Retail News CRM

Author: Mei Ling Tan

  • Topmot Vietnam receives seed funding

    Topmot Vietnam receives seed funding

    Right after the closure of its sibling eCommerce model Lingo, Topmot Vietnam has received US$1 million from investors in Asia, Europe and the US.

    The funding proves that despite many online failures in Vietnam to date, there is still interest in eCommerce startups.

    “Ecommerce in Vietnam is indeed not easy, specifically for B2C businesses that require a sizable up-front investment to be able to process and fulfill orders in a professional manner,” CEO Erik Jonsson said.

    Topmot Vietnam has launched an iOS application to help it expand to farther areas besides Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. There are still opportunities in Vietnam market where people prefer to pay in cash and the logistics network remains immature.

    “eCommerce in Vietnam is not a sprint, it’s a marathon, and we have to be disciplined and focussed in each step of the way,” Jonsson added.

    Jonsson, a former Zalora CEO, and deputy CEO of VinGroup’s eCommerce, founded Topmot Vietnam in late 2015. Topmot’s model is different to conventional eCommerce sites, focused on flash sales and aiming to help suppliers clear excess and end-of-season inventories.

    The site has built a strong customer network in second-tier cities like Can Tho, Vung Tau, Da Nang and Hai Phong, attracted by high discounts.

    With 40 campaigns a week, starting at 10am everyday and lasting for five days, Topmot usually sells out of its products only a few hours after launch. Fastest-selling products come from international brands such as Shiseido, Converse, Puma and Pedro, as well as local brands such as Gosto, Kujean and Bitis.

    While the defunct Lingo site’s business largely came from shoppers using desktop or laptop computers, Topmot’s traffic from mobile devices has increased 70 per cent since its launch last year.

  • 24 boats partcipating in Sail Indonesia arrive in Alor

    24 boats partcipating in Sail Indonesia arrive in Alor

    Twenty four boats of Sail Indonesia participants arrived in Alor, East Nusa Tenggara on Thursday afternoon, and will travel to a number of destinations in Alor District.

    “The Board of Alor District government and the community welcomed the Sail Indonesia participants today,” Secretary of the Department of Tourism and Creative Economy of Alor District, Adifa Yunus, told Antara before the opening of the 10th Alor Expo in Kalabahi on Tuesday.

    He said tens of participants from various countries will attend the 10th Alor Expo and undertake some cultural tourism Alor District for several days.

    “Sail Indonesia participants, who will be in Alor till August 13, will visit various tourist destinations which have natural beauty and a rich culture. They will also see some marine tourism in Pantar Strait,” he added.

    Rosemarie from Berlin, Germany, one of the participants who has been following Sail Indonesia from Darwin, Australia, observed that it was her first visit and she was deeply fascinated with the nature and culture of Alor.

    “I came for the first time with my husband on a Salmon boat from Kupang. Now I have arrived in Alor to follow the Alor Expo,” she told Antara before the opening of the 10th Alor Expo.

    During her stay in Alor, Rosemarie with her husband and other colleagues participating in the sailing event, will visit various tourist destinations in Alor and will especially try snorkeling in the Pantar Strait.

    “I have been hearing a lot from the people and the media about the underwater natural beauty of Alor and wanted to undertake snorkeling before heading off to any other place,” she informed.

    Rosemarie gushed that she was amazed with the local culture, and termed it a unique and exotic wealth.

    “This is a valuable opportunity I have got in life. Ever since I first came to Alor, I have witnessed firsthand the cultural and natural wealth that a traveler can find here,” she remarked.

    After a visit to various tourist destinations in Alor, she proceeded to Labuan Bajo, as did her other colleagues in the Sail Indonesia, to see the unique species of Komodo, called one of the wonders of the world.

    Sail Indonesia participants aboard 42 boats are currently visiting various tourist destinations in East Nusa Tenggara after they moved out of the city of Kupang. While 24 participant sail boats came to Alor, other participants are visiting various tourist destinations such as Labuan Bajo Flores, Wini in Pulau Timor and Sumba.

