Written by Shogo Tsuji, Internal research team,
24 Mar 2020, 5 minutes

The adoption for cashless payment, especially digital wallet, is on the increase as consumers become more familiar with these novel payment methods.

More than 8 in 10 Singapore consumers opt for digital payments as their preferred payment methods as they get to enjoy the convenience. On the receiving end, almost 3 in 5 Singapore merchants accepts digital payments. This is more apparent in merchants that has a Point-Of-Sales (POS) system in their retail space.

However, these multiple payment methods are often not integrated with the POS software and it causes some drawbacks at the same time.

What problems do merchants deal with?

Multiple terminals located behind counter

You may have seen several credit card terminals located behind counters or POS hardware. This phenomenon happens because additional hardware are required to perform cashless transaction. Likewise, merchants who would like to leverage on the different processing cost given by various banks will also have multiple terminals issued by various banks.

With more terminals, the counter often becomes cluttered and human error may arise.

Segregation of key business functions

POS companies often to do not offer the full suite of business functions required by merchants. Merchant often engage separate vendors to have the additional feature (e.g. CRM, marketing) integrated with the POS software, and there will likely be an integration fee. The existing segregated software stack requires business owners to manage multiple vendors on top of running their business offline and online (again, often operated separately)

As a result, additional resources and effort is required to gain control of these functions and operate efficiently.

Different streams of data

With different business functions operating on different platforms, there will also be a large quantity of data flowing in from each of these channels. Similarly, business owners will experience a hard time trying to understand these data and how they speak to one another.

Do more with less, herohippo

herohippo is developed to mitigate the problems mentioned and bring all the key functions of both retail and F&B business together.

From offline business to online business, POS terminal to cash drawer, digital payment acceptance to marketing; herohippo can do it all.

All payment types can be accepted through herohippo and this is done by the dynamic QR feature. Once a cashier selects payment on the POS software, the customer can choose his/ her preferred payment method and the system will generate a dynamic QR code for the consumer to scan and complete payment.

In addition to the acceptance of diverse payment methods, consumers can place their orders in advance either through the online store or by scanning the table or store QR Code. Thanks to the table or store QR, miscommunication between service staff can be eliminated; eventually improving operations in the long run.

Other functions of herohippo includes Real-Time Inventory Management System, Kitchen Display System (printer), Chain Store or Franchise Management, Real-Time Business Data Presentation, Marketing Tools, and CRM module.

Through the various features, herohippo compiles the data and present it in a simple to read format that will help business owners gain a better understanding of their performance and design their future strategies.

With herohippo, business owners can achieve full control of their business with lesser hassle. Do more with less.

Written by Shogo Tsuji, Internal research team,
28 Feb 2020, 5 minutes

The Singapore Government will tighten the proportion of foreign workers in the service industry with an increase from 38% to 40% with effect from January 2021. Merchants in the services sectors can expect difficulties in hiring and operations. Thus, it is important for merchants to find ways to curtail costs and improve efficiency.

One way is to look at how digital technology can reduce the reliance on manpower and increase the capability of our workforce. In this article, we will explore how Digital Transformation has helped some traditional businesses revolutionize the way they operate.

What is Digital Transformation?

In a broad sense, Digital Transformation is defined as the changes associated with the application of digital technology to business processes. The process usually begins with analyzing company needs, followed by setting of objectives, performing test runs before actual implementation.

Examples of digital technology include but not limited to Artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of things (IoT), Blockchain, Robotic process automation (RPA), and 3D printing.

Technology Changes The Way We Work

7-Eleven, a Japanese-American international chain of convenience stores, goes with technology. For instance, the company introduced a point of sales (POS) systems, which enabled them to have better control over business operations such as sales, inventory, and ordering. The machines automatically calculate these data instead of counting one by one.

The company took things up a notch by conducting experiments to reduce the burden of ordering products using AI.

Appreciation of 3D Printing in the retail

The Singapore mobile tailor company, A Gentleman’s Tale, rolled out a mobile showroom van that can bring their store and fitting room to you.

When A Gentleman’s Tale receives an appointment from a customer, they’ll drive over to the location, where the customer can choose the fabric and the design that they prefer. After that, a 3D scanner is used to take their precise measurement, and the results will be shown on an iPad immediately.

