Retail News CRM

Tag: Retailers

  • Wirecard brings mobile Tcash service to Indonesian retailers

    Wirecard brings mobile Tcash service to Indonesian retailers

    Wirecard’s Indonesian subsidiary PT Prima Vista Solusi has teamed up with PT Finnet Indonesia and PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel) to support the acceptance of contactless, NFC-based electronic money “TCASH” at major retailers with their nationwide network.

    Customers at the retail stores can pay for their purchases and utility bills using their NFC mobile phones. Wirecard provides the NFC point-of-sale acceptance, which is integrated with the retailer’s front-end store system for optimal transaction speed and accuracy.TCASH is an electronic wallet product of Telkomsel, a subsidiary of PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) and Singapore Telecommunication Ltd (SingTel). The wallet enables Telkomsel’s subscribers to pay for bills, goods and services through their mobile phones, which are embedded with the TCASH NFC stickers, both online as well as point-of-sales. Telkomsel is Indonesia’s largest cellular operator with network coverage of more than 95 percent of the population in Indonesia.PT Finnet Indonesia, a joint venture between Telkom (Cq. PT. Multimedia Nusantara) and Yayasan Kesejahteraan Karyawan Bank Indonesia (Cq. PT. Mekar Prana Indah) was formally formed in January 2006 to provide IT infrastructure and services to support financial transactions nationwide. Syaiful Rahim Soenaria, Director of Business and Services, PT Finnet Indonesia (Finnet) stated: “Finnet is proud to engage strong partners like Wirecard Indonesia to continuously expand our service infrastructure, as well as bringing in innovative value-added solutions for our clients in Indonesia. It is our goal to provide the public sector with a good variety of electronic payment transaction methods for more convenience and security.”

    Ms Widhayati Darmawan, Managing Director of PT Prima Vista Solusi said: “The partnership with Telkomsel and Finnet to broaden TCASH acceptance in major retailers in Indonesia is a showcase of Wirecard’s commitment in providing relevant technologies to facilitate cashless transactions. With an approximately 250 million population and sizeable unbanked segment, Indonesia presents good potential in terms of the addressable market for electronic money and micro payment solutions.”

  • Nakheel looking to partner with Indian retail brands

    Nakheel looking to partner with Indian retail brands

    Ving in a strong way in retail and hospitality,” said Ali Rashid Lootah, the chairman of Nakheel, who was in Mumbai for the three-day Dubai Property Show that opened on Friday. “We don’t have many Indian retailers in Dubai but a lot of Indian brands are becoming more and more known regionally and internationally. We are trying to get them to come to Dubai. We have these old relations with India and we are trying to capitalise on that.”

    Mr Lootah said he would be keen for an Indian partner to invest in a joint venture in a three- to four-star hotel project. He added that the company had been talking to one potential partner, although nothing had as yet materialised.

    The Dubai developer already has three joint venture partnerships for projects. It has partnered with Spain’s RIU Hotels and Resorts for a 750-room, four-star beachfront resort and with Thailand’s Minor Hotel Group for a 500-room Avani resort. A few days ago it emerged that Nakheel would join forces with Thailand’s Centara for a 550-room resort on Deira Islands.

    Nakheel has 10 hotels in the pipeline, including a luxury hotel as part of its Palm Tower project.

    It is also aggressively developing new shopping centres, including Nakheel Mall, Deira Mall, and Al Khail Avenue.

    Nakheel showcased $4.6 billion worth of projects, in terms of construction costs, at the exhibition in Mumbai, including its Deira Islands development and various projects on the Palm Jumeirah. Indians make up about 11 per cent of Nakheel’s customers, having bought almost 4,400 villas, apartments, and land plots worth about $2.5bn in total, according to figures from the company.

    Mr Lootah said that Nakheel would consider investing in India if it found the right partner and project.

    The company is hoping to unveil a partnership on a project in Riyadh soon, Mr Lootah said, although with the deal yet to be signed he was unable to share details.

