Singapore

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.

Today’s customer journey is no longer linear, and brick-and-mortar retailers must create an omni-experience for shoppers to glide seamlessly between online and offline, says Terry O’Connor, Group CEO, Courts Asia.

It has been a good 2014 for H&M — its store and online sales surged ahead last year on growing demand and an expanding network of stores worldwide.

Global economy turning gloomy

Tetra Pak, the world leader in food processing and packaging solutions, has introduced the industry’s first carton made entirely from plant based, renewable packaging materials.

Food processing equipment manufacturer FOODesign has launched a new series of automated hot oil cookers and fryers internationally.

Pie Face is planning to open 100 stores in South Korea and 40 in the Philippines, with the first stores expected to open in the first quarter of next year.

Retailing is not what it used to be, with rising operating costs, many alternative ways to shop and the increasing sophistication of customers.

Singapore is a country with an advanced Internet population. Some 80% of Internet users – that is about 3.3 million people – are online daily. It is not surprising therefore that online shopping is increasingly popular in tech-savvy Singapore.

SingTel Advertising has a portfolio of outstanding digital assets that advertisers can leverage to reach different target audiences.

The combination of good research, big data analytics, pre-campaign customer feedback, and effective reach platforms make up an integrated and efficacious integrated campaign that can help the retailer reach out to the desired target consumer group in the right place and at the right time, resulting in higher rates of conversion from targeted audience to purchasers.