At A Glance

IKEA, the world’s largest home furnishings retailer, have held a roof capping ceremony to celebrate the completion of its Bang Yai.
The store is designed under the concept of offering a new shopping experience in which customers can enter and check out on every level.
 The construction of the Bang Yai store took 21 months. With a total area of 50,278 square metres, it is IKEA’s biggest store in Southeast Asia. The store is set to open in March 2018.
Once both stores are fully operational, IKEA Thailand will target 7.8 million visitors by the end of 2018.

Mall Group’s Midnight Sale taps into tax break
Midnight sales at all branches of The Mall and the Emporium, EmQuartier and Siam Paragon will let shoppers take advantage of the government’s year-closing tax break.
It starts today and continues to November 30. 
Offers include discounts of up to 20 per cent on purchases with a Kasikorn credit card, dinner with actor Mario Maurer, and up to Bt9,750 in tax returns.
“The campaign aims to provide customers with great savings during the end of the shopping tax-break period,” says Mall Group general manager Nonglak Lohamanop. 
“The tax break has already boosted sales by 15 per cent and amassed 160,000 tax invoices. As a result, the final stretch of the tax break, coupled with the Midnight Sale, is expected to boost sales by 20 per cent.”
Kasikorn credit cardholders and M Card members who spend Bt5,000 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday will recent discounts of up to 20 per cent. Customers who spend Bt2,000 on any day have a chance to win discount coupons. The 30 top spenders will be able to dine out with Maurer at the EmQuartier restaurant D’Ark.
The Emporium and EmQuartier will have a three-hour Black Friday Midnight Sale beginning at 6pm, in which the price of many top-brand items will be halved. 
Nonglak expects the seven-day campaign to generate around Bt1.2 billion in sales.

Fitness First promotes application for patrons
Fitness First says it is ready to step on FitTech leadership with the application CustomFit, which “can answer all fitness needs and push every limit of lifestyle that has ever blocked chances for having good physical fitness, giving freedom in self-care through the gym on your mobile phone”.
Mark Elliott Buchanan, managing director of Fitness First (Thailand) Company Limited, described the beginning of Fitness Technology (FitTech) as an app called CustomFit.
“Fitness First, being the fitness club which understands the needs of exercise data in one place, has been the world’s first to bring technology to enhance exercise experience on the digital platform. The CustomFit application was launched in 2016 with a budget of over Bt225 million. 
“CustomFit is one of the most distinguished and complete fitness apps comparing to the others. In addition to six basic features that can be downloaded for free, special features like on-demand class which is the collection of various exercise classes for unlimited use, is available for those who buy monthly package of only Bt319, and Body Transformation Plan which is suitable for those who have determined goal in certain period of time, for example, 12-week Body Transformation Program, Recovery Program, 6-week Six Packs Program etc, which costs Bt139-Bt249 in average,” Buchanan said. 
 "After the release of CustomFit for more than a year, it has grown steadily with over 190,000 users in the world and over 30,000 users in Thailand. As the result, CustomFit has been developed to the Thai version as the newest one that can make it more friendly and convenient to Thai users.
CustomFit offers a variety of fitness information which is convenient for all exercise lovers, whether in the club or not. Interested persons who download or upgrade CustomFit today on App Store and Google Play, will get a free seven-day trial of on-demand class right away.”

SCB teams up with Alipay on e-payment system
Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) has made another move to drive a cashless society in Thailand with e-payment, as the bank joins with e-payment provider Alipay to develop an e-payment system supporting Alipay’s QR code payment.
 Hoping that the cooperation will enable Thai merchants to better serve shoppers from China, the feature is now available nationwide. The cooperative effort expects to offer QR code payment service to 200,000 retailer accounts by the end of this year.
Apiphan Charoenanusorn, SCB senior executive vice president and head of operations, retail products and retail payments, said: “After successfully trying our hand at the Bank of Thailand’s regulatory sandbox, SCB is now ready to roll out our QR code payment feature to shops and merchants nationwide with an “SCB Easy Pay – Mae Manee Money Solution” campaign launched in early November. The campaign aims to promote QR code payment with Mae Manee as a digital commerce mascot and colourful gimmick. 
“With Mae Manee loving everyone, welcomings every bank, loves every nationality, accepts every payment option, the campaign aims to emphasize that SCB’s QR code payment supports payments made with any bank’s mobile banking application as well as e-payment providers of any nationality. For the latter, SCB anticipates that it will play a vital role in Thailand in the next few years. This effort is to achieve the bank’s strategies and goal of being the most admired bank.”
SCB recently joined with Alipay to offer the SCB Easy Pay – Mae Manee Money Solution.
This will help facilitate transactions between small retailers and Chinese tourists, who prefer paying with the Alipay app when shopping in Thailand. Alipay plays a crucial role in China’s economy, while merchants in Thailand are more and more adaptive to e-payments. The trends are in line with SCB’s aim to promote QR code payment service among shops and merchants to boost their commercial opportunities. In the early phase, SCB will introduce the payment through Alipay’s QR Code at Yaowarat, and Platinum Fashion Mall in Bangkok, as they are prominent landmarks with Chinese tourists, the company said.
“The feature will be rolled out nationwide by the end of this year. With this cooperation with Alipay, SCB is confident of achieving its target of offering QR code payment service to 200,000 retailer accounts this year and another 500,000 accounts to 700,000 accounts by 2018,” the company said.