AmorePacific Group, Korea’s largest cosmetics company, apologized Tuesday for selling products that contained high levels of the dangerous heavy metal antimony.
The company said it is in the process of taking the products off store shelves.
On Monday, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said that 13 cosmetic items from a local contract manufacturer were found to have levels of antimony that were beyond legal limits. The ministry ordered the companies selling the products to pull them from the market.
Among the products, six were sold by AmorePacific’s brands – four concealers from Aritaum, and a concealer and an eyebrow pencil from Etude House.
“As a manufacturer and distributor, we should have paid full attention to ensure quality control of all products sold,” AmorePacific said in a statement. “We are very sorry for causing inconvenience.
“We will make every effort possible to minimize any further inconvenience in the process of retrieving the products.”
Paris fashion maison Céline has announced the opening of its first standalone Australian boutique in Melbourne.
While it is the third official store for Céline Australia, the new Melbourne location will be the first localized store to bow outside the walls of a shopping mall or department store.
Located in Melbourne’s city centre, the French luxury brand has signed a lease for 13 Collins Street – a 57-level office tower owned by the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation.
The specific Céline store will replace the retail lodgings of Cose Ipamena, a mixed-brand retailer that recently closed after 25 years. It will open alongside fellow international heavyweights Fendi, Cartier, Gucci, Versace and Bottega Veneta.
Céline currently has a flagship within Melbourne shopping mall Chadstone, as well as a store in Sydney’s Westfield. The high-end brand also has concessions at luxury Australian department stores David Jones in specific locations such as Pacific Fair Gold Coast, Melbourne CBD and Sydney CBD.
The news comes as global luxury brands continue to explore Australia’s retail landscape for profitable locations to set up shop.
A CBRE leasing director said Melbourne CBD, particularly Collins Street, has attracted huge interest from major retailers resulting in leasing deals.
Some of the names rumoured to be opening at the top end of Collins Street — and Exhibition and Russel streets — include YSL, Balenciaga, Hublot, Ferragamo, Chloe and Loewe.
South Korean liquor maker Hite Jinro has opened its second exclusive offshore bar, in Hong Kong, as part of its outreach campaign with its beer and soju labels.
In Lan Kwai Fong, its bar is its second overseas flagship store following the opening of Jinro soju bar in Hanoi, Vietnam, in October. The two-storey Hong Kong pub sells draft and regular beer labels Hite and Max as well as the company’s distilled rice liquor soju Chamisul.
Hite Jinro exported 400,000 boxes of beer – each containing 20 500ml bottles – to Hong Kong last year, up 30 per cent from a year ago.
Affirm, a startup that offers instant loans for online purchases, is expanding its financing services to brick-and-mortar retail. Shoppers can use Affirm InStore in physical locations, secure credit approval and pay for their purchase in fixed monthly installments.
Additionally, the company revealed that consumers can instantly add a newly issued Affirm virtual card to Apple Pay, via the Affirm mobile app. The platform gives merchants two options to support the service: they can integrate the Affirm InStore API with their POS system or use the expanded virtual card experience.
The in-store integration method is virtually identical to the online and mobile product experience, according to a company statement. To apply, shoppers complete a five-field application for a real-time credit decision. Once approved, the consumer enters the amount they wish to spend and selects a payment plan — usually three, six, 12, 18 or 24 months. Affirm pays the merchant in full at the time of settlement and takes on all fraud risk for the purchase.Affirm highlighted Apple reseller Simply Mac as a successful use case for the service in a press release. Afterswitching from offering a traditional private label credit card to Affirm InStore in its stores, Simply Mac saw average order values (AOV) increase 20%, credit applications per store boost 63% and credit approvals per store boost 34%.
Affirm raised $200 million in Series E funding in December 2017, with Singapore-based sovereign wealth fund GIC leading the way. Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Founders Fund, Spark Capital, Caffeinated Capital, Ribbit Capital and others participated in the round.
Affirm’s valuation is estimated to be between $1.5 billion and $2 billion. The company’s continued growth comes at a time when consumers are becoming increasingly wary of accumulating credit card debt, compound interest or late fees, and are often skeptical of traditional store-branded or private label credit cards that offer “too-good-to-be-true” financing options.