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  • Two more Kuala Lumpur malls opening

    Two more Kuala Lumpur malls opening

    Two Kuala Lumpur malls, collectively offering more than 2 million sqft (185,806 sqm) in net lettable area, will open in Cheras, Klang Valley, by the end of the year.

    Moreover, the MyTown Shopping Centre (below picture) and Sunway Velocity Mall (above picture) will be just 800m away from each other.

    Cheras already has the Aeon Maluri shopping centre and Cheras Leisure Mall, with The Tun Razak Exchange also on the horizon, reports The Star.

    MyTown is being developed by Boustead Ikano while Sunway Velocity Mall is a Sunway Groupproperty. MyTown will be structurally linked to Ikea Cheras, the largest outlet mall in Malaysia.
    With a population of 800,000 people, Cheras is an “ample market”, says Sunway Shopping Malls & Theme Parks CEO HC Chan.

    myTown mall Malaysia

    “Fundamentally, the real issue is the absence of lifestyle and experiential malls in Cheras – Sunway Velocity Mall fills this void. I am looking from a quality rather than a quantity perspective… we are addressing this from multiple angles.”

    Boustead Ikano GM Jo Hogsander agrees there is demand for more retail space, especially in Cheras. He says that when the MRT line opens it will ease traffic congestion and boost accessibility to the mall.

    “Game changer”

    Chan also sees the MRT as a “game changer”. “Two out of six MRT stations in Cheras will serve Sunway Velocity, which translates to a capacity of about 400,000 passengers a day.”
    He says Sunway Velocity Mall would not only compete, but also complement the MyTown Shopping Centre.

    “Competition is healthy, but in the longer term we will complement each other. Just look at the Bukit Bintang area and the number of malls there. It’s thriving because it gives consumers a choice.”
    Despite the number of malls in the Klang Valley, Hogsander says they are still crowded, even on a weekday afternoon.

    “I went to our competitors on a Thursday afternoon and couldn’t find a parking space. I then went to another competitor and had to do laps to find parking – and these are big shopping centres with more than 6000 parking bays.”

    Sunway Velocity Mall and MyTown Shopping Centre will open on October 28 and November 15 respectively, 18 days apart. Both malls boast 6500 parking bays.

    Sunway will have a NLA of 1 million sqft and accommodate 500 shops, while MyTown will have 460 stores on 1.1 million sqft of space.

    Sunway Velocity Mall’s anchor tenants include Harvey Norman, Parkson, TGV Cinemas and Toys’R’Us, while MyTown has secured such brands as Golden Screen Cinema, Mango, Uniqlo and Village Grocer.

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  • Tough road for New Look

    Tough road for New Look

    Following a robust few years of market outperformance and share gains, the start of New Look’s 2016-17 financial year is a major disappointment.

    While weakened consumer confidence and unseasonal weather dampened shopper appetite to spend on clothing & footwear, New Look has underperformed the market and lost share over the period.

    Despite a 35.5 per cent fall in underlying operating profit to £30.5 million, the retailer has continued to invest in its strategic growth areas, namely menswear and China. Menswear sales growth of 21 per cent dramatically outperformed following further rollout of the men’s standalone format. Moreover, as it builds a bigger customer following New Look is able to improve its menswear proposition via insight gained on most browsed and shopped styles and customer feedback – ensuring its collection is continually enhanced and better targeted to its core audience.

    While New Look has the opportunity to grow its share of the UK menswear market organically, given that it is a less saturated and outperforming segment of the clothing market, it should also be targeting share from rivals such as River Island, Burton, Blue Inc and Topman.

    Verdict forecasts a more challenging couple of years for the clothing market than what we had forecast back in January. While Brexit will impact spend across the home sectors more so than in clothing, the likelihood of squeezed disposable incomes, rising food & grocery prices and price inflation in clothing will restrict consumer’s ability to purchase higher volumes of discretionary clothing purchases.

    Retailers will therefore have to work that much harder to stimulate spend. However, New Look’s value positioning and go-to appeal for both essentials and fashion will put it at an advantage over some of its mid-market competitors.

