This is clearly a big change in the industry, and as big changes oftentimes go, people aren’t immediately excited about it. People also seem frustrated with Apple’s new wireless headphone option, the “AirPods”, which will retail for around $160. That’s even more impressive when you consider Apple Watch was only on sale for 8 months of the year. It means for all those who sit at their desks,charge the phone and plug in their headphones to listen to music, Apple’s latest smartphone isn’t going to cut the mustard -you simply can’t do both. Apart from having aLightning input at the rear of the dock, there is a 3.5mm output jack as well.
We expect more third-party solutions to arrive in the next few weeks to make this less of a pain in the rear. This is only slightly more useful than the one port on the phone. AirPods auto-pair with all your iCloud-connected devices except Apple TV.
Schiller mentioned that the Lightning adapter Apple includes with every iPhone 7 is a way the company is helping ease the transition from the 3.5 mm jack. Apple killed the 3.5mm audio port with the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.
Apple initially quoted shipping dates of two to three weeks after September 16, but the company quickly pushed ship dates back to four to six weeks for some versions of the black iPhone 7s. And, these standalone left/right AirPods only play music when they detect that they’re in your ear.
They’re just standard Bluetooth, with a little bit of “secret sauce” for easy pairing with Appledevices. When Apple unveiled the iPhone 7, people took issue with its lack of a headphone jack.
“Apple has a very long history of removing features we all thought were necessary, and then convincing us that we didn’t need them”, said Ask, noting that Apple paved the way in phasing out the use of floppy discs and optical drives in computers.
The Bluetooth or Lightning allow for the transfer of audio signals to the headphones digitally.
Mr. Praphan Rangsiyopas (middle), Vice President Marketing and Mrs. Waraporn Nilpanich (right), Vice President Credit Card of AEON Thana Sinsap (Thailand) Public Company Limited together with Ms. Nopchanok Tantiwechwuttikul (left), Payment and Loyalty Manager of The Shell Company of Thailand Limited offer special promotion for AEON credit cardholders, Accumulate spending amount of 3,000 Baht and up at Shell Service Station via AEON Gold and AEON Classic credit card, cardholders will get cash back up to 500 Baht per month.
AEON credit cardholders can enjoy this promotional campaign by registering through SMS by typing SH follow by 16 Digits of AEON credit card number without space, and send to 4589123 or register free at www.aeon.co.th. This campaign starts now until March 31st, 2017.
American brand Elizabeth Arden, one of the oldest names in the beauty industry, is embarking on an ambitious repositioning plan and its president is counting on her Singapore roots to steer the beauty behemoth ahead of the competition.
“Being a Singaporean, what you learn since young is to always stay ahead of the game,” said Ms JuE Wong, who took the helm at the more than century-old brand slightly more than a year ago, becoming the highest-ranked Singaporean in a multinational beauty company.
“When I was growing up, there was only one university. If you (didn’t) make it to the National University of Singapore (NUS), you basically (had) to think of somewhere else to go,” said the 49-year-old, who eventually opted to pursue her undergraduate studies in Australia after missing out on her first choice to read law at NUS.
“That’s why I think I’ve always been conditioned and trained to be an outside-the-box thinker,” she added.
This sense of fast-thinking adaptability is what Ms Wong wants to inject into Elizabeth Arden, as the iconic brand seeks to win over consumers from the younger generation amid the constant emergence of newer brands and a changing retail world in a digital age.
While the brand’s 106 years of heritage underscores “trust and credibility that can only be earned over time”, Ms Wong admitted that it can also, at times, work as an obstacle when it comes to attracting younger consumers, especially those between the ages of 28 and 40. Hence, the company is turning its target to even-younger millennials who have shown a greater willingness to give the brand a try.
“When we did our consumer insights, we found that people from the age group of 28 to 40 know who we are and know enough to often think ‘This is my mother’s brand’. On the other hand, those younger than 25 have not heard that much about us. They do not have any perceived baggage and so (are) willing to give us a chance.”
To appeal to this group of digital-savvy millennials, Elizabeth Arden stepped up its digital strategy with a social media campaign called “From the desk of #LizArden” and partnered beauty app YouCam Makeup. According to Ms Wong, both initiatives have been a success, especially the latter, which delivered a sizeable boost to its e-commerce sales.