Delhi Duty Free Services (DDFS) has recently relaunched its Hugo Boss store at Delhi International Airport the first of many fashion outlets in the pipeline.
This luxury brand offering includes the Boss Black and Boss Green collections for men. The store has been designed in line with DDFS’s vision to offer an “exclusive travel retail concept store”.
Key design elements of the store emanate the brand essence of Hugo Boss, featuring a black façade and merchandise display areas to facilitate ease of shopper navigation.
DDFS CEO Luke Gorringe said: “Hugo Boss was one of our most successful fashion stores before the refit commenced, so our objective was to minimise trading disruption.
“In response to this, we fast-tracked the refurbishment project to ensure we reopened in advance of the summer period.”
All eyes are on whether “wearable credit cards,” which became a hit during the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang in South Korea, will be able to gain ground in the domestic market even after the closing ceremony of the Olympics. In the United Kingdom and Australia, the wearable card market is already being established.
According to credit industry sources on March 20, Lotte Card Co. predicted earlier that 100,000 wearable payment devices for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics would be sold. However, more than 150,000 wearable payment devices have been sold as of the 18th of this month.
Visa has developed three Near Field Communication (NFC)-enabled wearable payment products for the Winter Olympics: A commemorative sticker, a pair of gloves, and an Olympic pin in November last year. Visa teamed up with Lotte Card, the financial arm of the South Korean-based retail giant Lotte Department Store to produce these new pre-paid payment wearables. To use the devices, the wearer can tap or bring the wearable near any NFC-enabled terminal or reader and the secured microchip and antenna embedded within the device will allow a contactless payment to be completed.
Credit card companies are paying attention to whether wearable credit cards will be able to sustain the momentum from the Winter Olympics and create the market in South Korea.
Foreign major financial companies and payment and settlement companies have been already preparing for various types of payment services, including wearable credit cards, in order to dominate the future payment market in advance. U.K.-based Barclaycard joined hands with numerous accessory brands to develop NFC-enabled wearable payment products, such as bracelets, smartphone cases and keychains. Australia’s Bankwest also launched ‘Halo’, a ring that enables users to make ‘tap and go’ payments as an alternative to cash or a contactless card. The ring itself is water-resistant and does not need to be charged. In addition, The “Pay per Gaze” payment service using Google Glass also was released.
However, there are big challenges for the wearable payment market due to no standards established for contactless payments and compatibility with other devices. In fact, some users had trouble making a payment during the Winter Olympics when they put their NFC-enabled commemorative sticker on the center or the upper side of their smartphones. This is because it conflicted with their smartphone’s NFC features.
An official from the credit card industry said, “Commercialization of wearable credit cards is not too distant when we solve problems with technology verification and complementarities with wearable types of cards.”
Stocks in China and Hong Kong fell early on Tuesday, tracking losses on Wall Street, where concerns over increased regulation of large technology companies led to shares of Facebook plunging overnight.
** Facebook shares tumbled 6.8 percent as Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg faced calls from both U.S. and European lawmakers to explain how a consultancy that worked on U.S. President Donald Trump’s election campaign gained access to data on 50 million Facebook users.
** Investors also worried about the potential for a trade war after Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium.
** At 04:06 GMT, the Shanghai Composite index was down 0.26 percent at 3,270.82, and the blue-chip CSI300 index was 0.48 percent lower at 4,054.64. ** Chinese H-shares listed in Hong Kong fell 0.93 percent at 12,542.44, while the Hang Seng Index was down 0.54 percent at 31,344.20. ** The smaller Shenzhen index was down 0.55 percent, while the start-up board ChiNext Composite index was weaker by 0.06 percent.
** The Trump administration is expected to unveil up to $60 billion in new tariffs on Chinese imports by Friday, targeting technology, telecommunications and intellectual property, two officials briefed on the matter said Monday.