    “In Saudi Arabia we are talking to a big developer and we would like to be a development manager, passing on our know-how,” he said.

    The mixed-use project covered a “huge, huge area” and would “hopefully” be announced in a couple of weeks, he said.

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  • Thai retailers cut growth forecast

    Thai retailers cut growth forecast

    Thai retailers have cut their growth forecast for 2015 by nearly half, citing economic conditions and the drought.

    Last year’s Thailand’s retail growth was 6.3 per cent despite widespread protests, a military coup and curfews. But this year, with the nation running more normally at business level, the Thai Retailers Association is now expecting a growth rate of just 3.2 per cent.

    TRA president Jariya Chirathivat says the drought, growing household debt and slow government investment in infrastructure ‘mega projects’ is subduing consumer confidence and retail spending.

    In the first half of 2015, Thailand’s GDP rose by three per cent… but retail sales grew by a lacklustre 2.8 per cent, despite inbound tourism numbers beginning to grow again after 2014’s disruptions. Foreign tourist arrivals rose 27.4 per cent in the first six months of this year.

    By category, supermarket sales rose a strong 8.5 per cent – faster than hypermarkets and convenience stores which grew by 1.5 per cent and 2.8 per cent. Specialty store sales rose 2.7 per cent.

    Observes Jariya: “In my opinion, the retail business in the second half will not be bright, as many economic measures such as infrastructure investment may not achieve what the government

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  • Online Friday sale reaches USD7.2m in Vietnam

    Online Friday sale reaches USD7.2m in Vietnam

    Traders recorded a sale of VND154 billion (USD7.23 million) in the first ever Online Friday event in Vietnam, announced the Vietnam E-Commerce and Information Technology Agency (VEITA) on Monday.

    VEITA said that more than 1,000 traders who showcased 3,226 products participated in the shopping event held on the first Friday of December (5 December) via two websites, ngaymuasamtructuyen.vn and onlinefriday.vn.

    The VEITA said that hi-tech devices, fashion and consumer products accounted for more than 80 per cent of the total orders.

  • Tmall global sales increase 10 times in 10 months

    Tmall global sales increase 10 times in 10 months

    China’s largest e-commerce group Alibaba said on Monday transaction size at its overseas shopping division Tmall International added more than 10 times since its initial launch in February this year.

    By the end of November this year, as many as 5,400 overseas brands from 25 countries and regions have opened official marketplace at Tmall. Among them, 30 Tmall stores have recorded transaction of more than CNY10 million (USD1.6 million).

    Foreign retailers such as Metro AG are also planning to open their official stores on Tmall early next year.

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  • Coles fined USD8m for misconduct

    Coles fined USD8m for misconduct

    Australian supermarket giant Coles has been ordered to pay AUD10 million (USD8.1m) in penalties for “serious, deliberate and repeated” misconduct towards suppliers that were in some cases in financial trouble.

    The Federal Court ruled in favour of a settlement between the retailer and the consumer watchdog, agreed by the parties last week.

    Justice Michelle Gordon said the behaviour by Coles was orchestrated and relentless and involved threatening harm to suppliers by unlawfully withholding funds or demanding payments.

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  • Greater rental retail transparency in Singapore soon

    Greater rental retail transparency in Singapore soon

    Retailers and landlords in Singapore can look forward to greater retail rental transparency after the details of the Fair Tenancy Consideration Framework are unveiled, probably this month. The framework will comprise three components: data transparency, education and awareness, and a mediation process.

    The first component will make retail rent data transparent, likely pegged to street names, with a rough gauge of the size of the shop unit.

    “We tried to push for more rent details which give better transparency (down to per square foot rental),” said Kurt Wee, president of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (ASME). “But I think it’s not going to be easy to extract this data . . . If we ever want full transparency, we are talking about a new data bank. This means for every lease you sign, you have to fill up a set of obligatory information and file it with a certain data bank.”