Central Pattana’ reveals a new business model with a focus on the business ecosystem of shopping centers

Central Pattana Plc. operator of centralwOrld, CentralPlaza, CentralFestival, Central Phuket and Central Village, Thailand’s first luxury outlet, has revealed a new business model to reinforce its position as Thailand’s leading retail business and to help its business partners grow together with sustainability. Under the “Scaling Up Your Business” strategy, the company will conduct data-driven retail marketing and boost sales of its shop tenants with a marketing budget of 1,000 million baht for a period of three years. Central Pattana will combine its strength from 33 shopping centers in key economic areas in the country with continuous investments and high standards for services and facilities, with an aim to help its partners scale up their businesses quickly.

In addition, the company will utilize data insights generated from ‘The 1’ program, which is currently Thailand’s No.1 digital lifestyle and loyalty platform, to understand today’s consumers and offer a partner platform known as ‘The 1 Biz’ to support the tenants in all aspects, increase their sales and scale up their businesses, which the company believes will boost the overall economy of the country.

The company revealed the business model in a press conference attended by Dr. Nattakit Tangpoonsinthana, Executive Vice President of Marketing, Central Pattana Plc.; Mr. Isareit Chirathivat, Senior Vice President of Leasing, Central Pattana Plc.; and Mr. Rawee Puapornpong, Head of Corporate Affairs and Relationship, The 1

Dr. Nattakit said, “The most important thing today is developing the country’s economy with retail marketing, which will help partners of Central Pattana at all levels sustainably grow with us. Central Pattana wants to join hands with partners and become a drive force to scale up and create the strongest and best business ecosystem. The 15,000 entrepreneurs around the country who are our partners will give the opportunity to grow rapidly and sustainably, which will stimulate the economy of the whole country.”

“We have developed a new business model to continuously support our partners with a marketing budget of 1,000 million baht for a period of three years. We will focus on creating differences and strengths of the shopping center business with three main strategies, which are 1) ‘ENABLE to Scale Up Your Business’ to encourage partners to expand their businesses with 33 Central shopping centers across the country, 2) ‘ENSURE Excellent Services, Facilities and Synergies’ to cater to new business projects and sustainable growth, and 3) ‘EMPOWER with Big Data’ by letting the partners join the business ecosystem of ‘The 1’, which is Thailand’s No.1 digital lifestyle and loyalty program,” Dr. Nattakit added.

According to Dr. Nattakit, Strategy No.1 “ENABLE to Scale Up Your Business” Creating business sustainability, enhancing brand experience and maintaining physical shops are all strategically important to branding and creating good customer experience, as seen in the current trend in which global online retail and e-commerce players have expanded into offline businesses to provide customers the experiences that online channels alone cannot provide. Central already has the strength of having shopping centers in all regions of the country with various anchors that act as magnets to attract customers. The company believes it can support its partners in the following ways.

• The company has created a success formula from latching on the urbanization trend. Central Pattana has been developing fully-integrated mixed-use development projects in key economic cities utilizing its expertise to integrate all elements, such as shopping centers, hotels, convention halls and residences, to reinforce each other in a “quality traffic ecosystem”. In particular, residential projects that are adjacent or close to shopping centers have continuously received good responses and the company expects to double such projects and the numbers of residents across the country in three years, or by 2024. The residents of these projects will create a regular traffic for the shopping centers in addition to the current customers and visitors who already account for tens of thousands per shopping center each day.

• Central shopping centers have a clear position as “center of life” that can cater to various needs of all groups of people, while continue to create new communities. These are opportunities the partners can grab to expand their businesses, build brand exposure, attract new customers and retain customer loyalty. Moreover, Central’s customers have responded well to the lifting of the lockdown in the first week of September, with shopping centers in Bangkok seeing its traffic recover by 50-70 percent. The company expects the traffic to recover by 70-80 percent in the fourth quarter this year.

According to Mr. Isareit, Strategy No.2 “ENSURE Excellent Services, Facilities and Synergies” will aim for sustainable growth. Excellent services and facilities of the shopping centers that are always ready to service customers are considered essential for shops and brands. Central plans to invest in various aspects under this strategy to support its partners and ensure that they can scale up their business with Central faster than they would by operating a standalone shop. The investments will include hygiene and safety facilities, marketing activities to boost sales and branding, CRM marketing programs, and the sharing of knowledge and know-how in the ecosystem of the Central Group.

• Central Pattana has made hygiene and safety investments and created the master plan “Central’s Hygiene & Safety Plus+” which laid out a standard that can be applied in a wide array of areas. This helps Central utilize the health-conscious trend, help visitors and build customer confidence. In addition, the company has continuously invested in the safety system, car parks, cleaning crews and risk management in order to maintain its standard and cater to business expansions of its tenants.

