Apple’s iBeacon on trial at Central World

Nattakit Tangpoonsinthana, executive vice president of marketing, said yesterday that while urbanisation has driven the retail industry in recent years with the growth of shopping malls in the provinces, the new retail landscape is being reshaped by the Millennials and Generation Z shoppers.

Millennials are people aged about 21-30 and Gen Z are 15-20. Although these two groups represent only 10-20 per cent of shoppers, they are leading the voices in social media and influencing purchases and consumption.

“Retailers must give importance to these new-generation shoppers, who will be the game-changers of the retail industry and general businesses within five years,” he said.

To fulfil the needs of these shoppers, CPN, which is aiming to become a leader in the regional retail industry, is creating a seamless experience, focusing on customisation and becoming a social enterprise.

iBeacon enables tenants to send tailored messages to shoppers who have loaded the CentralWorld app on their smartphones.

CPN is also talking with a software company to mine Big Data from its The 1Card customer relationship management programme, which holds mountains of data on 8 million-9 million members.

The Millenniums and Gen Z shoppers have already shaken up the fashion world, which has launched more frequent new collections and “limited editions”.

To address the tastes of these groups who get bored fast, CPN will have to create more “wows” and “happenings”, launch concept stores and speed up store renovations from every eight to nine years in the past to every four to five years now.

CPN has increased its digital marketing budget to 10 per cent of its Bt700 million marketing budget from just 3 per cent in the past.

Marketing staff have to have digital literacy. Store managers must know not only on how to run their physical branches but also how to engage and converse with their shoppers online.