- Building integrated channels and helping business owners
- Develop new systems to boost sales
HONG KONG, CHINA – Media OutReach – 10 August 2020 – Sa Sa International Holdings Limited (Sa Sa or the “Group”; stock code: 0178) announced on 3 August its official adoption of Boutir‘s solution and the setup of “personal online stores” for its beauty consultants. This will allow Sa Sa to combine the strengths of in-store and online shopping to create a more flexible and personalised experience for customers in Hong Kong SAR while providing an additional sales channel for Sa Sa’s frontline staff to make extra commissions.
With the Boutir solution, customers can first visit Sa Sa’s physical stores or access product information via Facebook Live, then complete their purchases in Sa Sa’s beauty consultants’ “personal online stores”. At the same time, Sa Sa’s beauty consultants will be able to easily engage customers via the Boutir mobile app by recommending products and offers to them, checking orders and arranging delivery. Leverage on the partnership combines three advantages, namely social media, Sa Sa’s expansive customer base and the multi-brand beauty advice of its professional beauty consultants, this solution directs traffic going through online stores to physical stores and brings customers at physical stores online without spatial-temporal constraints. This partnership also helps Sa Sa establish an omni-channel sales system to boost sales.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, Sa Sa has developed its e-commerce business rapidly, particularly social commerce, which can leverage on the professional expertise of Sa Sa’s beauty consultants. With a personal service component, social commerce has the potential to outperform traditional online sales in terms of house brand mix, gross margin and basket size. Since October 2019, Sa Sa has piloted a WeChat mini-programme to target Mainland China customers who have visited Sa Sa retail stores in Hong Kong or Macau SARs. In light of encouraging results from the pilot run, the Group has expanded its social commerce efforts by partnering with Boutir to engage with customers in Hong Kong SAR and conduct online sales through social media. Sa Sa also actively launches live broadcasting at multiple social media platforms in Hong Kong SAR and Mainland China to further attract online customers.
Boutir is anchored on four core values: Simple, Mobile, Social and Data. As a leader in new retail solutions, Boutir provides a simple and cost-effective one-stop e-commerce platform for retailers to build online stores; manage merchandise, orders and loyalty programs; and analyze data in the traditional e-commerce marketplace with advanced technology, creativity and an improved user experience. Boutir has partnered with a variety of retailers on its solution including MaBelle, MADIA, OTO, and S.T. Dupont since 2017. Such efforts have extended the scope of retail merchandise from jewelry, massage products and luxury goods to include beauty, cosmetics and wellness, paved the way for the retailers to sell across different scenarios, and continued to set the trends on new retail.
Dr Simon Kwok, SBS, JP, Chairman and CEO of Sa Sa, said, “Sa Sa is committed to social commerce and is constantly developing new online sales channels. The partnership with Boutir allows Sa Sa to transcend the spatial-temporal boundaries, use social media to engage and sell more with customers in Hong Kong SAR and leverage potential synergies between its online presence with the existing brick-and-mortar stores to provide a seamless online-to-offline (O2O) shopping experience that is more flexible, accessible and intimate. At the same time, this partnership is generating additional commission income for the frontline staff amid COVID-19 outbreak and pivoting Sa Sa towards a new retail model.”
Mr Eric Ng, Founder of Boutir, said, “The launch of ‘online personal stores’ breaks the physical limits of brick-and-mortar stores and makes it easier for customers to connect with the frontline beauty consultants for more personalized product recommendations and offers. I am confident that this partnership with Sa Sa will fully leverage the strengths of its professional beauty consultants to seamlessly extend their first-class customer service in brick-and-mortar stores into the online platform, while improving customer loyalty, broadening the customer base and increasing sales conversion rate. Looking ahead, we remain on the lookout for the right retailers to further solidify their brand position in Hong Kong and to achieve more meaningful sales growth.”
About Sa Sa International Holdings Limted
Sa Sa, a leading beauty product retailing group in Asia, runs one-stop cosmetics specialty stores selling diverse quality products ranging from skincare, fragrance, make-up, hair care to body care products, as well as health and beauty supplements under more than 700 brands. Sa Sa operates more than 230 retail stores in the Hong Kong and Macau SARs, Mainland China and Malaysia, as well as providing customers with a convenient shopping experience across multiple online platforms.
The Group has been included in the Hang Seng Composite SmallCap Index, FTSE World Index Series and, MSCI Index Series. It has been a constituent member of Hang Seng Corporate Sustainability Benchmark Index since 2011. Sa Sa has also been an eligible stock for Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect since 2016.
About Boutir Limited
Established in 2015, Boutir Limited is a social mobile commerce solutions provider and multi-channel commerce platform for individuals and corporate retailers to set up online stores and run a retail business through mobile apps. Headquartered in Hong Kong, Boutir currently works with 100K+ merchants, 2M products and 1.7M monthly active consumers, and has expanded into Southeast Asia.
Website: https://www.boutir.com/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/boutir.hk
