Chinese technology giant Huawei has partnered with USEA Global, Advocado, 4Paradigm and YonYou under the Smart Retail 360 initiative to drive digital transformation efforts of brick-and-mortar retail stores in Singapore.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, retail brands have witnessed various difficulties in meeting customer needs and grew to understand the importance of developing strong offline to online conversion strategies not only to survive, but also to grow. Brands have cited a disconnect in functions of essential segments, such as the lack of automated data and poor, inefficient communications between front-end and back-end operations.

To tackle these retail problems, this collaboration aims to boost the digital transformation of local retail stores and enhance customer experiences through the partners’ available options and technologies.

The driving force behind the initiative, USEA Global, focuses on the customer centric element of the retail experience. USEA Global, a subsidiary of USEN-Next Holdings and specialist in sensory marketing, has primary foothold in research-based background music. This allows for intelligent customisation of sensory elements such as in-store music through real-time data analysis such as store traffic and shopping patterns to tailor ambiences to suit customer temperament.

To help organise and automate data efficiently, retailers on Advocado’s CRM platform enjoy a data-driven and intelligent customer experience, enabled by 4Paradigm’s AI and machine-learning systems. 4Paradigm’s fully automated, integrated customer data and AI services can reduce customer acquisition costs and increase total customer lifetime value for brands involved.

Similarly, Yonyou’s cloud-ERP automates a company’s business and operations life cycle through digital technology to create an all-in-one enterprise management platform, integrating a company’s financials, supply chain, operations, reporting and personnel activities. Together, these form a conversation between functions, allowing for visibility and collaborative communication to produce outcomes that aid a customer’s shopping experience, from their senses to their mobile devices.

Huawei Cloud is also cooperating with partners to develop different smart retail offerings for building omnichannel online and offline sales, integrating retail applications with big data, AI and cloud services.

“As we continue to grow and thrive in an increasingly digital world, we must help brick-and mortar businesses adapt and reinvent themselves to continue staying relevant to their audiences in the digital era,” said Nicole Lu, vice president at Huawei Cloud. “With the retail industry constantly evolving, Huawei is excited together with our partners to drive innovation, engage with customers and empower local small business and SMEs in shaping the new retail industry.”

Jerry Chen, managing director of USEA Global, emphasised that the Smart Retail 360 initiative had the potential to serve as a sandbox allowing for retail players to participate in multiple proof of concepts, subsequently launching Singapore into a budding hub for the provision of intelligent retail.

The Smart Retail 360 initiative kicked off last week and calls for interested retail industry companies to participate in test bed exercises.

USEA Global is a south-east Asian company with its headquarters in Singapore and offices in Malaysia and Vietnam. It specialises in background music for retail, hospitality and food and beverage sectors while also providing other sensory services to its customers such as product-based scenting and interactive digital signage.