Retail News CRM

Author: Mei Ling Tan

  • New ambassador sings praises of Gucci Asia

    New ambassador sings praises of Gucci Asia

    Chinese actress/singer Chris Lee is Gucci Asia’s new ambassador for timepieces and jewellery.

    The fashion giant says Lee was chosen for her personal style, which is in “absolute harmony” with Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele’s philosophy of self-expression.

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    “I have been captivated by Michele’s collections since he became creative director as they are original and joyful,” says Lee.

    For her first official photoshoot, the celebrity wore items from Gucci’s fine timepieces and jewellery collections. For watches, she modelled the GG2570, named in homage to Michele’s lucky number (25) and Gucci’s hallmark decade, the ’70s. She also wore the G-Timeless automatic, which features decorative bees, a heart and stars on the dial.

    For jewellery, Lee promoted pieces from the Icon Fine Jewellery Collection, including rings, bangles and a matching pendant chain necklace in 18-karat pink gold and white enamel. In an update, small flower and leaf motifs have been added to Icon’s engraved “G” motif.

    Gucci says the campaign launches across Asia this month.

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  • Weather dampens Mothercare sales

    Weather dampens Mothercare sales

    Baby care specialist retailer Mothercare has reported a reasonable set of results for its Q1 trading, with UK sales declining by 2.1 per cent, reflecting an unsuccessful battle against unseasonable weather conditions.

    UK like-for-like Mothercare sales were up by 1.2 per cent, although this represents a slight slowdown on growth, impacted by a reduction of store space.

    As Mothercare continues to focus on its turnaround, it must establish a loyal customer base, appealing to all ages through social media engagement and exemplary customer service. As part of this turnaround, Mothercare continued its refurbishment of stores this quarter, with this a key component of its modernisation plan to improve the customer shopping experience, and ultimately entice young mothers back to its stores.

    Mothercare is also working to improve its online proposition as part of its aim of becoming a ‘digitally led business’. Over the quarter, online sales grew by 6.4 per cent, while mobile now represents 84 per cent of online traffic.  Innovation of its app is proving to be highly successful, with additions to differentiate it from the mobile site, such as Baby Tunes (songs and white noise for babies), helping to create a more interactive experience.

    International exposure remains volatile, although sales were strengthened this quarter by the timing of Ramadan, which fell entirely in Q1 this year. In spite of this impressive growth, Mothercare must remain cautious in light of the UK’s decision to leave the EU, with this development likely to impact trading globally. Hedging in both the dollar and royalty receipts should limit the impact on the weakening of the pound, allowing Mothercare to see further sustained growth this financial year.

  • First Superdry China stores set to open

    First Superdry China stores set to open

    The first Superdry China stores are set to open in what a commentator describes as a core future market for parent SuperGroup.

    Nivindya Sharma, a senior analyst at Verdict Retail, says the brand’s international expansion strategy will now focus on “two key, but notoriously difficult, markets – the US and China” in the current financial year.

    “Superdry will open its first trial stores in China in 2016 and five in the US as it experiments with different store formats. Its relatively cautious approach to store rollout, and focus on eCommerce as a route to developing brand awareness and understanding local customer behaviour should serve it well,” said Sharma.

    News of its summer debut in China came amid an impressive full-year result: SuperGroup sales rose 21.3 per cent to £590.1 million, aided by its collaboration with British Hollywood star Idris Elba. Underlying pre-tax profit rose 16.3 per cent to £73.5 million.

    “Against a bleak background of stalling sales from major high street players such as Next and Primark, SuperGroup posted a stellar set of full-year results with strong growth across both its retail and wholesale divisions,” said Sharma.

    “No doubt, the net 24 stores the retailer opened during the year were major contributors to its FY results, but robust like-for-like growth indicates consumer demand remains strong for Superdry’s distinctive product.”

    Womenswear was the strongest growing category for the year, reflecting the push Superdry has made to broaden womenswear ranges and merchandise them more prominently in-store and online.

