Quill City Mall Introduces The Phygital Era with JDX Presto Concept Store

Quill City Mall is taking an exciting new turn in 2020 with a brand new retail strategy: a “phygital” ecosystem that is focused on maximizing shoppers’ experience and providing a platform for retailers to engage with consumers in meaningful ways. Organized by Quill City Mall, 5 retail industry players recently led an expert forum by the theme of “Future Proof Your Business – New Retail Innovations and Interventions” to discuss the new “phygital” retail era at Quill City Convention Center.

Quill City Mall Introduces The Phygital Era with JDX Presto Concept Store

The forum was kick-started by Mr. Koong Wai Seng, Group CEO of Quill Group of Companies. “Many malls in Malaysia is struggling to compete with the rise of online shopping and the short-lived retail gimmicks. The team at Quill City took time to reimagine what the future of retail entails and decided to shift our focus towards understanding shoppers’ behavior. We also need to challenge retailers to reimagine the essential role physical experience play in building strong and memorable relationships with their customers,” said Mr. Koong Wai Seng. “The fun of shopping didn’t change, the way we shop did.” As more retail sales have shifted online with the rise of technology, the joy of being able to see, touch, and feel the product before making a purchase remains. “Quill City is determined to meet the ever-evolving consumer expectations and their standards for convenience, entertainment, and of course, the satisfaction of shopping,” added Senior Vice President, Marketing, Quill City Mall, Justin Liew. It is time we welcome the “phygital” era. A “phygital” mall is a combination of the physical and digital functionality that creates the best version of a balanced retail ecosystem. Retailers have to evolve and change as consumers would like to try and feel the products before purchasing them. Quill City Mall is envisioning a retail model centered around exciting digital interactions, social intimacy and a borderless O2O (online to offline/offline to online) e-commerce platform within a physical space – a “phygital” mall. It is about designing a shopping platform, a journey within a physical space, with consumer-centric tech infrastructure that facilitates the interactions between consumers and brands throughout the shopping experience. A sneak peek into their “phygital” features include e-wallet function, borderless payment, smart logistics and digital content marketing such as live streaming by influencers. Quill City’s “phygital” mall has a vision and purpose to become a platform for local entrepreneurs to showcase their products and reach a wider audience. The decision to build a “phygital” mall stems from their earnest preposition as an industry leader to provide tools and platforms to empower SME’s and retail entrepreneurs. Quill City also announced their new tenant lineup that each has their unique definition of what a “phygital” concept store means to their brand and customers. JD.com, China’s leading one-stop e-commerce platform – has teamed up with Presto, a local social marketing application to form an exhilarating partnership – JDX Presto Concept Store. The store is not only cashless, but it is also staffless and borderless. Located on Level 3 of Quill City Mall, it is currently the largest online-to-offline experience store in Malaysia.⁣ How JDX Presto Concept Store works: China companies have physical presence in Malaysia -> Consumer orders through app -> JD warehouse in China picks and packs item to send to Malaysia -> Consumer receives goods in less than a week

E-Sport Center is also settling in with a “phygital” gaming store while UniKL introduces industry exposure projects dedicated to business students.

The expert forum “Future Proof Your Business – New Retail Innovations and Interventions” led by 5 retail guru including Anwar Jumabhoy (Industry Expert), Kent Lee (Founder of Smuzcity – Official Business Development Partner of JD Logistic Group), Redza Shahid (Founder of Grubcycle) and Cheong Chia Chou (CEO of PUC Berhad), moderated by Jonathan Case were held after Koong’s action-packed keynote speech.

CEO of PUC Berhad Cheong Chia Chou presented a staggering statistics that showed a 250 per cent higher purchase rate when retailers engage customers with at least three or more channels; it reaffirms the importance of consistent customer experience and marketing across multiple touchpoints in guaranteeing a higher revenue.

They further confirmed that the future of retail needs to promote intimate social relationships between brands, both international and local, with consumers by building a physical space that is customer experience-centric.

Quill City will soon become a borderless retail, edutainment, and experiential learning center with more international and local tenants to come.

Let’s wait for more exciting updates from Quill City Mall as they ease into more “phygital” era in the next 12 months! Stay tuned to their Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/quillcitymallkl/.