China – During the past three years over the pandemic, the Chinese division of wellness retail brand Watsons has opened up nearly 850 physical stores in Mainland China with the aim to supercharge its Offline Plus Online (O+O) platform strategy. This time, nothing is stopping it in its tracks to further strengthening said O+O strategy where the Chinese arm revealed it will be launching 300 more new stores by this year.
Over the pandemic, Watsons has been striving for innovation in its store designs by renovating nearly 440 stores in over 300 cities in Mainland China. This brings Watsons China’s total store count to 3,900 as of present across 500 cities.
Just recently, it has further launched an upgraded Watsons store and a Colorlab 2.0 makeup concept store in Shanghai Qingpu Wuyue Plaza and Jiangsu Changzhou Wuyue Plaza, respectively, enhancing the O+O customer shopping experience.
Malina Ngai, CEO of A.S. Watson for Asia & Europe, said that O+O is the new standard of retail and that by seamlessly integrating offline and online platforms, the O+O platform strategy helps the brand better understand its customers’ needs.
“Our customer insights show that at Watsons China the spending of our O+O customers who shop with us in both physical and online stores is 3.1 times more than those who shop with us only in the physical stores. Thus, O+O platform strategy is proved to be very important for us,” said Ngai.
On the new design of the said newly launched concept stores, the health and beauty retailer shared that the fresh vibrant decorations are meant to bring excitement to the younger generations.
The upgraded Watsons store in Shanghai Qingpu Wuyue Plaza features a dedicated skincare zone that provides a comprehensive skincare experience to customers. Not only are customers given the opportunity to try out the most advanced and professional skin analysis equipment inside the store, but they are also able to seek personalised advice from in-store beauty advisors.
According to Watsons, since the first Colorlab makeup concept store launched in Shenzhen in January 2018, it has been well-received by beauty-goers, hence the launch of the Colorlab 2.0 makeup concept store. Decorated in classic black, white, and grey combined with a refreshing ‘Watsons green’ transparent colour tone, the Colorlab 2.0 makeup concept store aims to create a fashionable and chic makeup space for customers.
Ngai added, “Looking ahead, the O+O platform strategy will still be our core growth engine, and physical stores will continue to play a significant role in creating irreplaceable O+O customer experience. Therefore, Watsons plans to open over 300 new stores in Mainland China this year with an innovative store design enriching product assortment and providing an advanced customer experience to better suit the needs of customers.”
“Retail is not dead; it just needs to be better for our customers,” Ngai concluded.
