Retail News CRM

Tag: Retail

  • South Korea retail sales easing upwards

    South Korea retail sales easing upwards

    South Korean retailers are breathing a sigh of relief as consumers return to stores in the wake of the MERS scare receding.

    South Korea retail sales rose 0.5 per cent in July to 30.14 trillion won (US$25.6 billion) after receding 0.6 per cent in June.

    Statistics Korea said sales rose month on month as well as year on year.

    “The fallout of the MERS outbreak that caused demand to slump seems to have receded in July, leading to a slight rise in consumer spending,” a spokesman for Statistics Korea said.

    “While things have not returned to normal, sales are rising in areas that were most affected by the outbreak.”

    The MERS outbreak hit in late May. Thirty-six people subsequently died and a further 186 were infected before the outbreak was brought under control and confirmed over by health officials in July.

    The value of online transactions rose by 21.2 per cent, driven by sales of food and cosmetics as cautious shoppers opted to have products delivered rather than visit stores and risk exposure.

    Online shopping accounted for 15.8 per cent total retail sales in July.

    In stores, food and beverage sales rose 3.8 per cent year on year in July and electronics sales by 3.2 per cent. Department store sales rose 0.4 per cent, having fallen 12 per cent in June.

    Sales at convenience stores rose 33.6 per cent and at supermarkets by three per cent.

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  • Capillary Technologies raises $45m for expansion

    Capillary Technologies raises $45m for expansion

    Singapore-based Capillary Technologies has secured $45 million in new funding to expand its back end services to multichannel retailers.

    Capillary Technologies offers a cloud-based platform which powers end-to-end customer engagement, loyalty and social CRM solutions for more than 170 major brands across 20,000 stores, serving over 150 million consumers primarily in Asia, including India, South East Asia, China and the Middle East.

    Customers include industry leaders such as Pizza Hut, KFC, Puma, United Colors of Benetton, Pantaloons, Arvind Brands, Madura Garments, Red Tag, Bata, Courts, Lee and Timberland.

    The company says it has raised $45 million in a series C funding round led by an affiliate of private equity firm Warburg Pincus. Existing investors Sequoia Capital and Norwest Venture Partners also participated.

    Capillary will use the capital infusion to expand its offerings to enable clients to develop an omni-channel view of their customers, both organically by broadening its product suite, as well as inorganically via the acquisition of MartJack, Asia’s leading multi-channel commerce provider.

    Capillary’s cloud-based platform, which can integrate into virtually any point-of-sale device, offers a one-stop solution for retail marketers to engage with their customers, by capturing and analysing customer data, and enabling targeted customer communications to increase loyalty and engagement. By combining big data with a robust analytics engine, Capillary optimises the relevance and profitability of personalized offers to consumers in real-time, significantly increasing both loyalty and sales.

    “Warburg Pincus needs no introduction for the kind of strategic direction and commitment they bring to the table, in addition to the investment. This funding round validates our model and vision of enabling retailers to harness the power of the cloud and to provide a deeper connect for consumers across channels. It also puts us on the path to being one of Asia’s true product bellwethers, which will establish us as a strong contender on the global map of Enterprise SaaS solutions,” said Aneesh Reddy, co-founder and CEO of Capillary Technologies.

    “The retail sector in Asia is undergoing a significant transformation, as organised retail develops in tandem with eCommerce, and as retailers invest in tools to drive consumer loyalty and retention across online and offline channels,” said Nitin Nayar, MD of Warburg Pincus.

    Concurrent with the capital raising, Capillary has also expanded its portfolio in areas of multi-channel commerce enablement, online-to-offline, predictive analytics and customer experience to expand its product and customer service capabilities.

    MartJack is Asia’s leading multi-channel commerce platform serving over 250 companies, including major global brands such as Walmart, Unilever, Future Group, Lulu, Clarks, Body Shop and Aramex, who use its cloud platform to develop online storefronts enabling digital commerce with shoppers.

    Its ready-to-use software platform provides a one-shop digital commerce solution to brands across Asia, featuring 30+ payment partners, 10+ logistics partners and 70+ service partners (e.g. digital marketing, web development, catalog management, design services).

