Tesco Lotus continues to expand its online shopping business, launching new innovations to create a seamless shopping experience for customers in the 4.0 era through leveraging on the strengths of its online and offline businesses. By introducing Lazada kiosks at Tesco Lotus Express and Talad formats, customers are able to select from the extensive offerings available on the Tesco Lotus shop on Lazada and very conveniently have the products delivered to their homes. The retailer plans to inroduce the kiosks at 200 stores every year, particularly in upcountry areas, to allow customers to have better access to quality products and services and help them save time and travel costs. In addition to the kiosks, Tesco Lotus has also opened another online shopping platform on weloveshopping.com, Thailand's 2nd largest online marketplace. The new shopping channel is targeted at female customers.
Mr. Chakkit Chatupanyachotikul, Head of Tesco Online at Lazada, said that: "Since the launch of the Tesco Lotus shop on Lazada in 2014, sales have grown consistently and we are now the biggest shop on the online market place. From 6,000 product items, we now offer more than 12,000 product items across categories including electrical appliances, health and wellness products, and mom & baby products. Around 60 percent of our online customers live in Bangkok and the vicinity, while the remainder live upcountry. Despite Thailand's high internet penetration and mobile internet usage rates, we find that there is a significant gap between Bangkok and other cities, when it comes to online shopping. Tesco Lotus has a number of Talad and Express stores in many provinces, and sees an opportunity to use these stores as the points of connection to create a seamless shopping experience for our customers. After three months of trial services at six stores, we received very positive feedback and are now ready to officially offer the services. Our plan is to install these kiosks at approximately 200 stores every year."
"The kiosks link Tesco Lotus's online and offline businesses, drawing on the strengths of each to deliver a truly seamless shopping experience that allows our customers to purchase beyond what they see at the store. Online shopping will help them save time, travel expenses, delivery and installation costs, especially large electrical appliances. Customers who do not live near a large format Tesco Lotus can simply visit their local Express or Talad store and have access to virtually an entire Tesco Lotus hypermarket. The staff at the kiosks assist customers in their purchases, so customers who are not familiar with online shopping will be able to shop comfortably. Payment methods include credit or debit cards, paying at the counter, or cash on delivery."
A study from Nielsen about Thailand's e-commerce market in the Q2/ 2016 shows that one of the key barriers of online shopping in Thailand is lack of confidence in the quality of the products and services. The kiosks installed in a Tesco Lotus store will help to boost customers' confidence as Tesco Lotus is a well-known and trusted brand throughout Thailand.
In addition to the kiosks linking online to offline, the Tesco Lotus shop on Lazada now also offers food items (except fresh food items, which are available via Tesco Lotus Shop Online) such as snacks, instant noodles, hot and cold drinks, and other food items. Soon, shoppers will also be able to collect their Clubcard points when making a purchase online as well.
In order to expand its customer base further, Tesco Lotus has opened an additional online shopping channel on weloveshopping.com, Thailand's 2nd largest online marketplace after Lazada. The site's key demographic is women between the ages of 25-45, which is also Tesco Lotus's stratgic customers. The shop will initially offer around 4,000 product items, particularly health and beauty products, as well as mom and baby products. The new channel is expected to increase Tesco Lotus's online customer base by more than 30 percent.
"These innovations are designed to fulfill the needs of customers in the 4.0 era, who demand access to quality products and services anywhere, any time. Tesco Lotus plans to continue to develop new innovations and improve the shopping experiences for our online customers and their changing needs," Mr. Chakkit concluded.
Tesco Lotus is the number one retailer in Thailand with the largest online business. It currently offers more than 20,000 product items through the Tesco Lotus Shop Online platform, more than 12,000 product items through the Tesco Lotus Shop at Lazada, and now more than 4,000 product items through the Tesco Lotus Shop at weloveshopping.com. In addition to its e-commerce arm, the retailer connects to its customers on the digital platform every day, with more than 3 million fans on Facebook and 28 million fans on Line. Tesco Lotus was also the first retailer in Thailand to introduce the iBeacon technology at all its stores to push useful content, promotions, and discounts directly to customers' mobile devices while shopping in store.