RETAIL WATCH
Retail ‘war’ starts even before shoppers enter the store: Alfamart
At the front line is Alfamart's CRM platform that analyses consumer shopping behaviour.
because the promos given were targeted to members,” Ryan said. Based on Alfamart’s financial reports as of 30 September 2021, the company posted a 12.10% increase in net revenue to IDR63.18t (US$4.4b) from IDR56.36t (US$3.9b) in the same period in 2020.
Alfamart invested to build knowledge and understanding of consumer shopping behaviour with its CRM platform (Photo: Ryan Alfons Kaloh)
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n marketing jargon, the moment of truth or MOT is considered the time when the shopper finally gives an impression after interacting with a brand, product, or service. This theory, however, is considered less relevant in the midst of rapid digital developments, claimed Ryan Alfons Kaloh, marketing director of PT Sumber Alfaria Trijaya Tbk, the operator of Alfamart Group convenience store. He argued that the 'battle' starts before the shopper even goes to the store. This is why Alfamart invested in building knowledge and understanding of consumer shopping behaviour with its Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform. Through big data analysis, CRM provides relevant promotions offered through various online platforms based on the shopper shopping patterns gathered from the physical outlets. From the data 18
RETAIL ASIA
It’s like shoppers have been escorted before going to the store to make transactions
obtained, Alfamart is able to know the business prospects of each of its 16,500 outlets across Indonesia. “It’s like shoppers have been escorted before going to the store to make transactions. In the midst of digital development, business owners need data so that they can process it into knowledge and be able to promote their business digitally, such as through mobile phones or Whatsapp,” Ryan said in an exclusive interview with Retail Asia. Alfamart started to build the CRM platform in 2016 and has since seen positive results, Ryan disclosed. From 2019 to 2021, Alfamart has been seeing strong double-digit growth in sales. In 2021, sales from membership grow more than 30% and members contributed more than 35% of total Alfamart sales. “Amidst the pandemic and challenging situation, we were saved by knowledge from our CRM,
Launch of Alfagift The data gathered and analysed through the CRM platform were used by Alfamart to build and launch Alfagift in 2016. It is a loyalty program application that gives updates on promos and vouchers to Alfamart's members. In 2019, Alfamart relaunched Alfagift with added features that support Alfamart’s goal to achieve an ideal Online to Offline (O2O) model. In the same year, it acquired PT Global Loyalty Indonesia (GLI) which developed a member point program for Alfamart. “Since 2019, Alfagift is fully managed by GLI. [But in terms of management,] they are completely independent. It’s not just a sideline for one department. That makes Alfagift a digital membership platform that enables CRM activation, as well as transactional capabilities,” said Ryan, who also serves as the CEO of GLI. This partnership launched a new version of Alfagift, an integration of both offline and online shopper knowledge capabilities into the transactional applications. Various features were also developed based on big data analysis on shopping behaviour, such as personal offers and personalised shopping lists with products offered based on both online and offline historical transactions, as well as cross-selling promotion supported by shopping affinity algorithm. It was also able to offer various payment options to COD options and free shipping. Alfamart aimed to synergise between shopping at Alfamart’s physical outlets and online at Alfagift.