Available in the US and China, the app is equipped with facial recognition technology that allows users to virtually try on various makeup products and provides direct links for shoppers to make purchases on Elizabeth Arden’s online platform.
“We met the developers in September, had a soft launch in October and by the time we rolled out officially in December, we already had 58 million downloads and 22.9 per cent of these reposted a selfie marked with our name. I had almost a million dollar in sales (within) 30 days,” Ms Wong told Channel NewsAsia.
In Singapore, the company launched a pop-up store, featuring a smart mirror and an interactive wall that tells the history of Elizabeth Arden, outside Robinsons at The Heeren to mark the roll-out of its latest product earlier this week.
“By making ourselves more cutting-edge and more engaging for the younger audiences, I think we make ourselves relevant,” said Ms Wong.
Even in a downbeat brick-and-mortar retail market, Ms Wong remains confident that the beauty giant can turn around the situation by identifying pockets of growth in areas such as the colour cosmetics and spa categories.
For instance, the company started introducing services from its Red Door Spa brand at selected retail counters in the US. Sales at these counters have since posted “double-digit growth”, according to Ms Wong. “We are offering a point of differentiation … and I think that’s how you cultivate a new generation to experience what the brand is all about.”
Nonetheless, the businesswoman acknowledged that the brand’s digital ventures are no walk in the park. Coupled with the fact that it would be the first time she is taking on a leadership position at a giant such as Elizabeth Arden, Ms Wong admitted that it has been “a bit of a leap” but she was not daunted.
Elizabeth Arden Pop-op Store at Orchard Road
Prior to becoming president of the Elizabeth Arden brand, the Singaporean was the chief executive of venture-backed cosmeceutical company StriVectin as well as Astral Health and Beauty, and held senior positions at then-emerging brands including Murad and N.V Perricone MD.
“Compared to the smaller brands, there’s enough resources at Elizabeth Arden and I was able to push a lot of my ideas. Of course, if I made a mistake, it would be amplified but does that make me less of a risk taker? No … and the Singaporean in me, ‘kiasu’ as we call it, means that I’m not going to lose,” she added with a chuckle.
“Even though I’ve been away longer than I lived in Singapore, but once a Singaporean, always a Singaporean.”
DARING TO GO: SWITCHING FROM COMMODITY TRADING TO SKINCARE
This huge appetite for risks is also observable from Ms Wong’s resume. After graduating from the Australian National University with a degree in political science, she decided to take a plunge into the trading world and later spent seven years on the trading floor at Cargill Commodities.
“I wanted something out of my comfort zone and it was very challenging,” Ms Wong recalled. “We had a daily scorecard of the books that were closed … it was like playing chess and at the end of every day, you either checkmate or you get checkmated.”
A “self-driven reason of wanting to know better ways of skincare” led Ms Wong into the beauty industry in the US during the 2000s, and for the Singaporean, there was no mountain that was too high to conquer.
“After leaving Murad to join private equity-owned Perricone, it was since that time (that) I never had to look for a job because every time I take a brand and turn it around, another private equity firm would come to me or the same private equity firm would offer me another brand,” said Ms Wong, who was nominated as the Top 50 women to watch by Wall Street Journal in 2004.
“It was very validating because I realised that at the end of the day, you can get so much recognition if you had a real scorecard. And in that regard, I think my days in commodity trading really prepared me for today.”
While her fast-talking persona and dare-to-go attitude has resulted in “some hindrances” at the start of her career, Ms Wong does not regret the career switches that she has made, and hailing from the little red dot on the world map definitely has not stopped her from climbing up the corporate ladder in the Big Apple.
Ms Wong said: “My mother would tell you this story … when I was 12, I told her that one day I was going to work in the Big Apple and she replied to me saying, ‘Don’t be silly’. I don’t remember this … but if I did, a part of me perhaps realised that Singapore may be a small country but it had a very good reputation.
“Literally everybody has heard of us and we never really had to explain where we come from. And because I came from a country that’s so well respected, it gave me the courage to dare to dream.”
Tesla Motors Co Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Sunday the automaker was updating its semi-autonomous driving system Autopilot with new limits on hands-off driving and other improvements that likely would have prevented a fatality in May.
Musk said the update, which will be available within a week or two through an “over-the-air” software update, would rely foremost on radar to give Tesla’s electric luxury cars a better sense of what is around them and when to brake.