  • MBK plans second community mall

    MBK plans second community mall

    Thai developer MBK plans to spend 500 to 800 million baht (US$14 to 23 million) building a community mall in Pathum Thani province next year.

    President/chief executive Suvait Theeravachirakul says the mall will be opposite Bangkradi Industrial Estate in Pathum Thani.

    It is the company’s second community mall following The Nine Center in Bangkok. The new property will occupy a corner of an MBK site where it is developing the Riverdale Golf & Country Club and the Park Riverdale townhouse project.

    It is envisaged the mall will serve residential projects inside an eight to 10 km radius, and MBK is also looking at the feasibility of developing a mix-used complex.

    Meanwhile, The Nine Center has proven successful through its differentiation from other community malls nearby, says MBK shopping centre department MD Somphol Tripopnart. Its revenue last year was 225 million baht. About 12,000 shoppers visit the centre each day and the company plans to spend 10 million baht to improve its landscaping this year.

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  • South Korean e-commerce site ‘Ticket Monster’ starts luxury car sales

    South Korean e-commerce site ‘Ticket Monster’ starts luxury car sales

    South Korea’s major e-commerce site, Ticket Monster on Monday said it has started sales of British luxury car brand Jaguar. Ticket Monster put on sales of 20 Jaguar XE Portfolios and R-Sports on Monday morning, marking them down 7 million won (US$6,317) from the regular retail prices to 48.1 million won and 46 million won, respectively. The two models were sold out in three hours, the company said.

    Ticket Monster said it could sell all of the vehicles on the first day because it offered the best available price and even promised a refund if it was not the cheapest.

    “Although new cars have been sold by overseas online shopping malls, it is the first time that a Korean e-commerce site sells new cars online,” a company official said. Consumers made a one-time payment on the website and will take over the vehicles from designated dealers or visit dealer shops, officials said. Ticket Monster said the latest move was aimed at changing customers’ expectations and leading the new trend in the highly competitive market.

    “The sales of imported cars is part of Ticket Monster’s efforts to change the retail paradigm,” Ha Sung-won, the chief operating officer of Ticket Monster, said.

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  • Politics could add to forces working against Korean cosmetics industry

    Politics could add to forces working against Korean cosmetics industry

    Last week the Korean government announced plan to impose duty free limits to stop third party sales of cosmetics in China, and now, in an unrelated move, the China government’s threats to retaliate over Korea’s deployment of new military defence technology seems to be adding to investor fears.

    Korea has taken a decision to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) battery, which some experts believe is one of the reasons why investors a dumping shares in Korean companies, a sector that is heavily reliant on exports to China.

    Raising the bar on visas and sanitary regulations

    In the first move, perceived to be a retaliatory step by China authorities, officials recently closed a visa agency catering to Koreans, something that will make it harder for Korean companies to obtain multiple entry visas for doing business in China.

    On top of this, the China trade authorities have also stepped up sanitary regulations governing Korean beauty products, a move that is also likely to put a damper on exports of certain products and make the whole process more difficult.

    “Cosmetics and entertainment stocks have plummeted as China has begun taking steps against Korean companies and individuals doing business on the mainland,” said Daniel Cho, head of research at Daishin Securities, speaking to the Korean Times.

    “The recent decline was largely engineered by the potential THAAD backlash.”

    Those duty free regulations

    Simultaneously, speculation has been growing about the impact of proposed duty free regulations, which are being drawn up to protect the industry, but some experts say this has already had an impact on investors and the value of shares in the country’s big beauty players.

    Last week the Korean customs authorities notified all Korean duty-free retail operators, which include three major operators, that each customer would be limited to buy no more than 50 cosmetic and fragrance products.

    The main objective behind the clamp down is to cut out on the emerging market for cosmetics then be sold on to third-party brokers, and then resold on to other retail channels.

    News of the limit was leaked on the previous Friday and when the Korean Stock Exchange re-opened for trading on Monday, stock prices dropped significantly, with Amore Pacific share prices falling over 2% and LG Household & Health falling 6%.

