In this edition of Weekly Focus APAC: Singapore Pilots Locker Service to Support E-Commerce Growth; Starbucks Brews Up Virtual Store with Alibaba; JD.com & Intel Launch IoT Lab for Smart Retail; and Lazada Replaces CEO After 9 Months. Singapore Pilots Locker Service to Support E-Commerce Growth Singapore has launched a pilot for a last-mile delivery service that aims to offer parcel collection points in public spaces across the city-state. Called ‘Locker Alliance’, the service was introduced to support the growth of e-commerce [...]

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Daily deals app Fave is amassing a wealth of data and aiming to tap these customer insights, as well as industry partnerships such as Grab and Alipay, to boost returns for its merchants. Such efforts would include further enhancements to a dashboard, Fave Biz, designed specifically for merchants to access data intelligence and improve their service offerings, Ng Aik-Phong, managing director of Fave Singapore, said in an interview with RetailTechNews. The company’s roots began in 2015 as fitness platform KFit, before [...]

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The direct-to-consumer (DTC) business model is something on most retailers’ minds at the moment. Here, we talk with Liam Brennan, global director of innovation, MediaCom, to discuss how seriously traditional brands should be taking the DTC revolution, how best to incorporate it into their business, and in what ways traditional retail still trumps DTC.  RetailTechNews: Can you explain where BLINK sits within Mediacom, and how your role interacts with traditional and DTC retailers? Liam Brennan: MediaCom BLINK enables clients to embrace innovation linked [...]

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Alibaba Group has chalked up ¥213.5bn (£23.81bn) of gross merchandise volume (GMV) on its annual 11 November Singles Day Shopping Festival, crossing one billion in delivery orders for the first time this year. Also coined ‘11.11’, the event marked its 10th iteration this year, having started out in 2009 as an initiative to increase awareness of online shopping amongst Chinese consumers. Back then, 27 merchants participated in the shopping festivities. This year, more than 180,000 brands were on board, up from [...]

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In this edition of Weekly Focus APAC: Singapore Shoppers Want Unified Retail Experiences; Indonesia Sets Up Shop on Tmall; APAC Travellers Using Corporate Cards for Personal Purchases; and Alibaba Annual Active Consumers Hit 601m. Singapore Shoppers Want Unified Retail Experiences Singapore shoppers look for speed, ease, and delivery of their choice and will reward retailers that provide these services with their loyalty. For instance, 28% of consumers in the country said the ability to pay in-store for items that were not in stock, [...]

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Singapore shoppers want the flexibility to choose between online and offline platforms when they buy goods and services, but most retailers are still not providing these options and, as such, are missing out on potential revenue. Because they can buy most things online, consumers in Singapore are not looking specifically to purchase items when they go out shopping. Instead, they want to be entertained, engaged, and experience new things, according to Roelant Prins, chief commercial officer at Adyen. The payments [...]

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In this edition of Weekly Focus APAC: Tencent Joins JV to Drive Grocery Retail Business in Chinese City; SEA Centennial Online Shoppers Will Abandon Cart if Preferred Payment Option Unavailable; JD.com Unveils Blockchain Research Lab with Two Partners; and Grab Partners Mastercard for Prepaid Cards. Tencent Joins JV to Drive Grocery Retail Business in Chinese City Tencent has banded with two retail groups, A.S. Watson Group and Yonghui, to form a joint venture aimed at creating “the largest grocery retail business” [...]

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In this edition of Weekly Focus APAC: JD.com Launches Smart Logistics Lab & Parcel Delivery Service; Lazada Singapore Customers Can Collect Purchases at 7-Eleven; and Nets Lets Businesses Collect Invoice Payment Electronically. JD.com Launches Smart Logistics Lab The Chinese e-commerce giant has launched a research facility to develop new technologies in urban logistics that can support smart cities in China. Located in Xiongan, the new Urban Smart Logistics Institute will focus on planning for urban logistics hubs, design for urban logistics systems, as [...]

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Once seen as ‘cost centres’, customer call centres now play an important role in not only helping online retail brands improve customer experience, they also can help generate revenue for the business. With the resurgence of online commerce, call centres have become important resources for any business-to-consumer (B2C) industries, according to Sandie Overtveld, Zendesk’s Asia-Pacific vice president. These included companies in the e-commerce, travel, and transportation sectors, he said in an interview with RetailTechNews. Delivery service provider Ninja Van and ride-sharing [...]

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This week, online marketplace Honestbee has opened up a dining-cum-grocery store in Singapore that is closely integrated with modern technologies to offer “a multi-sensory” shopping experience. Spanning 60,000 square feet, Habitat by Honestbee is touted as a “full supermarket, speciality fresh grocer, online fulfilment centre, and experiential dining destination” all rolled into one location. It marks the first time the Singapore-founded company has ventured into the brick-and-mortar retail space, three years after it first began offering online food delivery services. It [...]

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