Dear SRA Community, We have been busy!! We’ve got a refreshed website for you to know your Association better! It is packed with the latest updates on upcoming SRA events and training programmes for your participation as well as resources on exclusive industry insights and what government grants are available for you. There is also a dedicated segment on the Code of Conduct (CoC) so do check in for more updates at www.sra.org.sg A Retail Sector (Operations & Technology) roadmap titled “Re-imagine Singapore Retail” has also been developed by SRA by the industry, for the industry. SRA will be organising a series of webinars to share with you and the retail community at large about this 5-year SRA Retail Sector Roadmap and welcome industry leaders to participate in the relevant Task Force which will be formed to implement the various key initiatives to achieve the various desired outcomes. Stay tuned! With manpower a constant challenge to overcome, don’t miss out on our Job Redesign Workshops where we will impart to retailers the necessary skills to build a future ready and productive workforce in response to today’s growing digital economy. Our collaboration with Lazada for SRA’s signature Great Singapore Sales (GSS) has turned in great results! Looking forward to SRA members on LazMall load up great offers to end GSS on a high note on 7.7! Coming your way are more sales opportunities to help retailers generate more sales in our Gospree ‘Hari Raya Haji’ Festive Sales promotions. Sign up if not already onboard! Stay Safe! Your SRA Secretariat Team |
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| FEATURE ARTICLE: 5 THINGS TO FOCUS ON WHEN NAVIGATING THE NEW RETAIL LANDSCAPE |
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1. Earn the trust of shoppers In a world where trust in institutions and organisations can feel in short supply, retailers who are felt to be working in the best interests of their customers will surely be disproportionately rewarded with their loyalty. Never has embedding and living the right values felt more important. This will be as true at a global level as it is at a hyper-local one.
2. (Re) Focus on purpose Those retail firms that have endured are driven by a strong sense of purpose: that they exist to do more than purely transact with shoppers and make money for owners. The most admired retailers were all founded on a strong sense of purpose – to democratise affordable design (IKEA), to save people money so they can live better (Walmart), to promote the happiness of all of its customers (John Lewis). But it can feel that for some retailers a strong sense of purpose has been lost as financial goals came to dominate. All retailers will need a sharp focus on their deeper purpose if they are to earn or regain the trust of their shoppers.
3. Truly understand what shoppers want Relatively less attention has been given to how shoppers want to engage with retailers. This needs to change. Retailers must be willing to move a long way from their historic roots and shopper engagement practices to secure their futures. Shopper behaviours have changed far more quickly than would have been thought possible before the pandemic and retailers must identify these changes, strip out the noise, understand how they will play out and rapidly reorganise their businesses accordingly.
4. Organise around the shopper For many retailers, greater attention needs to be given to organising the enterprise around the shopper rather than according to operational convenience. For some, online engagement will need to be ramped up considerably and very quickly. For example, in UK department store retailing, John Lewis is implementing plans to close stores opened as recently as five years ago and has a target of 60% of sales from online channels. Others will also need to sharply accelerate existing store closure plans alongside revisiting the purpose and configuration of any remaining physical stores. Stores must reassure shoppers that they are safe environments whilst encouraging them to engage with rich in-store experiences.
5. Deliver on the promise of truly frictionless shopping Contactless shopping is perhaps the critical component of frictionless shopping experiences, serving to both reassure shoppers around personal safety as well as delivering on their convenience expectations. At least some of the technologies deployed in the much-cited Amazon Go staff-free grocery stores seem certain to have wider applications in other retail settings also.