    “The brand is focused on developing its presence in womenswear, especially as it experiments with new concept stores in the UK that give more space to women’s ranges, and focus on enhancing the shopping experience using knowledge from its customer insight program,” said Sharma.

    “However, to truly make a mark in the UK’s highly competitive womenswear market, Superdry will have to consider how best it can soften and translate its male-centric brand image to appeal to female consumers.”

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  • Bidding disappoints McDonald’s Corporation

    Bidding disappoints McDonald’s Corporation

    McDonald’s Corporation says it is struggling to attract the calibre of bidders it envisioned when it put its China and Hong Kong franchise up for tender.

    The restaurant group is offering a 20-year master franchisees for its markets in China, Hong Kong and South Korea. Bidding has gone into its second round and predictions are the deal could be worth US$2 billion to $3 billion.

    Conditions include McDonald’s keeping management intact for two years, with a limitation on taking the franchise public. Other restrictions have reportedly discouraged many private-equity firms from participating in the bidding.

    Global buyout firms such as Bain Capital, Carlyle Group and TPG Capital have put up their hands with the aim of teaming up with some of the Chinese strategic bidders.

    Bidders asked to submit for the second round of the tender include dairy company Beijing Sanyuan Foods, Beijing Tourism Group, ChemChina, state-owned China Cinda Asset Management and Sanpower.

    McDonald’s share price has surged more than 23 per cent since CEO Steve Easterbrook launched a turnaround effort. The plan for Asia comprises one or more local partners taking over the China and Hong Kong franchise of 2800 stores for 20 years while paying royalties to the corporation.

    However, many investors are anxious following the food scandal that hit McDonald’s sales in 2014, reports BFN.

    Meanwhile, McDonald’s last year announced plans to sell its business in Taiwan plus a substantial ownership stake in Japan, but as yet investors have yet to be secured. “We are making solid progress as we look for long-term strategic partners with local relevance who have complementary skills and expertise,” says a company spokesperson.

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  • Alibaba Group opening VR shop

    Alibaba Group opening VR shop

    Chinese eCommerce giant Alibaba Group Holding plans to open a virtual-reality technology (VR) demonstration shop this month, with the technology to roll out by the end of the year.

    Its VR product is designed for online shopping. Alibaba’s 400 million customers will have their buying experience enhanced by wearing a VR helmet or glasses designed to simulate being in a physical store.

    At a media briefing in Shanghai, an Alibaba representative wearing a Vive VR helmet from HTC Corp of Taiwan showed how a shopper could tour a three-dimensional digital store.

    The demonstration showed a robotic store associate talking to the visitor and recommending new products.

    Shoppers can rotate products they see in the virtual store by moving a controller connected to the helmet, and even ask for a model to show how the product works or is worn. Users can also use the controller to click the buy button.

    “VR is a great way to demonstrate products or services, especially for such categories as furniture and travel products,” says Alibaba senior director of mobile Zhuang Zhuoran.

    Alibaba set up its Gnome Magic Lab in March to develop software to enable merchants to build virtual stores. While costs are high to convert a real product to its digital, three-dimensional equivalent (about $50), the company hopes to be able to reduce this to about $1.

    VR gear ranges in price from $20 to $1000, and consumers buy 300,000 VR units on Alibaba’s Chinese online marketplaces each month, says the group.

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  • KDDI taps Gemalto for connected cars and IoT

    KDDI taps Gemalto for connected cars and IoT

    Japan’s KDDI has selected Gemalto to provide the platform to enable secure connectivity for connected cars and IoT applications worldwide.

    Gemalto will provide its LinqUs On-Demand Connectivity (ODC) subscription management solution and embedded SIMs (eSIMs) to the operator.

    As a result, KDDI can expect to provision any requested operator’s profile on connected cars equipped with pre-embedded eSIM.

    Motorists can access optimized real-time information about traffic and nearby amenities, navigation, vehicle diagnostics, and emergency services, anytime, anywhere.

    Gartner forecasts that by 2020, there will be around 250 million vehicles on the road with some form of wireless connectivity, making connected cars a major element of the Internet of Things. The lack of flexible and interoperable remote subscription management is a major challenge in deploying IoT.