New restrictions of Autopilot 8.0 are a nod to widespread concerns that the system lulled users into a false sense of security through its “hands-off” driving capability. The updated system now will temporarily prevent drivers from using the system if they do not respond to audible warnings to take back control of the car.
“We’re making much more effective use of radar,” Musk told journalists on a phone call. “It will be a dramatic improvement in the safety of the system done entirely through software.”
Tesla’s Autopilot, introduced in October, has been the focus of intense scrutiny since it was revealed in July that a Tesla Model S driver, Joshua Brown, was killed while using the technology in a May 7 collision with a truck in Florida.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has been investigating Tesla’s Autopilot system since June because of the fatal accident. The agency had been briefed on the changes by Tesla and would review them, spokesman Bryan Thomas said. He declined to offer an update on the Tesla investigation.
Musk said it was “very likely” the improved Autopilot would have prevented the death of Brown, whose car sped into the trailer of a truck crossing a highway, but he cautioned that the update “doesn’t mean perfect safety.”
“PROBABILITY OF SAFETY”
“Perfect safety is really an impossible goal,” Musk said. “It’s about improving the probability of safety. There won’t ever be zero fatalities, there won’t ever be zero injuries.”
One of the main challenges of using cameras and radars for a braking system is how to prevent so-called false positives, in which a car might think an overhead highway sign, for example, was an obstacle to be avoided.
Using radar and fleet learning, rather than relying primarily on cameras, would solve that problem, Musk said.
“Anything metallic or dense, the radar system we’re confident will be able to detect that and initiate a braking event,” he said.
Silicon Valley-based Tesla is known for its innovation in luxury electric vehicles but some critics, including rival carmakers, have said it was hasty in rolling out Autopilot. Tesla stood by Autopilot after the fatality.
The revised system will sound warnings if drivers take their hands off the wheel for more than a minute at speeds above 45 miles per hour (72 kph) when there is no vehicle ahead, Musk said.
The warning will sound after the driver’s hands are off the wheel for more than three minutes when the Tesla is following another car at speeds above 45 mph. The dashboard also will flash a pulsing light.
If the driver ignores three audible warnings in an hour, the system will temporarily shut off until it is parked, Musk said.
Advanced Autopilot users, rather than new users, were most likely to ignore warnings to put their hands back on the wheel, Musk said.
Besides the fallout from the fatality, Musk has had to prepare for the Model 3 mass-market vehicle due late next year and completion of its Nevada battery factory, while trying to sell skeptical investors on the merits of a proposed acquisition of SolarCity.
On Sept. 1, SpaceX, where Musk serves as CEO, sustained what he later called “the most difficult and complex failure” in the commercial space company’s history when a Falcon 9 rocket exploded on its launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
“One of the worst weeks ever, really,” he told reporters.
Musk said he had wanted to improve Autopilot’s capabilities last year but was told it was impossible to do so without incurring more “false positives,” such as a car braking suddenly for a harmless tin can.
In July tweeted publicly that he was encouraged by talks with supplier Bosch about improvements to radar.
“I wish we could have done it earlier,” he said on Sunday. “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”
Pomo House International, the leading brand of a child loss prevention smart watch and other innovative gadgets for modern family has successfully made a hit in SEA and is now expanding its brand to Europe, USA and LTA. “I believe the most important thing enabling me to become successful is to do what I love. There are always obstacles and a chance of going bankrupt in every businesses. However, if we do the business we love, we will have strength to move on”, says Mr. Chatchai Tangchittrong, Director of Pomo House International Co.,Ltd.
“POMO Kids Watch is our first product that corresponds to our concept “Family Love is All Around”. Besides generating business, we have planned to lift up social awareness regarding family’s care and mutual happiness between parents and their kids.” The ideas of inventing the product to support family’s love and preventing missing children have been combined and conveyed through the development of what becomes child loss prevention smart watch to connect family members anywhere they are and allow children to explore the world with safety.
With great success of the first two series of child loss prevention smart watch “Pomo Rainbow” and “Pomo Moji”, Pomo House has continued to develop the latest series called “Pomo R2”. This exclusive child loss prevention smart watch is equipped with unique functions that parents and their kids can enjoy together. Triple-Mode Smart Locator (Wi-Fi/GPS/LBS), splash proof and color touch screen are outstanding features of this model.
