Hong Kong-based AS Watson, which claims to be the world’s largest health and beauty retailer, has injected HK$900m in technology this year to accelerate its digital transformation.

Technology focus areas include increasing resources in its in-house eLab and TechLab, and building more machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), big data and retail technology.

“Technology is vital for us to deliver the right offline plus online (O+O) customer experience,” said Malina Ngai, CEO of AS Watson in Asia and Europe. “We are committed to our customers to lead and shape the new standard of retail for them, and have set our consumer-facing and back-end technology investment priorities accordingly. Just as importantly, we are mindful that digital transformation is not just about how much investment we put in technology or how many more digital devices we put in the stores. It is also about genuine revolution in the organisation culture – the way we think, the way we work, and the way we communicate and serve our customers.”

After over two years of prolonged pandemic impact, customers’ shopping behaviour has shifted considerably. AS Watson’s eLab in-house digital development agencies in Hong Kong and Milan have been the key enablers behind the easier and faster O+O options.

Recently, AS Watson’s TechLab has expanded its technology experience centre in its tech hub in Shenzhen, China, alongside its existing TechLab in the Netherlands, to increase its capabilities for developing new products and testing customer experience technology before it’s rolled out in AS Watson businesses around the world.

The technology experience centre showcases the latest shopping technology including unstaffed stores, smart shelves, unstaffed cabinets, interactive games, store entrance with facial recognition, and seamless payment.

The company has prioritised the top three consumer-facing technology investments:

• O+O technology for health and beauty shopping
• Personalisation in customer experience powered by the use of AI
• In-store technologies such as digital payments and smart shelving

In addition to consumer-facing technologies, the company is also prioritising its investment in backend technology including big data management and visualisation, cyber security, and promotion optimisation.

“Retail is evolving very quickly,” said Ngai. “What took a decade to develop in the past would now happen in two years. To stay winning, we are racing against time every day. We therefore need to build agility in the organisation and, to empower our people with data insights in real time, cloud-based dashboards are key to fast and smart decision making. O+O continues to be AS Watson’s core strategy and technology is the critical engine for future growth.”

AS Watson has more than 16,000 stores in 27 markets worldwide serving over 5.3 billion customers every year. It also has more than 137 million loyalty programme members.