Introduction

Following the opening of their very first mall in May 2015, PT AEON Mall Indonesia (AMI) has grown to be one of Indonesia’s leading shopping mall developer. In 2021, AMI worked together with PT NEC Indonesia (NEC Indonesia) to implement a fully integrated, smart retail solutions in all of its 4 malls located in BSD City, Jakarta Garden Sity, Sentul City and Tanjung Barat, South Jakarta. Supported by NEC’s Smart Retail Solutions, the project has enhanced the convenience, efficiency and security levels of their online transactions while allowing AMI’s management a better view of their sales and orders.  

 

Challenges

Prior to NEC Indonesia’s involvement, AMI’s visitors frequently demand for better digital experience and specific atmosphere that make their shopping experience feel more informative, comfortable, and safe. They frequently faced long queues when ordering meals at the food court. Yet, the situation is getting worse during the COVID-19 pandemic where the government-mandated crowd control policies were in force. For AMI tenants, they were not able to manage their promotions accurately, which added to the low customer transactions, who were already frustrated by pandemic situation. Mr Daisuke Isobe, President Director, PT AEON Mall Indonesia explained that to be a role model for mall operators in Indonesia, AMI need to set high standards for its operations, business processes and IT systems. “We understand that having a robust safety and security infrastructure is key to enhancing our visitors’ experience. Therefore, we decided to revamp our order system and implement new smart AI-based transactions solutions for AMI,” said Mr Isobe.  

 

Solution

Having assessed several offerings from various technology providers since embarking on the modernisation, AMI concluded that NEC Indonesia’s proposal for the fully integrated, smart retail solutions fits AMI’s requirements and expectations best. The new smart online order system from NEC Indonesia utilises state-of–the-art AI-based mobile applications, IEMS and POS technology capable of performing identification and verification of an order within one second. The customer’s order captured by the system is automatically uploaded to AMI’s existing order system in real-time, thus removing the errors and delays arising from the previous process. Having integrated with 3rd party payment system will make it more flexible for visitors as they can choose their payment method for transactions Mr Joji Yamamoto, President Director, PT NEC Indonesia, explained that NEC’s retail solution has been highly acknowledged by most of leading retailers in Japan. “AEON has been our long-time partner in Japan, and we want to build on this partnership in for their malls in Indonesia. We are keen to provide our prominent smart retail solution to support AMI’s expansion,” Mr Yamamoto added. The revamped order system provides unique versatility and sophistication. NEC’s POS system offers a powerful and energy-efficient performance housed an elegant, compact housing, and is easily serviceable with its tool-free component replacement design. In addition, NEC’s IEMS solution, a prepaid e-money system, reduces implementation costs and time. NEC also provided servers to manage prepaid transactions, loyalty point, e-voucher redemption, balances and user accounts that come from the online order system. In addition, NEC also provides a multi-purpose monitoring system using CCTV/Field Analyst, passer counting system, FR video analytics and CRM system that allows AMI to observe reliably and quickly of their customers’ shopping habits and retrieve information such as crowd movement, floor zoning and planning, and visitor walking behavior & demographics. Such a system is highly adaptable since it can be connected to other real-time analysis or reaction-based solutions. With the new system, AMI can drive effective promotions through the mobile apps and visitors can experience a safer and secure retail experience and reduced wait times. In the long run, this will improve sales per customer and increase the number of repeat visitors as well. The deployment process in selected AEON Mall’s area was completed earlier than projected. AMI also educated its tenants about the importance of brand equity. “It is important to build positive perception on our malls as well as make visitors feel comfortable, well-served, and more attached to AEON Mall,” said Mr Isobe.  

 

Results

NEC’s smart retail solutions has definitely set a new standard for AMI by combining informative digital experience, reliability, durability, user-friendliness, and security. Armed with the information provided by NEC solutions, AMI’s management and tenants can quickly draw up an appropriate strategy to satisfy the visitors, and to encourage them to spend more money. And for visitors, they can get more informative promotions such as e-voucher and loyalty point redemption real-time “When we first deployed the system, it only took a short time for our visitors to seamlessly place their orders (using self-order system). It is easy to use and helps promote new normal lifestyle during this pandemic,” said Mr Isobe. The modern system interface helps visitors easily choose what they want on the menu, proceed with payment, and get their orders ready. Visitors can also get the full shopping experience through their smartphone screen. Tenants will be willing to pay the rent even more expensive in return of accurate information to improve marketing effectiveness, and crime prevention. Expressing his delight, Mr Isobe said, “NEC has been excellent from the beginning of implementation process to go-live stage. Most of our tenants are satisfied with the performance of NEC POS system, IEMS and self-order apps as queue times at the checkout counters are now significantly reduced,” he added. NEC’s best-in-class smart retail solutions has unlocked more opportunities for AMI to accelerate its business. As the technology is getting integrated, Mr Isobe indicated that AMI will continue investing and improving its retail infrastructure with more of NEC’s world-leading retail solutions. “So far we are comfortable with NEC. Not just because of sophisticated technology but it’s high agility in responding any problem we’ve ever faced,” Mr Isobe says.  

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