Grab: Disrupting traditional businesses in a good way

Grab, a Singaporean-based technology company, is well known for its ride-hailing application. The app, Grab, also offers food delivery and digital payment services. By integrating many consumer services on to one platform, Grab has changed the ride-hailing and food delivery industry drastically.

Before its appearance, you might have to make several calls to various taxi companies to make a booking. Grab has taken the hassle out of the traditional ride-hailing process by matching a consumer’s demand for the supply of vacant cars on the street.

On the same note, Grab Food’s services match consumers’ demand to the supply from food stores within the vicinity and push the order to a nearby driver/ rider to make the delivery. Grab’s disruption to the various industries has dramatically changed our lifestyle.

This similar type of disruption could happen in any industry in the future. As disruptors enter the market, businesses have to step up and out of the traditional operations to engage consumers.

Businesses that could recover with digital technology

To name a few: cosmetics retailer Sasa International made an announcement that it will close all 22 stores in Singapore due to its poor performance. Its e-commerce site will continue operation. DIY chain Home-Fix finished shutting all stores in Singapore last year due to its liabilities. One of Singapore’s oldest retail brands, Metro, has also closed its primary outlet, leaving only two stores left in Paragon and Causeway Point.

One of the causes of these closures is definitely the emergence of strong e-commerce platformers such as Shoppee and Amazon which enable customers to make purchases online and have the merchandise delivered to their doorstep instead of visiting the store.

Together with our merchants, such as Watsons and Zara, we have witnessed the benefit of digital solutions. Our merchants that adopted ffastpay, our digital payment solution, have seen an increase in sales from digital payment methods such as GrabPay, Alipay and WeChat Pay.

Written by Shogo Tsuji, Internal research team,
28 Feb 2020, 4 minutes

Since the dot com era in the 1990’s, businesses have set their eyes on setting up online presence; changing the way merchants engage with consumers and simplifying the way consumers purchase across the globe.

Before consumers buy something at brick-and-mortar stores, consumers will perform some research for the product on the internet. Similarly, after you happen to see the product that caught your interest in a store, you might find out more on the internet.

These consumer trends blurred the lines between online and offline engagements; and some businesses made use of these trends as their main strategy.

Here’s what you may not know about O2O and O2O2O.

What are O2O and O2O2O?

Firstly, let us identify these strategies; which are commonly identified as O2O and O2O2O strategies.

O2O is generally known as an offline to online strategy where a business directs its physical store customers to their online stores. It can also be identified as an online to offline strategy where the process is reversed, bringing online customers into physical stores.

O2O2O represents the strategy that directs consumers between offline and online stores. One of the biggest merits of this strategy is that you can see the impact of your promotion. Let’s say, you issue discount coupons online such as your store’s website, your social media channel or a mobile app. You could monitor how many of your coupons have been collected and redeemed.

Where are the consumer spending trends these days? Online or offline?

The estimated total retail sales volume in Singapore for the month of November 2019 was about $3.6 billion, which fell 4.0% year-to-year. However, online retail sales made up an estimated 8.0%, which increased by 1.4% compared to November 2018.

On the other hand, global online sales for the F&B industry is expected to make up nearly 20% of the overall sales receipt in the future.

Therefore, it could be said that offline is still a dominant channel in both industries, but the presence of online sales in the retail industry is growing steadily.

So, which strategy should your business adopt?

Even though businesses have changed the way they engage consumers, they will always be affected by global events such as natural disasters, terrorist activities and virus outbreaks.

In the post-September 11 periods, airline travel and online booking frequency declined sharply; and the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak greatly affected businesses in the retail and hospitality industry across Southeast Asia.

Some of these industries such as delivery services and online meeting platforms observed an increase in demand as consumers avoid crowds.

In order to enjoy the benefits of these strategies, it is necessary to understand the nature of your business and industry before deciding which strategy to implement.

Take for example Platinum yoga, a Singapore based business which offers yoga classes, installed online marketing online payment methods to streamline their operations. Because of this, customers can sign up for lessons and make purchases through their website and visit their studio to attend the lessons.