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Retail News Asia is committed to providing both local and global retailers with the latest Research throughout the Asian market. This on a daily base.

  • South Korean beauty firms flourish as hopes rise of end to China sanctions

    South Korean beauty firms flourish as hopes rise of end to China sanctions

    Stocks of major South Korean cosmetics and duty-free operators traded higher yesterday amid hopes that China may lift its retaliatory economic measures underway for years against Seoul’s decision to deploy a US anti-missile system there.

    AmorePacific, the country’s largest cosmetics maker, closed at 232,000 won (US$200), up 5.22 percent from the previous session’s close, after touching as high as 236,000 won, the highest mark since April 24 last year.

    Shares in LG Household & Health Care, the second-largest homegrown beauty giant, finished at 1,404,000 won, up 4.54 percent from the earlier session’s close, after touching 1,425,000 won, the highest since April 30.

    “We are expecting a gradual recovery of the cosmetics sector, with signs of growth in the Chinese high-end cosmetics market,” said Na Eun-chae, an analyst at Korea Investment & Securities.

    “In the past two to three years, Sulwhasoo and Hera have expanded retail and marketing in China,” referring to two of AmorePacific’s premium brands.

    Na expected AmorePacific’s sales in 2020 to rise 10.5 percent to 6.2 trillion won and the firm’s operating profit to soar 31.1 percent to 586 billion won.

    KTB Investment & Securities analyst Bae Song-yi estimated the beauty product maker’s yearly sales to grow 9.4 percent to 6.1 trillion won and its annual operating profit to gain 29 percent to 583 billion won.

    With an expected rise in demand from Chinese travelers, South Korean duty-free operators also continued to build up gains.

    Shinsegae, a major duty-free operator, closed up 4.58 percent at 262,500 won, after rising to a yearly high of 265,500 won.

    Lotte Shopping, another major duty-free operator, also advanced 5.06 percent to a yearly high of 135,000 won from the previous session’s close.

    The advance in cosmetics and retailer stocks was fuelled largely by rising speculation that Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Seoul as early as March and move to relieve economic sanctions that have been hurting China-exposed companies.

    Last week, South Korean President Moon Jae-in struck an upbeat note on Seoul’s relationship with Beijing in his address for the New Year, saying Xi and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang are scheduled to visit South Korea this year.

    South Korea’s cosmetics industry had enjoyed robust growth until 2016, helped by “hallyu,” or the Korean Wave, referring to the growing popularity of Korean pop culture abroad.

    Exports of South Korean goods to China, its largest buyer, have shrunk drastically since 2017 as the Chinese government imposed economic sanctions over Seoul’s deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.

    In its latest sign of sanctions easing, a 5000-strong incentive-travel group from a Chinese health food company visited South Korea last week, marking the largest incentive travel by a company since 2017.

    The number of inbound visitors to South Korea reached the 17.25 million mark last year, surpassing the previous annual record of 17.24 million set in 2016.

  • Indonesian retail sales growth slower as expected

    Indonesian retail sales growth slower as expected

    Indonesian retail sales growth in November slowed to 1.3 percent year-on-year, well below October’s rate of 3.6 percent.

    However, the figures, released by Bank Indonesia, reflect the continuing uptick in Indonesian retail sales which has now lasted five consecutive months.

    “Retail sales continued to grow positively in November,” wrote the central bank in a statement, “although it slowed compared to sales in the previous month”.

    Indonesia retail sales growth is expected to slow in the coming months, however, with declines recorded in several metropolitan areas surveyed – a harbinger of growth expected for December.

    Sales declined in the cities are projected to flow on from the estimated contractions of 9.4 percent and 4.8 percent over the previous period.

    The bank’s survey revealed respondents believe retail sales will decline over the next quarter.

  • Live streaming becomes a growing livelihood in Vietnam

    Live streaming becomes a growing livelihood in Vietnam

    Broadcasting video games and selling goods using live-streaming is now a real profession in Vietnam, where a tech-savvy population lives and breathes social media. Pham Thanh Nam has been “shooting” people for a living for the last five years, not in real life, but in a game, he broadcasts to thousands of viewers every day.

    Nam, or Nam Blue, one of the most popular Vietnamese streamers of the first-person shooting game PUBG, broadcast his games on Facebook for six hours a day, and now has 1.5 million followers.

    The 29-year-old who has given up his business to focus entirely on streaming says: “A decade ago most Vietnamese would have said gaming has no future, but game streaming is now a job. Many people and I take seriously.”

    Industry insiders say top streamers in Vietnam earn thousands of dollars a month from followers’ donations and ads. Many companies, seeing the rising popularity of game streaming, are now paying streamers to promote their products to young consumers.

    This makes Nam one of an increasing number of Vietnamese choosing streaming as their profession amid the country’s increasing Internet penetration and e-commerce growth.

    Broadcasting games and selling products are currently the two most popular streaming jobs. Bre Miller, a product design manager at Facebook, said in June 2019 that Vietnam has among the largest number of people in the world watching live game streams.

    Last year Vietnam had 15 million esports players and 5.2 million people who regularly watched esports streams, according to digital platform developer Appota.

    Industry insiders estimate there are thousands of Vietnamese streaming games on Facebook, thanks to the rising interest in competitive gaming.

    Each of Nam’s streaming sessions gets around 500,000 views and a peak of two million. Nam’s followers surged 2.5-fold in just over a year.

