Singapore mall operator to launch e-commerce ordering platforms
eCapitaMall lets shoppers browse and shop for their purchases from CapitaLand’s retailers online, before purchasing in-store, or online. For online purchases, shoppers can opt to pick them up in-store or have them delivered.
Singapore's CapitaLand has unveiled plans to introduce two platforms offering e-commerce and food delivery services. The launch aims to boost sales of retailers operating in its shopping malls and tap digital channels to reach the mall operator's loyalty programme members.
Slated to be available from June 1, both platforms will be accessible via mobile apps and web browsers.
The new e-commerce site, eCapitaMall, features products and services of various retailers, most of which operate in CapitaLand's local malls. The real estate group runs 18 malls in Singapore housing more than 2,000 stores.
With its contact tracing app shoring up just 1.4 million downloads, Singapore is now making a new digital check-in system compulsory -- from May 12 -- at selected locations including workplaces, schools, supermarkets, and healthcare facilities.
The "curated digital mall" would provide shoppers the option of browsing online before purchasing in-store or browsing in-store before buying online, said CapitaLand in a statement Friday. Customers can choose to deliver their purchases to their home or pick them up in-store.
The food ordering platform, Capita3Eats, also offers consumers various ways to have their meal -- either through home delivery, takeaway, or dine-in. Its dine-in option, however, will only be offered in the third quarter or when the country's current COVID-19 safe distancing measures are eased. F&B retailers currently are not allowed to offer dine-in services.
In addition, from the third quarter of 2020, CapitaStar loyalty members will be able to use their eCapitaVoucher to pay for online orders. They also will earn STAR$ points for transactions they make on both platforms.
CapitaLand Singapore's retail managing director Chris Chong said: "The circuit breaker has brought to the fore the importance of an omnichannel, 24 by 7 strategy for Singapore's retailers... We want to help our retailers reach out to more consumers and online business opportunities.
"Retailers on our eCapitaMall and Capita3Eats platforms will get a leg up in the digital space by tapping the more than 1 million CapitaStar members in Singapore and marketing reach through our physical network," Chong said. "Shoppers also stand to benefit from the additional opportunities to earn and spend STAR$ in-store and online."
He added that the real estate group, in the long-run, aimed to be "an ecosystem provider" for its network, offering support for its partners online and offline.
CapitaLand said it had been expanding its e-commerce offerings over the past months, launching its digital voucher service eCapitaVoucher in February last year, with which customers could redeem, buy, and gift through the CapitaStar app.
The mall operator also featured product catalogues of tenants in its newly reopened mall Funan in June 2019, making these available via its website and in-mall interactive directories to facilitate shoppers' digital and offline product discovery process. Some mall services, such as car park lots reservations and the booking of futsal courts in Funan, are also available on the CapitaStar app.
Source: Eileen Yu for By The Way (May 23, 2020)
