Singapore

Retailers and brands looking to establish an online presence quickly and efficiently without having to invest in heavy infrastructure and set-up cost can do so by outsourcing this to an e-commerce enabler.

In an interview with Retail Asia at the recent Amazon Web Services (AWS) Summit, Rajesh Lingappa, co-founder and CTO of RedMart, shared the company’s startup journey. The online grocery was birthed out of necessity by two investors, Roger Egan and Vikram Rupani, who moved from New York to Singapore and found that the city did not offer the convenience of a full-fledged online grocery service that the time-crunched executives were used to in New York. 

The tainted meat scandal in China has affected US fast-food giant Yum Brands’ fourth-quarter results. The parent of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell restaurant chains reported a net loss of US$36 million in the October-December quarter, compared with a net income of US$321 million a year ago.

Global online food delivery company foodpanda.com has gobbled up key competitors in several Asian countries, thereby consolidating its leading position in the Asian food delivery market.

Consumers now have another healthy option for their breakfasts with the launch of Nestlé’s new gluten-free corn flakes.

Keppel Land, one of Asia’s premier property companies, has acquired a 75% in Array Real Estate for a total consideration of S$4.5 million (US$3.5 million).

All eyes are on mobile commercae as data from the 2015 Mobile 500 report demonstrates its unprecedented growth in worldwide retail figures.

Honeywell is a leading provider of innovative voice technology solutions. Its Vocollect Voice enables nearly one million global mobile workers to move US$5-billion worth of goods each day and saves companies more than US$20 billion a year. Larry Sweeney, business development senior director of Honeywell Vocollect Solutions, offers five tips on how retailers can best use Vocollect Voice in an omni-channel environment.

NTUC Fairprice, Singapore’s biggest retailer serving about 400,000 shoppers daily, has increased the number of locations for its online grocery Click&Collect service from seven to 22, just four months after its launch.

Customer experience is a top priority for companies targeting online customers, and it is definitely worth the effort as the amount of sales generated by e-commerce continues to hit new records everywhere.

Redefine roles, curate offering & change employees’ mindset

What can we expect of global grocery trends this year? IGD innovation expert Laura May offers some insights and predictions from its latest report on the global food and consumer goods industry.

Many shoppers today face a common problem — carrying too many loyalty cards and vouchers, and the hassle of filling up forms each time they want to join a new reward programme. Shoppers love loyalty and discount cards, but wish that merchants could make it easier for them.

Sharing best practices through collaborative platforms is one of the best ways to deliver safe and trusted products to consumers, says Food Industry Asia (FIA), a non-profit industry association formed in 2010 to enable major food companies to speak with one voice on complex issues such as food security, food safety and the harmonisation of standards. Pradeep Pant, keynote speaker for this year’s Global Food Safety Conference, shares how the concept of collaboration and ‘Shared Responsibility’ can lead to greater trust in food. Throughout the interview, he stresses the importance of placing consumers at the heart of any business and government strategy.

Data analysis is one of the best ways to help businesses understand their customers, their markets and lots more. This can be done quickly and easily by starting small and using the right business tools and software. Dongbae Park, director, Retail Industries, Microsoft Asia-Pacific, explains how retailers can do this to achieve added business insight and competitiveness.

To say that the retail industry today faces unprecedented change is an understatement. Gone are the days wherein retailers only need to be armed with a “one size fits all” approach. With the fast adoption of smart gadgets and the rapid expansion of free WiFi hotspots and reliable 3G connections, retailers must be prepared to embrace a radical form of thinking to survive the ever-competitive retail landscape.