** U.S. businesses have been alarmed, with several large U.S. retail companies, including Walmart Inc and Target Corp , on Monday urging Trump not to impose massive tariffs on goods imported from China. ** Around the region, MSCI’s Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.31 percent, while Japan’s Nikkei index was down 0.73 percent. ** The yuan was quoted at 6.3264 per U.S. dollar, 0.07 percent firmer than the previous close of 6.3308. ** The largest percentage gainers on the main Shanghai Composite index were Guodian Nanjing Automation Co Ltd up 10.1 percent, followed by Guizhou Yibai Pharmaceutical Co Ltd gaining 10.03 percent and Beijing AriTime Intelligent Control Co Ltd up by 10.02 percent. ** The largest percentage losers on the Shanghai index were Heilongjiang Interchina Water Treatment Co Ltd down 6.41 percent, followed by Cultural Investment Holdings Co Ltd losing 6.36 percent and Zhonglu Co Ltd falling by 5.46 percent. ** The top gainers among H-shares were CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Ltd up 10.4 percent, followed by China Gas Holdings Ltd gaining 4.74 percent and Huaneng Power International Inc up by 1.37 percent. ** The three biggest H-shares percentage decliners were Byd Co Ltd which has fallen 2.70 percent, China Vanke Co Ltd which lost 2.7 percent and New China Life Insurance Co Ltd down by 2.2 percent. ** About 8.25 billion shares have traded so far on the Shanghai exchange, roughly 45.9 percent of the market’s 30-day moving average of 17.96 billion shares a day. The volume traded was 13.80 billion as of the last full trading day. ** As of 04:06 GMT, China’s A-shares were trading at a premium of 25.94 percent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares. ** The Shanghai stock index is below its 50-day moving average and its 200-day moving average. ** The price-to-earnings ratio of the Shanghai index was 14.91 as of the last full trading day, while the dividend yield was 2 percent. ** So far this week, the market capitalisation of the Shanghai stock index has risen by 0.24 percent to 29.29 trillion yuan. ** In Hong Kong, the sub-index of the Hang Seng index tracking energy shares rose 0.3 percent, while the IT sector fell 0.3 percent. The top gainer on Hang Seng was Sunny Optical Technology Group Co Ltd up 3.94 percent, while the biggest loser was Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd which was down 1.81 percent.
Stock indexes finished mostly higher after a day of bouncing around Tuesday as retailers, energy companies and banks recovered some of their losses from the day before, but technology companies struggled as Facebook dropped again.
Amazon led a rally among retailers, and it passed Alphabet, Google’s parent, as the second most-valuable U.S.-listed company, while energy companies rose with oil prices. Banks rose along with interest rates as the leaders of the Federal Reserve met. They are expected to raise interest rates on Wednesday.
Facebook sank following reports that the Federal Trade Commission will investigate its handling of user data while authorities in the U.S. and U.K. demanded answers from the company. That came after reports that Cambridge Analytica, a data mining firm working for President Donald Trump’s campaign, improperly obtained data on 50 million Facebook users without their permission.
While Facebook stock regained a portion of its losses at the end of the day, it has fallen more than 9 percent this week. Social media companies Twitter and Snap also fell as investors considered the possibility that the government will pass new laws affecting their businesses.
“We don’t know what’s in store for an industry that isn’t really regulated,” said Samantha Azzarello, global market strategist at JPMorgan Exchange Traded Funds.
The gainers Tuesday were mostly larger companies, which suffered the biggest losses Monday. Smaller companies struggled and more stocks fell than rose on the New York Stock Exchange.
After a drop of 1.4 percent Monday, the S&P 500 index rose 4.02 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,716.94. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 116.36 points, or 0.5 percent, to 24,727.27. The Nasdaq composite rose 20.06 points, or 0.3 percent, to 7,364.30. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks dipped 0.16 points to 1,570.41.
Amazon jumped $41.58, or 2.7 percent, to $1,586.51 and Best Buy picked up $1.51, or 2.2 percent, to $70.04. Industrial companies including Caterpillar recovered much of their losses as well. Some major technology companies including Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia moved higher after significant drops a day ago.
Facebook lost $4.41, or 2.6 percent, to $168.15. The drop in the last two days is the worst for Facebook in two years, and it knocked Facebook from its perch as the fifth most valuable publicly traded company in the U.S. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate, which owns insurance companies and railroads among many others, moved ahead of Facebook.
Other social media companies also sank: after sharp losses Monday, Twitter plunged $3.63, or 10.4 percent, to $31.35 and Snap lost 42 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $16. Alphabet, which fell 3 percent Monday, lost another $427 to $1,095.80.