Source: Said Business School’s Oxford Answers series by Candezent Advisory partners Jonathan Reynolds & Alan Treadgold. See www.retail.org.sg/resources.php for more info. |
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The SRA Retail Sector Roadmap is an outcome of the Sector Operations & Technology (SOTR) workshops conducted to visualise how the retail sector can grow and transform by capitalising on the right drivers, products, services and technologies. Over 20 retail leaders from across different retail sub-sectors actively participated in a series of workshops in the past few months to help develop this 5-year roadmap for the retail sector. Titled “Re-imagine Singapore Retail, this was unveiled by Mr R Dhinakaran on 24 June 2021 in a closed-door session with Mr Chee Hong Tat, NTUC Deputy Secretary-General and Ms Yeo Wan Ling, NTUC Director of U SME and U Women and Family. They were joined by SRA Council, ESG and retail leaders involved in developing the roadmap. The customised retail sector roadmap will help SRA better assist and provide guidance to our members and the retail community to: - Gain a broader perspective to accelerate business transformation
- Lead the retail community forward through a unified strategy
- Identify suitable resources to support companies’ business growth and manpower transformation
Special thanks to NTUC Training and Transformation for facilitating the workshops and roadmap process, and to SRA Council for their guidance and the following companies who offered their valuable time, insights and contribution, namely; - Archipedia Pte Ltd
- BHG (Singapore) Pte Ltd
- Courts (Singapore) Pte Ltd
- Craftmark (S) Pte Ltd
- eLush (T3) Pte Ltd
- NTUC FairPrice Co-operative Ltd
- Pertama Merchandising Pte Ltd (Harvey Norman)
- Pet Lovers Centre
- Sam & Sara Holdings Pte Ltd
- Star 360 Holdings Pte Ltd
- Wing Tai Retail Management Pte Ltd
- Jay Gee Enterprises (Pte) Ltd
- Commune Lifestyle Pte Ltd
What’s next? The 3 key workstreams led by SRA will be: |
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Eager to be a Task Force member on any of the above workstreams and help implement this roadmap? Register your interest here and we will be in touch with you shortly. |
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GREAT SINGAPORE SALE on 6.6 . HERE’S HOW WELL WE DID!
- 12 minutes to reach $6.6 Million in sales!
- 180% MORE shoppers who throng Lazada due to GSS
- More than 48,000 local brands onboard this year due to GSS
- Over $17 million worth of Lazada bonuses collected
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Technology has changed the landscape of modern retail. It has been proven that without a retail online commerce, you will lose your competitiveness. We understand that for some businesses, embarking on online retail (eMarketplace or developing your own eCommerce sites) may still be in the pipeline due to cost, manpower and time constraints. Fret not! Sign up as our GoSpree Merchant and reach out to over 80,000 GoSpree shoppers to generate traffic and sales in your stores – physical and online! GoSpree brings retail and service stores, shopping malls, dining outlets, attractions, leisure activities and hotels located island-wide all ’under one site’. As an agnostic unified marketing platform, you can :- - Have your own BRAND PAGE and post your brand story
- Post unlimited number of promotional offerings be it discounts, free gifts, free trials by way of an eCoupon for in-store (or online redemption)
- Direct shoppers to the marketplace platforms you are trading on
- Publicise your promotional QR code in-store to heighten awareness of the various promotions available to drive sales
- Have visibility of how your promotions fared – eCoupons download and redeemed
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Sign up NOW as our GoSpree Merchant and take advantage of the Hari Raya Haji @GoSpree Festive Sale! We will publicise the sales campaign through EDMs and on FB, Instagram, Attractive promotional offers will be highlighted! Already a GoSpree Merchant? Have trouble logging in? Not a GoSpree Merchant yet? |
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Just newly recruited new hires OR looking to hire new talents to take on your company’s digital transformation and innovation programme? Then sign them up for the Professional Conversion Programme (PCP) for Professional Executives (Retail Track) and enjoy up to 90% of course fee funding and 3 months’ salary* support (T&C apply). Applications must be submitted within one month of your new hires. Our 1st intake will commence 13 Jul 2021.