This year Pomo House is launching a new product called “POMO Bebe,” another high technology of gadget for newborn baby. Coming with the concept of “God Fairy”, your baby will always be safe and protected. This device is designed to solve parents’ concern on their baby’s health. This latest innovation comes with unique features such as temperature scan mode, sleep quality, movement tracking and child loss prevention. “We realize how meaningful it is for parents to experience the moment when their baby opens the eyes to see the world. The first concern for baby is fever as it can affect baby’s immune system. Therefore, this device can be a little gift performing as a guardian for your little angel”, says Mr.Chatchai.
Pomo House is also secretly working on product development process for another new innovation to answer every parents and their kids’ lifestyle. This product is expected to be released into the market by the end of this year.
Adobe has launched a new video analytics offering that promises to provide marketers with new and improved measurement for both content and ads.
“As video measurement grows increasingly important for marketers to drive major decisions, the significance of these metrics comes into focus daily,” said Chris Wareham, the senior director of product management at Adobe in a blog entry.
“The ability to obtain data such as time spent, ad performance, device, geography, bounce rates, impressions, and more is now a crucial piece of the pie.”
New video measurement model
A key update would be the measuring of video engagement with substantially greater granularity than in the past. This is done by sending “heartbeats” packets every 10 seconds during a video playback or during a live event.
On top of the initial start server call that Adobe Analytics receives whenever a video is played, a new processing layer will now aggregate all heartbeats until the viewer ends the session – either by completing the video, closing the browser, or switching to a new video. This data is then transmitted as part of a final server call to complete the playback data set.
“The 10-second heartbeat measurement eliminates the blind spot and offers a much more thorough view of how content is being consumed,” explained Wareham. “By analyzing video streams, rather than just starts and stops, brands can gain a more complete picture of how content is being consumed.”
A move away from simple monitoring milestones that is based solely on server calls means that stream can not only provide standardization across basic video performance metrics, but is also able to provide deeper insights into media consumption, said Wareham.
Sta. Rosa, Laguna, Philippines – The Villar Group, through its retail arm All Value Holdings Corp., is investing an additional P1.4 billion to fund the continued expansion of its All Day supermarket chain.
The company opened yesterday its third branch, located in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.
This followed the opening of the first two stores in Vista Mall in Taguig and Starmall Edsa-Shaw.
In an interview during yesterday’s opening ceremony, All Value chairman Manuel B. Villar Jr. said two more branches were expected to open before the end of the year. Plans are underway to build four to five more branches in 2017.
“Each branch may cost us about P180 million or less,” Villar told reporters.
He said the sites of All Day Supermarkets are leased from Vista Malls of sister company Vista Land & Lifescapes, while the inventory is largely consigned by suppliers.
Villar said the fourth branch, located in Vista Mall Bataan would be even bigger. It is targeted for opening this month.
The fifth and last outlet to open this year will be in Vista City in Daang Hari. Target date for the opening is December.
All five stores will have a total floor area of about 20,000 square meters.
For next year, the target is to open All Day Supermarkets in Mega Manila.
“All of our supermarkets are successful. The response from consumers is very good. They have an upscale look but the prices are low so they cater to the masses,” he noted.
All Day Supermarket offers a wide assortment of goods, bigger floor areas, nice store interiors and new services. It also opens as early as 8 in the morning.
The supermarket’s goods are guaranteed fresh by their accreditation from the National Meat Inspection Service.
It sells fresh meat, poultry and produce as well as seafoods. It also offers a “paluto” section that cooks food the way customers like it.
There is also a Quick Fix Section dedicated to every family’s hardware and repair needs, which means that customers don’t need to leave the supermarket for their hardware needs.
A new subsea cable company has contracted Huawei Marine Networks to deploy a 250km cable system connecting Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.
Super Sea Cable Networks (SEAX) has commissioned construction of its SEAX-1 cable, which will connect Mersing on the eastern seaboard of Peninsular Malaysia with Singapore’s Changi and Indonesia’s Batam.
Construction of the 24-fiber-pair system is expected to be complete by the end of next year. SEAX’s market focus will be wholesale operators in emerging markets, including Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 carriers who want to own but not operate cable systems.
SEAX’s five-year plan is to target, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar in addition to Malaysia and Indonesia.
The company has a facilities-based operator license in Singapore, an affiliate company in Indonesia and is partnered with telecoms infrastructure provider SACOFA in Malaysia.