    In the last few years the rise and rise of Korean cosmetics companies has been attributed to a huge appetite from the China market, but with prices of the products being much higher in China, consumers have taken to shopping holidays in Korea to stock up.

    China drives duty-free cosmetics sales

    Sales of Korean cosmetics have been boosted by chic advertising campaigns, Korean pop and a product innovation pipeline that boasts some of the most cutting edge products available anywhere in the world.

    A large part of this success has been the huge influx of tourism from China, many of whom are going on ‘shopping holidays’ with the main aim of buying up their favourite Korean cosmetic products at a cheaper price than they would pay in China.

    Current figures show that cosmetics make up the lion’s share of Korea’s largest duty free retail chain, Lotte, accounting for 58.9% of sales in the first quarter of this year, and that 70.8% of the company’s overall sales came from Chinese visitors. This up from 63.3% compared to the previous year.

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  • Sainsbury’s taps into China’s love of British products through Tmall

    Sainsbury’s taps into China’s love of British products through Tmall

    The move comes after the British retailer trialled the web marketplace for less than a year and claimed the test was a success. It will now sell over 100 own-label products across four categories—British breakfast, drinks, organic and baby—on Tmall, and has plans to add further ranges later this year.

    With online Chinese sales dominated by key promotional sales events, Sainsbury’s was the only international retailer to be given a “Super Brand Day” on Tmall during the annual 8.8 Tmall Global Shopping Festival on August 8.

    “Many customers want to replicate tastes and occasions that they have enjoyed or heard about through international travel. Products to make a British breakfast and English afternoon tea have therefore proved hits,” said John Rogers, chief financial officer of Sainsbury’s,

    Rogers added that granola, tea, shortbread and UHT milk have been among the sales channel’s top-selling lines to date.

    “Our trial with Tmall has enabled us to learn a lot about China’s huge digital market, including the importance of sales events such as Singles’ Day and 8.8,” he added..

    “Alibaba’s expertise in the rapidly growing Chinese digital consumer market will be a huge asset to us as we grow and develop our business in China.”

    Amee Chande, Alibaba’s managing director in Britain and Ireland, said that a famous British brand like Sainsbury’s was “a key addition to our ecosystem” as it built brand awareness, directly engaged a new audience and met the evolving food demands of Chinese consumers.

    “Our collaboration is introducing the large and growing Chinese consumer class to a new range of products to enhance their daily lives,” said Chande.

     

     

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  • Hawaiki launches marine route survey for trans-Pacific cable

    Hawaiki launches marine route survey for trans-Pacific cable

    Hawaiki Cable and subsea cable provider TE SubCom have launched a marine route survey for the planned cable linking Australia and New Zealand with Hawaii and the mainland US.

    Construction of the 14,000km cable system is currently scheduled for completion in mid-2018. As well as the main route, the system will have options to expand to several South Pacific islands.

    Once complete, the Hawaiki Cable will deliver more than 30Tbps of capacity, making it the highest cross-sectional capacity link between the US and Australia/New Zealand.

    Hawaiki has already signed on AWS, Vodafone, REANZ and American Samoa Telecom as anchor customers for the new carrier-neutral cable system.

    “Each stage of this groundbreaking project is important, but after very carefully planning our trans-pacific route and conducting an extensive survey of each landing site, we are extremely pleased to launch the marine route survey, which will give us data necessary to safely and properly deploy the system in the coming months,” Hawaiki CEO Remi Galasso said.

    “The team is doing a great job; we are on time and on budget. We are confident that with our trusted supplier, TE SubCom, our cable will be delivered as planned in mid-2018, less than two years from now.”

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  • India’s spectrum mega-auction set for Sept 29

    India’s spectrum mega-auction set for Sept 29

    India’s Department of Telecom has set the date for India’s largest spectrum auction to date, announcing that bidding will commence on September 29.

    The massive auction will be preceded by a pre-bid auction on Saturday. The government has also pledged to make the spectrum available to the winners within 30 days of receiving an upfront payment.

    In total more than 2,300 MHz of spectrum divided into 126 blocks will be auctioned next month. Analysts expect bidding to reach as high as $14.8 billion, while the government believes bidding could reach up to $83 billion.