    Gemalto’s solution, based on global GSMA specifications, is designed to simplify logistics for OEMs.

    “Gemalto’s solution is based on interoperable GSMA standards, and will provide a common and consistent way to connect devices in the future,” said Keiichi Mori, executive officer and general manager of KDDI’s IoT business development division.

    “With long-lasting relationships with over 500 mobile operators worldwide and a strong local presence, they can help us expand our services to other IoT applications, to obtain rapid growth in the connected world.”

    Michael Au, Gemalto president for South Asia and Japan, said IoT is increasingly turning connected cars into powerful hubs for value-added services such as infotainment, real-time vehicle telematics, and usage-based insurance, offering plenty of opportunities to OEMs and service providers.

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  • NEC sets up open-source software center

    NEC sets up open-source software center

    NEC in Japan and NEC Technologies India have established the “OSS Technology Center,” an organization specializing in technical support related to the use of open source software (OSS).

    The new organization began operations July 1, with approximately 50 staff based out of NTI, consisting of experienced OSS engineers who are well-versed in OSS solution architecture, as well as essential software development and support capabilities.

    The OSS Technology Center aims to strengthen the organizational structure for supporting global enterprises in building systems based on OSS, to reinforce collaboration with international OSS vendors and to provide rapid technical support to users who construct systems operated globally using OSS.

    Moreover, the new organization will actively carry out development of new network functions related to Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and application platform functions, such as container and Platform as a Service (PaaS).

    All of these are part of the OSS Technology Centre’s OpenStack-based development activities, in addition to its contributions to making source codes openly available by providing them to the OSS community.

    In recent years, the need for enterprises to capitalize on OSS, particularly OpenStack, in cloud computing, big data computing and SDN/NFV, has become increasingly pronounced.

    Also, in terms of next-generation ICT technologies, there are heightened expectations towards OSS applications in areas related to Systems of Engagement (SoE) and Internet of Things (IoT).

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  • Citilink to Open New Hong Kong-Manado Route

    Citilink to Open New Hong Kong-Manado Route

    Citilink, the low-cost arm of national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, is set to open a new route from Hong Kong to Manado in North Sulawesi in a bid to lure Chinese tourists to the archipelago.

    Citilink Indonesia commercial president director Hans Nugroho said Manado was one of Indonesia’s most popular destinations among Chinese tourists besides Bali and Raja Ampat in West Papua.

    “Manado has become famous as a diving destination. Hopefully the new route will afford foreign tourists easier access to Indonesia,” said Hans.

    Using an Airbus A320 for its maiden flight on the new route, Citilink is slated to carry 180 tourists from Hong Kong to Manado on Tuesday. Hans estimated that the carrier would be able to accommodate up to 3,000 passengers until the end of August.

    According to Tourism Ministry data, the number of foreign visitors to Indonesia reached 915,200 in May, 12.6 percent of whom came from China.

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  • MoneyGram Inks Deal with Arsema, Expands to Indonesia

    MoneyGram Inks Deal with Arsema, Expands to Indonesia

    MoneyGram recently announced that its Indonesian subsidiary PT MoneyGram Payments System has inked a long-term deal with Indonesian remittance company Arsema. Per the agreement, Arsema would channel MoneyGram’s money transfer services at all post offices of Indonesia. The services would start from Central Java and Bali region.

    MoneyGram strives to provide secure money transfer services to its customers and the deal with Arsema will further help the company in its efforts. This collaboration will also expand MoneyGram’s reach across Indonesia. Also, the aforesaid deal will facilitate operation to serve customers better with faster and more convenient offerings.

    The overall process has become much easier and can be completed in a few simple steps. Customers can now simply visit any MoneyGram agent location and start transferring and receiving funds after filling up and submitting a form and displaying a photo identification proof. The funds can be ready for collection is Depending on agent’s operating hours and regulatory requirements, the transactions can be made within 10 minutes or less.

