Retail in Asia

In Trends

Hong Kong start-up Neoma to fill customer data gap for shopping malls

A Hong Kong start-up aims to help malls learn more about their customers and deliver targeted discounts or reward shoppers with a free coffee for time spent in store as the city’s retailers face falling sales and fewer mainland Chinese tourists.

Neoma is bringing Bluetooth beacon technology, which is already used by Macy’s and Target in the United States, to malls in the city to give operators more data on visitors and provide new ways to retain customers.

James Assersohn, director of the retail department for Asia-Pacific at property consultant JLL, said beacons were similar to loyalty cards, which allowed supermarkets to learn about their customers.

“Any information on what your consumer buys, how long they spend in the mall, which areas they visit and how often they come is very valuable,” Assersohn said.

He said malls in Hong Kong tracked foot traffic to learn about customers, but the city’s developers lacked the scale of their counterparts in the US such as Simon Property Group, which has installed beacons in 200 of its locations.

Sun Hung Kai Properties said it used Bluetooth beacons for a three-month dining promotional event in its apm mall, where it attracted almost 10,000 redemptions and saw a 28 per cent increase in sales turnover.