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Tag: flash

  • As it exits other markets, Flash Coffee doubles down on Indonesia

    As it exits other markets, Flash Coffee doubles down on Indonesia

    Flash Coffee is expanding its footprint in Indonesia, with new store openings planned across Jakarta and Bandung and the rollout of new food and beverage offerings.

    The coffee chain said each outlet offers a larger space with a sit-and-stay design to encourage customers to have their coffees in-store. At the same time, it launched a more user-friendly process for digital ordering on its proprietary app.

    After last year’s restructuring, the company said its main focus is now on Indonesia and franchising the brand in other countries, following the closure of Flash Coffee in other Asian markets and the sale of its brand in Thailand as a franchise.

    Flash Coffee founder and CEO David Bruinier thanked its customer base and said the company is “just getting started” on its Indonesian expansion.

    “We are now expanding our footprint in the country, with plans to add many new stores to our portfolio within the next 12 months,” he added.

    The coffee chain now operates 67 stores and reported an increase in revenue per store by over 50 percent from early this year, reaching operational profitability.

    Launched in Singapore in 2020, the “tech-driven” coffee chain is now backed by New York-based venture capital firm White Star Capital as its largest shareholder after raising US$50 million in a Series B funding round last year.

    Jakob Angele, executive chairman of Flash Coffee and venture partner at White Star Capital, said the company is pleased with the brand’s success in Indonesia.

    “Indonesia is one of the most exciting and vibrant coffee markets worldwide. Flash Coffee is uniquely positioned to serve its growing demand for high-quality coffee,” he concluded.

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  • Do not install this fake Flash Player Android app even if a friend urges you to

    Do not install this fake Flash Player Android app even if a friend urges you to

    What do you get when you combine the untimely death of a hugely popular piece of software once used on everything from smartphones to PCs with the insatiable thirst for unlawful financial gains of highly skilled hackers?

    A scary new malware campaign that, to be perfectly honest, should be pretty easy to avoid by now for anyone who’s done even the least amount of research possible on this sort of stuff before. Of course, it’s never too late to start educating yourself on the daily dangers of modern mobile life, and the first thing you need to keep in mind is that you should never, ever, ever, EVER download an Android app from an untrusted source.

    Unfortunately, because the bad actors behind this latest “FluBot” distribution scheme know exactly what they’re doing, you might receive a link to a shady website trying to feed you the vicious aforementioned banking trojan via a bogus Flash Player app from someone you 100 percent trust, like a close friend, family member, or someone else from your contacts list.

    That’s because, once your phone is infected, one of the symptoms of said infection will be the unauthorized access of your contacts, with the added malware ability to send text messages without user permission.

    Bottom line, no matter where a link seems to be coming from, you should exercise good judgment and refuse to install random APK (Android Package) files. We know, we miss Adobe’s Flash too, but the San Jose-based software giant would never use APKs to revive something that’s been dead since 2020 and dying since 2017.

    Of course, the sneakiness of this malware campaign’s authors can often go beyond just sending a text from one random Android user to a friend or family member. Because asking someone to download a “Flash Player” app from outside the Play Store would be too obvious a tell for many people, the malicious texts you should… simply ignore may try to fool you into opening links by advertising various video-related things.

    A good idea in such a case would probably be to ask whoever sends you a message containing a potentially malicious link one or two simple questions, thus making sure their intentions are pure.

    If the name FluBot happens to ring a bell, that might be because the same trojan has infected countless devices in the past using methods as diverse as posing as a security update, parcel delivery notice, and other legit apps from popular developers.

    While the main goal is and always has been to steal money with the help of banking credentials you might have stored on your Android phone, the secondary purpose is to spread like wildfire by hijacking your contacts and messages.

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  • Carrefour’s Flash 10/10 c-store deploys avatars and AI to speed purchases

    Carrefour’s Flash 10/10 c-store deploys avatars and AI to speed purchases

    Carrefour open Flash 10/10, its next-generation test store, on 24 November in Paris’ eleventh arrondissement. This new convenience store – developed in collaboration and exclusively with Californian start-up AiFi – uses technology that has never been seen before and is designed to provide customers the most accessible and fastest shopping experience ever.

    Carrefour Flash 10/10: 900 products available in a flash

    Carrefour Flash is the first store of this kind in France, and will be located at 11 avenue Parmentier, in the capital’s eleventh arrondissement. With Flash, technology is used to enhance the customer experience, making shopping more straightforward. It has nearly 900 everyday product references on sale.

    With this innovative new format, Flash 10/10 (“10 seconds to shop and 10 seconds to pay”) features a shopping journey that does not involve having to scan any products and payment that is almost instantaneous. Customers don’t even have to take their items out of their bag. This saves time for customers and creates a smoother experience. Customers are free to enter and exit the store without having to pass through a gateway. There is no need to download an app or register beforehand. And there are no surprises – they can view their total spending in real-time.

    Four employees will be on-hand to open the store and oversee its operation. They will maintain it and keep it tidy, manage its new e-commerce services (including Pedestrian click and collect), and provide customers with advice.