    Apart from strengthening its presence in high-growth potential markets, MoneyGram has forayed into several unexplored and underdeveloped global markets. The company has also been expanding in markets that offer high growth potential. Per the World Bank report, remittances worth $9.6 billion flowed into Indonesia in Apr 2016. We expect the latest deal to help the company capitalize on the opportunity, which in turn, should add to its top line going forward.

  • Batam to continue cooperation with Yokohama

    Batam to continue cooperation with Yokohama

    The Batam city government said it will continue cooperation, which began last year, with the Japanese city of Yokohama.

    Batam city mayor Muhammad Rudi said the cooperation would be continued as the cooperation has been a success thanks to assistance from the Yokohama city administration.

    “The assistance includes how Batam could reduce carbon gas emission and economize on power. At the airport and government hospital, power consumption could be saves by 30 percent,” Rudi cited.

    He said Batam also hopes that the Yokohama city administration to provide assistance in the form of technology needed for Batam development.

    “In seeking to reduce carbon gas emissions, denuded forests are a problem, therefore wee need more assistance to cope with the problem,” he said.

    “We are grateful with the equipment but we also need technology to use the technology products,” he said.

    Director of the Development Cooperation Department of Yokohama, Toru Hashimoto said Batam is the fourth city in ASEAN with which Yokohama cooperates.

    The three other cities are Da Nang of Vietnam, Bangkok of Thailand, and Cebu of the Philippines.

    Through the cooperation, Batam is expected to grow to be like Yokohama to become a smart city, Toru said.

    “Batam and Yokohama are equally good. In November we will have a seminar on Asia Smart City in Yokohama. We hope the mayor and deputy mayor would attend the seminar,” he said.

  • Over six million tourists visit Indonesia

    Over six million tourists visit Indonesia

    Some six million foreign tourists visited Indonesia since the issuance of presidential regulation number 21 of 2016 concerning visa-free facilities for foreign citizens from 169 countries, an official said.

    While 4,095,264 tourists came from 15 countries which have reciprocal agreements with Indonesia, 2,881,945 tourists came from 144 countries without any such pact with Indonesia, chief of the public relations services of the directorate general of immigration, Heru Santoso, elaborated at a meeting with journalists here on Friday.

    “Admittedly, the figure is still far from the government-set target of 20 million tourists per year, but I believe it will further increase in the future,” he stated.

    He noted that no tourists visited from 10 countries in this list of 169 countries. These ten countries are Antigua and Barbuda, Burundi, Czech Republic, Gabon, Haiti, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Lesotho, Puerto Rico and Saint Lucia.

    “I think the promotion campaign still needs to be intensified,” he added.

    The directorate general of immigration also handled 135 criminal cases (pro justitia) in the first half of 2016, he said, adding at least three foreign nationals were involved in the cases.

    “They committed immigration related crimes. In 2015, five foreign nationals were involved in such cases,” he informed.

    The office also recorded 4,715 cases of immigration administration violation in the January-June 2016 period. The cases involved 117 citizens from countries eligible for visa-free facilities, he disclosed.

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  • Sriwijaya Air to open Manado-China flight route

    Sriwijaya Air to open Manado-China flight route

    Sriwijaya Air is planning to open the Manado-China direct flight route at the end of this year to cater to the increasing number of Chinese tourists traveling to North Sulawesi.

    Sriwijaya Air’s move is aimed at benefiting from the opportunity as it will have a positive impact on the regional economy, its district manager for Manado, Achmad Trenggono, said here on Friday.

    The plan to open more flight routes from and to the North Sulawesi provincial capital of Manado will have a multiplier effect, he added.

    “We are ready to support the North Sulawesi provincial governments efforts by encouraging the tourism sector,” he stressed.

    He believed that if the tourism sector is developed properly, it will have a massive impact on other sectors in the province.

    The general manager of the state airport operator of Sam Ratulangi (Samrat) international airport, Halendra Waworuntu, pointed out that his side is prepared to help the airline company open new flight routes from Manado to destinations across the world.

    “Only chartered planes have served international flights from Manado so far,” he informed.

