Tag: Retail platform

Australia – Following its global expansion, unified retail platform Zitcha has announced the appointment of Josh Forsyth as its new sales lead for APAC.

In addition to growing Zitcha’s Australian and New Zealand business, Forsyth will help lead its push across Asia to empower retailers to monetise their onsite, offsite and in-store media assets.

These assets include websites, social media, above the line advertising, display, search, email and in-premise, allowing brands in APAC to target audiences using first-party data and personalisation to drive incremental revenues for both retailers and brands.

Forsyth joins Zitcha after more than eight years working in senior sales, partnerships and operations roles for major adtech businesses including Yahoo, The Trade Desk and Vistar Media, where he helped educate and implement clients on new and emerging programmatic channels.

Speaking on his appointment, Forsyth said, “Zitcha is a market leading retail media platform that continues to innovate to meet the needs of retailers and brands that understand the value in building and operating effective retail media networks. Having watched its success from afar for a while now, I’m delighted to join the team as we capitalise on existing Australia and New Zealand opportunities and turn our sights to the phenomenal opportunities that exist across Asia.”

Meanwhile, Nick Hinsley, chief revenue officer at Zitcha, commented, “Retail media in Australasia and Asia represents a significant, but so far relatively untapped opportunity for retailers, wanting to more efficiently and effectively leverage their own media assets for brand advertising partners. The appointment of Josh is the exciting next development in Zitcha’s continued success locally and our move into Southeast Asia and beyond.”

“While we are a technology business at heart, it is the expertise of people, such as Josh, who put customers first and become trusted advisors for retailers in this new and fast growing retail media space. This depth of talent and capability within Zitcha enables retailers and brands to navigate what is the third and biggest wave in digital advertising after search and social, and we’re delighted Josh is on the team,” he added.

Singapore – Global logistics service provider J&T Express Singapore has announced new enhancements to its existing services and collaborations to meet the shifting retail demands of businesses and consumers. 

The new enhancements are part of J&T’s broader move to tap into the latest trends in the B2B retail landscape and better meet the needs of both businesses and consumers. 

First on the list of improvements for the logistics service provider is the launch of an all-in-one delivery solution to provide B2B transportation for businesses. This is an addition to their current e-commerce logistics services and will respond to the increasing demand for flexible logistics services in the retail industry that ensure efficient and cost-effective order fulfilment.

The all-in-one delivery service will offer businesses different vehicle and shipping options, such as single- and multi-way transfer options, warehouse transfers, ad-hoc transfers for parcel deliveries, and less than truck loads (LTL) or full truck loads (FTL), to support varying transportation needs at competitive rates. 

J&T Singapore is also elevating its customer experience as it rolls out a series of new features to its flagship mobile app, J&T Singapore App. The new features include an improved and more user-friendly interface that can now detect the nearest J&T Point to the user based on their location for hassle-free parcel drop-off. 

Furthermore, the logistics service provider is strengthening its ongoing partnership with TikTok Shop and multi-category second-hand marketplace Carousell Singapore. 

On top of its current services, J&T Express Singapore will also work closely with TikTok Shop to provide sales and marketing support. The partnership aims to help drive sales for sellers in the form of competitions and co-funded platform vouchers, showcasing its mission to be “customer-oriented and efficiency-based”.

Meanwhile, as the first logistics service provider to be exclusively integrated into Carousell Singapore’s platform, J&T Express Singapore will bring users more convenient delivery options with fully integrated pick-up service options. This will include the upcoming next-day delivery, self-drop-off at J&T Points located islandwide, and return shipping with complimentary label printing service.

Speaking on the partnership, Doven Yap, head of seller acquisition and incubation at TikTok Shop Singapore, said, “We are pleased to continue our collaboration with J&T Express Singapore. With the support of such a reliable logistics partner, our sellers are empowered to deliver a more seamless shopping experience for customers.” 

Singapore – Criteo has announced the launch of its self-service demand-side platform (DSP) ‘Commerce Max’ as well as its retailer monetisation solution suite. These retail media solutions aim at addressing fragmentation and drive commerce outcomes across the entire advertising ecosystem 

‘Commerce Max’ gives brands and agencies a single point of entry to retail media inventory onsite and across premium publishers offsite. Meanwhile, Criteo’s retailer monetisation solution suite offers retailers the means to tap previously unattainable demand by paving the way for the integration of marketplace and in-store monetisation technologies.

Brands and agencies across the globe can use ‘Commerce Max’ to access data and inventory across multiple retailers and marketplaces, finding valuable audiences on these sites and extending these audiences offsite. This is underpinned by closed-loop measurement, enabling advertisers to quickly and efficiently determine the effectiveness of campaigns and optimise accordingly. 

Moreover, Criteo’s monetisation suite marks the next phase in the development of Criteo’s core monetization technology, ‘Commerce Yield’, which will not only provides retailers and marketplaces with a complete media toolset, but also serves commerce companies such as automakers, movie theaters, transportation services, airlines, amongst others.

Megan Clarken, CEO at Criteo, said, “Our focus is enabling all commerce-driven companies to buy and sell audiences engaged in shopping. The process has to be frictionless, and it has to solve for fragmentation. With today’s launch, we’re equipping our clients with the right tools to cut through and connect in a more unified retail media ecosystem that ultimately creates more unity across the broader advertising marketplace.”

Guangzhou, China – Chinese variety store MINISO has unveiled its new business initiatives this year, by focusing on including more sub-brands to its growing retail platform.

Dubbed the ‘X Strategy’, MINISO aims at diversifying its business and becoming a world-leading new retail platform capable of incubating more sub-brands.

It should be recalled that in December last year, MINISO launched its sub-brand ‘TOPTOY’, a toy store for children and young adults, opening nine stores in five Chinese cities over the last 6 weeks. 

Furthermore, TOPTOY’s launch also paved the way for MINISO’s new strategic product focus this year, centered on the category of ‘Art Toy’.

A branch of TOPTOY inside a MINISO retail chain.

In addition to their new business alignment, MINISO also aims to boost its online presence on top of its proven success in brick-and-mortar channels. This comes also with the announcement of unmanned, self-service stores in China, with products also soon available on all online channels including its own e-commerce, WeChat mini-programs and flagship stores on major e-commerce platforms. Similarly, MINISO will further strengthen its e-commerce channels in key overseas markets.

“COVID-19 is a catalyst that has accelerated our digital transformation and embrace of online channels. We will keep broadening our online sales channels,” said Robin Liu, chief marketing officer at MINISO.

MINISO aims to expand in its domestic market, specifically in tier cities and select rural areas, as well as internationally, in countries with populations of at least 50 million – India, Indonesia, the U.S., Colombia, Mexico, Egypt, and Spain.