By Angelica Faye C. Tolosa / Special to the BusinessMirror
ZALORA opened the doors of its newest pop-up store on Tuesday at the Bonifacio High Street Central Square. Though it is the second pop-up store launched by Zalora in the Philippines, it offers a new style of shopping, as it centers on digital-lifestyle innovation.
Powered by Sony, the store has 22 high-definition television monitors. Its fitting rooms have vanity lights, which would make you see yourself very clearly. Right outside the fitting rooms is a makeshift runway, where customers can walk and take Instagram-ready photos with the photo booths strategically placed inside the store. There is also a lounge area with televisions and PlayStation.
“To ease shoppers into the world of e-commerce, the pop-up store serves as a venue where they can see, touch and try the items on, just like in a traditional store,” Zalora said in a news release.
This pop-up store has laptops and tablets in almost every corner. There are also barcode scanners connected to the laptops. However, there is no cash register. The customer will not walk out of the store with the items he or she bought. The customer will simply log in their Zalora account on the laptop, scan the quick-response (QR) code or the tag using the QR scanner, select payment details and wait for the delivery of the purchase.
Or, the customer may opt to use his or her Zalora app by taking a photo of the QR code using the mobile application. Simply put, it is still online shopping while having the chance to touch, see and fit the items.
“Honestly, we also thought of selling the items here, just like common shopping where one can choose, fit, pay and walk out of the shop with the item. But looking at the tweets our customers send, we thought we would like to maintain the thrill of having to wait for your order to be delivered,” said Paulo Campos III, cofounder and CEO of Zalora Philippines.
“We understand the hesitation customers may have toward online shopping before experiencing it for themselves. The pop-up store is really an opportunity for us to introduce fashion e-commerce to a traditional consumer base. They will soon learn how easy and enjoyable it is to shop online with Zalora,” Campos said.
Campos said this year’s pop-up store shows the Filipinos a “fundamentally different way to shop, engaging our customers in this digital lifestyle. The pop-up store is meant to represent the latest and greatest digital fashion innovation.” Campos also said Zalora is aiming to reach out to other parts of the Philippines, like the Visayas and Mindanao.
The store will also feature Zalora’s private labels, namely Zalora, Something Borrowed and 24:01. Also, Campos said, this year’s pop-up store is a lot bigger than last year’s at Edsa Shangri-la Mall, but it can only feature at least 1 percent of its overall collection. As a solution, the store will feature different collections from time to time.
Zalora also partnered with Globe, Mastercard and Sony. Globe GCash Mastercard has an in-store booth where customers can open GCash accounts in order for them to pay easily at Zalora. Because of their partnership, Globe and Mastercard subscribers and Sony Xperia Lounge members get exclusive discounts from Zalora.
During the launch of the pop-up store, Globe CEO Earnest Cu said they are proud to be a partner of Zalora, given that they have a “bias to the leading brands.” Cu also said they will “strive to keep pushing the digital lifestyle…as we are a purveyor of Filipinos’ digital lifestyle.”
Ailea Zialcita, vice president of MasterCard, also said they have been partners with Zalora for three years out of its four years in the Philippines, and said they are “committed to deliver a priceless experience to the customers…because gone are the days of window shopping” since some buyers seldom choose to “brave the traffic to go to the malls.”