With Shinetech (Shinetechchina.com), we have been working on a similar concept for a mainland China shopping mall – already two years ago. This shopping mall not only was targeted specifically at online / offline convergence, but had a guiding theme (marriage), will the full assortment of gifts, clothing, celebratory elements and beauty for the most important day in the life.

Combining online and offline in a creative way is one of the many innovations China is bringing to the market, and in fact, did so much earlier than good old Europe or the US.

Based on, for example, Intershop (www.intershop.com) as an eCommerce suite that covers for the advanced market, the capabilities to serve, are endless.

It is an interesting trend to see, that people prefer not having to lug around their purchases during their shopping mall visit, but enjoy having it brought home. Especially in the case of couples getting married, getting the whole gifts selection from the shops within the mall not only delivered, but nicely decorated in their home is taking away lots of worldly transport issues and makes the gifts even more adorable. From a revenue generating point of view, catering for the full celebration from one source is a great opportunity (from bedsheets an cutlery for the newly weds to the dresses, food, and celebrations including games and music up to the transport service and delivery to the home), the full revenue of the event goes to the shops. Needless to say that the market in a typical “town” in China, with their millions of people, the market is deep and broad enough.

O2O is a concept, that give transparency about both quality and price back to the consumer. It will be interesting to see, how Singapore fairs with the concept and we will cross our fingers for Wolfgang Baier (Group CEO of SignPost).

See also: SingPost to develop Singapore’s first shopping mall with eCommerce logistics services