Retail in Asia

In Trends

Central Group steps up digital push to lure Thai shoppers

Central Department Store has launched a smartphone app that informs customers about in-store promotions, aiming to drive more traffic amid lackluster domestic consumption.

The Thai-language app, Central Smart Shopper, lets the user select date, store branch and budget. It then shows a list of available promotions from 20 or so credit card companies.

The younger generation “is the group of customers we want to capture,” said Piyawan Leelasompop, executive vice president for marketing, in a news conference Tuesday. “They are eager to change, and one day we could foster the relationship” and build brand loyalty, Piyawan said. The new app will increase convenience for this generation, whose lifestyle is tied to mobile phones, she said.

Piyawan Leelasompop, executive vice president for marketing, talks about the new app.
Piyawan Leelasompop, executive vice president for marketing, talks about the new app.

The department store, part of retail giant Central Group, said it invested more than 10 million baht ($280,000) to develop the app and targets 100,000 downloads by year-end. It plans to further develop the app to link to online shopping.

Central Group is increasingly keen on investing in e-commerce. Earlier in May, it announced the acquisition of Thai operations of Zalora, Southeast Asia’s largest online fashion marketplace.

These moves come amid a slump in Thai spending. Central Group and other retailers face the challenge of capturing the consumption that had been largely boosted economic growth until just a few years ago.