The Mall Group, the country's second-largest retail operator, will allocate almost 1 billion baht for a big overhaul of its IT system for the first time since it was established 30 years ago.
The move is part of its plan to stay stronger amid fierce competition in Bangkok areas where its shopping centres are located including Bang Khae, Bang Kapi, Ngam Wong Wan Road and Rama IX Road.
The new system will enable the company to track individual customers' shopping behaviour and direct its marketing accordingly.
"Due to fiercer competition, we will reduce the roll-out of mass marketing campaigns and gear towards a one-on-one approach to customers. We can no longer rely only on strategies such as price, product, place and promotion," said executive vice-president Chamnarn Maytaprechakul.
Voralak Tulaphorn, senior vice-president for marketing, said The Mall Group was gradually upgrading its IT system and expected to complete work in 2018.
The strategy will help the company to prevent its customers from switching to new retail projects in nearby areas.
According to its database, customers are divided into 30 groups based on lifestyle and shopping behaviour.
The Mall Group aims to provide the right product merchandising and service to really fit customers' needs.
"By doing so, the relationship between customers and us will be strongly tied. When each customer has a rising satisfaction level, we have opportunities to get three new customers by their word of mouth," Mrs Voralak said.
Mr Chamnarn said competition in the last two months of this year was more intense than last year because retailers want to draw shoppers and capture more market share in the peak retail season.
"The overall shopping atmosphere is now improving from the first half with middle-income people starting to spend again, increasing our sales in the first 10 months of this year by 5% as forecast earlier," he said.
To achieve its 2015 sales target of 52 billion baht, the company will allocate 120 million baht for its "Brilliant Thanks" campaign from Dec 3 to Jan 3 to offer privileges to customers at The Mall, The Emporium, The EmQuartier and Siam Paragon.
The Mall Group expects to generate 6 billion baht in sales from the one-month campaign to celebrate the New Year festival, which is forecast to have people spending 20-25 billion baht.