“SEAX-1 passes through one of the busiest region in the Asia Pacific region, where bandwidth demands are increasing exponentially,” SEAX CEO Joseph Lim said.
“We believe this new submarine cable system will relieve bandwidth pressures on existing infrastructure and continue to provide this region with high-speed, reliable connectivity that will fast-track its growth.”
Indonesia’s PT Telkom last week contracted NEC to build a subsea cable system connecting six large Indonesian islands with Singapore.
Multiple airlines have banned the use of Samsung’s Galaxy Note7 smartphones while onboard after the company issued a global recall of the devices due to reports of exploding batteries.
Thai Airways is among the latest airline to ban the use of the smartphone online, as well as storing the device in checked baggage.
Other major airlines including Singapore Airlines, Australia’s Qantas and the UAE’s Etihad have already issued bans. Aviation authorities in Europe, the US and Japan have also issued safety warnings.
Samsung has meanwhile urged all users of Note7 smartphones subject to the global recall to turn in their devices as soon as possible for replacement
The company issued a global recall for the devices last week following reports of faulty batteries overheating or even catching fire. The company said that prior to the recall there had been 35 reported cases of malfunctions globally.
Samsung Electronics Australia announced that replacement stock will be available to local customers from September 21, and the company will resume selling the devices in the market in early October.
Mattress supplier Kingsdown, Inc. has opened three additional stores in China, boosting its footprint in the country to 39 stores in 31 cities.
The latest openings include two additional stores in Beijing, taking the city’s total to three, and its first location in Shanghai.
The company said it expects to have 75 stores in 65 cities by the end of the year through its licensing agreement with Chinese bedding producer and retailer Roth Bedding Technology International Ltd.
The two companies joined forces last year, and since then, the partnership has continued to flourish. The latest move solidifies the companies’ growth strategy to have 500 branded stores open throughout China by 2020, Kingsdown officials said.
Building on its partnership with Roth, Kingsdown is growing its branded store network to strengthen its presence in China, taking advantage of the demand for an American brand with a history of luxurious style and hand craftsmanship. The Kingsdown branded stores sell the company’s popular collections along with products designed and developed specifically for the Chinese marketplace, a growing market for mattresses with an annual growth rate of more than 25% in the last five years.
“The reception to the Kingsdown brand in Asia has been incredible with the region’s consumers,” said Frank Hood, President and CEO of Kingsdown. “Our partnership with Roth has been incredible in allowing us to capture China’s luxury mattress consumer. The strategic plan we have in place will solidify Kingsdown as the leading luxury brand in this growing consumer market.
“The future is bright for Kingsdown in China,” added Jie Du, Roth bedding general manager. “Kingsdown’s focus on styling, quality and industry leading sleep research are key characteristics for the discriminating consumer here in China who shows a strong penchant for American-made, high-end products.”
In addition to its growing presence in China, Kingsdown has branded retail showrooms in Vietnam.
Roth Bedding Technology International Ltd. is based in Hong Kong. The company is a leader in distribution platforms and retail, providing both their partners and Chinese consumers a full-service company that offers quality products.
More bad news for China’s struggling brick and mortar retailers as a recent report from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Social Sciences Academic Press predicted as many as one-third of all shopping centers in China will close their doors during the next five years.
With ecommerce heavyweights Alibaba and JD.com dominating the retail sales, some of China’s largest mall operators are already feeling the pinch. Joy City Property and Maoye International posted profit warnings earlier in the year as buyers opt to shop online.
Change Predicted for All Mainland Retail Centres
The report by the respected central government think tank predicted change across the board for Chinese shopping centres, foreseeing that, in addition to the malls expected to close, another third will be transformed into experiential shopping centres, while the remaining third will adopt an online to offline (O2O) model that integrates the Internet with physical shopping.
While two decades ago China had an undersupply of malls, the country has quickly overcome the deficit, with the mainland now home to 4,000 shopping centers — three times the US total. That population of malls is expected to grow to 10,000 by 2025, according to the CASS report. Research from JLL revealed 40 million square metres in new mall space is expected to enter the market between 2015 and 2017.
Department stores in the country fared still worse than shopping centres, with sales growth contracting 0.7 percent during 2015, according to data from the Fung Business Intelligence Centre.Malaysia-based department store Parkson, which operates 59 outlets in China, announced it was selling assets to offset heavy losses in the country.
