With the sudden surge of sales especially during each round of panic buying, we tapped on our internal resources across all of FairPrice Group and the NTUC group of Social Enterprises. We also have in place a structured volunteer programme called “One FairPrice Family” where we are able to draw manpower support at short notice from non-frontline departments to help at our stores. They performed various tasks like bagging at checkout counters, replenishing stocks or collecting trolleys. In addition, we hired temporary staff and during the circuit breaker, we leveraged on companies that had staff put on hold like the hospitality and F&B sectors – providing temporary employment for their staff. 

We have our own transportation under our supply chain. However, to manage the surge in demand of goods, we also tapped on third party transportation to augment the fleet. We also worked with our suppliers to leverage on their logistics chain.

At FairPrice, our online retail platform is complementary to our brick and mortar business. We look to leverage both platforms to offer a seamless omni-channel experience for our customers. The key is to find the right balance and be agile in adapting to the market quickly to best provide for the needs of our customers. Last year, we saw a surge in online demand and we needed to ramp up our delivery capacity very quickly. So we converted a fully operational brick and mortar store into an online fulfilment store, or a “dark store”, which helped to increase delivery capacity by up to 25 percent. To augment these efforts, several of our larger hypermarkets and supermarkets spread across the island also function as “fulfil-from-store” sites to serve our online customers. We continue to keep a close watch on the market and will adapt accordingly to serve the needs of our customers. 

We see technology as a means to serving our customers better. When it comes to digitisation, there are always new technologies and we need to assess if they are relevant to our business and implemented at an appropriate time. FairPrice uses a wide range of technologies in various aspects of our business, be it our online retail platform, self-service technologies on the stores, or digitising back-end processes. As we introduce new technology, we are also mindful that users need to be receptive to them as well.

Take self-checkout counters for example. We were one of the first retailers to introduce this technology, which required customers to play an active role in the checkout process. But we were mindful this required time and effort to educate and acclimatise customers. Today, we have 640 self-checkout counters installed in 107 of our stores as customers have become much more accustomed to using the system.

Our latest digitisation initiative looks to provide an omni-channel user interface through our FairPrice app that allows shoppers to toggle seamlessly between shopping online and at physical stores, making payment digitally while earning, redeeming and tracking their LinkPoints. The app is also integrated with the “Scan and Go” service available currently at 14 stores across the island, which allows customers to scan and checkout products directly on their mobile phones, empowering customers to skip the queue – the cashless functionality and option to skip the queue are pertinent features especially during the pandemic.

There’s a selection process for the BA influencers program. We are looking for a few qualities, to name a few: passion (about the brand), potential, personality, personable and presentable in front of the camera. We encourage Bas to join the program and there’s an incentive scheme attached to the program. We also get the participating Bas feedback to further enhance the program. Our livestreamings are at 8:30pm, every Friday on @LoccitaneMY and @loccitaneSG. You could also find our past Livestreaming on our IGTV too.

CRM is extremely important and CRM being channel-less is becoming more transparent. Cultivating a channel-less meaningful customer relationship is key to sustainable growth. CRM is not just about campaigns or just loyalty program but much beyond that – customer knowledge and data power house that fuels other customers touchpoints with insights for their decision making. Take link-selling for example, by analyzing data, we know which products have high potential to be sold together and helped both in the store and online.