Happy Hema Friday! Last week when I was in Shanghai, I ticked off one of the places on my bucket list which was to visit Alibaba's Hema (盒马鲜生) supermarket! For the record, you can go to any Hema stores (just not the Dutch ones) to try out its tech, and not just at a trial pilot store as commonly seen. However, transactions can only be done if your Alipay is linked to a domestic Chinese bank account/card.
Evidently the main USP is not so much about the grocery items itself (though yes there are more international brands available, shelved with cool ESL tags), but instead it was all about the retail experience...at a supermarket! Now it's not new to find fresh seafood counters at Asian grocers but consumers are allowed to fish live seafood out themselves (or staff) for selection to purchase or cooked on the spot into any desired dish form for dining in-store.
The shopping experience is also very interactive as the Chinese consumer is no stranger to QR code scanning to activate discounts and transact natively within the Hema mobile app. You can "scan and pay" within the app and the store staff will then pack your selected items to send out for delivery within 30 minutes. Self check-out counters featuring a cute little payment robot also assists and guide the consumer through a smooth checkout process, completing the payment with Alipay.
How customers learn to love Hema
When a customer walks into a store, they do not make a beeline for the tech unlike us retail fanatic's do - they are there to just simply shop. Point being, all the shiny tech are invisible to their eyes but then discovered and utilised when they find that it provides a) convenience and b) discounts.
When we see retailers implementing a new "digital initiative", the chances of it actually catching on for repeated use can be slim when not digested well by the customer. So how does Hema successfully get their customers to interact and adopt to their way of shopping?
1. Educate - give them all the tools they need, stupid proof it even.
Customers are constantly reminded to download the Hema app with QR code signages plastered all around the store. Store staff are on standby to assist and teach customers if needed.
Knowing the Hema store is a members only store, the incentive to hop on the app prompts instant download and usage, especially helpful if required to use throughout the shopping journey. I’ve also been preaching this relentlessly but something so small like free WiFi can help push this initiative a long way! When Hema offered free WiFi with none of the sign ups hassles, it's a no brainer to hit that download button. A user is much more open to using your app in-store during their shopping journey if you give them all the free (and fast!) internet they need.
2. An actually useful app with good UI/UX and no crashes - is that too much to ask?
Most retailers only have one shot with the customer - it’s the first impression that matters. If your app has an ugly design, is laggy, lacks info and overall just useless, this proves absolutely no need for the customer to use and therefore abandoned! The mobile app is one of the most important tools in an omnichannel ecosystem because of its high contact point and usage by the consumer.
When in the supermarket, the customer does not view shopping through mobile or in-store as different channels because at the end of the day, they're still shopping at Hema. Interestingly, you can only shop Hema through their app due to its mobile-focused strategy and therefore pushes the customer to build a high reliance with the app and by then successfully chaining the app and retail store together.
3. Retail communism: convert and conform
In the process of weaning the child off the pacifier, the kid may wail and cry but eventually will get used to it. Same theory applies for customers. Imagine taking away their human cashiers and replacing with just kiosks only. You might get some disgruntles but they too, will get used to it. It happened to us at our local McDonalds when they’ve upgraded all their stores to kiosk ordering too.
Getting your customers to adopt to new technology may involve an operations reform but it will come to success if done right when you’ve understood how your customers behave. As our surroundings begin to evolve into a Phygital environment, training your customers to learn how to shop with you the way you want, is part of the digital transformation process.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if you may not have the scale of Alibaba or 1.4 billion digitally native Chinese consumers. As long as you truly focus on improving your customer's shopping journey and not just pushing out buggy unmanned stores just for publicity, your customers will naturally learn to embrace what you've put out for them, for their own good. Oh, and also make sure your tech actually works.
This is an opinion piece and all views are my own.
Tiffany Lung is a retail tech analyst at
Tofugear
specalising from Fashion to FMCG industries in international markets. In the past she has worked with numerous retailers both in London and Hong Kong. You can follow her on Twitter
@tiffanylung
for her daily retail rants.
