Octopus inks partnership with JD.com providing retail innovations, expanding reach in Asia

Partnership will see Octopus’ B2B software solutions uplifting retail industry in North Asia, India and SEA

SINGAPORE - Media OutReach - 26 March 2019 - Octopus Retail Management (Octopus), a Singapore-based company and a pioneer in offering a holistic suite of retail management solutions, today announced that it has partnered with JD.com for its cutting-edge Point of Sales (POS) suite of solutions which has benefitted a variety of businesses spanning the retail, F&B and ecommerce sectors.

With Octopus' partnership with China's largest retailer, JD.com, Octopus will be the first B2B software provider for the retail industry and will have access to more than 300 million active customers that shop on JD.com. This strategic alliance is in light of Octopus' vision to digitally transform the retail industry.

Octopus is a Cloud-Based Retail Management Company that offers a comprehensive Point of Sale solution to brick and mortar SMEs. With a presence across 7 countries -- Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, China, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the USA, Octopus generates around $2 billion of GMV on their platform from over 20,000 retail points across 3000 customers.

Ong Whee Shiong, Founder and Managing Director, Octopus said, "The digital age has thrown several challenges at businesses today. It has become critical for retailers to have an efficient retail management system to enhance their business productivity. Our products aim to empower the retailers to embrace digitalisation and streamline their online business."

The company's cloud-based retail management solution helps firms to leverage social media interactions to curate personalised offerings based on consumer's shopping and dining behaviours. The solutions can also synchronise inventory, support customer promotions, and offer loyalty points to add more value propositions to their customers. The solutions also allow its customers to onboard a mobile platform through its cloud offering. This enables real-time visibility over the network to monitor sales, the performance of staff, and inventory which leads to efficiency and better decision-making.

According to an article citing joint research by Google and Temasek in 2017, more than half of Southeast Asia's population is a millennial and of that, 70 per cent are under the age of 40. The retail space per capita remains low, indicating limited access to offline stores and products. Whilst the report shows that consumers in the region show the interest and willingness to shop online, there have been emerging trends focussing on omnichannel and online-to-offline solutions.

"We believe online and offline need to go hand in hand today. Through our integrated solutions, our clients are able to offer their customers enhanced seamless shopping experience and create more value," he added.