Chinese Shoppers Swap Malls for the Internet
Jack Ma’s ecommerce empire has been taking a bite out of China’s traditional retail sector
According to Reuters, Suning, one of China’s largest retail chains, needed 12 months to bring in the same amount of sales that Alibaba’s Tmall website generated in two months. And while the electronics retailer is able to keep the lights on, others have not been so lucky.
A total of 138 department stores, 262 supermarkets and 9,464 clothing stores closed in China between 2012 and 2015 according to data from the Business Economics Institute under Beijing Technology and Business University. That goes hand-in-hand with findings from the McKinsey Global Institute that showed ecommerce accounted for 20 percent of all clothing purchased and 15 percent of all household goods purchased in 266 cites in China.
McKinsey predicts ecommerce marketplaces will bring in anywhere from $420 billion to $650 billion in sales by 2020. That is in stark contrast to the slowing sales physical retailers are coping with.
Data from Fung Business Intelligence Centre showed there was 4.3 percent sales growth last year among China’s top 100 retail chain operators, the lowest total since 2007.
Physical Stores Not Going Down Without a Fight
While the mainland’s earth-bound retail sector has been taking a beating, not everyone is ready to give up. China Properties Group, a Shanghai-based developer which owns and operates the Concord City mixed-use project and the World Trade Plaza in Chongqing, took out a full page ad in the New York Times international edition late last year pleading with consumers to boycott online shopping.
Other retailers are opting for a more modern way to fight back against China’s growing ecommerce sector.
Of China’s top 100 retail chain operators, 83 currently have their own online stores in 2015. Of this number, 20 also have a mobile shopping app for consumers to use.
“Physical stores should abandon the old model. They can use online shopping and WeChat to facilitate transactions and provide more convenient service,“ Hong Tao, director of the Business Economics Institute, proclaimed.
The Malaysia Retail Chain Association (MRCA) has asked the government to temporarily freeze issuing licences for new shopping malls to curb the oversupply of retail space.
Its deputy president, Valerie Choo, said the number of shopping malls was likely to grow between 2017 and 2018 and this would strain the retailers’ margins.
“There will be over 50 per cent increase in shopping mall space (once the new shopping malls are ready).
“Too many shopping malls can be tough on the retailers as well,” she told reporters at the “MRCA Engaging with the Media” session here today.
Choo said the retail industry has been impacted by the economic slowdown and the weakening ringgit had led to an increase in overhead costs.
“We depend on imported goods, which have increased tremendously. We have been trying our best not to raise prices, but how long can we do it,” said Choo.
She said Indonesia had decided to freeze shopping mall development to curb oversupply, which has slowed the growth of its retail industry.
Choo also urged the government to spur the tourism industry to help boost sales of retailers in shopping malls.
“The tourists can take advantage of the weaker ringgit. It will help to increase spending in shopping malls,” said Choo.
MRCA represents over 300 retailers in Malaysia covering over 20,000 outlets and who provide over 100,000 jobs.
Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK) will restructure its core category airside retail concessions in advance of a series of major tenders beginning late October or early November, The Moodie Davitt Report can reveal.
There are currently three anchor concessions – liquor & tobacco, airside general merchandise, and perfumes & cosmetics, all held by DFS.
As detailed by The Moodie Davitt Report in July, AAHK pledged earlier this year to refine the category and contract mix, promising “significant changes” to the concession structure to drive spending and improve the consumer experience at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA).
Since July, AAHK has been talking to potential retailers and conducting intensive consumer research with its passengers regarding the anchor licences. As a result, it has fine-tuned the contract packages.
LIQUOR & TOBACCO AND PERFUMES & COSMETICS EXTENDED – BUT NO AIRSIDE GENERAL MERCHANDISE CONCESSION
The core liquor & tobacco and perfumes & cosmetics concessions will be continued – but with important refinements. To spice up the traditional liquor & tobacco offering, AAHK plans to allow the new concessionaire flexibility to include other products. These include liquor & tobacco-related accessories, such as wineglasses and decanters, as well as upmarket gourmet items, for example fine teas and coffees. That concept proved highly popular with passengers during AAHK’s qualitative surveys.
The liquor & tobacco concession will be increased substantially both in terms of space and range, with the addition of liquor-related accessories and gourmet items
To make the perfumes & cosmetics offer more attractive, AAHK plans to create a beauty and accessories “one-stop shopping destination”. That will involve combining perfumes & cosmetics with fashion accessories – the latter including sunglasses, fashion watches, small leathergoods, handbags and others. Those categories are currently sold through the airside general merchandise concession.
