Bangkok--5 Oct--H&K
? Focus on store expansion, promotions and customer insight
? Confident of reaching double digit growth rate in the fourth quarter
Watsons, the number one health & beauty retailer in Thailand with the highest sales for seven consecutive years, today announced its holistic leadership strategies that are designed to strengthen its dominant position in Thailand with a total budget of 250 million baht to support continued growth. The focus of Watsons marketing efforts will be store expansion, promotions and customer insight.
Mr Toby Anderson, Managing Director Central Watson Co., Ltd. said, “Watsons will aggressively drive the strategy of holistic leadership that will encompass a number of marketing activities to enhance our foremost position in this fourth, one of the strongest performing quarters for Watsons. In Q4 we will focus on skincare and healthcare products such as vitamins.”
“The focuses of supporting marketing efforts in Q4 will be on store expansion, sales promotions and insight into customer behaviour that will be applied for more improvements in services and products and overall store operation,” Mr Anderson continued.
As part of the store expansion plan, nine stores were opened in the third quarter. At the end of 2011, we will have opened 43 new stores in total. The ratio of location is Bangkok 50% and upcountry 50%. Currently, the coverage of Watsons stores is over 50 provinces — the highest number compared to other health and beauty retailers in Thailand, ensuring Watsons can readily serve customers wherever they are.
Strong promotions are also the backbone of Watsons business. Watsons will continue to offer promotions that promise great value for money and excitements. We have taken the sales history and customer preference into consideration and applied the knowledge in our offerings. Some promotions that are very well accepted are enhanced with small adjustments and repeated to serve customers needs. One of the outstanding examples is the Health and Beauty Buffet promotion of three items for 199 baht. This promotion is now available in both summer and winter seasons while increasing the number of items per basket by 20% and drawing increased traffic to stores at the same time.
Watsons has also conducted research of over 1,500 customers at Watsons stores in Bangkok in order to better understand how Thai customers shop and establish a shopping pattern and identify new opportunities. The results show that the top three destinations in Watsons stores are Skin, Hair and Cosmetics. Watsons has therefore made these areas easy to access and appealing with the Cosmetics zone featuring a wide aisle. The research also showed that 15% of Watsons shoppers tends to test and apply skincare and cosmetics before they buy, prompting Watsons to provide adequate testers and ensure the products on shelf are available all the time.
“More improvements in our services, product offerings and overall store operation will be put in place to respond to and better serve the needs of our customers. With this holistic leadership strategy, we are confident to deliver double digit growth in the fourth quarter. In the past 12 months Watsons core category grew at 9.3% while the total Thailand market growth was at 5.9%. More importantly, Watsons is currently enjoying the highest sales in health and beauty retail business for the past seven consecutive years. It is obvious we are on the right track and our leadership position will be enhanced by the strategy we are implementing,” Mr Anderson concluded.