Retail in Asia

In Trends

HK shopping mall partners with Variably to launch automated price negotiation system

Hong Kong shopping mall The Arcade, Cyeberport has partners with a tech startup Variably to launch a personalised automated price negotiation system accessible via WeChat and QR Code Scan, allowing retailers and customers to negotiate the best possible price that is satisfactory for both.

By scanning at the QR code of your favourite items with WeChat app, shopper can direct contact the retailer and negotiate the best possible price privately and automatically.

In retail commerce, prices are fixed and cannot be negotiated. That has often left customers passively waiting for discounts, or skipping purchases altogether. For a seller, this is a tricky situation: set a price too low and they’ll lose profits; set the price too high, and risk losing customers. Finding the right price has proved to be a major challenge.

The price negotiation platform empowers users to bargain the best possible price privately and automatically, breaking the traditional mold of retail operations and giving buyers and shoppers an innovative and efficient way to negotiate.

A tenant at Cyberport, Variably is founded by a team of experts in the field of data, statistics, and computing. They are the only non-Chinese team included in Alibaba’s Baichuan developer services, with seed funding of more than USD900,000.

In a pioneering move, the system will be available from now on to 15 April to give shoppers the chance to experience the future of interactive commerce.