Investors were disappointed with Oracle’s third-quarter report. While the company announced a bigger profit than analysts expected, they were less impressed once items like lower tax rates and stock repurchases were excluded, and its sales were lower than Wall Street had forecast. The company’s forecast for the fourth quarter also came up short of estimates. The stock dropped $4.90, or 9.4 percent, to $47.05.
The Federal Reserve’s leaders began a two-day policy meeting that is expected to result in another interest rate increase on Wednesday. The Fed has said it expects to raise interest rates a total of three times this year, and one of the key debates on Wall Street is whether it will wind up increasing rates three times or four. The current meeting is the Fed’s first since Jerome Powell became chairman, and investors will be watching his comments at a press conference Wednesday afternoon.
“Markets right now are hypersensitive to the Fed,” said Azzarello of JPMorgan. She said the Fed is trying to communicate clearly with investors and it won’t rush to raise interest rates.
Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.89 percent from 2.85 percent. When yields rise, it allows banks to charge higher interest rates on loans including mortgages.
Banks and other financial companies rose, while companies that pay large dividends, including phone and utility companies, moved lower. Those stocks tend to fall out of favor with income-seeking investors when bond yields rise.
Benchmark U.S. crude rose $1.34, or 2.2 percent, to $63.40 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, gained $1.37, or 2.1 percent, to $67.42 per barrel in London.
Wholesale gasoline gained 4 cents to $1.97 a gallon. Heating oil added 4 cents to $1.95 a gallon. Natural gas picked up 2 cents to $2.68 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Gold fell $5.90 to $1,311.90 an ounce. Silver fell 14 cents to $16.19 an ounce. Copper lost 4 cents to $3.04 a pound.
The dollar rose to 106.46 yen from 105.97 yen. The euro fell to $1.2253 from $1.2357.
Germany’s DAX added 0.7 percent and the CAC 40 in France gained 0.6 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 closed 0.3 percent higher. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 0.5 percent while South Korea’s Kospi edged up 0.4 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng inched up 0.1 percent.
With Chinese consumers now making up almost a third of all luxury purchases globally, premium brands are having to turn their minds to China-specific engagement strategies.
“The vast social influence of the Middle Kingdom has shifted the ‘Made in China’ moniker to ‘Made for China’,” according to Chris Maier, Managing Director – Analytics, Research & Insight at Publicis Media for Greater China.
He explains how this trend is “driving a cultural movement to inspire local product flavour, rather than languish with off-the-shelf Western styles.
“More and more global brands – especially in the luxury sector – are creating China-specific products with local bents to cater to the key consumers,” he says.
A Publicis Media study of 1,000 luxury consumers across North Asia – including China – delved into how luxury resonates through consumer lives, including attitudes, behaviours and time spent. One insight was that China continues to push ahead as the most digitally native and highly digital-social culture, particularly in the information gathering process before a purchase.
When asked about top touchpoints of influence on luxury purchases, invariably the top five of digital were head and shoulders above others: official website (41%), e-commerce website reviews (35%), social media advertising (31%), official social content (30%) and message app advertising (26%).
Likewise, e-commerce is booming among Chinese luxury consumers.
“Across the consumer’s journey – from awareness to research and consideration to purchase – e-commerce reviews landed as the top touchpoint influence, barring reviews and recommendations on TV & OTV. Recommendations rated high, but the go-to point is online retail,” Maier says.
To capture the Chinese market, several luxury brands are now creating product lines specifically targeted to the Chinese market. Maier singles out luxury fashion retailers LVMH and Loewe as early movers.
“China consumers are, justifiably, voicing specific wants for unique, locally relevant products to go with their new-found authority on the world stage,” he says.
“If brands are to successfully maneuver in this new consumer age, uniquely fitting the what, where and how together is the trifecta for success.”
Singtel expects the service to launch mid-2018 in 20,000 points in Singapore and Thailand.
Travellers with Singtel’s mobile wallets could soon continue to use their home wallet app to make payments when overseas.
Singtel will link its mobile wallets across different ecosystems through an interoperable platform. It will begin with the mobile wallets of the company and its regional associates through the first commercial launch between Singtel and AIS, it said in an announcement.
