New technologies are changing the face of retail. The boundaries between online and offline are getting blurred as brick and mortar retailers start to put more focus on engaging consumers online while online retailers like Amazon eye brick and mortar turf.
Retail in Asia sat down with eight retail experts in a round table summit to discuss the latest challenges to engage digitally-savvy consumers, manage the digital platforms, deploy new technologies as well as how to get IT departments more strategically involved in the operation and planning. Here’s a synopsis of some of the topics discussed.
Moderator: Tony Smyth, Managing Editor, Retail in Asia
Reporter: Yoko Wang, Journalist, Retail in Asia
Panellists:
Front row, left to right
- Sacha Romain (SR), Store Development Director Asia-Pacific, Tommy Hilfiger
- Cyrene Quek (CQ), Project Director – Retail, InProjects Group
- Yoko Wang, Journalist, Retail in Asia
- Ellen Fu, Head of Enterprise Business, Samsung Electronics H.K. Co., Ltd
- Andy Massey (AM), Director of New Technology & Architecture, Lane Crawford
Back row, left to right
- Peter Hurst (PH), Group Director at inProjects Ltd/ Partner of EC Harris
- Johnny Yuen (JY), Department Manager – IT, Swire Resources
- Alastair Drew (AD), Vice President – Sales & Marketing, Catalyst – Li & Fung
- Rajat Banerjee (RB), Head for Greater China, Citi Realty Services
- Francis Wong (FW), Associate Director Information Technology & Warehouse, Bossini
- Tony Smyth (TS), Managing Editor, Retail in Asia
Sponsor: Samsung Electronics H.K. Co., Ltd
Photographer: Jean Leslie
Venue: Renaissance Harbour View Hotel Hong Kong
Date: 27 November 2014
TS: We are entering the era of connected commerce, what are the challenges for retailers? How can retailers use digital more effectively to connect with consumers?
AM: The connected commerce is driven by the consumers, particularly the adoption of the mobile. iPhone was only released seven years ago when people just used their phones to text each other. Now, consumers can do much more with their smart phones. What we are seeing particularly in Hong Kong is that people do research before they go to the store. So what we have been trying to do is to match the right social media activities not only with our target audience, but with shoppers’ needs in order to make their shopping experience as seamless and consistent as possible.
There are many challenges for retailers. Having legacy systems is a challenge as well as change management.
The technology is changing so quickly that being reactive is not enough, retailers must be predictive. Like the quote Steve jobs used from Wayne Gretzky "I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been." As retailers we have to figure out where the technology is going and try to be ahead of that.
Take Samsung and Apple’s wearables as an example. Both of the tech giants dabbled in the smart watch category as they saw a growing trend around glanceability. There’s a deep consumer need for glanceable technology as it’s more convenient.
EF: Wearable technology is the most prolific trend in tech right now, technology providers like Samsung are keen to capitalise on this. Last year in September, we launched our first Android-powered smart watch the Galaxy Gear. Now our focus is not only on mobile but also wearables. Our first wearable that came out was attached to the phone, but now it’s SIM enabled.
We are also collaborating with fashion brands to make our wearables into accessories because fashion conscious consumers do not only prefer convenience but also style. For example, we have partnered with Swarovski to create the "Swarovski for Samsung" collection, an exclusive collection of Swarovski crystal accessories for Gear Fit.
TS: How do fashion retailers like Bossini engage consumers outside of store?
FW: The traditional social media platforms have been an important channel for us to engage consumers. In Hong Kong particularly, Facebook outranks WhatsApp, Yahoo, YouTube as the most favoured digital platform. We have been using Facebook to build relationship with consumers and promote new campaigns. For example, if the weather changes, we would send caring messages to fans telling them to wear more clothes and keep warm. Whenever there’s a new promotion, we would create a quiz section to encourage fans to answer the questions and reward them with gifts and discounts.
TS: What are the challenges for retailers on managing the digital platforms?
SR: Content management is the biggest challenge retailers are facing now when managing the digital platforms. We need to maintain brand consistency while allowing for variations that reflect local culture as localized content provides easier access to new markets.
TS: For a retail giant like Swire Resources who operate single and multi-brand stores as well as malls, how do you use technology to drive sales within the store?
JY: We use different tactics to engage consumers, depending on the type of the store. For example, we provide Wi-Fi connections in some stores so that consumers can check the weather of the places they are going to visit to help them make better decision when shopping. In some sports stores, we’d like to speed up the transactions in order to avoid long queues. Posting information about the availability of the new product on our Facebook will help drive more traffic to the store as well as speed up the shopping process as die-hard fans have already decided what to purchase before going to the store.
TS: The retail technologies are developing fast. We have seen emerging technologies such as virtual reality, video analytics, NFC payment solutions in the retail tech expos, but why are they slow to be deployed in brick and mortar stores?
PH: There are retail models such as franchising and licensing which have different financial models. The franchisees are reluctant to spend money on technology deployment. Brands may be very passionate about new technology and would like to invest on the deployment of the technology in their flagship stores. But when they are trying to roll it out, to get their retail partners to buy into that will be a big challenge.
RB: What’s more, having a new technology deployed globally in its brick and mortar stores is another challenge for a big brand as the whole process takes a couple of years. By the time the new technology is rolled out, the trend might have changed again.
TS: What are the challenges for IT departments to be more strategic on the operation and planning?
JY: IT departments hold the budget for IT assets, but when it comes to adopting new retail technology, how to get the budget is a challenge.
FW: Change management is another challenge. We need to put more effort on the change management as staff in the organisation tend to be reluctant to change unless they feel the positive result of the change. Adopting the new technology is not hard, it’s how to roll it out within the organisation that’s challenging.