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  • US wine giant Robert Mondavi to launch online in China

    US wine giant Robert Mondavi to launch online in China

    Famed Californian winery Robert Mondavi is to join Alibaba Group’s Tmall.com online shopping marketplace to reach more consumers in China, the world’s largest wine-consuming market.

    Robert Mondavi says its exclusive Tmall flagship store will be the California company’s first and only online sales channel in China. The outlet will sell US-bottled labels such as Robert Mondavi Winery, Robert Mondavi Private Selection, Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi, and Twin Oaks by Robert Mondavi. The Robert Mondavi brand is owned by alcoholic beverage maker Constellation Brands, which bills itself on its website as the world’s top premium wine producer.

    Philip Kingston, senior vice president of international for Constellation Brands, said the company in recent years has “seen a very encouraging uptake in Chinese tourists visiting our wineries in California, as well as wine sales in China.”

    Opening a store on Tmall – China’s largest B2C online marketplace and part of Alibaba Group, whose retail shopping sites in the PRC have 367 million annual active buyers – “allows us to sell our wines to Chinese consumers in a marketplace which we believe will build our brand,” Kingston said in a statement.

    “It also strengthens our presence in China as we expect to benefit from Alibaba’s sophisticated data-analytics capabilities and extensive customer insights.”

    The growth and sheer size of China’s consumer class in recent years has made the country a top market for the world’s vintners. China’s wine consumption in 2014 was more than double that of second placed US, according to data from research firm IWSR.

    Tmall said with the opening of the Robert Mondavi Wines flagship store, it was launching a  “Tmall Vineyard Direct” program, promising to connect with more wineries around the world to allow them to sell directly to Chinese consumers through Tmall. Gary Clubb, head of Tmall international business development, said  “working directly with the winery itself is key to a robust supply chain and allows us to leverage the power of the Alibaba ecosystem to pioneer innovative sales and marketing campaigns to the 367 million buyers on our platforms”.

    Tmall has been aggressively recruiting Western retailers and brands selling products in a range of categories, from fast-moving consumer goods to apparel, to build up Alibaba’s cross-border online sales.

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  • Kumamon arrives in Thailand

    Kumamon arrives in Thailand

    The first official theme stores of Japanese bear character Kumamon have opened in Thailand’s capital city, Bangkok.

    Kumamon is a mascot created by the government of Kumamoto Prefecture in Japan. It was created in 2010 for a campaign called to draw tourists to the region after the Kyushu Shinkansen line opened. Now it has grown into an internationally-recognised character, especially in Southeast Asia where Japanese and Korean cartoon and animated characters, and fashion trends, are quickly adopted.

    The first Kumamon store opened on the third floor of Siam Paragon shopping centre, at B-Trends in late July. That was followed by a more recent opening at Studio B Trend in the Emporium shopping centre.

    The Thai rights to Kumamon have been acquired by ICC International, who invited Kumamon’s creators to visit Thailand during a recent trade fair.

    ICC says it plans to open more themed stores inside premium department stores in Bangkok and in other Thai provinces.

  • Vietnam retailer plans 8000 c-stores

    Vietnam retailer plans 8000 c-stores

    The Gioi Di Dong, a Vietnam retailer known for its 450-strong chain of bright yellow phone retail stores says it will launch a new convenience store format in October.

    Dang Thanh Phong, a spokesman for the company which is also known as Mobile World Investment Corporation, said the company plans to open between 6000 and 8000 convenience stores by 2020, and take up to15 per cent of convenience food and grocery market.

    Mobile World also currently operates 37 electronic stores known as Dien May Xanh.

    Vietnam’s convenience store sector remains in its infancy despite relatively recent forays by Circle K and FamilyMart. 7-Eleven, the world’s largest c-store operator, recently signed a Vietnam partner in IFB Vietnam, which owns the local Pizza Hut franchise. But 7-Eleven is planning just 1000 stores over the next decade, a fact that tests the credibility of Mobile World’s ambitions.

    The first five new The Gioi Di Dong convenience stores will open in October, with as many as 50 trading by the end of this year according to information obtained by the Saigon Times Online.

    In an initial year-long trial phase, the company will invest up to VND50 billion (US$2.24 million) refining the concept.

