Retail News CRM

Tag: #coffee #cafe #food #retail #asia

  • AirTag order arrives two days before the release date

    AirTag order arrives two days before the release date

    Apple opened pre-orders for its new AirTag item tracking system on April 23rd with shipments slated to start this Friday, April 30th. But a lucky customer said that his order for a 4-pack placed with Best Buy on Friday has already arrived. The product was shipped on Monday, April 26th, and arrived on Wednesday April 28th.

    Most likely, those who ordered from Best Buy have a better shot at receiving their order early as Apple would be least likely of the two to ship the product early. In addition, it would seem highly probable that there are more AirTag purchasers who received their order early than just one person. The product can help you find a missing item using the new items tab in the Find My app or by asking Siri to find it.

    If the missing item is close by, you will hear a sound from the AirTag’s speaker that you can follow until you are reunited with the missing item. If the item you’ve “AirTagged” is nearby and you have an iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, an iPhone 11 Pro Max, an iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 12 Pro and an iPhone 12 Pro Max, you can use Precision Finding to receive precise directions to the item. That’s because those models contain the U1 Ultra Wideband chip.

    If you’ve left an item far behind, nearby Apple devices in the Find My network will receive a secure Bluetooth signal sent out by the AirTag you’ve attached to your item. These devices send the location of your AirTag to iCloud allowing you to find the location on a map in the Find My app.

    Now if you put your AirTag into Lost Mode, you’ll get a notification if it has been discovered by a device in the network. And you can also set your AirTag to cough up your contact information when it is placed alongside any handset that is NFC capable. Yes folks, that means both iOS and Android handsets, as long as they support NFC, can help you get in touch with someone who finds your missing or lost item.

    Information is encrypted and the AirTag will even alert you if someone is trying to stalk you with their AirTag. A 1-pack is priced at $29, and a 4-pack will cost you $99. The AirTags are water-resistant and have a replaceable battery.

  • Gontran Cherrier opens first Asian bakery in Hong Kong

    Gontran Cherrier opens first Asian bakery in Hong Kong

    Fourth-generation French baker and globally recognized pastry chef Gontran Cherrier has opened his first boulangerie and restaurant in Hong Kong’s K11 Musea.

    The Hong Kong store and restaurant mark the first flagship for Asia with further openings planned across Japan, Taiwan, and the UAE.

    At K11 Musea’s Food Playground, the 3500sqft Gontran Cherrier space encompasses an open bakery, an 80-seat restaurant along with a communal table, a cafe area with seating as well takeaway coffee, and a retail space for take-home baked goods.

    More than 2000 baguettes and croissants are prepared in an open kitchen each day, using premium French flour and butter flown in from France. The baked menu consists of more than 50 handmade creations ranging from viennoiserie, bread, patisserie, cookies, and cakes.

    In just nine years, Gontran has built a pastry empire including more than 50 stores worldwide from a single store in Montmartre, Paris. He has written cookbooks and appeared on television.

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  • The North Face reveals future plans with NY opening

    The North Face reveals future plans with NY opening

    Activewear label The North Face has initiated its global retail strategy with the opening of a new store in Manhattan’s SoHo neighbourhood last Friday.

    The brand will transform its existing locations to create a stronger connection with consumers and evolve The North Face retail environment into a space that feels more like the brand and less like a store.

    The 8000sqft venue is the first of a number of planned updates to the brand’s locations globally, including Seattle and Cherry Hill, NJ in the coming weeks, as well as locations in Europe later this autumn. The North Face is aiming to refresh the majority of its fleet of stores by the end of 2024.

    The North Face set out to design a store to reflect its brand positioning as premium, long-lasting and sustainably built. The SoHo location and all new stores moving forward will feature FSC certified reclaimed wood, steel, granite and low VOC paints. The environments are purposefully designed for longevity and to avoid the need for wasteful refurbishing throughout the years.

    “Our stores will continue to offer a convenient and seamless shopping experience, but it is no longer the sole mission of the store,” said VP of direct to consumer Mark Parker.

    “We’re now focused on creating an environment that highlights our heritage and allows consumers to deeply connect with the brand as they prepare for their own exploration, wherever it may be.”

    Elements of the new space include a museum-like archive of The North Face athlete expeditions and significant products, a signature half dome scent, and a team of “guides”, equipped to offer gear and exploration recommendations tailored to local adventure.

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  • Hong Kong mobile operator SmarTone prepares retailers to join the mobile e-commerce bandwagon

    Hong Kong mobile operator SmarTone prepares retailers to join the mobile e-commerce bandwagon

    Mobile network operator SmarTone Telecommunications hopes to roll out its new service called “Kiss” this December as the first batch of retailers in the city have signed up for the ambitious offline-to-online marketing and payments platform.

    “We’ve already started signing up stores, including [those run by] medium-sized retailers. Some bigger retailers are looking at it, too,” Douglas Li, the outgoing chief executive at SmarTone told the South China Morning Post.

    Li, who drove the platform’s two-year development, said SmarTone “should run Kiss for five to seven years to fully realise the value of how uniquely focused the platform is to help retailers”.

    He said there could be an opportunity to license the platform’s technology to telecommunications network operators outside Hong Kong.

    “It’s an internet business so the actual cost of implementation is not huge. The only question is how quickly it can scale up,” Li said. “If it does well in a foreign country, the sky’s the limit.”

    Launched last month, Kiss enables retailers to connect with consumers through a platform that links digital marketing and loyalty programmes with data analytics and mobile payment.

    Merchants are charged a monthly fee and provided with tools to create their mobile storefronts on the platform, directly message customers and launch targeted campaigns.

    “Retailers need to adapt to new thinking because the world has changed,” Li said. “You need only look across the border to see how online and mobile [e-commerce] are impacting the traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers. We’re offering retailers in Hong Kong a way to get into this [kind of operation].”

    Alibaba Group, JD.com Ctrip.com and Qunar have become China’s leading business-to-consumer e-commerce platform operators by providing convenience, choice and low prices to entice people to buy goods and services online through smartphones and tablets.

    Research firm eMarketer has forecast mobile e-commerce sales to make up 10.9 per cent of total retail sales in China next year and 55.5 per cent of all online retail shopping as the sector grows 51 per cent to US$506 billion, up from an estimated US$334 billion this year.

    “We hope to build a critical mass of connected retailers in Hong Kong so that Kiss will have a strong appeal for consumers,” said SmarTone chief technology officer and recently named interim chief executive Stephen Chau Kam-kun.

    Chau said SmarTone was signing up a mix of merchants with “high-value, low-frequency buyers” and “low priced, high-frequency buyers”.

    Kiss, operated by SmarTone subsidiary Kissco Marketing Services, also includes in its package a single-purpose Android tablet as tap-only mobile payment terminal, capabilities for customer data analytics and a Bluetooth beacon for the store, configured to push greetings and promotions to nearby consumers with the free Kiss app.

    Consumers use the Kiss Wallet feature to store credit card details, retailer cash credits and promotional Kiss Dollars. Kiss Pay is the digital token used for purchases and redeeming rewards.

    UnionPay International is the launch credit card partner for Kiss, although efforts are underway to add Visa and MasterCard.

    Li, , who resigned in April, said he left “a roadmap” to be implemented over the next two years to further develop the Kiss platform.

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