ENGAGE online brand ambassadors to bring human touch online

Source: Oomph! Lee.

Singapore-based manpower matchmaking agency Oomph! has launched an online brand ambassador platform and service, ENGAGE. The platform aims to enhance online experiences by bringing the human touch found in brick-and-mortar stores online.

Through ENGAGE, Oomph! promises to provide dedicated and trained online brand ambassadors, helping traditional businesses pivot away from offline sales channels. These brand ambassadors can be engaged through a chat box, which offers the option of video chats, in order to help identify, match and recommend products to satisfy the customer needs. The platform can also assist in making bookings for consumers to visit the store in-person for purchases that require face-to-face interaction.

Christopher Sivalingam, Account Manager at Oomph! and project lead of ENGAGE said, “COVID-19 has been a challenging time for businesses that rely on personalised consumer experiences and the human touch. We believe that ENGAGE will allow us to continue the distinction of helping brands to bridge this gap and provide them with the right people to front their products and brand values.”

Jacelyn Lee, Founder and MD of TAG, Oomph!’s parent marketing group, said: “COVID-19 has forced us all to adapt and change, and traditional businesses like Oomph!, which deals in the very human art of manpower, must continue to innovate to survive.

“We believe technology exists to enhance the human experience, as opposed to replacing or taking away from it. This is the concept behind the ENGAGE platform.”

Details:

The ENGAGE service will be offered to retail brands and businesses under three price plans – Starter, Standard, and Custom. Oomph! operates across Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

Huawei mobile gamers wil get exclusive outfits for My Omamori

Source: Huawei. My Omamori benefits for Huawei users.

Huawei Mobile Services has partnered with Original Workshop, the makers of the otome game My Omamori, to offer exclusive rewards to mobile gamers.

Otome games are games targeted at a female demographic. An omamori (お守り) is a lucky charm that is meant to provide luck or protection. 

In My Omamori, an ancient warrior named Toki Mamoru returns to the present to be the player's guardian angel. Japanese sound actor Yuki Ono voices Mamoru, and the plots are written by Taiwanese novelist Deer Li. Mamoru will also act as a virtual assistant, providing alarm, schedule management, and health reminders, and can also make recommendations on food and clothing.
 
HUAWEI AppGallery, the company's official app store, recently launched the game and is rewarding HUAWEI mobile game players with exclusively-designed outfits. Users can claim the Workplace Smarties outfit from the HUAWEI AppGallery gift centre. The complementary My Omamori print novel is currently featured in Taiwan book stores. HUAWEI users can also find a HUAWEI AppGallery QR code on book covers offering limited outfits for redemption.

My Omamori is currently available in all Asian countries such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. The English version for Europe and an exclusive US version will arrive in two months.

HUAWEI AppGallery is preloaded in all HUAWEI and HONOR smartphones, and hosts more than 270 million monthly active users. A four-layer threat detection mechanism on HUAWEI AppGallery secures activities.

Details:

A HUAWEI ID is required to download My Omamori.

JeweLuxe Singapore presents first-of-its-kind luxury retail concept

Jeweluxe Singapore, a curated showcase of design, craft, artistry and innovation from all corners of the globe, will debut in Singapore this October at the custom-built TENT@Ngee Ann City along Orchard Road, Singapore.

Open to the public from 6 to 15 October 2017, visitors to the exhibition can expect to be inspired by a showcase for collectors, connoisseurs and aficionados across all segments of sophisticated living, including jewellery, timepieces, vintage, eyewear, fashion, art and living style.

Supported by the Singapore Tourism Board’s Kickstart Fund, the first-of-its-kind jewellery and sophisticated living showcase will meld offline and online concepts together., feature elements of a retail exhibition and an e-commerce marketplace.

“For over a decade, I have built a successful platform through Singapore JewelFest for passionate jewellery designers and brands from around the world to showcase their exquisite creations and gem stones. To satiate the evolving tastes of shoppers for a more discerning retail mix of affordable luxury, I am excited to introduce the brand new JeweLuxe Singapore – the world’s first multi-segment retail exhibition with an e-commerce marketplace,” said Angela Loh, Founder and CEO of JeweLuxe.

The exhibition hopes to achieve more than S$9 million in sales in its inaugural year. “Singapore is a city of sophisticated shoppers who appreciate unique pieces, be it jewellery, timepieces, art or any lifestyle propositions. The city also attracts discerning shoppers from Asia and around the world who enjoy the variety of international and independent brands in Singapore, making the retail experience at JeweLuxe Singapore the ideal springboard for brands to access Southeast Asia’s affluent segment,” added Loh.

The inaugural exhibition from 6 to 10 October casts a spotlight on the rare and the iconic, featuring designers who are icons of America curated by Paolo Costagli, American designer and jeweller. Kimberly McDonald, Sylva & Cie, Amedeo and Moritz Glik who make their Asia premiere at the first edition of JeweLuxe. Some of the jewellery houses showcasing rare and exceptional gems are Mouawad (US), Glajz (Singapore), DeGem (Malaysia), Hans D. Krieger Fine Jewellery (Germany), Karen Suen (Hong Kong), Scavia (Italy) and Moiseikin (Russia). Iconic jewelled eyewear by Lotos (Germany); and rare vintage timepieces, jewels and objects presented by Betteridge (US) and Revival Vintage Jewels & Objects (Singapore) will be some of the living propositions showcased.