    He also manages a group of 12 other streamers. His audience comprises mostly of males aged 24-35. They could become a supporter of his page by paying VND47,000 ($2) a month in return for exclusive content.

    This rising popularity of game streaming in Vietnam is aligned with the global trend. On Facebook Gaming, the streaming time grew by 210 percent last year to 356 million hours, according to live-stream production tool provider StreamElements.

    Dang Thai Son, marketing director of Appota, said the increasing popularity of live streaming and esports among young Vietnamese means they could gradually replace traditional forms of entertainment.

    Live shopping

    Commercial streaming is also gaining traction among Vietnamese shoppers.

    Hong Quan visits a fashion store in Hanoi’s Thanh Xuan District every day, not to shop for clothes, but to film them with a phone camera and stream the images to thousands of viewers.

    Since he constantly appears in the shop’s live videos and even offers discounts, the 20-year-old university student could be mistaken for the shop owner thought he is only hired to host live Facebook videos to market the goods.

    Quan, who has been doing this job for almost a year, says: “Streaming is not a usual job for most people, but I take it seriously. It offers good pay with short working time for a student like me.”

    On the Facebook news feed, a user can find dozens of live videos in which a variety of products like clothes, footwear, sunglasses, watches, and skin care products are presented, often by a host wearing an attractive outfit and with an enthusiastic and fun attitude.

    Sellers could appear on the stream themselves, or hire someone like Quan to sell the products for two or three sessions a day, each last 90-120 minutes.

    Quan is paid VND300,000 ($13) per session, but he is usually hired for the whole month for VND10 million ($434), which includes a commission on orders, the same amount an office employee might earn.

    “I could get shop owners 20-30 orders per session, adding to their revenues from the brick-and-mortar store.”

    Since Facebook introduced its live streaming feature in 2016 small businesses in Vietnam have been taking advantage of it to promote their products just like in China and Thailand.

    Vietnam ranks seventh in the world in the number of Facebook users, 58 million, according to U.K. advertising agency We Are Social.

    It accounted for 30.9 percent of e-commerce web traffic in Southeast Asia in the third quarter of 2019, second only to Indonesia, according to Malaysian market researcher iPrice Group.

    All this means small businesses can use live streams to reach new buyers and even as their main selling channel since it saves them the cost of listing on large e-commerce websites or buying expensive target ads.

    A streamer only needs a smartphone and a good Internet connection to do the job. Advanced streamers could buy a lighting kit to better showcase products. Once the streamer has ended the session, sales staff start making phone calls to customers to confirm orders.

    While setting up a stream is simple, doing it well takes great skill and effort. Thao Sang, a senior college student in Ho Chi Minh City who sells clothes, often has to talk non-stop for three hours to keep her audience interested.

    “There were times when I lost my voice or got sick after sessions.”

    Besides, there is pressure to achieve sales targets while women streamers say they have to suffer sexual and abusive comments to earn a salary of VND200,000-300,000 ($9-13) for a 90-minute session.

    But all the effort is worth it when customers place orders. Mai Hoa of Hanoi, an avid Facebook user, has in recent months been watching four or five live streams a day from her favorite shops to find clothes and accessories.

    Last month the 25-year-old received a 30 percent discount on a skin lotion and lipsticks for just sharing the stream with three public groups.

    “It took me less than a minute to place the order, and I received exactly what I wanted three days later. The physical shop was in Saigon, but it was also beneath my fingertips.”

    Buyers say real-time interaction is what they like most about live streams, as they can ask questions or make suggestions by just typing a comment instead of having to wait for hours or days after sending a message to an inbox.

    The engagement also benefits sellers since they can ask their audience to share the stream with friends and groups to increase their reach. Streamers often reward sharers with discounts or limited products, and can thus attract 250,000 views and 20,000 comments in a session.

    Communications expert Nguyen Ngoc Long says streaming has become trendy because Facebook prioritizes live streams more than texts and regular videos, and sellers love this because they can reach more people.

    Some companies have been using celebrities and social media influencers to promote their products on live streams.

    Even Singapore-based shopping giant Lazada has been using the live streaming feature since 2017. Its app has a LazLive section for Vietnamese sellers to promote their products.

    Long says, “Live streaming will continue to be popular in Vietnam for the next five to 10 years.”

  • Malware costs Vietnam $900 mln

    Malware costs Vietnam $900 mln

    Malware caused Vietnamese users damage worth VND20.89 trillion ($900.8 million) last year, up 40 percent year-on-year.

    The surge came with the rising number of computers contaminated with malware from advanced persistent threats (APT), according to a report released Thursday by Vietnam’s cybersecurity firm BKAV.

    The number of computers infected with malware rose 3.5 percent year-on-year to 85.2 million in 2019. This means 57.7 percent of computers nationwide were infected.

    Increasing virus infections occurred via email, from 4 percent of the 2018 total to 20 percent last year.

    Another reason for the high contamination is Vietnamese users’ habit of downloading files without checking the authenticity. Eight out of 10 computers were infected with malware because of this behavior, the report stated.

    Rising threats resulted in 1.8 million computers losing data last year, up 12 percent from 2018.

    A large-scale foreign attack last year saw the hack of devices via manipulation of weak passwords.

    The attack caused 420,000 computers to be infected with dangerous W32. Fileless malware, which BKAV experts say have “invisibility” as it does not leave behind traces on hardware like other malware.

    BKAV forecast malware would become increasingly dangerous this year as hackers use them for financial benefits, like accessing bank accounts.