The perfumes & cosmetics concession will be extended to become a “beauty and accessories one-stop shopping destination”
AAHK believes that the high penetration rate driven by beauty products can enhance the cross-selling potential of the two categories combined. Consumer feedback also strongly suggested that the categories are complementary.
Critically, AAHK has decided to discontinue the airside general merchandise concession. The authority believes that given the airport’s extremely strong line-up of speciality stores and mono-brand boutiques, there is no need for the airside general merchandise concession. Instead it will allocate the best-selling general merchandise categories to the other packages.
DEDICATED CONFECTIONERY CONCESSION
In another key change, AAHK has opted to create a dedicated confectionery licence. Confectionery is a high-demand item at HKIA and the authority believes this justifies a separate concession covering multiple units across the terminal.
Confectionery, a big in-demand category, will enjoy its own dedicated concession
The distribution and location of the stores will also see some important changes. For example, AAHK plans to remove the current small gate store units near the boarding gates. Because of the size constraints, the liquor & tobacco and perfumes & cosmetics assortments in them is limited. The units will be turned over to other retail purposes, deemed as better serving passengers’ needs.
Simultaneously AAHK will increase the retail space in the East Hall – the shopping epicentre of the airport. Liquor & tobacco space there will increase by around +40%, while the addition of the fashion accessory categories will result in a huge +70% increase in the area dedicated to the extended beauty concession. More importantly, AAHK hopes that the additional floor space will allow the chosen retailers to introduce a wider product assortment.
MORE DIVERSITY OF PRODUCTS; GREATER CONSUMER ENGAGEMENT
In its consumer surveys, AAHK was told by many passengers that besides the big, upmarket European and US beauty brands they also wanted to see more variety – including the upcoming Korean and Japanese skincare names, most of them mid-price to premium price-points. In liquor & tobacco, consumers told AAHK they wanted to see more new and rare products.
With the enhanced store sizes, AAHK will be asking its retailers to create greater customer engagement (for example, more wine tastings), which it deems as increasingly important to bricks and mortar stores. The enhanced space will also encourage greater flexibility, experimentation, rarity and excitement, it believes.
TIME-LINE COUNTDOWN
AAHK will begin the tender process with the liquor & tobacco and perfumes & cosmetics bids in late October or early November, with results being announced in March or April next year. Confectionery will be tendered in late 2016 or early 2017.
The targeted changeover of concessions is set for the fourth quarter of 2017.
NOTE TO AIRPORT OPERATORS: The Moodie Davitt Report is the industry’s most popular channel for launching commercial proposals and for publishing the results. If you wish to promote an Expression of Interest, Request for Proposals or full tender process for any sector of airport revenues, simply e-mail Martin Moodie at Martin@MoodieDavittReport.com.
We have a variety of options that will ensure you reach the widest, most high-quality concessionaire/retailer/operator base in the industry – globally and immediately.
Similarly The Moodie Davitt Report is the only international business intelligence service and industry media to cover all airport consumer services, revenue generating and otherwise. We embrace all airport non-aeronautical revenues, including property, passenger lounges, car parking, hotels, hospital and other medical facilities, the Internet, advertising and related revenue streams.
In today’s digitally intelligent world, the age of enterprises shoring up their singular competitive advantages is over. With industries converging and consumer requirements constantly evolving, today’s businesses need to be more open, flexible, and build on their “ecological advantages” as well.
This was the key message delivered by Huawei CEO Guo Ping during his keynote speech at Huawei Connect 2016.
“Today we are in the cloud era, and while we do not yet know what things will be like in the future, one thing is sure—every modern industry system will become interconnected and complicated,” Guo said.
“As data, IoT, mobility and cloud entities develop, businesses that are not even connected with one another will have more interactions. Hence, advantages will not only come from within the organization as has traditionally been the case, but also by the effective use of its external resources.”
Guo predicted that in the many complicated scenarios that industries such as transportation, healthcare, and education will face, companies in these sectors will eventually develop and evolve toward an open ecosystem.
The same can be said for the ICT industry, whereby in the cloud era the sector has already transformed from a single vertical industry and into an enabler of digital transformation. A report from the World Economic Forum revealed that in 10 years, the opportunities brought upon by the digital transformation of industries will reach $100 trillion, with the world seeing the rise of even more new applications.