Edition Two (11 to 15 October) will showcase European and Asian excellence. A lineup of European jewellery designers and brands includes Federica Rettore (Italy), Federico Buccellati (Italy), Magerit (Spain) and Rodney Rayner (UK) who are making their Southeast Asian premiere; as well as Heinz Mayer (Germany), Castaldi Gioielli (Italy) and Rota e Rota; and award winning Asian designers including Shirley Zhang (China), Caratell (Singapore), Simone Jewels (Singapore), Kavant & Sharart (Thailand), and Baerjewels (Hong Kong). Handcrafted handbags and timepieces by Graziella (Italy) and Zannetti (Italy) will also be displayed.

For both editions, WTP The Furniture Company (Singapore) and Art Front Gallery (Singapore) respectively will be curating the desirables in living style and contemporary art. Visitors can also look forward to a series of high quality educational and appreciation events on design, craft, artistry and innovation with The Savoir Series.

By 2025, the expected online share of total luxury sales globally is projected to double to €70 billion annually, making e-commerce the world’s third largest luxury market after China and the US*, say the organisers of JeweLuxe. While the exhibition provides shoppers with the opportunity to interact directly with world renowned designers and artisans, the e-commerce marketplace ensures shoppers a connected experience and the convenience of making their purchases at any time of the year.

The JeweLuxe World e-commerce marketplace will also curate highlight features for special occasions as well as provide a personalised shopping experience with the JeweLuxe Concierge. “The launch of a one-of-a-kind multidimensional sophisticated living showcase is the perfect opportunity to extend the retail experience into a year-round online retail concept. The e-commerce marketplace, JeweLuxe World, will be a digital community for buying curated pieces of the finest design, craft, artistry and innovation, and also for sharing insights and appreciation,” said JeweLuxe Chief Digital & Marketing Officer Nelson Lee, a serial digital entrepreneur and partner of online marketplace goBob.sg as well as independent digital agency Section.

Besides Costagli, other curators include:

Brenda Kang, founder and owner of Revival Vintage Jewels, curated the collectibles at the event. She is one of few vintage jewellery experts in Asia.

Federica Rettore, a sculptor who has her own line of jewellery, for European excellence, and Dr Bernard Cheong, founding partner of Lifeline Medical Group in Singapore, for timepieces. Dr Cheong is also an influential horologist and respected collector of watches, mechanicals and men’s collectibles in Asia, and the first collector and non-watchmaking industry ambassador appointed for the Foundation de la Haute Horlogerie.
 

Source: JeweLuxe International. From left: Founder and CEO, JeweLuxe International, Angela Loh; Digital Architect of JeweLuxe World e-commerce marketplace Nelson Lee; New York Designer and Jeweller Paolo Costagli; Horologist and Watch Collector Dr Bernard Cheong; Italian Designer, Federica Rettore; Singapore’s Antiques and Vintage Jewellery Expert, Brenda Kang.

Interested?

JeweLuxe Singapore will be a 10-day exhibition from 6 to 15 October 2017 at TENT@Ngee Ann City, Orchard Road, Singapore.

*http://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/our-insights/is-luxury-ecommerce-nearing-itstipping-point 

The new digital weapons that make businesses successful

Understanding the relationship between online and offline marketing and being able to capitalise on it is now key to business success, says Ebenezer Heng, Principal Consultant, Top Advertising. Speaking at the Fuji Xerox DocuWorld Conference, Heng pointed out that the keys to business success and 'gut feel' are no longer as effective in the digital age.

Location, location, location is a good thing, but eyeballing locations to check out foot traffic is not good enough, Heng said. A sentiment survey - which checks what people are saying about a location online and grades it as positive, neutral or negative - can provide a completely different picture as to which malls are popular, for instance. "Gut feel is not numbers-backed," he said.

The hard data on the most popular malls in Singapore.

And the surprises on the least popular malls in Singapore.

"Some of the shops will make money, some of the shops will not make money. If you don't fall into the consumption belt of the person who is doing the shopping you don't get your sales," he said. "If you went there to study the (location) you will love the (location if) it is crowded; the question is will the crowd go into your store? A sentiment study will show that."

Another popular concept is that sales are linked to price. The lower the price, the higher the sales. Purchase decisions are more complex, Heng said, displaying the counter-intuitive results of a study on ramen, which asked how much people are willing to pay for a good bowl of plain noodles.

A survey on price thresholds for good ramen showed that none of the respondents said they would pay anything in the lowest price band for good ramen. 

 
It turns out that respondents think cheap ramen priced at S$6 to S$15 is unlikely to be good, Heng shared. "When the price is lower, they don't actually have the queue," he said.