    He underlined that the plan to open the Manado-China flight route will have a bright prospect because the province has a large potential to develop its economy.

  • Embassy promotes trade expo Indonesia in Senegal

    Embassy promotes trade expo Indonesia in Senegal

    The Indonesian Embassy in Dakar, Senegal, has held a business meeting with Senegalese businessmen to promote various mainstay products and the 31st Trade Expo Indonesia (TEI) to be held in Jakarta on October 12-16, 2016.

    The business meeting was attended by Senegalese businesspersons who have been doing business with their Indonesian counterparts.

    Secretary general of the Senegalese national chamber of commerce and industry Ndeye Seye, Dakar chamber of commerce and industry secretary general Aly Mboub, Poultrade CEO Washimp Obalah and Libellule CEO Gaelle Rispal attended the meeting.

    It was also attended by Senegalese businessmen in Thies who have visited the TEI organized in previous years.

    Indonesian Ambassador to Senegal Mansyur Pangeran said here on Sunday that the relations between Indonesia and Senegal, particularly in the business field, have been running well since long ago.

    However, their bilateral trade was still low, recorded at US$89.37 million only in 2015.

    The Indonesian embassy promoted various mainstay products during the meeting such as oil palm, cocoa, rubber, cinnamon and textile.

    During the meeting, Senegalese businessmen asked information regarding the types of products, prices, container transportation services, payment mechanism and sharia banks in Indonesia.

    Poultrade is interested in developing business with Indonesia for soap noodles. It is planning toimport 300-500 tons of the product from Indonesia per month.

    The ambassador said Indonesias free-visa policy was also hailed by Senegalese businesses and it is likely that more Senegalese businesses will take part in the 31st TEI.

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  • Finance ministry believes 2017 growth will be better

    Finance ministry believes 2017 growth will be better

    The Indonesian economy will grow at a faster pace in 2017 than it did in 2016, the Ministry of Finance believes.

    “I believe the economic growth next year will be higher than that of this year,” chief of the ministrys fiscal policy body, Suahasil Nazara, said at a meeting of the working committee of the House of Representatives (DPR) Budget Body here Wednesday.

    Economic growth in the past five years has tended to slow down as internal upheaval and global pressure had slightly affected the national economic performance, he noted.

    The economic slowdown is expected to reach its peak this year after the government issued a series of fiscal policies, the first since 2015, aimed at boosting the national economy, he said.

    “The fiscal policies are aimed at spurring economic growth. This way we encourage tax receipts and divert expenditures to more productive infrastructure projects from non-productive infrastructure projects and cut fuel subsidies. All of these will lead to higher growth,” he added.

    The country began to see the result of the fiscal policies when economic growth was recorded at 4.8 percent in 2015 and 4.92 percent in the first quarter of 2016, he said.

    “In view of that, the assumed economic growth for 2016 is set at 5.2 percent as compared to 4.8 percent in 2015. Since the first quarter of 2016, the economic growth has reached 4.9 percent. We believe the turning point has been visible but it takes time to increase,” he said.

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  • Hyderabad Duty Free keeps on running various promotional campaigns at Hyderabad Airport

    Hyderabad Duty Free keeps on running various promotional campaigns at Hyderabad Airport

    Hyderabad Duty Free (HDF), a 100% subsidiary of GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd. (GHIAL), in collaboration with DIAGEO group gave away the bumper prize of a Mahindra TUV 300 to Mr. Surya Pathapati, a frequent flyer from Hyderabad Airport. This was the part of the “Johnnie Walker Rewards You” promotional campaign organized at Hyderabad Duty Free.

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    Visible in the picture are: Mr. SGK Kishore, Chairman, Hyderabad Duty Free Retail Limited (Sixth from Left) along with the relatives of the prize winner and key dignitaries of HDF and GHIAL. To participate in this mega promotion, flyers had to purchase a Johnnie Walker (JW) product in one transaction valued at $50 and above. This entitled the participants to receive a coupon / entry card. At the end of the promotional event, a winner was chosen in a lucky draw.

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