Not just for travellers: How KrisShop reinvented itself in a pandemic
Inside KrisShop'south office in Changi Business Park, at that place are two TV screens mounted on the walls of its foyer. The company's CEO, 45-year-old Chris Pok, tells me that i 24-hour interval, he envisions seeing a live flying tracker displayed on the screens, with real-time information on flights that are generating sales, types of products flying off the shelves, and passenger profiles on who'southward ownership them.
Information technology'southward a distant dream, but it's something that the company is slowly working towards.
KrisShop is known equally the flagship inflight retailer of Singapore Airlines (SIA). But in recent years, it has undergone a major revamp to reposition itself equally a premium omni-aqueduct retailer catering to both travellers and non-travellers alike.
The premise is uncomplicated – you don't take to be travelling in order to shop on KrisShop.
Leading the charge is Pok, who has spent over xx years of his career with SIA. Pok first started out in logistics, before moving into internal audit and eventually sales and merchandising. Or as he summarised, "The first part of my career, I spent coin, and so went into checking how people spend money, and the balance of the time, figuring out how to earn that money back."
Pok's career in SIA likewise included overseas stints in Australia, Indonesia, Communist china and other locations, before he returned to Singapore in 2017. When KrisShop was established as a carve up subsidiary in December 2018, Pok took on the part of CEO (or shopkeeper, every bit he indicates on his LinkedIn contour).
"At the time, what nosotros were seeing was that the traditional airline travel retail model has not changed for a long, long time," shared Pok. In a sum, the model revolved around a sales catalogue, which isn't updated for three months, and an inflight sales cart that is limited in space, Pok explained. "There was a huge mismatch in demand and supply."
At the aforementioned time, the company observed that over the years, sales on KrisShop'due south website kept growing, especially after KrisFlyer Miles was introduced equally a payment option in 2015.
Understanding that at that place were opportunities in the online infinite, the company and then spent two years on an all-encompassing brand revamp, culminating with the launch of a new KrisShop eastward-commerce website, unveiled in Baronial 2019.
AGILITY IN CRISIS
On hindsight, the decision to rebrand KrisShop as a holistic omnichannel platform boded well for the company.
After its rebranding, the company striking a tape high in sales in Dec 2019, simply not long subsequently, the COVID-19 crisis struck, effectively upending the unabridged travel industry.
"We were looking frontwards to 2022 with great hope. Just then came January 2020, the first sign that something was happening. Feb and March rolled around, and that'southward when nosotros hit a low," Pok recalled.
SIA had begun cutting back on flights, leading to a slowdown in KrisShop's inflight sales. "The majority of our customer base was passengers. At that point in time, we had to make a decision – practise we close down and go into hibernation while waiting for business to restart, or do we look for other opportunities? We knew that we couldn't go into hibernation considering nosotros didn't know how long this crisis would last."
With KrisShop.com already fully operational, the team made the conclusion to channel all its efforts online. "Nosotros came to the important realisation that hey, our customers are still effectually. They're just not passengers. They may be landbound, but they are still our customers," said Pok.
"Nosotros knew that we couldn't go into hibernation because nosotros didn't know how long this crisis would concluding." – Chris Pok
A Become-TO LIFESTYLE PLATFORM
In the face of a crisis, KrisShop pivoted chop-chop. The company embarked on a rapid expansion of its assortment of brands and products, at the aforementioned time sharpening its home commitment strategy so that customers could receive their orders as early as possible.
So, what tin shoppers purchase on KrisShop.com now? Well, information technology'south an extensive range of lifestyle products, from wellness supplements, work desks, bicycles, kitchen appliances, toys, pet food, bedding, smart watches, mobile phones and more than.
Pok shares that the platform's bestselling products thus far have been a reflection of the immediate needs of its customers. With COVID-19 bringing the importance of wellness to the fore, "I can meet a lot of people buying stuff that helps them maintain their state of happiness, for example, Banyan Tree spa products and essential oils," Pok said.
"I have also personally tried LED face masks and I realised why they are really worth buying because they really give you that 10 minutes of Zen," Pok quipped.
Fitness products such as yoga mats and golf watches accept also been popular on the platform, forth with ergonomic chairs and gadgets to aid in working from home.
"When homebased learning is implemented, nosotros too see a lot of toys sell," Pok added. Pok himself purchased several activeness kits for his seven-year-old girl during this time, including the reusable Colour Me Mats. "It gives children repeated happiness considering they tin can wash and redo their colouring once more, and you get 30 minutes of your own time," he said.
FINDING A NICHE
To stand out in a competitive east-commerce landscape, KrisShop launched a series of concept stores, with products curated according to themes. The KrisShop@Dwelling house concept store, for instance, was launched during the pandemic lockdown for shoppers to browse a option of products catered towards elevating the stay-dwelling experience.
