Watsons Singapore Tackles Pandemic with Omni-Channel O+O strategy and innovations

It was the first and only retailer to launch a forSGbySG initiative to support local health and beauty brand owners.

Despite a challenging year, Watsons Singapore rose to the challenge with more than 50% of the market share in Health & Beauty channel in majority of the categories and emerged as the brand with the highest brand equity amongst its competitors. 

At the core of this mean feat is its Online + Offline (O+O) Omni-Channel Strategy, harnessing of technology whilst at the same time serving its corporate responsibility to the environment and our community.   

Watsons Singapore has long embarked on the journey of driving O+O before pandemic strikes. Aggressively driving Watsons eStore means consumers can now shop anytime, anywhere via web or app much more easily than ever, and enjoy innovative in-app functions such as ColourMe – a virtual makeup try-on function. Collaboration with market players such as Lazada, Shopee, GrabMart and PandaMart simply means that more consumers can now shop Watsons products via a wide variety of channels.  

Innovations proved to be more important than ever in this pandemic. They are the only health and beauty retailer in Singapore to have more than 50% of their stores fitted with self-checkout counters that accept NETS/credit cards for payment as well as the only retailer in H&B to roll out Scan & Go service. These technology initiatives not only reduce customers’ waiting time for payment, thereby increasing efficiency on the part of the customers and staff, it’s also proven to be extremely useful in times of pandemic where human contact should be minimized. 

Watsons has a wide product assortment that is highly differentiated. Extensive exclusive brands across the different categories create excitement for their customers whilst its house brands and private labels provide great choices for customers at affordable prices.   

During the retail slump of 2020, Watsons was the first Health & Beauty retailer to launch a forSGbySG initiative in collaboration with Enterprise Singapore, to support local health and beauty brand owners by increasing their brand exposure and sales. 

To keep pace and lead the urgent fight against plastic waste, Bring Your Own Bag (BYOB) Tuesday was launched across all their stores from end December 2020 to reduce the use of plastics. 100% of all proceeds from the plastic bag charge on Tuesdays go towards supporting WWF-Singapore’s conservation efforts. 

The above combined multichannel and forward-thinking initiatives helped Watsons Singapore bag Health and Beauty Retailer of the Year – Singapore trophy at the Retail Asia Awards 2021. Besides this, another accolade to add to their belt is Store Design of the Year – Singapore, for Watsons’ flagship store at Ngee Ann City. 

This 6,672 sqft store has been Watsons’ flagship for 15 years. To keep up with current trends and appeal to trendy local and overseas consumers, Watsons Takashimaya is constantly reimagined and revamped to surprise customers to step up their shopping experience.

Customers who visit Watsons Takashimaya will readily notice the frontage decked in eye-catching RBG light-changing trim lights with an interactive large screen HDR LED TV displays. A 7m by 2m interactive LED floor display will greet them upon entrance, leading them into a well-organised retail space conducive for hours of shopping.  

The façade also houses a flexible events area where suppliers could hype up with innovative themes and décor for their product launches to entice and engage our consumers. 

When imagining the interiors of a personal care store, sustainable material may be one of the last things that come to mind. Not so for Watsons Singapore and its commitment towards sustainability, which inspired the famous Health & Beauty chain to use Bagasse or crushed sugarcane residue for a section of its newly designed store.