Singapore retailers can move faster to embrace 'new retail'

Singapore

WHILE Singapore retailers are innovating and coming to terms with e-commerce, they can move even faster to adapt to "new retail", said observers. "New retail", a phenomenon recently coined by Chinese e-commerce group Alibaba, entails retailers integrating their online and offline businesses, and leveraging the Internet and customer data to sell better.

Adrian Lee, research director at IT research firm Gartner, told The Business Times that local retailers have not quickly enough adapted to "new retail", where they are able to provide a true omni-channel (a combination of physical and digital) shopping experience to customers.