Whee Shiong Ong, Managing Director The vast majority of retail businesses, including large retail chains, rely on separate solutions for in-store and online that do not sync or share data, resulting in operational inefficiencies and errors. With reams of data across CRM, inventory, point-of-sale (POS), and ecommerce, retail businesses are in dire need of complete offline to online solutions that can harness the data to help them better compete with pure online ecommerce competitors.
Driven by the mission to help retail businesses be smarter and more personal, Singapore-headquartered Octopus Retail Management enables retailers to create true omnichannel shopping experiences with their suite of solutions. “At Octopus, we innovate to have our solutions fully integrated both within our suite of solutions, as well as with third-party solutions,” begins Whee Shiong Ong, managing director of the company, “Retail chains love our integration capability and flexibility, where we work hand-in-hand with them to power seamless omnichannel shopping experiences for their customers.”
Octopus’ product suite is built around a POS platform that is enhanced with modules—Advanced CRM, eCommerce, Inventory Management, and more—that cater to different types of retail businesses and their operational needs. Ong remarks, “Our comprehensive suite of solutions help retail owners run sales and promotions, track inventory, manage operations, and engage customers.” Implementing data analytics and AI on the data amassed from retail businesses, Octopus’ solutions generate AI-powered actionable insights such as better inventory management and optimized prices. This, coupled with AI-enriched customer engagement, improves product discoverability, curation, and targeted marketing, thereby exceeding the customer expectations. Octopus’ solutions have been deployed across retail chains that have thousands of stores, which handle more than a million stock keeping unit (SKU) products.
Taking into account consumers concerns over online and offline retail data privacy, the Octopus team ensures that their solutions and data infrastructure keep pace with security updates and advisories. “We are also proactive with data security best practices, enforcing strict policies to allow only the right people to have access to customer data stored on our servers,” emphasizes Ong.
Further, team Octopus is cognizant of the value of unique loyalty programs that identify and resonate with customers, particularly as brands are beginning to move away from marketplaces to better develop their own distinctive identities. To this end, Octopus solutions collect copious amounts of customer data and track consumer behavior with an advanced CRM system to create attractive loyalty programs and promotions, engaging more customers and increasing conversion rate in the process. Plus, Octopus empowers retailers with strong dashboard capabilities that track each transaction, enabling them with a 360-degree view of their inventory, customers, and sales at their fingertips.
To reinforce Octopus’ competency, Ong underscores a customer engagement where the company collaborated with the Franchisee of Melissa Shoes and provided them with a fully featured and customizable ecommerce platform while offering complete integration with their inventory, CRM, payments, and logistic fulfillment. Octopus assisted Melissa with a comprehensive CRM system, whereby customers can utilize their loyalty benefits both online and offline to streamline their inconsistent loyalty programs along with in-depth analytics and reports.
Octopus’ ability to think global, keeping in mind the trends that may impact businesses from a political or technological standpoint makes it distinct. In addition, the team is able to execute on a local basis by having its ears to the ground to understand the concerns, needs of clients and address them with data mapping, customer journey mapping, and operations mapping. “We have an East-West culture that allows us to think global and act local. Even in countries where we don’t have a local team, we find strong partners to be able to deploy our solutions remotely,” notes Ong.
With subsidiaries in China, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and the U.S., Octopus is all set to open offices in Indonesia this year. Octopus is well on its way to becoming the future of retail businesses by powering their evolution.