“This will be the first time that different mobile wallets across different markets are connected to offer seamless cross-border payments at physical merchants,” Singtel said, “The initiative to expand the Group’s mobile wallet services underscores the continued commitment of Singtel and its regional associates to enhance the mobile payments experience for customers.”
The telco also noted that this will enable its 590 million mobile customers to securely and conveniently pay with their mobile wallets when they travel in Asia. “Other mobile payment apps can, in future, plug into the platform and gain ready access to the Group’s merchant and customer bases across the region,” it added.
Singtel International Group CEO Arthur Lang noted that the mobile payments scene in Asia today is fragmented with many different systems and this poses a challenge to the adoption of mobile payments. “As a Group, we believe we can bring about change through our cross-border interoperable platform and collaboration with like-minded partners. Our vision is to unlock the growth potential of mobile payments in the region by providing customers with a convenient, seamless experience, and helping small merchants widen their reach to millions of consumers.”
In 2017, there were more than 80 million tourist arrivals into Singtel Group’s markets in Asia. “As many small merchants are still unbanked in this region but smartphone penetration is high, mobile payments provide a simple and secure alternative to travellers who might not want the hassle of carrying large amounts of foreign currency with them,” Singtel said.
“With our customers’ digital lifestyles and the growth in intra-region travel, it is a natural progression for us to take our local mobile wallets regional first, by leveraging the strengths and reach of the Singtel Group in Asia,” Lang added.
The commercial launch of the service is planned for mid-2018 between Singapore and Thailand where Singtel and AIS have obtained regulatory clearance. This will enable over 1.5 million visitors travelling between Singapore and Thailand each year to use Singtel Dash and my AIS apps at a total of more than 20,000 retail merchant acceptance points in Singapore and Thailand.
The Group plans to progressively expand this service from the second half of 2018 to other regional associates, which include Airtel, Globe and Telkomsel, taking into consideration the respective country’s regulations.
Telkomsel CEO Ririek Adriansyah said, “Once we obtain regulatory clearance, we can provide TCASH customers greater convenience whether they are transacting locally or overseas, and give our local merchants new income opportunities from regional travellers.”
When Tan Tie Wee, 40, heard complaints from his colleagues in China about the hassle of filing for tax refunds overseas, he was motivated to start up something that can help simplify this process.
“Some said it was language difficulties. Some said they were pressed for time because they were in a tour group. So I suggested an app that could help them with the claims and they said if there was one, they would definitely use it,” Tan said.
He was working as PwC’s senior manager for indirect tax practice then, and he had spent two years working in China.
Tan was impressed by the country’s prevalent use of mobile payment apps and QR codes and figured that he could integrate it into his own venture.
He ended up quitting his job in 2015 so he could work on realising this ambition amidst other big players such as Global Blue, Premier Tax Free, and Global Tax Free in Singapore.
He then worked on developing Tourego (short for ‘tourist refund on the go’), an all-in-one app that acts as a mobile passport and e-wallet that stores tax refund tickets.
Launched just three months ago, the mobile app allows retailers to simply scan the QR codes which in turn generates digital tax refund tickets for tourists, replacing the current paper-based system.
This means that retail staff no longer need to take down the particulars of tourists when they issue tax refund tickets, which helps to effectively save time and manpower.
Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Sim Ann mentioned Tourego in her speech during the recent Committee of Supply debate, and said that such productive technologies allow staff to spend less time on routine or tedious tasks, and more time to provide better customer service.
On the other hand, tourists can also easily submit claims by scanning these e-receipts at the tax refund kiosks upon reaching Changi Airport.
With the digitisation of such process, tourists no longer need to worry about losing receipts when keeping track of their Goods and Services Tax (GST) refund claims.
Challenges On Starting Up
The traction of the mobile app has been enjoying positive traction so far.
Although exact user numbers weren’t disclosed, Tourego said that it has gotten 150 retailers – such as Robinsons, Zara, 1872 Clipper Tea Co, and RISIS – onboard since its launch.
But starting up the business wasn’t easy.
The process was much more tedious than he expected.
For starters, the startup needed to go through stringent checks before being given its license by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) last November.
According to IRAS, all central refund agencies that participate in the Electronic Tourist Refund Scheme (eTRS) have to meet necessary requirements to ensure that the GST refunds are properly administered, and that their systems are robust.
