Qoo10 launches virtual supermart

Singapore-based e-commerce platform Qoo10 is holding its biggest ever offline event – Qoo10 Super Sale - CNY Edition at Suntec City Convention Centre Halls 401 - 403, from 25 to 28 January 2018 in Singapore.

The company said it sees this as opportunity to venture into the online-to-offline (O2O) concept by organising offline events to give merchants, especially small business owners who do not have sufficient resources to set up their own physical retail store, the opportunity to tap onto a larger pool of customers.

Qoo10 will also be having its first-of-its-kind virtual supermart as one of its main highlights at the Qoo10 Super Sale 2018. The virtual supermart is made up of walls of product images, showcasing products from Qoo10’s sellers from different product categories such as smart gadgets, household essentials. F&B, beauty essentials and baby products.

Each item will be accompanied by a QR code for shoppers to purchase or find out more about the product on Qoo10’s app or website on their smartphones.

This new initiative aims to create a new, all-encompassing retail shopping experience for customers at offline events and at the same time minimise operational costs for merchants in terms of logistics, transportation and manpower as their products will be displayed virtually in the virtual supermart, the shopping site said.

Havaianas, one of Qoo10’s merchants, who believes in the O2O concept, is bringing this concept to life with their very own virtual booth, for the very first time. Shoppers will be able to browse through their popular styles of Havaianas footwear in a vending machine-like setup.

“Shopping is ever-changing and there is a need to think of new ways to make the consumer purchase journey experience more fun, entertaining, and different from the typical retail shopping process. One of it will be through the virtual supermart, where shoppers can just browse, scan the item QR code, and purchase the item just by using their smartphone. In short, this could be the future of retail shopping,” said HyunWook Cho, country manager of Qoo10 Singapore.

Qoo10’s previous event, the Qoo10 10.10 Shopping Evolution, was held at Plaza Singapura in October last year.