use Waze’s navigation features.

    In order to connect Pandora with Waze, simply download the navigation app from the Google Play or App Store if you don’t have it already, tap on the music icon on the top right of the map, and select the Pandora icon. Also, make sure that the sound is turned on so that you can listen to music.

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  • Google Duo group video calling goes live

    Google Duo group video calling goes live

    Google Duo, the video chat mobile app developed by the Mountain View company, received a couple of important updates in the last year or so. Among them, group video calling was added to the app less than a month ago, but it was only made available in a few countries.

    Starting today, Google has expanded the availability of the group video calling feature to more countries, including the United States, Canada, and India. Even Google seems to confirm the new feature is available in “select regions,” but no list of markets is available yet, so we’ll have to rely on reports coming from users.

    With group video calling, Google Duo users will be able to select up to four contacts that they can call simultaneously. Simply swipe down and press the “Create Group” option in order to start adding the contacts you want to call.

    Although the feature only supports four contacts in a group call, Google plans to slowly increase the number of people that you can call simultaneously with Google Duo, although no timeframe is available at the moment.

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  • YouTube Music reportedly exceeds 15 million subscribers Recently

    YouTube Music reportedly exceeds 15 million subscribers Recently

    We’ve received an official statement that disputes the reports coming from Bloomberg and Wall Street Journal claiming that Google is struggling to attract paying music subscribers. Here is what a Google spokeswoman had to say about these reports: “YouTube aggressively disputes the WSJ report stating YouTube Music subscription growth has plateaued, countering that healthy subscription growth continued through Q1 of this year.”

    Google’s music streaming service recently went through a rebranding process one year ago, as the search giant has decided to merge Play Music and YouTube Music into one product in order to avoid confusion among customers.

    We’re not sure whether or not the results met Google’s expectations, but Bloomberg reports the company’s paid music services have recently exceeded 15 million subscribers, at least according to two persons familiar with the matter.

    The number of subscribers mentioned includes both YouTube Music and Google Play Music services, as well as some consumers that are still using promotional trial accounts. If Google’s YouTube Music has just exceeded 15 million subscribers one year after its rebrand, it’s way behind Apple and Spotify.

    The former reached 50 million subscribers back in January, while Spotify announced late last month that it now has more than 100 million subscribers paying for its premium service.

    Although Google declined to comment on the numbers, it did say that the number of subscribers to YouTube Music grew 60% between March 2018 and March 2019, which is clearly good progress. It remains to be seen whether or not the company will be able to maintain the percentage with which it grew last year or even boost it a little.

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  • WhatsApp to end support for Windows Phone

    WhatsApp to end support for Windows Phone

    WhatsApp has just confirmed that it will end support for Windows Phone, as well as some older versions of Android and iOS. Starting from December 31, 2019, WhatsApp for Windows Phone will stop working, while next year the developer will no longer support devices running older versions of Android and iOS.

    In case you’re wondering why WhatsApp has decided to turn off support for Windows Phone ahead of 2020, it’s worth mentioning that this is consistent with Microsoft’s decision to end support for their mobile operating system.

    Concerning the other two operating systems, WhatsApp will stop working on devices running Android version 2.3.7 and older starting February 1, 2020. Also, devices powered by iOS 7 and older will no longer be compatible with WhatsApp effective February 1, 2020.

    However, since WhatsApp won’t be developing for these operating systems anymore, some features that are now available might stop working even before the deadline, so you might want to switch to a newer device if you want to continue to use WhatsApp.

    Moreover, if you’re using a device that runs these older Android and iOS versions, you won’t be able to create new accounts, nor reverify existing accounts, as of right now.

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  • Exabytes Announces Its Annual eCommerce Conference to be Held on 27 June

    Exabytes Announces Its Annual eCommerce Conference to be Held on 27 June

    Exabytes Network Sdn. Bhd. today announced that its annual event of Exabytes eCommerce Conference (EEC) is scheduled to be held on Thursday, June 27th at Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Center (MaGIC) in Cyberjaya. EEC 2019 carries the theme of Grow Global, Grow Fast and it focuses on four main areas – growing ecommerce business, ecommerce trends, marketing for ecommerce, and ecommerce automation. This year, EEC expects to attract at least 800 attendees of startups and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from various sectors not just from Malaysia but from around the world. The one-day event is going to be packed with presentations and workshops by esteemed speakers from various industry backgrounds. Besides that, there will be at least 20 exhibitors of organizations that will take part in this year’s EEC.

