Siam Piwat seeks more members for ‘Global Privilege Partnership’
SIAM PIWAT, operator of the Siam Paragon, Siam Center, Siam Discovery Center and Paradise Park shopping complexes, is negotiating with five additional international retailers from well-known tourism destinations in Europe and Asia to join the company’s “Global Privilege Partnership” campaign.
Chanisa Kaewruen, senior deputy managing director for marketing and business relations, said Siam Piwat had initiated two privilege cards – the Platinum M Card and VIZ Card – aimed at providing privileges and general benefits to its shoppers, as well as to broaden its membership.
The Global Privilege Partnership campaign has been in place for three years so far to attract foreign shoppers by offering them borderless customer relationship management. The idea is to help stimulate foreign shoppers’ spending to Thailand.
“Regarding the company’s criteria for selecting individual partners for the Global Privilege Partnership campaign, they need to have similar positioning as our shopping centres and share the same [customer targets]. Their retail complexes also should be in well-known tourist destinations and their shoppers should want to travel to Thailand as well,” Chanisa said.
Bt100m targeted
“We aim to generate more than Bt100 million in sales revenue annually from the Global Privilege Partnership campaign, from more than 20 million individual holders of our partnership cards,” she said.
There are currently eight major international retailers participating in the campaign, she said. They are Lotte Department Store in South Korea, Times Square in Hong Kong, Parco in Japan, Galeries Lafayette in France, Harrods department store in England, Taipei 101 Shopping Mall in Taiwan, ION Orchard Shopping Mall in Singapore, and Tsum Department Store in Russia.
The campaign also includes a network of more than 1,270 luxury hotels and resorts in 100 countries around the world.
Chanisa said that last year, more than Bt7 billion was spent by shoppers via the company’s Platinum M Card, and Bt1.2 billion via the VIZ Card.
“We have set this year’s target for card spending to be at least the same level as last year. We also plan to launch promotional campaigns and events for a group of travellers and shoppers in foreign countries, including roadshows to Berlin, Dubai and China.
“The overseas campaigns will |be conducted in partnership |with the government and private sectors, such as the Tourism Authority of Thailand, airlines, hotels, travel agents, and expat associations.”
She said foreigners currently accounted for about 30 per cent of the customers entering Siam Piwat’s shopping centres in Bangkok.
The highest number of foreign tourists is from South Korea, |followed by mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.
Yoko Nakata, manager of operations for the overseas business department at Parco Co, said the firm had joined Siam Piwat’s Global Privilege Partnership campaign about three years ago. The company currently operates 18 department stores in Japan, of which its Parco Department Stores in five cities – Tokyo, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka and Sendai – had joined the Global Privilege Partnership campaign.
“There are about 20,000 shoppers visiting our Parco Department Store in Sapporo a day. The highest number of foreign shoppers is from China, followed by Thailand. We have seen an increasing number of shoppers who buy goods at our store via Siam Piwat’s Platinum M Card and VIZ Card,” she said.
“We decided to join the Global Privilege Partnership campaign as our target shoppers have similar characteristics to those at Bangkok’s shopping centres owned and operated by Siam Piwat. Our department stores have gathered fashion apparel and accessories with Japanese designs. It is similar to Siam Center, which has also gathered products made by Thai designers,” she said.
