Innovation in retail

The surge of e-commerce and m-commerce has disrupted the retail industry. It affects beyond the industry – it concerns the future of Hong Kong in terms of its ranking as a smart city.

At The Marketing Society Hong Kong’s Uncomfortable Breakfast, Jonathan Cummings (Chairman HK, FITCH) had a frank discussion with members and guests: Simon Holt (head of Retail Transformation APAC, BT); Yardley Wong (Founder, Scandiastyle) and Elisa Harca (Co-Founder & Regional Director, Red Ant).

The future of retail requires investment and innovation; however, Elisa has seen companies engaged in talks rather than investment and actions. Moving budget within an existing pot is not investing in the future.

Yardley believes that new retail is in e-commerce. Virtual and the reality (shop) need to be blended together to create a holistic experience. Chinese customers are more adventurous and e-payment is widely accepted. Chinese shoppers read the brand stories and do product research, which is where the consumer engagement brand experience commences.  

Simon at BT uses technology for retail analytics to help clients up-sell and cross-sell. This is more widely adopted in cities like Dubai and Singapore.

Hong Kong needs to step up and a cultural change is necessary to stay competitive in terms of creation of customer experience both in-store and online to offline.

Embracing change may be on most CEO and CIO’s Do List. Finding the right people to remove the roadblocks in the middle will be critical. The panel agreed that it needs to come from the top.

Yardley is entrepreneurial and believes in test and learn and try pop-ups in malls. She uses WeChat to experiment and create “experimental, experiential, participating” retail. She asks not for the perfectly trained staff, but trust on-the-job training is the way to go, especially technology is fast changing continuous training is essential.  

So, if a cultural change is urgently needed, why is Hong Kong still waiting for the “reason to play” for the future? While government investment is essential (and lots to be improved), data technology companies, landlords and merchants also need to be the agent for change.

Who is the innovation champion? Retailers and landlords need to be encouraged to test and learn and steer away from the “still looking for the track record” mode.

There will be none with any new method and innovation.

On a positive note, not all innovation involves huge investment. It can be creating a community to up-sell, extend experience and customer retention. Coffee Academics have big ideas.  

K11’s Garden by the Bay at its Victoria Dockside will be a fine establishment in Hong Kong.

Retail will be blended with lifestyle, culture and the retail experience. Led by its innovative CEO, K11 adapted Experiential Service Technology (for example, using facial detection) to improve customer experience. It also adopted a creative method of talent recruitment, replacing the traditional career days with Hackathons to find start-up talents.

It seems hope is there for the next generation.

By Seraphina Wong, Consultant.

Want to discover more about the future of retail? Watch our interview with the speakers on the impact of technologies, such as Amazon, on traditional retailers: