Established in 1841, A.S. Watson Group is the world’s largest international health and beauty retailer and each year over 5.5 billion customers and members shop with their 12 retail brands in store and online. Here, RLI speaks with Malina Ngai, Group COO of A.S. Watson Group & CEO of A.S. Watson (Asia & Europe) about the company’s continuing growth and how it is evolving its offline plus online platform strategy.
The A.S. Watson Group is a family of market leading health & beauty retail brands that are situated across 29 markets in Asia and Europe. Their flagship brands are Watsons in Asia and Superdrug, The Perfume Shop, Kruidvat and Rossmann in Europe and they recently celebrated their 180th anniversary.
Its journey from operating one store in one market to now running over 16,400 stores across almost multiple markets has been driven by their continuous evolution, never staying still and focusing on staying relevant to customers. Their brand experience has evolved over time, changing from a traditional retail offering to an O+O (Offline plus Online) ecosystem that connects with billions of customers every year.
“We remain one of the fastest growing brands in the world, having launched 1,700 new stores during the last two years despite the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic,” explains Malina Ngai, Group COO of A.S. Watson Group & CEO of A.S. Watson (Asia & Europe). “Recently we have entered into three countries in the Middle East with stores launching in the UAE, KSA and Qatar across Dubai Mall, Dubai Festival City, Mall of the Emirates, Mirdiff City Centre, Al Wahda Mall, Mall of Dhahran and Doha Festival City.”
Standing at almost 3,000sq ft, the new store in Qatar is designed to appeal to modern beauty lovers who demand an exciting and highly interactive shopping environment. The store features different and designated zones that focus on specific product categories, including Natural & Clean Beauty which features the Sustainable Choices products, and an open makeup area so that customers can try out different looks and play around with a wide range of the latest and trendiest colour cosmetics.
“With every crisis comes opportunity and the unfortunate effect the pandemic had on the world and our business has enabled us to accelerate our digital transformation and brought forward the progress by at least a few years,” Ngai comments.
She continues by explaining that the traditional O2O model no longer serves the needs of customers, and it is not about driving customers from offline to shopping online, or vice versa, it is about serving the customers when and how they want to be served and how they receive their products.
The O+O model that A.S. Watson has transformed into has proven to be a resilient model. Amongst the 142 million loyalty members they have, those who shop with them O+O spend up to three times more versus those who only shop in physical stores.
“We do not see the pandemic as a crisis, but an opportunity to build and intensify our relationships with our customers. What helps us to navigate through the challenge and turn it into opportunities is the teamwork, agility and resilience that we’ve demonstrated through the pandemic,” explains Ngai.
The role of social media within A.S. Watson’s O+O ecosystem is a significant one, as it is all about creating customer connectivity. Seven years ago when there was only the vision for the O+O platform strategy, the brand established eLab, an in-house digital agency to build digital experiences and content. Seeing themselves as not only a retailer but also a media company, they were one of the first retailers to do livestreaming, and they integrate this into their website and mobile apps to allow customers to place orders directly.
Ngai believes ‘content is king’ and ‘engagement is queen’ and that it is not just about how much content they can reach out to customers with, it is the engagement they can gather from it that is important.
The topic of sustainability is pivotal for retailers today and it is not a new concept for A.S. Watson. It is entwined within their history and the brand’s purpose of putting a smile on customers’ faces today and tomorrow.
“We refreshed our sustainability roadmap last year with our 2030 Sustainability Vision. The Vision sets out a bold commitment to acting on climate change, embracing a circular economy, providing more sustainable product choice, supporting our communities and creating a greater workplace,” Ngai comments. “We strongly believe in creating a real impact through involving our customers around the globe with content and activities to engage them to join hands and do good for the planet.”
As the interview draws to a close, we ask Ngai about the future of the company and what its greatest challenge is?
“It is in the digital transformation of A.S. Watson. It is not just about how much investment we put into technology or how many more digital devices we put into the stores. It is about genuine revolution in changing the way we think, the way we work and communicate, leveraging on technology as an enabler to allow us to adapt and change ever more quickly to meet customer expectations and needs. Retail is not dead, it is evolving very quickly.”