“Vertical integration of the value chain is a thing of the past,” stated Guo. As the ICT industry cultivates a new ecosystem, the Huawei CEO believes it will have three key features—open, dynamic, and symbiotic—wherein enterprises, big or small, “can take part in this interdependent, symbiotic, and regenerative community of common interests, as long as it has its own unique value and makes its own unique contribution.”
As for Huawei’s role in this cloud-driven ecosystem, Guo stressed his company’s primary principle is to prioritize “creating a bigger pie (market) over fighting for a larger piece of a shaky pie.”
“It’s the path we must take to build our future ecological advantages,” stated the CEO. “Our responsibility as an industry leader is to leverage our core competency, and use insights gleaned from our customers as basis of development to increase the size of the market. We don’t emphasize on whether the resources will be owned by us, but instead we emphasize on would be what can we leverage and effectively connect with external resources to bring the future together.”
Hyderabad Duty Free (HDF), a 100% subsidiary of GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd. (GHIAL), has announced a unique promotional scheme for American Telugu Association (ATA) under its ‘customer connect’ program to reach out to the Telugu diaspora residing in the US. This exclusive scheme for ATA members was formally announced by Mr.Hanmanth Reddy, founder of American Telugu Association in presence of Honorable Deputy Chief Minister of Telangana State, Mr. Mohammed Mahmood Ali; Dr Ausaf Sayeed, Counsul General of India at Chicago; Mr. Iftekhar Shareef, President of Telangana Association of North America among many more dignitaries, during the American Telugu Association Meet organized at Naperville, Chicago in the US state of Illinois.
Under this program, ATA members can now enjoy exclusive offers at Hyderabad Duty Free stores at the arrivals and departures of GMR Hyderabad International Airport. This connect program will also include periodic communication on Duty Free products, and round the year events and promotional activities happening at Hyderabad Duty Free. The members will also receive quarterly magazines of Hyderabad Duty Free which covers interesting happenings in the city and region in addition to Duty Free updates.
Under this unique promotional offer, the members of American Telugu Association will enjoy an additional top-up discount of up to 15% over and above the regular discounts & offers running in the store. At the Arrivals store, ATA members will get additional flat discount of 10% and 15% on every purchase above $100 and $250 respectively. At the Departures store, the members will get an additional flat discount of 7.5% and 10% on the purchase above $50 and $100 respectively.
This discount will be applicable on the entire range of products available at Hyderabad Duty Free, making this one of the most unique schemes for any Duty Free in the world. Furthermore, in-line with the objective to establish a connect with the Telugu diaspora, the program has a unique feature where these discounts will also be available to travelling family members (spouse and children) along with the main member.
With this unique promotional offer, Hyderabad Duty free will be offering lowest ever prices which would be give an overall benefit of up to 25-30% (considering the periodic regular offers) to ATA members. To avail this attractive benefit, ATA members will have to present the valid ATA membership card or copy at the billing counter.
Speaking on this occasion, Mr. SGK Kishore, Chairman, Hyderabad Duty Free, said, “Hyderabad Duty Free represents the city of Hyderabad and entire Region. With a wide range of international products along with attractive offers and gifts running round the year in our stores, we offer compelling value proposition to our valued customers and passengers travelling through the Hyderabad International Airport. We have recently started our initiative to further strengthen our relationship with key customer segments under the ‘Mana Hyderabad…Mana Duty Free” program. Our association with the members of American Telugu Association is a major initiation in this regard through which we would like the ATA members to make ‘Hyderabad Duty Free’ as their preferred shopping destination while travelling.”
Also speaking during this event, Mr. Hanmanth Reddy, Founder and former President ATA, said, “We are delighted that Hyderabad Duty Free has gone extra mile to initiate a promotional scheme dedicated to ATA members. I must appreciate and thank HDF for this initiative. I’m sure that every member of ATA will appreciate this gesture and shop at Hyderabad Duty Free to avail the benefit.”
American Telugu Association (ATA) is a not-for-profit organization which was started in early part of 1990 focussing Telugu origin people in the USA. The main purpose of the organization is to assist and promote literary, cultural, educational, religious, social, economic, health and community activities of the people of Telugu origin as well as to promote exchange programs for students, scientists, and professionals of Telugu origin between the United States of America, Canada and India and other countries.