  • Digital innovation driving change in beauty-care retailing

    Digital innovation driving change in beauty-care retailing

    During the recent Singles’ Day sales, more than 1 million orders were placed and processed through voice command via Alibaba’s Tmall Genie.

    What do such observations mean for beauty-care retailing? Besides increasing digital savviness, the adoption of voice command is one of many examples of how the line between the offline and online experience is almost seamless. In the case of beauty-care products for example, we know that the success of the product is dependent on the user’s offline experience and how they share that experience online. As such, it is even more important for retailers to keep up with changing consumer buying preferences and apply new ways of retailing across offline and online platforms. This means giving our consumers the options to buy products online, in-store, or even via voice command on e-commerce channels.

    When we speak about user experience, there is an element of exploration and discovery. The online space levels the playing field and is fast becoming a platform where new brands and products can suddenly skyrocket into prominence as the next best thing in beauty care. Digital innovation is also influencing the way retailers interact with consumers. For example, the concept of the “capsule wardrobe” has influenced the way consumers select their clothes, by choosing quality over fast fashion. In beauty care, we see concepts like “bare-faced”, “self-love”, and Schwarzkopf’s “blonde me” resonating with consumers.

    It is important to share content which is relevant to consumers and to establish close and trusted collaboration with influencers who provide authentic endorsements. Digital innovation is about technological disruption. It is also about leveraging data to steer our growth strategy.

    The future of beauty care retail

    We are already seeing some indications of how the future of beauty-care retailing will look. Today, consumers can check out the products in-store, make online purchases and have the products delivered to their homes.

    Some retailers have begun to use artificial intelligence to cope with the abundance of data, assist with efficient last-mile delivery and cater to product customisation. At Henkel, we have experienced some success using live broadcast for our homecare products in Asia Pacific to raise product awareness and boost sales. Many brands, including our own beauty-care brands like Beology, GlissKur, Schauma Nature Moments, Freshlight and Got2b are available on different channels, such as chain stores, online platforms and specialised online stores.

    We have also developed strategic partnerships with local e-commerce start-up Synagie, for example, which owns the Beautiful.me platform. Synagie manages the go-to-market strategy of Henkel across the entire value chain – from logistics and warehousing to customer management and brand advertising. Through this partnership, we aim to expand our footprint across Southeast Asia, reaching out to 700 million consumers across various touchpoints. We are also working closely with key retailers such as Watsons, Dairy Farm International Holdings and Lazada.

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  • Augmented Reality marketing carries great development potential

    Augmented Reality marketing carries great development potential

    Augmented Reality (AR) is predicted to witness rapid growth in 2020 as brands foster its application in marketing their products and services.

    Invented in the 90s and based on virtual reality (VR), AR is seen as a remarkable technological leap. Unlike VR, whose images are computer-generated and seen via a headset, AR allows users to view the real world through a mobile device with virtual details added in.

    Though it came out a long while ago, AR became a worldwide phenomenon after Pokemon Go was introduced in 2016. Its success made brands sit up and take note of AR’s limitless transformations that could be applied to different fields.

    The era of AR marketing was kicked of by American international fashion brand, Michael Kors. The brand experimented with AR ads on Newsfeed, allowing users to directly try a wide variety of sunglass designs before purchasing what they liked.

    Its strong ability to visualize and communicate ideas via an image in an interactive way is the primary reason that AR is an ideal marketing tool. In addition, AR is highly flexible, changeable, and capable of personalizing and waking users’ curiosity, delivering a more interesting customer experience.

    It is anticipated that 2020 will be the year that AR emerges into its own as a new marketing method, dominating the retail sector by offering new-fashioned, captivating customer experience.

    Users will be able to play with different brands of products, from trying on sunglasses to outfits and even wear lipstick being physically present at the store. The AR-enabled technology will make shopping quick and convenient

    AR can also be used for outdoor navigation like Google and Apple Maps. A typical example of this application can be seen at Gatwick Airport where users are guided to terminals and gates more quickly and accurately.

    Not stopping there, a combination of AR and artificial intelligence (AI) is also seen as a new trend among enterprises in the upcoming year. The collaboration between AR and AI will help companies solve different problems with minimal effort, allowing them to progress faster.

    Jingo entered the technology market with an online interactive game show that became popular worldwide. It went on to offer interactive solutions to enhance fan engagement.

    As AR application extended to more areas, Jingo adopted a new marketing method called AR Branded Camera that quickly achieved many solid outcomes.

    For instance, the minigame “Chon Thuan Ngu, Nhan Qua Nhu Y” (Thuan Ngu – a present for meals) was created to introduce the Thuan Ngu (584 Nha Trang) brand, using the image of fish sauce, an indispensable condiment in Vietnamese meals, aiming to prompt brand recall.

    Other exceptional ideas that Jingo came up with for brands include the AR Filter “Gui Online – So tiet kiem trao tay” (Online Savings, Prosperous Living) for Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), which allows users to calculate how much they can save with an online saving program, and AR Game “Mam mam Aji-mayo” (Play with Aji-mayo), designed mainly to increase brand engagement among mothers and kids.

    Jingo was among the teams invited to participate at the Facebook iD8 meet organized in Singapore in August. Facebook iD8 is an annual event exclusively for Facebook developers.Jingo was also the only digital marketing representative from Vietnam to participate in the final round of RBSA held February 2018 in Bali, Indonesia.Other prominent awards that have recognized Jingo’s work include: silver medal at the Swiss Innovation Challenge Vietnam 2018; and Best Digital Marketing Solution – Asean Rice Bowl Startup Awards 2018 (RBSA 2018).

