Watsons Hong Kong bags two wins at Retail Asia Awards

It was recognised for its digital platform and sustainability project.

Watsons Hong Kong, of the leading O+O (Offline plus Online) health and beauty retailers in Asia Watsons, clinched two major categories at the recently held Retail Asia Awards and won the awards Digital Initiative of the Year - Hong Kong for the success of its Watsons eDr App and Sustainability Initiative of the Year - Hong Kong for its sustainability projects Greener Store, recycling programme, Sustainable Choices & Go Green Campaign.

Watsons continually set the standards in the health, wellness, and beauty market, providing O+O personalised advice and counselling services in health, beauty, and personal care on top of its market-leading product range, making customers LOOK GOOD, DO GOOD, FEEL GREAT every day.

The Watsons eDr App platform received the Digital Initiative of the Year - Hong Kong category in the awards programme. Retail Asia Awards gathers the region's best retailers and recognises major breakthroughs, innovations, and key players in the Asia retail industry.

The Watsons eDr App with its unique “Offline plus Online” strategy digitises several healthcare services, which include general practitioner and Chinese medicine online consultation. The app aims to provide its consumers with an effortless, one-stop experience for managing their health. It drives the company to bring customers a healthier and more beautiful life.

Watsons eDr App allows Watsons Hong Kong to offer online medical consultation services provided by registered doctors in Hong Kong. The online consultation also provides a suitable prescription and treatment tailored to each customer. This also provides a one-stop service for an online body check booking and professional consultation towards 3-Highs treatment. 

Moreover, this platform allows patients to consult with doctors in as quick as three minutes, stay home and get their medications delivered to their doors, and access the latest health topics.

Meanwhile, Watsons Hong Kong has been actively taking actions to protect the environment, realising a seamless O+O green shopping experience, and strengthening its commitment to sustainable development.

Watsons introduced various sustainability projects with the Greener Stores Global Framework project to help accelerate the global movement towards a more sustainable future to achieve a reduction in carbon emissions, water usage, and landfill waste, as well as offer more sustainable choices and encourage the public to adopt at Go Green lifestyle.

The framework project is looking into eight major aspects where it will be able to forge and inspire the public to build a stronger sustainability culture and practice in the way it designs. These aspects are sustainability engagement, sustainable choices, customer engagement, well-being, responsible materials, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and waste diversion.

To foster a sustainable culture with customers, Watsons Hong Kong is the first health and beauty chain store in Hong Kong to implement a territory-wide plastic container recycling programme since 2015. It has also partnered with suppliers to launch recycling programmes to encourage customers to recycle plastic, glass, aluminium, and beauty containers at Watsons stores. In collaboration with P&G and L’Oreal, over 360,000 containers have been collected in 2022.

As part of the campaign, Watsons also joined forces with Cantopop boy band MIRROR to empower 18 million members to “Go Green” across four Asian markets, including Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Singapore. The campaign aims to encourage customers to take positive actions in their daily lives to make more sustainable choices and Go Green together. It resulted in a strong store presence and 2x points incentives. It has also achieved over $21m in PR value and 600,000 social reach.

The Retail Asia Awards is presented by Retail Asia Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2024 awards programme and be acclaimed for your company's exceptional products or initiatives in the retail industry, please contact Jane Patiag at [email protected].