• The company has used impactful and comprehensive marketing, such as promotions and creating buzz for shops at the shopping centers by using a strong network of influencers and KOLs. As a result, Central has seen phenomenal successes with many shops and events, including the launches of Kam’s Roast, Tsuta Ramen, Sushiro, and Saemaeul Sikdang. The company has also used its cross-region platform to help brands tap into new markets in different provinces, as seen in the case of the expansion of Hai Di Lao which now has three restaurants in Central shopping centers. In addition, Central Pattana can also assist with pop-up stores to help fashion brands quickly reach different provinces across the country or test a certain market.

• Central Pattana helps its partners increase sales with new and disruptive sale channels. The company has been innovating and developing services on new platforms to help increase sales, such as the Chat & Shop and Central Kitchen omnichannel services.

“Throughout our history of 40 years, we have always been committed to our tenant-centric principle. Many of the partners who grew with us have become listed in the stock exchange, while numerous brands have high confidence in us and always decide to open a shop or restaurant whenever we launch a new Central shopping center regardless of the location. There are also new brands seeking to tap into new markets, which can scale up quickly with us. Lastly, there are e-commerce businesses looking to open physical stores with us to complement the online experience of their customers,” said Mr. Isareit.

According to Dr. Nattakit, Strategy No.2 “EMPOWER with Big Data” will utilize The 1, which is Thailand’s No.1 digital lifestyle and loyalty platform and a partner within the group. The 1 has an established database accumulated from its operation of over 15 years in the retail industry and can help brands save CRM expenses, which will be very high if they have to invest in the operation themselves. The 1 currently has 18 million members nationwide, over 8.4 million of whom are regular and active users, and over 14,000 million points accumulated by these members each year. In addition, ‘The 1 Biz’ has been created as tool to help tenants. Customers will be able to receive and exchanges points when they spend at shops participating in The 1 Biz program. By being part of Central Pattana’s ecosystem, brands will be able to use CRM to better cater to customer preferences, attract new customers, retain customer loyalty and build a strong customer base.

Mr. Rawee said, “As The 1 has joined forces with Central Pattana to power up small and large entrepreneurs, we are opening a new gate to the world of big data in a way never been seen before in this country. This will help shops and brands better understand their customers and assist them in designing marketing strategies that are accurate, measurable and effective in generating sales. After all, The 1 has many strengths that can help the tenants.”

• The 1 is a powerful digital lifestyle & loyalty platform and strong ecosystem. It has over 2,000 brands across the country within and outside the Central Group as part of its membership program and over 30,000 touchpoints that connect more than 18 million customers via The 1 application, which offers discounts, rewards and content for all lifestyles. The app also has features to help with online and offline shopping, such as point transfers, point exchanges, point records, scanning services and expense checks. New features have been added to the app regularly to better service the customers and catch up with the trends. At the same time, shops can use “dynamic business intelligence solutions” from the partner platform or The 1 Biz to better operate in the ecosystem and access The 1 loyalty system by themselves. It will allow the brands to manage their point programs, gather and analyze customer information, and create effective marketing campaigns with MarTech tools in the app.

• The 1 can provide insightful customer data analytics. With partners from outside the Central Group, each brand will have a better understanding of customers, including their lifestyle and customer journey in a “single view” and can use such insights to develop their products, services and marketing campaigns. By using such insights to understand customers and retain them, brands are estimated to spend less expenses needed to acquire new customers.

• The 1 is an effective marketing technology platform. Shops in the ecosystem can create marketing campaigns with maximum efficiency via The 1 app, which offers modern marketing technology to help analyze data and provide insight on customers’ buying behavior and app usage. As a result, brands can make personalized offers in real time to acquire new customers or encourage previous customers to return. They can also provide contents and rewarding programs specifically designed to cater to the high-spending customers.

Currently, brands participating with The 1 Biz include CHAMPION, HOKA, REV RUNNR, SLAMMERS, TEVA, UNDER ARMOUR, BEAUTRIUM, CLARINS, THE BODY SHOP, THREE, CALVIN KLEIN, CLARKS, FITFLOP, GUESS, NAUTICA, POLO RALPH LAUREN, TOMMY HILFIGER, G2000, HUSH PUPPIES, JOHN HENRY, LEE, DYSON, MISTER DONUT, KFC, AUNTIE ANNE’S, PEPPER LUNCH, CHABUTON, OOTOYA, and YOSHINOYA. By the end of this year, The 1 Biz is expected to include over 240 brands and 1,000 shops.

Dr. Nattakit said, “We believe this new business model created from the collaboration of Central Pattana, The 1, other businesses within the Central Group, and over 15,000 of our shop tenants, will become an innovation that will change the country and act as an economic springboard. We aim to see results in three years with data-driven retail marketing. Our marketing campaigns will help shops make personalized offers in real time and targeted campaigns to the right customers, which will generate sales for them in the long run and in a sustainable way,” he said.