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  • Brick and mortar is back: The retail apocalypse is ‘nearing its end’

    Brick and mortar is back: The retail apocalypse is ‘nearing its end’

    The retail apocalypse is nearing its end, giving brick-and-mortar the opportunity to make the comeback of a lifetime – and surprisingly, millennials and Gen Z are to thank for this movement. Retail locations are finding new footing and a new role in 2020, and that is because 43 percent of both Millennials and Gen Z are more likely to do in-store shopping as opposed to only 29 percent of Gen X.

    It seems odd that the generations who are conditioned to constantly accessible technology, are practically glued to their phones, and have never turned to a leather-bound encyclopedia before consulting Wikipedia, would prefer in-store experiences over online shopping. But that is just it – it is the interaction they crave.

    In true millennial and Gen Z fashion, they desire a personalized shopping experience catered to them, in fact, a staggering 63 percent of millennials note that they will actually spend more on a product if it comes with a personalized experience. For retail locations, improving customer service is going to be key if they want to continue to turn the heads of millennials and Gen Z. With these generations making a significant dent in the buying power of today’s consumers, brick-and-mortar locations will need to brush up on this 2020 retail trend as they plan for the future.

    Retail has experienced many ups and downs, from the entrance into a digital age and advancement of retail technology, to experiencing a retail apocalypse causing many store locations to close their doors. The future for brick-and-mortar retailing looked bleak as retailers began to loosen the reins and became lax on creating the type of customer experience that keeps shoppers coming back. But not anymore: this year promises a resurgence of brick-and-mortar retailing, and it is in high demand.

    Personalisation of the retail experience 

    With the goal of cultivating a more personalized retail environment, retailers can tap into the abundance of data available about their consumers. Social-media influence and social shopping and retail are even more intertwined now than ever before. Online activity provides the data insights into preferences, buying habits, and interests of consumers – driving personalization in the retail sector moving into this year and beyond.

    The tactical use of this data makes creating personalized promotions easier than ever – an excellent tool to target retail customers and keep them engaged with your brand. Customizing relevant data points with targeted deals and offers generates more profitable purchases leading to more revenue for the retailer.

    Retail 4.0: an integrated omnichannel approach

    This year’s retail trends are moving toward putting the consumer more in control of their retail choices and behavior. This opens the door for Retail 4.0 – the “new retail” – a hybrid approach between physical and digital retail that relies on consumer data for a more customer-centric experience throughout the supply chain. An integrated omnichannel approach is a way to successfully move into the future of retail.

    Integrated omnichannel retail breaks barriers between customers and their purchase mode using multiple touchpoints for a single purchase. The result is improved customer engagement by providing a consistent shopping experience across channels. Adopting this approach can improve data accuracy by as much as 95 percent and streamlines the processes on the backend to seamlessly transition them on the front end, providing a better customer experience, with multiple paths to purchase.

    Looking ahead, with 20/20 vision, it is clear that streamlining processes and cutting away retail excess is going to be key to retail success. The long-feared ‘retail apocalypse’ is clearly nearing its end.

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  • Sagging consumer sentiment dents Thai retail industry

    Sagging consumer sentiment dents Thai retail industry

    The Thai retail industry is facing a period of low consumer confidence, according to a CBRE research report, resulting in little sales growth.

    The firm’s 2019 Year-End Wrap-Up For Bangkok Commercial Market report revealed that the Thai retail industry has remained stagnant this year as Thailand faced a low sentiment period and a decrease in spending power due to high household debt.

    The Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) hit its lowest point in 39 months, falling to 72.2 in September 2019, dropping by 10.1 percentage points year on year. In addition, the household debt was reported to have broken a new record since 2017 at 78.7 percent of total GDP, which heavily impacted the overall spending power.

    “While the trend of ‘retailtainment’ continues to develop in Bangkok’s retail scene, this year, we have started to see more co-working space occupying large space in retail centers in CBD areas,” said CBRE Thailand head of advisory and transaction services – retail Jariya Thumtrongkitkul.

    “Retail developers expect this synergy to increase their retail centers’ foot traffic on weekdays as well as fill large, vacant space in less-desirable zones. To compete in a highly competitive market, some retailers also resized their own traditional stand-alone stores to allow these stores to fit in other shopping malls, community malls and superstores.”

    In the second half of this year, the Thai government launched new policies and campaigns to stimulate domestic spending, including welfare cards, an interest rate cut, and the “Shim-Shop-Chai” (Eat-Shop-Spend) scheme where the government gives away e-money and tax breaks for domestic travelers.” She said the campaign could be more beneficial to major Thai retail industry players, especially in a department store and superstore formats, because of their ease of accessibility compared to local shops located in the countryside.

    According to CBRE research, Bangkok’s total retail supply as of this year’s third fiscal quarter was 7.8 million sqm, increasing by 4.39 percent year on year.

    Not only have offline retailers moved towards omnichannel retailing, but many new online retailers have also been expanding into offline outlets in physical retail space as showrooms and “click & collect” points. In order to survive in a market with a large number of future retail supply in the pipeline, retail developers will need to embrace the fast-moving technology and create new unique selling points for their retail centers.

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  • The rise and rise of retailer recycling, repurposing and reusing schemes

    The rise and rise of retailer recycling, repurposing and reusing schemes

    Just 3.4 percent of consumers globally are using retailer recycling schemes, according to a report by GlobalData – but the trend is on the rise as leading players find new ways to reduce waste, use fewer resources and even adopt circular business models.