With Singaporeans stuck in their home country, the KrisShop Moments concept store aims to entertain with floral arrangement workshops, dining experiences, spa treatments, diving classes and more bachelor for buy.
The With Love, SG concept store, on the other hand, was launched to back up and champion local brands.
"From my feel, when you alive overseas, you tend to miss habitation. When you miss home, you talk most products that you tin can buy from home," shared Pok. "When I came back [to Singapore] and started running KrisShop, I realised that we can do a lot more for our local brands. We created the With Love, SG concept store to use our platform to aid interesting local brands friction match upwards and come across a global customer base."
KrisShop now has more than 140 local brands listed on its platform, spanning nutrient, way, accessories, wellness, beauty, home and living. Brands include Fossa Chocolate, Aureate Duck, Bynd Artisan, Janice Wong, Palola and more.
In add-on, the company has signed a three-yr partnership with the Singapore Tourism Lath to j ointly market homegrown brands and grow their e-commerce reach. KrisShop.com is also the sectional e-commerce platform for Pattern Orchard.
Meanwhile, the Batik Label past KrisShop concept store f eatures a curated selection of sectional products featuring SIA'due south iconic batik pattern.
The limited-edition Singapore Airlines mahjong set created quite a fleck of buzz when it was launched in December concluding twelvemonth. Information technology sold out within two weeks.
Fans of the batik print can wait frontward to more than of such unique products in the coming months. "The mahjong gear up really took the states by surprise. That gave us a lot of encouragement and a lot of opportunities to piece of work with brands [to co-design products]. Nosotros have a lot more lined up, which volition be launched towards the stop of the year," teased Pok.
LEVELLING Upward THE INFLIGHT SHOPPING EXPERIENCE
Now that Singapore has launched more than Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTLs) with several countries including Frg, Republic of korea, the UK, France, Italian republic, holland and others, Pok believes this marks a "much-needed turning bespeak for the travel manufacture". "We take an optimistic view on the development and are of course hopeful nearly its potential to spur the recovery of leisure tourism-related retail," he said.
Even so, the visitor remains "cognisant that the initiative is in its early stages". "We're keeping our ears to the footing and are prepared to meet travellers with a renewed in-flight experience once they start boarding planes over again, and are, at the same time, also focused on engaging consumers who remain landbound," Pok commented.
What SIA passengers tin expect frontward to on lath, all the same, is a new live online inflight shopping feel launched beyond its A350 armada in June this year. In a world-first, KrisShop.com is now directly connected to SIA'due south KrisWorld inflight entertainment system, assuasive customers to shop the site'south wide array of products while on lath, with live updates on product availability and credit card authorisation.
They can and then choose to have their purchases delivered straight to their homes or to their adjacent SIA flight, delivered sixty minutes earlier departure from Singapore.
While flights were halted, KrisShop also looked into upgrading its sales carts into smart carts by equipping them with RFID technology. "In the past, nosotros needed 45 minutes to pack the sales cart. By bringing RFID into the motion-picture show, nosotros are now able to shorten the time down to 15 minutes," Pok explained.
This likewise gives the company the ability to change the composition of its smart carts to see dissimilar passenger profiles on dissimilar flights. While the smart carts are already prepare for launch, the exact period is dependent on when the inflight duty-free trolley service is allowed to resume, having been halted during the pandemic, the company said.
'WE ARE NOT Similar THE PREVIOUS KRISSHOP'
On a personal level, now that more than VTLs have been launched, Pok is looking forward to travelling once again. Which countries is he excited to visit?
"Personally, anywhere would be peachy!" Pok shared. " I imagine just stepping through the cabin doors and being greeted by our friendly crew colleagues will evoke potent emotions for me."
On a business concern level, Pok shares that now that travel is slowly resuming, "I hope to entrench in our customers' minds that you tin buy quality products, exclusive merchandise and beautifully designed batik-related products from KrisShop, and y'all can buy those items whether yous are travelling or not," he said.
"Nosotros are non like the previous KrisShop that is i-dimensional, where we could but sell to customers when they were flying," Pok added.
Moving forward, KrisShop remains committed to enhancing its shopping feel. " We are very fortunate to have a strong brand that we have inherited from our mothership, simply we cannot purely rely on this. We take to build our own achievements, nosotros have to find our own niche and nosotros have to build our ain engagement with our customers," Pok believes. "Of course, we cannot let the brand downwardly."
"We're keeping our ears to the ground and are prepared to see travellers with a renewed in-flight experience once they commencement boarding planes again." – Chris Pok
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/people/kris-shop-singapore-airlines-285096
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