These include a technical certification process and IT audit.
But the start-up also managed to tap on Government schemes for support.
For instance, the Ministry of Trade and Industry’s Pro-Enterprise Panel facilitated cooperation with Government agencies to ensure Tourego’s solution complemented existing systems, said Ms Sim in her speech in Parliament.
The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) also featured Tourego on its VisitSingapore website and inbound trade newsletter, as well as displayed the start-up’s brochures at the Singapore Visitor Centre.
“With electronic payment platforms growing increasingly popular in Singapore, STB is pleased to support Tourego’s mobile application as it allows visitors to claim tax refunds in a more seamless and hassle-free manner in Singapore,” said STB.
The eTRS system in place right now already seeks to make Singapore’s tourist tax refund system less reliant on paperwork.
Since its roll-out in 2011, tourists no longer have to fill in different GST refund forms and queue at different counters to get the claims done.
Now, visitors can choose to swipe their chosen credit card at the self-help kiosks to retrieve records of their purchases. Alternatively, they can scan the eTRS tickets individually before indicating their preference for the tax refund method.
Competing Against Other Big Players
Other technology players also seem to have set their sights on this space.
China’s Alipay, for one, partnered Global Tax Free last year to allow Chinese tourists to make claims and have their tax refunds deposited directly into their Alipay accounts.
This instant tax refund service through the Chinese mobile and online payment platform, was made available in Singapore earlier this year.
Tourego App
As such, Tourego is working to roll out its other features that would eliminate the need for its users to present their passports at the point of purchase and allow them to skip the queue at the airport.
“We want everything to be done on the mobile phone,” said Tan.
“For registration, all you have to do is to scan your passport using our app. At the retail store, flash your QR code and a digital receipt will be generated automatically.
“Joining the queue at the airport is probably the most painful part of the refund process and we think this can be changed. My full solution will be to move the declaration process on to the app so that there will no need to stand in line at the various counters or in Singapore’s context, queue to scan your passport at a kiosk,” he added.
The start-up founder is also aiming to expand beyond Singapore though the navigation of various tax systems could be a hurdle.
“We have global ambitions to be a homogeneous global tax refund solution. It may be challenging but we will take one step at a time and first, we will show that it’s going to work here in Singapore.”
DBS announced the launch of the DBS Electricity Marketplace which will allow all households in Jurong (residents with postal code of 60, 61, 62, 63 and 64) to seamlessly switch to other retailers with the liberalisation of the retail electricity market in Singapore.
Around 108,000 households in Jurong will stand to benefit in this pilot phase.
As a start, DBS is working with two electricity retailers – iSwitch and Keppel Electric. During the pilot phase, all households in Jurong can search for various price plans that best suit their electricity needs on the DBS Electricity Marketplace. For DBS/POSB customers, they can apply directly with just a few simple clicks via DBS/POSB digibank and choose their preferred payment options. Once the switch is done, customers can look forward to their selected electricity plans provided by their new electricity retailer, without any service disruption.
Said Jeremy Soo, DBS Head of Consumer Banking Group (Singapore), “DBS Electricity Marketplace exemplifies how we are reimagining banking, using digital technology and innovation to make life simpler for our customers. Through our partnerships with alternative electricity retailers, we want to enable our customers to enjoy savings on their bills easily. Our insights also indicate that consumers want a fuss-free process to sign up for other electricity retailers, and we have made it easier and convenient for them to make the switch with just a few simple clicks on DBS/POSB digibank.”
Since 2001, the Energy Market Authority has been liberalising the electricity market in Singapore in phases and the pilot phase for residents in Jurong will start from April 2018. DBS is also working with other electricity retailers which will be made available to consumers at a later date.
Citi has launched its first natural language chatbot for Facebook Messenger in Singapore ahead of a wider roll out around the world.
The bot uses natural language processing to communicate with customers in an intuitive way, addressing their everyday questions about things like real-time account and transaction information.
Citi says that it has been piloting the bot with 600 customers and employees to refine the service, which also covers credit card bill summaries, rewards and points balances and frequently asked questions.
The bank has previously said that it plans a second phase to introduce more features such as card activation, ability to lock and unlock credit cards and transaction alerts for cards among others.
