Quill City Mall led an expert forum to discuss the new “phygital” retail future.
Quill City Mall led an expert forum to discuss the new “phygital” retail future.
Quill City Mall is taking a new turn in Year 2020 with a brand new retail strategy: a “phygital” ecosystem that is focused on maximising shoppers’ experience and providing a platform for retailers to engage with consumers in meaningful ways.
Led by Quill City Mall, five retail industry players explored the future of retail impacted by the “phygital” era at an expert forum at Quill City Convention Center recently.
“Many malls in Malaysia is struggling to compete with the rise of online shopping and the short-lived retail gimmicks. The team at Quill City took time to reimagine what the future of retail entails and decided to shift our focus towards understanding shoppers’ behavior,” said Group CEO of Quill Group of Companies, Koong Wai Seng.
“Turns out, the fun of shopping remains although the way we shop has changed. Quill City is determined to meet the ever-evolving consumer expectations and their standards for convenience, entertainment, and of course, the satisfaction of shopping,” added Senior Vice President, Marketing, Quill City Mall, Justin Liew.
“We also need to challenge retailers that had or hadn’t been focused on pushing their products online to reimagine the essential role physical experience play in building strong and memorable relationships with their customers,” said Koong.
According to Koong, it is time we welcome the “phygital” era.
A “phygital” mall is a combination of the physical and digital functionality, and excitement to create the best version of a balanced retail ecosystem.
“Here at Quill City Mall, we’re envisioning a retail model centered around exciting digital interactions, social intimacy and a borderless O2O e-commerce platform within a physical space – a “phygital” mall. It is about designing a shopping platform, a journey within a physical space, with consumer-centric tech infrastructure that facilitates the interactions between consumers and brands throughout the shopping experience,” Koong added.
A sneak peek into their “phygital” features include e-wallet function, borderless payment, smart logistics and digital content marketing such as live streaming by influencers.
New Era Of Phigital:
Physical + Digital = Phigital
Previous = Offline to Online
Now & Future = Online to Offline
To Touch And Feel the Products
Retail Store fill up the Emotional Gap that e-commerce can't give you.
Koong said that Quill City’s “phygital” mall has a vision and purpose to become a platform for local entrepreneurs to showcase their products and reach a wider audience.
“The decision to build a “phygital” mall] stems from our earnest preposition as an industry leader to provide tools and platforms to empower SME’s and retail entrepreneurs,” said Koong.
Quill City also announced their new tenant lineup that each has their unique definition of what a “phygital” concept store means to their brand and customers.
For instance, JD.com, China’s leading one-stop e-commerce platform – has teamed up with Presto, a local social marketing application to form an exhilarating partnership – JDX Presto Concept Store. The store is not only cashless but it is also staffless and borderless. That makes the largest online-to-offline experience store in Malaysia.
Furthermore, E-Sport Center is also settling in with a “phygital” gaming store while UniKL introduces industry exposure projects dedicated to business students.
An expert forum “Future Proof Your Business - New Retail Innovations and Interventions” led by five retail guru including Anwar Jumabhoy (Industry Expert), Kent Lee (Founder of Smuzcity), Redza Shahid (Founder of Grubcycle) and Cheong Chia Chou (CEO of PUC Berhad), moderated by Jonathan Case were held after Koong’s action-packed keynote speech.
CEO of PUC Berhad Cheong Chia Chou presented a staggering statistics that showed a 250 per cent higher purchase rate when retailers engage customers with at least three or more channels; it reaffirms the importance of consistent customer experience and marketing across multiple touchpoints in guaranteeing a higher revenue.
They further confirmed that the future of retail needs to promote intimate social relationships between brands, both international and local, with consumers by building a physical space that is customer experience-centric.
Quill City will soon become a borderless retail, edutainment, and experiential learning center with more international and local tenants to come. Quill invites us to await for more exciting updates as they ease into more “phygital” era in the next 12 months.
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