    The Gioi Di Dong says its stores will have a footprint of between 150 and 400 sqm depending on their location and will trade from 6am to 9pm – shorter hours than the c-stores of established international brands, some of which trade around the clock.

    A month out from the first opening the chain’s brand name has yet to be chosen.

    CEO Tran Kinh Doanh was quoted on news website Zing.vn says the new store network will target customers of traditional markets and grocery stores.

    While it may lack experience in convenience or food retailing, The Gioi Di Dong has a strong pedigree in retailing: In the first seven months of this year it reported sales of VND12.92 trillion, or US$566.26 million – a year on year increase of 158 per cent.

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  • Samsung Electronics unveils ‘future of shopping’

    Samsung Electronics unveils ‘future of shopping’

    The future is here. Pause to window shop and read information about the products displayed on the other side of a transparent OLED “window”.

    Try on outfits through virtual reality, and see how they look from all directions.

    Samsung Electronics will reveal new products using smart signage that will realize futuristic smart shopping at the IFA (Internationale Funkausstellung) 2015, in Berlin in a special space set up so visitors can experience ‘smart shopping’ through smart signage solutions such as transparent OLED and smart LED signage.

    Samsung’s transparent OLED will be revealed for the first time at the IFA. It boasts a penetration ratio of 45 per cent, which is the highest in the world, and full HD resolution.Through smart signage embedded with touch functions, virtual fitting solutions that can be used at apparel stores will also be exhibited. Customers can make a model in the screen try on the clothes instead, and see what they would look like through virtual reality. Information related to accessories that match the outfit can be provided for convenience.

    A mirror display that suggests beauty tips and information on makeup according to the user’s schedule, skin type and weather will also be revealed. The most unique part of the mirror display is that it reflects the user just like a mirror through the use of hi-tech reflecting panels.

    In addition, a smart LED signage solution with higher definition will be exhibited. The product has a high resolution with a pixel pitch (that’s the space between pixels) of 1.5mm and 2.5mm. It can be set up indoors, making it possible to be used in the lobbies of shopping malls or large scale displays.

    Samsung is also planning to show various LED signage products. “

    We are planning to suggest ideas of various usages of our signage products at the IFA. By introducing Europe to LED smart signage, we are determined to push into the global digital signage market,” said a spokesman.

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  • Pay by watch in Singapore NFC trial

    Pay by watch in Singapore NFC trial

    Sony, Singtel and the Land Transport Authority have teamed up in a Singapore NFC technology trial allowing commuters to ‘pay by watch’ on public transport.

    Commuters wearing Sony SG50 SmartBands with Near Field Communication (NFC) technology will be able to make mobile payments on public transport in the future if the trial goes to plan.

    The trial involves EZ-Link, NETS and TransitLink – and the LTA says it’s part of an on-going effort to leverage technology to bring greater convenience to commuters through new, innovative and convenient ways to pay for travel.

    In addition to public transit, some 200 commuters in the trial will be able to use their SG50 SmartBand at a myriad of retail and merchant outlets including food and beverage outlets and libraries. They can also track their daily activities and sleep quality, and synchronise the measurements into their smartphones via Bluetooth for visual tracking and display.

    LTA CEO Chew Men Leong said the combination of wearable technology that enables faster, easier and more convenient transit transactions, with mobile retail payment services and lifestyle/wellness tracking, is an exciting development for commuters.

    “Insights provided by the trial will help LTA assess the performance of fare transactions using the smart band and gather feedback in assessing the potential use of wearable technology in public transit.”

    Some 200 commuters will participate in the trial which ends on February 29 next year. During the trial, participants will wear the Sony SG50 SmartBand encoded with a digital CEPAS card designed for fast, convenient and reliable contactless payments on public transit.

    The participants will only need to hold up their wrists to the fare card reader on buses and at MRT/LRT stations to pay for their journeys, making the travel experience faster and more convenient. To top-up the stored value in the band, participants simply need to place the band on the card reader of a top-up device, just as they would a transit card. For greater convenience, they can also opt to register for automatic top-up services.