This is a 3-month programme which comprises facilitated classroom training with customised structured on-the-job training to help new hires understand new retail trends in the retail economy and equip them with the necessary competencies and skills such as data analytics, omni-channel marketing, service innovation to support your company’s digital transformation and innovation development. Administered by Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) in partnership with Singapore Retailers Association (SRA). This PCP will provide support for companies to hire and train career switchers to take on new job roles such as Retail Digital Executives, Supervisors or Junior Managers. SRA will train programme participants on the following 4 modules specially curated and developed by:- - Dr Lynda Wee, CEO of Bootstrap Pte Ltd (NTU Adjunct Professor and ACLP Certified Trainer)
- New Retailing & The Economy
- Omni Marketing (Online and Offline)
- Mr Andrew Tan, Founder of Atomi Pte Ltd (NTU Adjunct Lecturer and ACLP Certified Trainer).
- Digital Mindset Journey with Customers using CRM
- Data Visualisation in Retail in Sales and Inventory
Here’s what some of our employers have to say about the upcoming programme. Pauline Ong, Founder, Exquisites Jewels: “Exquisites Jewels has always been in an innovative company adapting and embracing change. This PCP (Retail Track) is timely as we are advancing our company to an omni channel strategy. In particular, the PCP (Retail Track) is a very suitable programme for our recently hired Assistant Marketing Manager as it will supplement our on-the-job training with practical digital marketing programme. The duration of this 3-month PCP programme is also appropriate in providing a balanced work and learn environment. We also feel comforted that SRA and SNEF are behind this PCP which gives us much assurance on the quality of this programme.” Alexis Ang, Director, HHMK Production Pte Ltd: “We are happy to know that we could tap on the Professional Conversion Programme (PCP) Retail track to hire new employee with the interest to enter the retail sector. Our PCP candidate, Codi is hired as a Digital Marketing Manager to plan, implement and optimise sales and marketing efforts across various online and offline channels for the company. She is excited to kick start her learning and on-the-job training in Jul 2021!” |
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Interns enable you to recruit quality entry-level talent into your company and assess how well they contribute to projects and ‘fit in’ to the company culture. If the intern performs well during their internship, it saves you time and reduce costs in seeking out new hires from the job market. Studies show that many Fortune 500 companies retain more than 80% of their interns as entry-level hires, stocking the company with trained and enthusiastic young talents. Here’s more good reasons why you should tap on the Global Ready Talent (GRT) Programme to engage interns:-
- Obtain affordable workforce support to implement projects
- Test potential employees before hiring them
- Develop a ready talent pipeline
- Increase higher retention rate when converted into an employee
- Establish a good relationship with IHLs for future business projects and operations
SUTL Sports Retailing Pte Ltd is one of many employers onboard on the GRT programme who have offered internship opportunities to more than 40 students from various ITEs and Polytechnics since March 2020. From this pipeline of talents, they already have plans to hire them as their full-time staff. SUTL Group is a distributor of consumer and lifestyle goods and services under SUTL Consumer Goods, representing some of the world’s most well-loved brands and products ranging from tobacco, wines, spirits, beer and beverages to household items, cosmetics and fragrances. It is also the largest operator of Nike-only stores/ retail chain in Singapore and Malaysia.
Not on the GRT Programme yet? Fill up the interest form here and click here to find out more ! |
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The Retail Pulse is SRA’s exclusive e-newsletter for all Members. Not receiving our newsletter and/or emails? |
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| WHITELIST 'SRA.ORG.SG' & “EVENTBANKMAIL.COM” DOMAINS TO RECEIVE EMAIL CORRESPONDENCES FROM SRA |
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Microsoft Office 365 provides protection for our email accounts with automatic filters that divert suspected spam to a separate folder away from the Inbox. While this safeguard is usually helpful, valid emails from companies, colleagues and loved ones may also end up in the spam folder.
Creating a whitelist tells the programme which domains it should always allow through and eliminates the possibility of missing legitimate emails.
Please ask your IT Administrator to whitelist sra.org.sg and eventbankmail.com so you can continue to receive communications from SRA. |
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which come with your membership. For more enquiries, please email info@sra.org.sg |
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