    Fashion is recognized as one of the largest polluters on the planet, and growing awareness of that is encouraging retailers to make innovative and sustainable changes to their manufacturing and production processes to lessen waste.

    Adidas has introduced the second generation of its first 100-per-cent-recyclable performance running shoe. The FutureCraft Loop Generation 2 is made using a mix of new raw materials and recycled components of the initial shoe – and is expected to be 100-per-cent recycled in the product’s next iteration.

    Meanwhile, Hong Kong brand Dyelicious creates color dye out of organic waste such as coffee, red cabbage, sweet potato and ginger in its garments.

    Reducing resources

    Outdoor apparel brand Patagonia has established a new ReCrafted collection where each item has been made from donated pieces, upcycled and repurposed into a “one-of-a-kind” piece. Each ReCrafted jacket, shirt, vest and bag is upcycled from three to six used pieces of clothing.

    Hong Kong’s very own label curated from The Mills in partnership with H&M foundation – Alt: – also uses a garment-to-garment recycling system to create new knitted pieces from the repurposed yarn of former old pieces which would otherwise have been discarded. Professor Edwin Keh, founder of Alt:, was crowned Inside Retail Hong Kong’s most Innovative Retailer in 2019.

    While many brands have launched programs to take in used garments to deconstruct – and some may even offer incentives for consumer’s donations – research from GlobalData shows that just 3.4 percent of consumers use a retailer’s recycling scheme to get rid of unwanted textiles. That could present a challenge to scaling up such schemes.

    “The practice of both repurposing and restoring post-consumer goods has the potential to help the fashion industry operate in a more sustainable manner, moving away from the traditional ‘take-make-waste’ model,” says Beth Wright, GlobalData apparel correspondent.

    “However, while both trends ultimately mean fewer items are being produced and keep products out of landfill, they still represent just a drop in the ocean compared with the amount of new clothing that continues to be made.”

  • How Visitor Engagement Starts with Identification

    How Visitor Engagement Starts with Identification

    As shopping malls strive to connect business and customers on a more personal level, retailers are making technology investments to help them learn about their customers and to provide services and transactions that are tailored to the individual. Customers expect easy access to information nearly everywhere they go. They talk to digital assistants in their homes to get answers to questions, to automate many of life’s tasks and to transact shopping. This raises the bar for facility managers to more easily connect visitors with the information they are seeking when they are outside of the home.

    Interactive digital signage and next generation kiosks are being deployed across Australia and the Asia Pacific region at an increasing rate, but what does this mean for retail managers? How can they ensure visitors are able to get information and a personalised experience even when there is not a person available to assist them?

    Kiosks and digital signage devices can provide a more personal experience if they can identify the customer. This is commonly done by reading a mobile coupon that is presented on the display of a mobile phone. In other cases, barcodes that appear on paper statements are often used to link to a customer’s account. For more secure transactions, a kiosk can verify a user’s identity by imaging a driver’s license or an identification (ID) card.

    New digital portals can capture the identity of a user with higher accuracy. Customers can “opt in” to being identified when they present their driver’s license or ID card, or have their features matched against a profile in a database. But which technology is best suited to helping identify individuals so that personalised service can be offered through next generation digital signage or kiosks?

    Facial Recognition Technology

    Personal engagement starts by identifying the person. Facial recognition by machines has been used in many applications. A camera captures an image of the person and compares features of the face to a database to find the closest match. However, this technology has several drawbacks. The first limitation is social acceptance. Some people in other cultures may consider it a violation of their privacy to be watched, identified, or tracked by cameras. They often prefer to be in control and to present their ID when they want to be identified. Another limitation is that facial recognition cannot achieve the same accuracy as many competing technologies.

    Two-Dimensional Image Reading Technology

    2D image readers are ubiquitous in access control applications where it is essential to identifying the people who want to gain admittance. No other machine-readable technology has the accuracy of 2D barcodes because the inventors of these codes built in powerful mathematical codes that can detect and correct reading errors. The accuracy of 2D technology is so reliable that the technology is used to detect and correct errors in communication with satellites in deep space. Mathematicians have shown that the probability of a decode error is roughly 1 in 100 million.

    Mobile Coupons

    Retail facility managers will understand coupons have been used for decades to entice shoppers with incentives, but only recently have they been able to pinpoint individual shoppers. Before the technology for mobile coupons was developed, it was common for retailers to print pages of coupons with various offers to serve a wide group of would-be customers. Shoppers who were looking for a bargain would have to search through dozens of paper coupons to find offers that interested them.

    Mobile coupons that are delivered to a person’s smartphone and tailored to their individual preferences are typically more likely to be seen and acted upon. In many cases, these coupons are used as a link between the digital world and the physical store. To complete the link, many retailers are installing 2D image readers in the store, whether it be in the check-out lanes or in a tablet computer that an employee carries. Sometimes shoppers are unable to find a store employee, but they can often find a price checker device that is mounted in store aisles to answer basic questions, like price. Retailers would like to reduce their labour costs, but they risk damage to customer loyalty if it becomes too difficult for a customer to get answers to questions quickly and easily.