    Registrations are now open online at www.exabytes.my/eec.

    Speaker highlights:

    • Anna Lebereva, Head of Growth Marketing, SEMrush;
    • ZiKang, Founder of FITGEAR & OXWHITE;
    • Lennise Ng, CEO of Dropee;
    • Diego Olivier Fernandez Pons, Scientific Advisor, Tezos Southeast Asia;
    • Roberto Cumaraswamy, CMO-on-Demand, robertocumaraswamy.com;
    • Christopher Lowe, Senior Account Manager, Insider;
    • Xin-Ci, Head of Marketing, StoreHub; and,
    • Nowrid Amin, Digital Marketing Strategist of IQI Global.

    More speakers will be announced from time to time.

    Chan Kee Siak, CEO of Exabytes said, “EEC is back for the sixth time and with a bigger goal to inspire startups and SMEs to grow their business beyond Malaysian borders. Since it started, EEC has been gaining momentum as a platform for startup entrepreneurs, C-level executives and other attendees to share, learn and network. We look forward to hosting them on June 27 in Cyberjaya.”

    “Thriving ecommerce presents opportunities. There is so much to learn about it so we’ve planned to cover a variety of topics such as analytics, big data, elogistics and mobile payment technologies. We are currently offering early-bird promo tickets and those who are interested can purchase them online at www.exabtyes.my/eec,” Chan explained.

    Started in 2014 with only 100 attendees, EEC has grown to be a popular ecommerce event in Malaysia attracting participants from around the world. In 2019, EEC targets to more than double its attendees from 396 in 2018 to a minimum of 800 this year.

    About Exabytes Network Sdn. Bhd.

    Founded in 2001, Exabytes Network Sdn. Bhd. is a leading web hosting and cloud service provider in Southeast Asia. It specializes in providing services of cloud hosting, shared hosting, email hosting, Virtual Private Server, dedicated servers, domain name registration, digital marketing and others. The Company currently serves over 100,000 small- and medium-sized businesses in 121 countries. Exabytes Network is part of Exabytes Capital Group Sdn. Bhd. It is headquartered in Penang, Malaysia. Website: www.exabytes.my.

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  • Sonos to bring Google Assistant to its smart speakers

    Sonos to bring Google Assistant to its smart speakers

    The neverending saga regarding Sonos connected speakers and Google Assistant is about to end next week if the American company keeps its most recent promise. After a few years of uncertainty, the situation is about to get out of limbo with Sonos finally delivering Google Assistant support to its high-end speakers.

    As the company announced back in January, the Sonos One and Sonos Beam will receive an update that will make Google Assistant available to users. The information has been confirmed by Sonos in a shareholder letter released ahead of the company’s quarterly earnings call.

    The update that will add Google Assistant support will be available next week in the United States, but Sonos plans to bring it to other markets as well in the “next few months.” Although Sonos’ previous statement confirmed Google Assistant will be added to older speakers as well, the shareholder letter doesn’t include any mentions to these devices.

    We’ll update the story once Google Assistant support hits the Sonos One and Sonos Beam, but if what the US company says it’s true, you should be able to start using Google’s personal digital assistant no later than next week.

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  • Google is still working on an exciting AI feature

    Google is still working on an exciting AI feature

    Tweets sent by Google Photos product lead David Lieb indicate that the company has not given up on the Colorize feature it unveiled at Google I/O last year. The feature uses machine learning tools to add colors to old black and white photos. He said that Google hopes to have Colorize out in beta form soon and said that he’d love to hear feedback from Android users. The Colorize feature, when it does get pushed out, will show up as a filter in the Google Photos app.

    Lieb did say that Colorize needs some more work, and for proof of that, he showed a black and white photo taken during his grandparents’ wedding day (his grandmother is 104!). While Colorize did add color to the image, it also added a pink tinge to his grandfather’s pants. The Googler assures us that his grandfather did not wear pink pants at his wedding.

    Meanwhile, another feature that Google introduced at its 2018 developers conference, Color Pop, was pushed out just a week after the feature was unveiled. Using AI, Color Pop takes the background of a photo shot in Portrait mode and changes it to black and white; the subject matter remains in color. The stark difference between the two makes the subject pop, or stand out. Color Pop appears as a filter option in the Google Photos app after you snap a Portrait.