Alibaba partners with Capitaland to develop its omnichannel strategy

By Catherine Sturman

Real estate company Capitaland’s new partnership with Alibaba highlights the company’s ambitions to expand its presence through its omnichannel strategy. It will see Capitaland manage Alibaba’s new headquarters in Shanghai, and also create an online mall through Lazada Singapore.

"Shanghai is one of the important platforms to Alibaba and our new headquarters here will serve as our strategic nerve centre for rolling out our new retail strategy,” explained Mr Wang Tao, Head of Intelligent Building at Alibaba Group.

Alibaba is one of the Lazada’s largest investors in e-commerce platform, Lazada, enabling it to grow significantly across southeast Asia. The partnership will provide the scalability for the platform, overhaul traditional retail business models by integrating both physical and digital channels to appeal to consumers.

Mr Alexis Lanternier, CEO of Lazada Singapore, said: “Shoppers not only have the option of click-and-collect but benefit from free delivery and have 14 days to return their products.  This partnership is an important step for Lazada to expand our network of partners as we evolve the e-commerce ecosystem in Singapore.”

Jason Leow, CEO of CapitaLand Mall Asia explained: “As more and more shoppers make purchases both offline and online, we recognise that omni-channel retailing is the way to go for our retailers to maximise their reach and market share. We have thus embarked on creating a digital channel that supports our mall tenants in tapping the growth potential of e-commerce. 

By leveraging our extensive physical network as a competitive advantage, shoppers will enjoy an additional option of collecting their online purchases in our malls.  This unique feature will draw shoppers to our malls and reduce last-mile delivery costs for retailers in the long run.

The partnership will see Capitaland managing Alibaba’s shopping podium, as well as four office towers in Alibaba Shanghai Centre. The partnership has also seen Capitaland sign an agreement to therefore launch an exclusive online mall on Lazada Singapore, which will position CapitaLand as Singapore’s first omni-channel retail landlord, connecting retailers to shoppers both offline and online, which will be complemented by a unique in-mall collection service for shoppers.

Mr Lim Ming Yan, President & Group CEO of CapitaLand Limited, said: “We continue to leverage digital tools and partner disruptors to strengthen our customer engagement, embrace smart building technologies to uplift the quality of our built environment, and harness data to enhance customer experience at our properties. 

Neither an offline-only nor online-only business model will work; it is in the combination of O&O where long-term success can be found.”

Tao added: “We believe our collaboration will chart new frontiers in integrating online, offline, logistics and data across a single value chain to meet the needs of consumers.”

Business Review Asia Magazine - August issue

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