    Enriching the Customer’s Experience

    Kiosks and digital signage solutions are often being deployed in retail facilities to provide rich information about products. Instead of simply displaying the price of a product, if the kiosk is also showing a promotional video about the product, it is possible that the visitor’s interest will be roused and they may visit the promoted retailer to purchase the product. By incorporating an advanced 2D image reader the kiosk could scan a mobile coupon that is displayed on the customer’s phone, instantly identifying the customer and the personalised offer. Once the customer is identified, the kiosk could look up the customer’s preferred size and colours. It could advise the customer about inventory and store location.

    Secure Transactions

    Security is a concern to all retailers. The need for security is especially important where a kiosk may be set up to access sensitive personal data, or where a kiosk is used for a financial transaction. In these cases, a person may self-identify by scanning their ID card at the kiosk, and then the system performs a secondary authentication.

    A common practice today is to send a unique code to the person’s smartphone. The code is displayed on the smartphone, which is scanned at the kiosk as a second level of authentication. Most people carry their smartphone with them, so while it may be possible for a thief to skim a credit card number, it is less likely that the thief will also have the victim’s smartphone and the ability to unlock the phone.

    Facility managers responsible for a range of fashion or entertainment retailers commonly found in large-scale malls, can promote to stores the queue-busting benefits of new digital kiosks. For instance, movie-goers could purchase tickets for a show at home, and have a secure 2D code sent to their smartphone. When they arrive at the theatre, they can scan the code at a kiosk and it will print tickets, saving them from having to wait in line for the new blockbuster movie.

    Next generation kiosks enhance visitor experiences

    The adoption of smartphones and tablets is strong evidence that people are more comfortable using technology to access information on the Internet. A kiosk offers a similar user interface, and through the technology’s ability to securely identify individuals using a 2D code on an ID card, a mobile coupon, or a mobile ticket; facility manages can securely provide messages that are relevant to the individual to foster a positive customer service experience.

    Claudio Bratovic is a retail technology leader and the ANZ Regional Manager for Honeywell. With 23 years of industry experience, Claudio is committed to helping retailers fulfil their potential through innovation. For more information www.honeywellaidc.com

     

     

  • Asia will account for 45 per cent of global retail sales next year

    Asia will account for 45 per cent of global retail sales next year

    The world’s retail market is expected to slow down next year, but Asia will account for 45 percent of global retail sales, according to a new report from economic and business research group The Economist Intelligence Unit.

    In terms of volume, sales growth will slow compared to this year, but in US-dollar terms growth will accelerate. This divergence will reflect differing regional trends in demand, pricing and exchange rates, with developing markets outpacing developed ones.

    “It’s a mixed picture for global retail sales in 2020,” said The Economist Intelligence Unit consumer goods analyst Shveta Sharma. “Although there will be areas of opportunity, particularly in Asia, there are several threats to the industry.

    “The US-China trade war, Brexit and the protests in Hong Kong will all take a toll, while some retailers will also struggle to keep up with the continued shift online. We expect more store closures and job cuts.”

    Online retail will continue to undermine the competitiveness of brick and mortar stores next year, she said. Growth will be driven by social media apps such as TikTok and Instagram, as well as better digital payment systems. Retailers and consumer goods producers will need to adapt quickly to changing local conditions, shifting suppliers and closing stores as demand patterns change.

    The EU, however, is leading a backlash, scrutinizing the marketing tactics of online players as well as their efforts to avoid taxes. The scale of job cuts will also prompt more scrutiny in the US, in the run-up to November’s presidential election.

    The group’s full report on global retail sales is available for download here.

  • Why Ikea and Nike have walked away from Amazon

    Why Ikea and Nike have walked away from Amazon

    When major global brands like Ikea and Nike announce they are exiting a major global platform like Amazon, it is clear that a strategic shift is in the making

    What used to be a primary go-to-market strategy of brands by latching onto Amazon’s success seemed to have chipped away over the years: Amazon is now losing the grip on its throne and is no longer the “cool kid” everyone wants to play with.

    Welcome to the generation of the ‘hip indies’ where being “self-partnered”, transparent and ethical is the new status symbol – describing both the millennials and Gen Z groups, and the archetype of direct-to-consumer brands.

    Nike competes with itself

    Last month, Nike ceased its pilot partnership with Amazon after a two-year-long gig launched as a means to eject unlicensed distributors and knock-off items from the site. In a statement, Nike announced: “As part of our focus on elevating consumer experiences through more direct, personal relationships, we have made the decision to complete our current pilot with Amazon Retail”. The sportswear label sold a limited range on the marketplace however the control of the grey market it had hoped to regain never materialized. No did the strategy align with expectations.

    While Nike struggled to compete with counterfeits on Amazon, the sneaker giant will continue to sell through other third-parties. Globally it is narrowing the number of retail partners it works within favor of going direct to consumers using flagships and its own online sites.

    Ikea packs up

    In lesser-known and surprising news, just after Nike’s announcement, Swedish furniture and homewares giant Ikea followed suit in quitting Amazon US. The company had been selling a range of smaller products on the platform, taking advantage of Amazon’s speedy deliveries.

    However since the hiring of its new chief digital officer Barbara Coppola last year, the brand decided to revert back to direct selling without the aid of the marketplace. No explicit reasons as to why were released.

    Where Amazon fails, Tmall gains

    The benefits of pairing with a marketplace are obvious, quite aside from the reach and operational efficiencies such as Amazon’s infamous last-mile deliveries. In this case, analysts are split 50-50 on the decisions by Ikea and Nike to ditch Amazon. Some say the divorce will cause the brands to lose some of their market presence – perhaps to their competitors – while others are advocates of the new direct-to-consumer wave.