    But operators have been less than enthusiastic, with Airtel’s CEO recently announcing that the company sees no “great need” for more spectrum, and Telenor revealing that its Indian subsidiary will sit out of the auction.

    Specturum in the 700-MHz, 800-MHz, 900-MHz, 1800-MHz, 2100-MHz and 2300-MHz bands will be put on the block.

    Winners of spectrum in the three lower bands will be required to pay at least 25% of their total bid within 10 days of the auction concluding, while the other bands will require a 50% down-payment.

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  • Companies expect Olympics to strain their networks

    Companies expect Olympics to strain their networks

    The vast majority of companies (85%) plan to more closely monitor the performance of their applications and networks, including Wi-Fi, because of potential strain due to employees accessing Olympic content.

    A survey conducted by Riverbed Technology revealed that only 2% stated that they were very unlikely to monitor any differently during this the Olympics.

    The network strain in office is likely to be prevalent in Singapore, with national broadcaster Mediacorp only being able to air delayed telecasts of the Olympics due to broadcasting rights.

    “The time zone difference mean that finals will be aired during working hours, and with no live telecast in Singapore, sports fans are likely to turn to live streaming to cheer on Team Singapore – on company networks. IT organizations need to come together and prepare for the significant increase in network traffic that will occur as a result of employees streaming and accessing online content,” said Bjorn Engelhardt, SVP, Riverbed, Asia Pacific and Japan.

    Companies expected employees to access Olympic content using the company’s networks, including Wi-Fi, most frequently via their desktops and laptops (48%); followed by smartphones (34%); and then tablets or other non-smartphone devices (18%).

    The reason for monitoring employees’ access to Olympic content could potentially be linked to companies being unable to quickly pinpoint and resolve performance issues of critical business applications:  Less than half of the companies surveyed, 43%, were very confident that their organizations could safeguard critical applications during high network traffic events such as the Olympics, while 12% were not confident that their companies could handle the added strain and traffic.

    In one of the most revealing statistics, companies were asked if they’ve had an issue, even once, with their networks, including Wi-Fi, specifically because employees were accessing content during a popular event such as the Olympics. The majority of companies responded yes (69%), with 30% of these same companies saying that they have experienced more than one episode of issues. The survey also found that the majority (70%) of companies said they would limit or probably limit employees from accessing Olympic content through company networks, including Wi-Fi, in some way, with 24% saying they will definitely limit content and 46% saying they would probably limit content.

    “The results of the survey highlight how popular events such as the Olympics and the impact of BYOD are affecting companies and the need for greater visibility to safeguard networks and business critical applications. IT must take a proactive approach to managing application performance with end-to-end visibility across the network from the server to the end user,” said Engelhardt.

  • Opera ramps up video multitasking for computers

    Opera ramps up video multitasking for computers

    Opera has updated its software for computers, revamping the video pop out feature to enable users to continue watching while working, playing or doing research — in the browser or any other program.

    The “picture in picture” feature now lets users pop out video from even more websites, including Vimeo, and play/pause with a single click. There is also an option to disable the feature, for those who do not need it.

    Users can simply go to a favorite video page, such as YouTube, and run a video. They will see an icon in the middle of the top border of the video. By clicking on it, they can pop out the video and continue watching it even while using other programs on their computer.

    Opera took a deeper look into how people multitask while watching with the video pop out feature in different geographies. The results of this research show the geography of online video preferences around the globe.

    Results are based on aggregated data coming from users of Opera 38 for computers. Data on the individual level or about video content is not collected.

    The top-10 countries for video pop out usage span four different continents, clearly showing that the online video boom is a global phenomenon. It’s also interesting to see that people in some countries – such as Italy, UK and Germany – multitask with video more on weekends, while others, such as China, spend more time watching pop out videos during working days.

    videopopout-infographic-630

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  • AsiaSat, Digital Magic to create UHD content

    AsiaSat, Digital Magic to create UHD content

    Asia Satellite Telecommunications (AsiaSat) is collaborating with Digital Magic, a provider of advanced imaging solutions to co-produce UltraHD (UHD) content for AsiaSat’s UHD channel 4K-SAT, on AsiaSat 4.

