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Some of the high-tech features of the upcoming Funan mall at North Bridge Road in Singapore’s Civic & Cultural District were revealed by its owner CapitaLand Mall Trust recently.
Touted as the country’s first online-and-offline (O&O) shopping centre when it opens in Q3 2019, the mall will see the first deployment of automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and robotic arm in a retail setting.
Equipped with a laser-based navigation system, the AGVs can smoothly navigate the space and human traffic as it does not need magnetic strips or embedded lines on the ground.
When a shopper uses Funan’s automated concierge service at participating retailers, an AGV will pick up the client’s purchased items and transport them to one of the 100 click-and-collect boxes at Basement 2 of the mall.
Shoppers can collect their merchandise by using a QR code sent to their phone or by taking advantage of Funan’s 24-hour drive-thru collection service, whereby a state-of-the-art robotic arm can retrieve their purchased goods.
Retailers can also utilise the mall’s omnichannel retail infrastructure like the warehousing facilities as well as the click-and-collect lounge at Basement 4 to service online orders from CapitaLand’s official store on Lazada.SG.
“As smartphones change the way people shop and socialise, the design and operations of retail space must be reimagined to meet changing consumer expectations for an integrated O&O experience. With the benefit of being a new development, Funan has wired its hardware and software differently to plug straight into the phygital (physical + digital) world of today’s consumers,” said CapitaLand Retail CEO Wilson Tan.
Moreover, Funan’s digital ecosystem has been designed to look deeper into consumer shopping habits and preferences. Complementing the information gathered by in-store smart terminals, surveillance cameras outside stores obtain footfall and demographic data across the mall and at a particular store. The insights gathered by these in-store smart terminals also has the potential to significantly improve retailers omnichannel strategy as it integrates payment data with other vital information like remaining inventory and click-and-collect orders.
“As a native O&O mall with omnichannel retail infrastructure enabled by the latest technology, Funan is well-positioned to attract quality tenants who are able to adapt to and excel in this fast-changing retail landscape,” noted Tony Tan, chief executive of CapitaLand Mall Trust Management.
In fact, many businesses have committed to take up space at Funan. These include Keepers, Carrie K., Kopitiam, W!ld Rice, T K Foto, Climb Central, Golden Village, AddOn Systems, Newstead Technologies and FairPrice Finest.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
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