    However, the bigger issue lies with Amazon’s mundane marketplace and the lack of brand curation, in contrast to how Alibaba’s Tmall has been banking on international brands’ market entry into China.

    Nike’s featured page on the Chinese marketplace allows it to brand its page similarly to its own website, thus keeping its brand image intact – as opposed to the lacklustre stock images on Amazon. Nike has reaped success on Tmall, especially as being one of the top-selling fashion brands highlighted in this year’s Singles Day event.

    When Alibaba launched Tmall’s Luxury Pavillion, it allowed luxury brands such as Givenchy, Versace, Burberry and a string of others to entrust the marketplace with establishing its presence online – some, long before they had established their own direct e-commerce channels.

    Despite the historic association of China with fake goods – and on top of some long legal battles involving leading fashion conglomerates – Alibaba rebuilt its status by eradicating all counterfeits to quickly tap into the Chinese high net worth individuals with all the benefits of being the e-commerce giant in town.

    Being the David to the Goliath 

    Riding on the glorified success of brands like Warby Parker and Glossier, direct-to-consumer brands are hawked over by venture capitalists looking for a stake in ‘the next Unicorn’. The accomplishment of such brands has stemmed from their ability to truly capture the hearts of digital-savvy millennials and Gen Zers using authentic branding and cutting out the middlemen and corporate giants.

    These days, consumers are not necessarily looking to find the best price (money-conscious as they may be), rather they are looking to adorn themselves with brands that share the same values and beliefs.

    Ikea x Off-White collaboration

    Nike is a brand with a long-established and strong reputation for athleticism and its street game. However, in today’s cutthroat market where consumers side with which influencer wore what, brands need to reinforce their imagery, not only through their marketing, but also through their retail environment, whether that be experiential flagship stores or online channels.

    Ikea, for example, is looking to maintain an image as a trusted homewares brand – especially among the rising young millennial household-owner and new parent market segments. Ikea is achieving this by partnering with contemporary brands such as Hay and Off-White.

    The type of shoppers going to Amazon are no longer the type of core customer brands like Ikea and Nike are looking to reach. Therefore it makes sense such brands are choosing to take their own paths – paths they can control themselves.

  • How to Invest Online in Best SIP Plans

    How to Invest Online in Best SIP Plans

    Investing in a systematic investment plan (SIP) is a smart thing. In SIP, an investor invests a pre-determined amount into a mutual fund scheme each month. These investments could be made on a weekly, quarterly, or even on monthly basis. Further, they have the flexibility of diversifying your investments by investing in different SIPs.

    Key Benefits of Investing in a SIP

    Investing in a mutual fund, and especially in a SIP scheme comes with its own benefits. Some benefits which you can reap by investing in a mutual fund SIP online include:

    • Cost-efficiency

    By planning the amount of money, you want to invest in different SIP schemes each month, you can eliminate the need to invest a lump sum amount, thus, cutting down on the costs involved in your investments. So, by starting a SIP online, you don’t have to invest huge sums of money at once, but you can still reap huge benefits.

    • Low Average Cost

    One of the biggest benefits you can get out of these investments is a low average cost. That is, investing in such schemes tend to improve your average cost of investment as they work in both bullish and bearish market trends.

    • Disciplined Investments

    With SIP online, it’s possible for the investor to make controlled investments. This means the investor doesn’t have to time the markets for making the investments. He or she can invest even during volatile market conditions.

    • Professional Management

    One other major advantage of investing in mutual fund SIP online is that most of the mutual funds are managed by experienced experts. Therefore, you don’t have to do all the work.

    Achieve your Goals with SIP investments

    To get the most out of your SIP investments, you need to ensure that you have set goals. You also need to ensure you have calculated the amount you must save each month from achieving these goals. Next, you must determine the amount you are going to invest each month or quarter in the scheme, so it can help you achieve all your financial goals.

    Once you are done deciding on your savings and the amount you are going to invest each month or quarter, it’s now time to do some homework on the different schemes available. When conducting your research, make sure you check and compare different schemes that have performed well in the markets in the last couple of years. By comparing the different schemes, you can determine which scheme you should be investing.

    When you have finished doing all the above steps, you can actually start investing. But before you do that, you must complete all the Know Your Customer or KYC documentation processes, in addition to other formalities, including submission of cheques and forms. Also, always try to choose long-term SIP plans so that you can reap maximum benefits. Don’t forget to diversify your investments to get optimal returns.

    Choose the Best Mutual Funds

    In India, there are currently over 5,500 different types of mutual funds available. Mutual funds that come under the equity scheme alone are over 300 in number. There are other types of schemes including gold and debt schemes. So, while choosing a scheme to invest can be hard, here are a few things you must keep in mind before investing.

    • Objective of Investment

    Ensure that all your investments are objective-oriented. These objectives could range from buying a house to marriage to simpler things like buying a car or funding your children’s education. Based on your objectives you must then decide whether to invest in a short-term or a long-term scheme. For example, planning your retirement is a long-term goal; therefore, you must invest in a long-term scheme.

    • The Fund House

    The second thing you should know is who your fund manager is. Your fund manager is usually a fund house that helps you manage your mutual fund investments. So, you must have adequate knowledge about them as they are the ones who take different investment decisions on your behalf.

    • Expense Ratio and Load

    The expense ratio and loads are small costs you must pay for making investments in SIP online. However, they tend to have a huge impact on your returns, especially for long-term investments. You can know more about them by reading the scheme documents or fund fact sheets.