Even within a popular mall one establishment can still have long queues, whereas another similar business nearby may have no queues, Heng said. The reason is that consumers now decide whether to buy a product or consume a service only after checking online reviews and what their friends recommend on social media, he explained, and the business without an online presence, let alone social buzz, is not likely to have a chance. "It has a lot to do with your narrative and your story," he said.


That content must have 'thumb stopping' ability, Heng added, alluding to how people use their thumbs to scroll, as opposed to head-turning ability in the physical world. "If you don't have it you don't have that crowd," he said. "Your audience are online all the time, they form opinion of things online, they communicate their opinions to others online."

Figuring out what is thumb-stopping can be challenging as it typically does not involve the product being sold. Heng's own business Facebook page for selling coffee makers does not show coffee makers, for example. The page features iconic cartoon characters like Hello Kitty and colourful cakes, which he has found to be thumb-stopping, he said.

Augmented reality also has such thumb-stopping ability, and the experience is often shared online, leading to buzz that can boost queues. Top Advertising has augmented reality technology that converts an existing asset like a namecard or marketing brochure into a gateway to other content when that asset is viewed through a mobile app on the smartphone. The new content could be an animated graphic, music, a video or something else that extends the life of the asset, and the app can track who has seen the asset for follow-ups later.

"All your packaging, flyers, posters, everything can be augmented. You already have your assets - the idea is to loop it all together, the more channels you have, the more touch points you have, and the higher the chance of getting that traffic," Heng said. "We don't have to go out any more. People come to us."

Heng has extended his augmented reality assets to the coffee machine itself. Instead of bringing down a demonstration machine, the software can display a machine to scale to show how it will fit within the customer's premises as part of an augmented product catalogue.

"It opens the door to conversation," he said. "You want to avoid competing on price. The only way to avoid that comparison is to avoid being apples-to-apples."

posted from Bloggeroid

Indonesia's MatahariMall.com expands O2O network

Source: MatahariMall.com website.

E-commerce portal MatahariMall.com (MatahariMall) has expanded its Pickup&PayCOD and eLocker network by signing a MoU with PT Pos Indonesia in Jakarta. MatahariMall deploys an online-to-offline (O2O) model, allowing customers to receive, return, and pay for the goods that they ordered online at offline locations.

The new collaboration creates additional Pickup&PayCOD points at selected post offices. MatahariMall will also be placing eLockers in strategic post office locations in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi, and Bandung.

“To deliver a memorable shopping experience for the customers, MatahariMall will not stop to innovate. One of such initiatives is expanding its Pickup&PayCOD points, the biggest in Indonesia, starting with 199 cities and regencies, and also eLockers placement in 10 locations of PT Pos Indonesia. The new service will start operating gradually from 8 December 2015,” said Emirsyah Satar, Chairman of MatahariMall.com in his opening speech at the MoU ceremony.

The Indonesian e-commerce industry is experiencing significant growth. The annual value of e-commerce transactions in Indonesia reached US$12 billion in 2014, and is projected by the Indonesian government to grow over US$130 billion in 2020.

"E-commerce plays an important part in Indonesia’s economic growth. This is why we will continue to accelerate the development of technological infrastructure, to maximise the growth of the e-commerce ecosystem in Indonesia,” said the Minister of Communications and Informatics, Rudiantara, who attended the MoU signing event. “The eLocker marks a smart move in utilising technological infrastructure to fulfill Indonesian’s needs for online shopping. The government fully supports MatahariMall and PT Pos Indonesia’s course of action to collaborate.”

MatahariMall’s CEO Hadi Wenas welcomed the government’s support. “This MoU signing exhibits MatahariMall’s serious commitment in delivering a unique shopping experience for customers who live in various areas of Indonesia. Soon, MMall-goers* will be able to pay in 4,500 branches of Pos Indonesia offices, retrieve and pay in 199 cities or regencies, (and enjoy) automated goods retrieval from 10 eLockers placed in post offices around the Jabodetabek and Bandung area.

"This collaboration ensures an easier, safer, and more comfortable experience to online shopping for customers in all cities or regencies, in almost every subdistrict, 42% of villages, and 940 remote transmigration areas in Indonesia. This collaboration between MatahariMall and PT Pos Indonesia strengthens the biggest O2O service in Southeast Asia and Indonesia should be proud,” said Wenas, after the signing of the MoU.

MatahariMall offers two O2O solutions. In big cities, MatahariMall will be supported by PopBox Asia. In other cities and regencies, MatahariMall offers Pickup&PayCOD services. MatahariMall also collaborates with PT Pos Indonesia in sending out goods across Indonesia.

"PT Pos Indonesia is sincerely committed to present the best services for Indonesia. There has been a significant increase of people who embrace online shopping, and it continues to escalate year by year. This encourages us to meet the needs for online shopping, (in a) fast and comfortable manner by providing MatahariMall’s eLockers in PT Pos Indonesia’s branch offices,” said Gilarsi WS, President Director, PT Pos Indonesia.

“This collaboration is a wonderful step in our vision to take part in nurturing Indonesia’s economic growth. We hope that this strategic collaboration can be proven beneficial for people in second tier cities and remote areas throughout Indonesia,” said Emirsyah Satar.

*MMall-goers are MatahariMall customers.