    The co-production includes a knowledge-based UHD mini-series on satellite communications to provide an easy-to-understand introduction to topics such as how a satellite works, how it serves people and how it is used in broadcasting high quality content.

    “Compelling content is the key to drive UHD viewership. Creating original content is the first step of our collaboration with Digital Magic,” said Sabrina Cubbon, VP of marketing and global accounts of AsiaSat.

    “Digital Magic is an industry renowned content producer in UHD and VR. We look forward to developing more together for our audience in Asia,” said Cubbon.

    Percy Fung, production director of Digital Magic said initial content viewing among youth has suggested that this is a meaningful attempt to broaden public interest and knowledge in space and communications.

    “We are delighted to partner with AsiaSat, Asia’s UHD satellite broadcasting pioneer to create original, insightful content to educate and inform our viewers in the region,” said Fung.

    AsiaSat’s 4K-SAT channel is currently broadcasting a variety of full UHD content. Major TV operators in the Asia-Pacific have access to it via AsiaSat 4.

  • Singtel Group cues video tilt for regions

    Singtel Group cues video tilt for regions

    Singtel Group has launched “The 5-Min Video Challenge” a joint initiative by associates within the group, comprising Singtel, Optus, AIS, Airtel, Globe and Telkomsel.

    Winning content will be distributed and made accessible to over 600 million customers across the group.

    The short five-minute format is ideal for audiences accustomed to viewing content on mobile devices.

    “A pan-regional competition makes a lot of sense as the power of content is its ability to transcend geographical and language barriers,” said Mark Chong, CEO, International, at Singtel. “Our customers will be able to enjoy access to a rich variety of original content created by the most talented content-makers from the region.”

    The competition will be conducted at two levels – local and regional. Each associate will first invite aspiring or experienced local filmmakers to submit five-minute entries based on the theme “Connecting Lives”.

    The entries will be judged on criteria such as originality of content, storytelling and cinematography. Winning entries from the respective associates’ markets will then be judged at a regional level.

    The grand winner and runner-up will be announced at the grand finals, which will be held in Bangkok, on November 21. Cash prizes of $30,000 and $15,000 will be awarded to the grand winner and runner-up respectively.

    The regional winners will also get the opportunity to promote their videos on each associate’s mobile and video platforms to customers in the group’s markets across Asia, Africa and Australia.

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  • BlackBerry launches BlackBerry Hub+ for Android

    BlackBerry launches BlackBerry Hub+ for Android

    BlackBerry has launched a software licensing program for its Mobility Solutions business. The vendor has introduced the BlackBerry Hub+ for Android 6.0 Marshmallow smartphones.

    The company’s Mobility Solutions unit manages the BlackBerry smartphone business and development of device software offerings that includes making BlackBerry 10 software features accessible on other platforms.

    BlackBerry Hub+ for Android is a suite of applications that includes the BlackBerry Hub, calendar, contacts, notes, tasks, device search, launcher and password keeper applications for Android smartphones.

    Key features include a unified inbox (Hub), calendar, Password Keeper, Contacts, Tasks, Device Search, Notes, and Launcher.

    The vendor is offering the hub as a free trial on any Android device running 6.0 Marshmallow, and will subsequrently offer the applications for free under an ad-supported model or ad-free for 99 cents per month with the addition of new features.

    “An important initiative of the Mobility Solutions unit is a software strategy that combines BlackBerry’s strength in security, engineering savvy and device experience. The result – the ability to extend the best of BlackBerry’s secure communications and productivity features to any Android M consumer, enterprise or government customer,” said Ralph Pini, Chief Operating Officer and General Manager, Mobility Solutions, BlackBerry.

    “Our customers have always raved about the unique experience of our proprietary productivity apps such as the BlackBerry Hub, calendar and contacts, amongst others. I’m excited that we’re now able to offer these amazing features to all Android users that demand the most out of their smartphones.”

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