    • Experience of the Fund Manager

    Your fund manager is the one who manages all your investments. So, besides knowing about your fund house, you should conduct thorough research on your fund manager. A good fund manager can help you get better returns for your investment. Hence, it is important that you choose a fund manager with expertise in handling diverse types of mutual fund investment schemes.

    Investing in SIP online has its own advantages. So, before making an investment, ensure that you are investing in a fund that has performing well in the past. These funds can be either equity funds, liquid funds, debt funds or tax-saving funds. Also, ensure you choose the right manager for your fund, and more importantly, ensure you choose the right funds for your investments, so you can reap higher benefits from them.

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  • Over 100 million Americans had their personal data exposed

    Over 100 million Americans had their personal data exposed

    What we are going to tell you is something that is bound to get your mind thinking back about any embarrassing texts you might have written. Or whether you might have sent some personal information via text like your social security or credit card numbers, passwords or even PINs.

    The database belongs to an American outfit named TrueDialog. The latter provides “Enterprise-Grade SMS Texting Solutions.” The information available from the breached database not only includes tens of millions of texts from hundreds of millions of American users, but it also contained millions of usernames, passwords (some in cleartext, others encoded but easy to decrypt) and more. The report puts the blame for the data breach directly on TrueDialog for failing to protect the database. It also notes that discovering the identity of the database owner was not difficult. Over 100 million American citizens could be impacted by this data breach.

    The number of people affected by the breach is huge and the possibility that these texts could be read by bad actors is a very major deal; that puts companies like TrueDialog on the defensive. As vpnMentor notes, “Some affected parties deny the facts, disregarding our research or playing down its impact. So, we need to be thorough and make sure everything we find is correct and true. In this case, it was quite easy to identify TrueDialog as the database owner. Their host ID “api.truedialog.com” was found throughout. However, it was also clear that this was a huge data breach, compromising the privacy and security of over 100 million U.S. citizens across the country.”

    The database is hosted by Microsoft Azure and runs in the U.S. on the Oracle Marketing Cloud. It contains 1 billion entries adding up to 604GB of data. This data includes information about TrueDialog’s business, its business clients and the latter’s customers. All of this information could have been used by bad actors to steal identities and money from those with information exposed in the breach. Additionally, all of this data could have been sold to marketers and scammers. Knowing all of this information would make it easier for bad actors to engage in phishing schemes.

    Perhaps you have yet to understand the seriousness of this. Tens of millions of SMS messages that were sent via TrueDialog were leaked revealing the full names of message recipients, account holders and users of TrueDialog’s services. But even worse, the content of messages, email addresses, and recipients’ phone numbers were viewable along with the date and time that these messages were sent.

    TrueDialog itself could face a negative backlash because of this leak. The company’s reputation will take a hit and companies that pay it for providing leads will stop doing business with it if they fear that those leads will get leaked for free. And the amazing thing is that vpnMentor was able to discover the breach because the database was not only unsecured, it also was unencrypted. TrueDialog has been in business for ten years, says vpnMentor, works with more than 990 cellphone operators and reaches 5 billion subscribers globally.

    The date that vpnMentor discovered that the database was leaked was on November 26th. Two days later, it spoke with TrueDialog to report its findings while also offering to help it in the aftermath of the discovery. On November 29th, TrueDialog closed the database but never did get in touch with vpnMentor. While the database is now closed, it isn’t known whether any information that was exposed was stolen by a scammer, spammer, bad actor, or hacker.

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  • AR will become very important to retailers

    AR will become very important to retailers

    Although take-up has been patchy so far, there is a bit of a buzz around augmented reality (AR) in the retail sector, and it is definitely getting louder.

    Kate Ancketill, the CEO and founder of GDR Creative Intelligence is something of an evangelist on the subject of AR in retail and the benefits of connecting the physical retail experience with the digital one. With 5G on the horizon, she is certain that AR’s importance is going to grow even faster, and she has some advice for retailers who want to implement AR.

    “I think AR is very important and becoming more important,” says Ancketill. “AR is relatively inexpensive to implement and it is getting cheaper all the time, and with 5G, when it comes on board we’ll have no latency issues.”

    Ancketill thinks AR is going to bring all the best advantages of browsing the web into the physical environment, and that means cracking the omnichannel.

    “A company that cracks omnichannel basically wins, and AR is a big part of that.”

    Ancketill lists retailers Show Fields, Beta, Neighbourhood Goods, and Storey, which she describes as a new generation of department store arriving mostly in the US, as examples of the trend.

    “Places like all of these have something in common, which department stores have been sadly lacking in. That something is frequent newness and uniqueness of the product. They have products that are never seen anywhere else in the physical world and are only available online.

    “So you basically have to go there if you want to physically experience them. They’re usually concession based so there’s a frequent turnover and they’re usually very high tech, so you get great data if you are the seller.”

    The idea of going somewhere where you see things that you’ve never seen before, cannot find anywhere else, will be changed in a month’s time and will have lots of experience-based activities going on makes for a compelling offer says Ancketill.

    “It is not rocket science that it is more appealing to today’s consumer with a very short attention span.”

    But to win with AR as a retailer, you need to reduce your portfolio by at least 30 per ce, nt, she says, and make sure what you keep is in high footfall areas in places where people have money to spend.

    “Make it different every month, make it highly experiential, and make sure you fully connect the physical with the digital experience,” says Ancketill.