    For greater mobility, participants can establish a Bluetooth connection with the Singtel mWallet app to check their band’s stored value balance and transactions while on the move. In future, the wearable may also be topped up through the app, at a later stage.

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  • Hong Kong retail sales remain stagnant

    Hong Kong retail sales remain stagnant

    Falling spending by Mainland tourists and softened consumer sentiment saw lacklustre Hong Kong retail sales in July.

    Data from the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) showed the total value of retail sales decreased 2.8 per cent year on year. After netting out the effect of price changes over the same period, the volume of total retail sales rose 1.9 per cent year on year.

    Those figures compared with a decrease of 0.4 per cent in revised figures for June and a net increase (after adjusting for price changes) of 4.3 per cent.

    Based on the seasonally adjusted series, the value of total retail sales decreased by 1.4 per cent in the three months ending July 2015 compared with the preceding three-month period, while the volume of total retail sales decreased by 0.9 per cent.

    A government spokesman said retail sales growth in volume terms moderated in July, “partly dragged by the further slowdown in inbound tourism and partly also due to the impact of stock market correction on consumer sentiment”.

    “The near-term performance of retail sales will continue to hinge on inbound tourism growth and on whether there would be any negative spillover from the increased stock market volatility of late. The government will monitor closely how the rapidly changing external environment may affect the retail business going forward,” he said.

    The value of total retail sales in July was provisionally estimated at $37.6 billion.

    For the first seven months of 2015 taken together, the value of total retail sales decreased by 1.8 per cent compared with the same period in 2014. After netting out the effect of price changes for the first seven months, sales increased by 1.7 per cent year on year.

    Analysed by broad type of retail outlet (in descending order of value of sales and comparing July 2015 with July 2014), the value of sales of jewellery, watches and clocks, and valuable gifts decreased by five per cent. This was followed by sales of wearing apparel (-13 per cent), commodities in department stores (-7.3 per cent), medicines and cosmetics (-5.4 per cent), other consumer goods, not elsewhere classified (-8.1 per cent); motor vehicles and parts (-3.2 per cent), fuels (-9.6 per cent); footwear, allied products and other clothing accessories (-7.9 per cent); books, newspapers, stationery and gifts (-6.4 per cent); furniture and fixtures (-8.5 per cent); Chinese drugs and herbs (-6.1 per cent) and optical shops (-5.9 per cent).

    In contrast, the value of sales of commodities in supermarkets increased by 0.4 per cent, of food, alcoholic drinks and tobacco (+7.0 per cent), electrical goods and photographic equipment (+4.9 per cent) and miscellaneous consumer durable goods (+67 per cent).

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  • Bad medicine for Eu Yan Sang

    Bad medicine for Eu Yan Sang

    Traditional Chinese medicine retailer Eu Yan Sang lost $3.6 million in its last quarter, blaming weaker sales in Hong Kong and Malaysia.

    Its full year profit to June 30 was down 70 per cent on the previous year at $4.56 million, compared with $15.03 million in 2014.

    Fourth quarter sales dropped 15 per cent; full year sales a less dramatic four per cent to $350.4 million.

    In Malaysia, the company – like many retailers of food and discretionary goods – noticed a sharp decline in trade after the imposition of six per cent GST on April 1.

    In Hong Kong, it was the changing demographic of Mainland Chinese visitors to the territory to blame.

    “While the travel restrictions to Hong Kong imposed on mainland Chinese have affected parallel traders coming to Hong Kong to purchase Eu Yan Sang products, it has encouraged sales of our products at online sales platforms and at cross border, tax free outlets,” the company said in a statement.

    Eu Yan sang operates 252 retail stores and 25 franchised outlets. During the year it opened 13 in Australia, Malaysia and Hong Kong and closed eight in Singapore, China and Macau. A review of its Australian franchised stores saw it drop a new seven outlets.

    The news was not all bad for the Singapore-listed company. In its home market, net sales were up five per cent in the fourth quarter and four per cent over the full year – in an overall retail market best described as stagnant. Managed cited the introduction of new products and consumer marketing campaigns for the improvement.

    The company hopes continuing improvement in Singapore sales will help cushion the impact of the Hong Kong and Malaysia markets in the year ahead.

