With the help of e-commerce agency SmartOSC, COURTS Singapore, a popular retailer specialising in electronics, IT and furniture, has put more than a year into researching and redesigning its in-store experiences and omni-channel customer journey. The results are two recent announcements: the relaunch of its e-commerce website, built by SmartOSC, together with the opening of its newly redesigned Megastore in Tampines, transforming the store experience to serve a wider range of customers seamlessly across touchpoints.
There has been a significant change in the way customers shop around the world, and they now take a more sophisticated path by engaging with both online and offline channels to collect information and make purchasing decisions. With the new releases, COURTS seeks to catch multi-channel customer generations who, according to recent research published in Harvard Business Review, spent an average of 4% more on every shopping occasion in the store and 10% more online than single-channel customers. Even more compelling, with every additional channel they used, the shoppers spent more money in the store.
The new COURTS Online now boasts over 17,000 SKUs, making it their largest store across COURTS’ regional network. SmartOSC, COURTS’ e-commerce partner, has helped them to establish a new mobile first and user-centric experience with features that connect their digital and physical stores. COURTS customers can research and purchase online to later pick up in-store or ship-from-store, all while accessing their personal accounts. The system also gives COURTS customer service and retail associate teams the information they require to meet customers’ end-to-end needs by connecting all of their touchpoints.
Built upon Magento Enterprise 2, combined with innovative solutions for omni-channel retailing, marketing automation and content management, COURTS’ new e-commerce system offers a real-time single view of inventory and customer profiles, activated through integrations with ERP and retail management systems. The website has also been built to be easily navigable, featuring a completely refreshed and intuitive navigation, search and check-out experience.
Mr. Stan Kim, Chief Strategy Officer at COURTS Asia, shared, “The COURTS Online relaunch was timed strategically around key retail events of the year such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Powered by the new platform, online sales for both events grew almost 100% year-on-year. Engaging with the right partners has proved to be pivotal to our e-commerce growth this year. COURTS will continue strengthening its back-end infrastructure to offer customers the seamless online-to-offline experience they expect from best-in-class retailers. We will continue to drive online growth, and our ambition is to grow online sales to comprise 10-15% of the business in five years' time.”
The relaunched COURTS e-commerce site augments the transformed retail experience in the physical stores, delivering the ultimate in "bricks and clicks" shopping. The newly redesigned COURTS Megastore in Tampines stands as an aspirational hub featuring the latest in-store experiences, with dedicated experiential retail spaces that have been redesigned to be more immersive, focusing on memorable and informative experiences that will bring customers into the store to encounter the products firsthand.
COURTS features a 30-day lowest-price guarantee and 30-day hassle-free returns both online and in all stores, and tourist tax-free scheme to help customers feel secure and confident with their purchase decision. The retailer operates more than 80 stores across Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, spanning over 1.6 million square feet of retail space.