“Facebook Messenger is an exciting new way to access Citi and will greatly enhance our overall customer experience’” says Anand Selva, head, Asia Pacific consumer banking, Citi.
Scale continues to play a major part in attracting shoppers both online and offline, a recent survey showed, with supermarket chains and large open market platforms coming top in consumers’ preferred retail outlets.
According to a joint survey conducted by research firm Consumer Insight and Hanyang University’s retail research center, at least 80 percent of consumers said they went to supermarkets within the last month. The survey was conducted on some 15,000 Koreans from July 2017 to the end of January this year.
Convenience stores came in second at 68 percent, followed by local grocery stores (55 percent), brand stores (45 percent) and traditional markets (39 percent).
The report said 44 percent of the respondents said they generally tended to choose supermarket chains for offline shopping, while less than other offline shopping channels picked up shares of less than 10 percent each.
“Some of respondents said they visit supermarket chains because it is well-located and easy to find. Some of them also cited familiarity as another reason, because its category of products and even interior provide similar ambience throughout all chains,” said Jung Kyung-sik who participated in the study.
E-mart, discount store chain under retail giant Shinsegae, currently operates 145 stores across the country, while Homeplus and Lotte Mart have 142 stores and 123 stores, respectively.
In terms of customer loyalty, which the report calculated based on preference and actual use, supermarket chains topped the list at 55 percent, while department stores (17 percent) and midsize grocery stores (16 percent) operated by retail giants such as Shinsegae followed. Midsized grocery stores, also known locally as “super supermarkets,” are those between 1,000 and 3,000 square meters.
“Supermarket chains are dominating offline shopping channels, while other shopping platforms such as local grocery stores, convenience stores and traditional markets are left as secondary options,” the report read.
Meanwhile, among online shopping channels, customers used open markets the most, with 79 percent of shoppers having used one, followed by social commerce (51 percent), home shopping (35 percent) and individual retailers’ online sites (30 percent).
Customer loyalty was the highest, again, for open markets at 64 percent, compared to other online shopping channels such as social commerce (35 percent) and online retailers (26 percent). Home shopping, duty-free stores and multiplex shopping malls showed low customer loyalty at 10 percent, 8 percent and 7 percent, respectively.
“Competition in both offline and online retail industries is quite obvious, as supermarket chains are dominating offline shopping channels, while open markets are taking the lead in online shopping platforms. This structure is unlikely to change at the moment,” according to the report.
“Only the aggressive and creative online marketing strategies from social commerce and retailers’ online sites can change the situation for online shopping channels.”
Geometry Malaysia has appointed Michael Fillon as its ECD. He reports to CEO Kenny Loh.
In a statement, Loh said Fillon will be responsible for leading Geometry Malaysia’s creative output and taking it to the next level.
Fillon replaces former ECD Mehdi Lamloum, who left the agency last year to join iris Worldwide as its ECD in Jakarta. The interim ECD for Geometry Malaysia was Daniel Comar, who is also the regional executive creative director for Geometry Global Asia Pacific.
Prior to joining Geometry Malaysia, Fillon was creative director at Leo Burnett ARC based in Dubai, where he headed creative work for clients including Ferrero, VISA, P&G and Kellogg’s, according to his LinkedIn. Before that, he was creative director at J. Walter Thompson Dubai for about three years, where he was responsible for clients including Nike, HSBC and Nestle. Fillon also previously worked at Impact BBDO.
“In an age where clients are becoming even more result-oriented, our work will present intelligent ways to get our audiences to act – to join movements, to engage in conversations, to try new things, and ultimately, to shop well,” Fillon said.
“I’ll admit we searched high and low for this critical position and the wait has been worth it. Fillon’s energy is infectious, his talent undeniable. I’m looking forward to some really great work coming out of Geometry Malaysia,” Loh said.
In a separate statement, Loh added that most agencies focus on consumer insights, but with Fillon on board, his expertise will enable Geometry Malaysia to place more focus on shopper insights and figure out consumers’ shopping behaviour.
“What I like about Fillon is he understands shoppers’ behaviours and how they react to retail promotions, as well as his expertise in e-commerce. I think this knowledge is very important and e-commerce will be the future of Malaysia,” Loh added.