  • Jeweller Plukka to list Down Under

    Jeweller Plukka to list Down Under

    Hong Kong jeweller to celebrities Joanne Ooi is heading to Australia to raise cash to expand her jewellery retail brand Pukka internationally.

    Pukka is set to be listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in October and Ooi is in Sydney and Melbourne this week drumming up institutional support for her high end, handcrafted jewellery designs which have already caught the eye of celebrities such as Lady Gaga and Miranda Kerr.

    Ooi, a former creative director at Chinese-inspired luxury fashion brand Shanghai Tang, created Pukka back in 2011 in partnership with Hong Kong restaurateur Jai Waney. It has a limited range of core designs in stock and a catalogue of made-to-order lines.

    Ooi and Waney work directly with renowned designers – including names like Bernard Delettrez and Sidney Chung – to create exclusive pieces for sale on Pukka’s online stores.

    One third of the shares in Pukka will be listed in Australia, raising an anticipated AU$10 million which will be used to fund expansion into the US.

    While the brand has focused online for its first three years, it opened a single retail outlet in Hong Kong’s Landmark Atrium earlier this year.

    “There is no substitute for a woman to be able to see and touch fine jewelry in person,” Ooi said in a recent interview with CNBC. “[We found that] offline transaction values are much higher than online purchases.”

    Unlike many Hong Kong based design and retail businesses, it is targeting expansion in the west, rather than Mainland China.

    “[Expanding into the United States] is the most economically efficient mode of branding and marketing a global luxury brand,” Ooi told CNBC.

    “Branding among fashion opinion leaders in the United States confers a level of credibility and authority, which is difficult to achieve by just marketing in the Asian market.”

    Pukka’s jewellery does not come cheap. Its most affordable line is $300 and its most expensive circa $150,000.

    The Australian IPO is fully underwritten by advisers KTM Capital.

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  • Hermes Japan sales boom

    Hermes Japan sales boom

    Hermes Japan has driven the luxury handbag and apparel brand to a 20 per cent increase in first half profit.

    For many successive quarters, Japanese have been maintaining tight control of their spending – but this year life has returned to the retail sector – and the luxury market especially. And cashed up Chinese – who once travelled across the border into Hong Kong for their high fashion indulgences – are now heading to Japan instead.

    Hermes International says the Japanese sales increases has proved more than enough to make up for China’s economic slowdown, where sales have slipped for most luxury brands this calendar year.

    Paris-headquartered Hermes says its global operating income increased to US$842 million on sales up 21 per cent to US$2.58 billion.

    Hermes says its Japanese sales climbed 20 per cent in the six months to June 30 at constant exchange rates. Across the rest of Asia, sales rose just seven per cent; in Hong Kong they dipped by an unspecified amount. That market was “difficult”, the company said.

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  • RedWhite Apparel expands abroad

    RedWhite Apparel expands abroad

    Singapore-born sportswear brand RedWhite Apparel is expanding into two new Asian markets.

    RedWhite Apparel makes clothing for cyclists, high quality gear for those undertaking ultra-long distance rides.

    The company has announced the appointment of CobbleSports in South Korea, which will be managing online sales of the brand’s products, distributing to independent retailers and executing a marketing program.

    And in Japan RedWhite Apparel has appointed Funks Trading to oversee retail and wholesale distribution.

    Founded just last year with only one product – a $150 ‘bib short’ manufactured in Italy – the brand is achieving success beyond expectation in Asia and is now eyeing an entry into the US market. It has achieved distribution in five stores in Thailand and is stocked in London by UK boutique Always Riding.

    The brand’s founder is Yuvaraman Viswanathan, whose previous job was as a designer with Dyson in Singapore.

    Launched in August 2014 initially through retailers, the company now retails direct online and is already shipping goods internationally. About 70 per cent of sales are into the US.

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  • SingPost invests in Hong Kong ventures

    SingPost invests in Hong Kong ventures

    SingPost has revealed investments in two Hong Kong companies as it continues its aggregation of interests in eCommerce and logistics businesses in the broader Asian region.

