The Zalora Group, an online fashion retailer, teamed up with Ayala Malls to roll out ‘pop-up’ stores in January 2018. A ‘pop-up’ store is a short-term sales space operated by an online merchant.
The idea is to leverage both companies’ combined customer base and digital capabilities to create a far more connected shopping experience for Filipinos, according to Zalora Group chief executive Parker Gundersen.
“Ayala’s investment in Zalora earlier this year has created a unique opportunity to combine the country’s leading premium mall operator, telecom provider and consumer bank [just to name a few of the Ayala companies] with Zalora—the region’s leading digital fashion platform, to create a groundbreaking partnership for the benefit of shoppers here in the Philippines,” he said.
He said that with the shifting consumer behavior, shoppers start to demand a more seamless shopping experience across channels and devices as they are always on their mobile devices and make purchasing decisions in between places.
Moreover, the changing Filipino lifestyle prompted retailers to be present at the different touch points of the consumer journey and continue to entice them while they’re on the go given the mindset that consumers of the future want to have options anywhere and everywhere.
By the turn of the year, Zalora will be breaking into Greenbelt, an upscale retail destination of the Ayala Group, where it will feature a new and exciting brand that will debut in the Philippines via Zalora.
In the coming months, pop-up stores will be seen in Glorietta, Alabang Town Center, UP Town Center, Trinoma, Market Market, Vertis North and Abreeza Mall in Davao City and Cagayan de Oro City.
“We believe that by working together, Zalora and Ayala Group can transform the customer journey into a more connected experience, where customers can move between physical and digital channels seamlessly, and that we can better learn and adapt to customer needs by leveraging our data sets to study behavior and draw insights that will help us improve customer touch points,” Gundersen said.
The collaboration will engage a number of projects that can be long term and experimental.
This will involve Ayala Malls selling their products online on Zalora through dedicated Ayala shops, allowing customers to do click-and-collect in store, or receive their favorite products at home fulfilled by Zalora on top of the highly successful digital pop-up shops exclusively at Ayala Mall properties.
The digital fashion site is also working with Ayala Malls to enhance digital shopping assets to introduce best-in-class digital service and marketing solutions and introduce Collection and Drop Off points for Zalora orders in Ayala Mall locations.
“To further drive the Seamless Shopping experience, we are working with Ayala on digitizing the customer journey in the Ayala malls – leveraging mobile technologies like beacons, AI and chat bots to digitize the offline shopping experience. We are also exploring ways to equip restaurants, cinemas and other common areas to allow customers to shop on demand anywhere in the mall,” Gundersen said.
“Aside from the work we are doing with Ayala Malls, a few other examples of projects we are working on with Ayala companies include partnering with Globe to provide a range of unique services exclusively for Globe subscribers, with a focus on creating an easier, lower cost and substantially faster way to shop on the Zalora mobile site and app.
“We’re collaborating with Globe’s Mint Payments to launch new e-payment options for Zalora customers, many of whom pay with cash on delivery today who we feel would greatly benefit by the transition to e-payments. And we are also working with the Bank of the Philippine Islands to provide a unique range of marketing partnerships and loyalty benefits to create a better experience for BPI customers,” he said.
Gundersen said these initiatives are only the beginning of Zalora’s plans in the region to broaden platform capabilities for brands and shoppers.