    This whole customer experience will be made possible by 60 HD cameras, nearly 2000 sensors built into the connected shelves, an algorithm for interpreting all the data, and a proprietary tablet payment system. Customers are tracked anonymously as a virtual avatar, allocated to them as soon as they enter the store. The products that they pick up are automatically detected and then added to their virtual basket. Once they have finished shopping, customers just get their baskets validated at a kiosk and then pay contactless. They can get an electronic receipt sent to them immediately simply

    by scanning a QR code. An automatic checkout kiosk is also available for any customers wishing to pay with cash.

    Carrefour Flash was tested at Carrefour’s head office in Massy over more than a year, during which the Innovation team was able to refine the technology and adapt the concept based on feedback from the employees using it on a daily basis.

    In March 2021, Carrefour Brazil launched Flash Scan & Go – a store where customers can use their smartphones to shop and pay for the products they want to take home. 6 such stores are currently in operation in Brazil, and the subsidiary is planning on opening another 8 or so before the end of the year.

    And in September, Carrefour launched its “Carrefour City+” concept in Dubai alongside Emirati partner Majid Al Futtaim.

    “The Flash concept checks our customers’ expectations. They want to be able enter the store easily, know what they are buying, pay quickly and then leave. Compared with other existing concepts, with Carrefour Flash, customers get speed and accessibility in a unique way”, said Elodie Perthuisot, the Carrefour Group’s Executive Director of E-Commerce, Data and Digital Transformation.

    “Following our initial testing in Massy, we are proud and delighted to be launching this store with Carrefour. Flash is definitely one of the stores with the most advanced technology in the world”, said Ying Zheng, Co-founder and President of AiFi.

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  • Flash Coffee opens Singapore flagship

    Flash Coffee opens Singapore flagship

    Singapore-based Flash Coffee has announced plans to rapidly expand across Asia after securing $15m investment from investors including DX Ventures, Global Founders Capital, and Conny & Co. In a press release, the coffee chain said it intended to debut in Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam in 2021.

    First launching in January 2020, Flash Coffee currently operates 50 locations across Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia. Despite opening amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the company reports the majority of its stores are profitable.

    Flash Coffee says it is currently opening three new outlets per week and plans to increase the rate to 10 stores per week in order to achieve its target of 300 additional stores across the Asia by end of 2021.

    “Our dream is to have a Flash Coffee every 500 metres in all major Asian cities,” said Flash Coffee CEO David Brunier. “We will also build a regional HQ in Singapore and expand our regional tech hub in Jakarta to 50 people to support our vision of fully leveraging technology to improve customer experience, proactively drive growth and significantly increase operational efficiency.”

    The value-focused coffee chain deploys a similar ‘new retail’ model popularised by China’s Luckin Coffee. Customers can order drinks for pick-up via an app and online, with the brand stating its intention to ‘digitise today’s offline-dominated coffee industry’. Like Luckin Coffee, Flash Coffee is also seeking to catalyse growing demand for premium coffee and aspirational hospitality concepts among Asia’s growing young middle-income demographic.

    There is undoubtedly vast untapped potential for domestic and international coffee chains alike across East Asia. World Coffee Portal data shows the region’s branded coffee chain market grew 5.1% in 2020 to exceed 74,500 outlets, with 13 out of 17 markets achieving outlet growth during the period.

    China is, however, curiously absent from Flash Coffee’s intended growth markets. East Asia’s second-largest branded coffee shop market after South Korea grew 2.1% to exceed 21,400 outlets in 2020, with consumers already highly familiar with app-based transactions, pick-up and beverage delivery. 86% of Chinese consumers surveyed by World Coffee Portal in 2020 indicated they have previously ordered coffee for delivery, with more than half doing so 2-3 times per week.

  • OnTheList reveals 2020 plans while marking fourth anniversary

    OnTheList reveals 2020 plans while marking fourth anniversary

    Asian cross-region flash sales platform OnTheList is celebrating its fourth anniversary.

    The firm offers apparel and other brands a subtle means quitting surplus or out-of-season stock as an alternative to scrapping it or selling at a discount in stores where it may impact sales of full-priced goods.

    This year, OnTheList says it will focus on raising awareness of sustainability in the minds of both the retail industry and consumers.

    The company will also be operating in Shanghai, Taipei, and Singapore from new permanent showrooms, alongside managing pop-ups in different Chinese cities, while further expanding the online platform to existing markets. OnTheList is also working actively on sourcing more partnerships and collaborations with brands.

    “With the new year ahead and the support from all the brands and members in Asia, together we take the initiative to bring positive social impact with our platform to raise awareness on sustainable shopping,” said co-founder Diego Dultzin.

    Launched in 2016, OnTheList moved from sporadic pop-ups to weekly flash sales in stores and online across four cities: Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei, and Shanghai. The firm has helped more than 300 brands with excess inventory and accumulated 251,000 registered active shoppers across the four locations.

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