    SingPost subsidiary Quantium Solutions Holdings has spent HK$8 million (about $1.5 million) acquiring 1 million new shares in E Link Station, representing about 50 per cent of the business. Founded last May, E Link Station is creating “a rapidly expanding network of self-collection parcel service points”, a concept with similarities to SingPost’s POPStations across the island state.

    “ELink… is an extension of how we approach parcel deliveries elsewhere in many parts of the world – that is, we give customers flexibility through multiple channels that include locker storage and redemption centres,” explained Dr Wolfgang Baier, group CEO of SingPost.

    The second, larger deal sees SingPost take a 33 per cent stake in Morning Express & Logistics for HK$39.6 million (S$7.2 million). ME provides logistics, documents and parcel delivery services in Hong Kong. The Singaporean company has an option to take a further 33 per cent stake for the same amount if certain terms and conditions are fulfilled.

    “Morning Express gives us a strong last-mile and parcels capability in Hong Kong and extends our eCommerce value chain there, adding on to our warehousing, freight forwarding and front-end eCommerce,” said Baier.

    “As a company, Morning Express has 28 years in the logistics business and they are led by a professional management whose thinking is remarkably similar to ours.”

    Baier said Hong Kong, as a gateway to China, is a priority market for SingPost and a node in its pan-Asian network through which it serves its customers and partners.

    SingPost is 14.51 per cent owned by Chinese eCommerce giant Alibaba Group.

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  • Apple Vietnam retailers appointed

    Apple Vietnam retailers appointed

    Official Apple Vietnam retail stores have been appointed to receive stock directly from the California-based tech giant.

    One official retailer is FPT Shop, which currently operates retail stores in Vietnam selling Apple products imported from other Asian countries and reselling them for as much as 50 per cent more than they can be bought in Thailand, Malaysia or Singapore. FPT has 220 stores in Vietnam.

    The director general of FPT Shop, Le Bach Diep, announced at a press conference in Hanoi last week that her company would important iPhones and iPads directly from Apple. Apple Vietnam would receive new models at the same time as other ‘third ranked’ markets – assigned a lower priority than the US, Japan and China in the first group and Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore in the second.

    She says that means new model Apple products will go on sale in Vietnam sooner after overseas release than before. In return, Apple gets a specialised after sales service network.

    Meanwhile, rival chain The Gioi di Dong announced it would be sourcing Apple products direct from Apple from September – instead of having to import them through FPT Trading.

    Neither company will be allowed to supply other dealers on a wholesale basis.

  • Apple iPhone 6S to be revealed next week

    Apple iPhone 6S to be revealed next week

    It seems like just yesterday Apple unveiled the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Now, the industry has shifted focus from the iPhone 6 models to the inevitable sequels. If history is any indication, the consumers will soon follow. We expect the masses to clamor for the latest from Cupertino.

    According to Dutch site Techtastic, the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus pricing will be about the same as last year’s iPhones. Based on the site’s sources, it seems that Apple will continue to sell iPhones with 16, 64, and 128GB of storage.

    Seeing as these European prices match last year’s prices, it seems likely that the American price will not change, either. Techtastic also estimates that the new iPhones will go on sale on September 25. Of course, since Apple staggers release dates around the world, it’s possible the U.S. sale date could be the previous Friday, September 18. These are just rumors, so we’ll keep you posted on the final prices once Apple announces them.

    Seeing as these European prices match last year’s prices, it seems likely that the American price will not change, either. Techtastic also estimates that the new iPhones will go on sale on September 25. Of course, since Apple staggers release dates around the world, it’s possible the U.S. sale date could be the previous Friday, September 18. These are just rumors.

    On August 27, Apple confirmed that it will hold an event on September 9 at 10 a.m. PST in San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. Obviously, it’s widely expected that the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus will launch at the event, though Apple could introduce some other products as well. The only teaser on the invite is the tagline, “Hey Siri, give us a hint!” The Siri reference could be referring to iOS 9’s new Proactive predictive feature, HomeKit controls, or both.

    Previous rumors mostly agreed that a September 9 launch date was planned. Multiple sources referred to a September 9 event, and now 9to5Mac has found some evidence that supports the launch date and hints at a possible in-store sale date for the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus. The publication’s sources state that BestBuy and Apple have agreed to sell Apple Care warranties at the retail store on September 14.