Siam Piwat Co, the operator of Siam Discovery, is ramping up its strategies to brace for the country's reopening next month.
Chairoj Sridecharinkul, executive vice-president of Siam Piwat Retail Holding Co, a subsidiary of Siam Piwat Co, said the company is speeding up to adjust its product merchandise to fit foreign tourists; reskill its staff and prepare communications to communicate with arriving tourists in line with the government's plan to reopen the country next month.
The new product merchandise will be completely put in the store by the end of October. The move is aimed at increasing customers spending time at its shopping centre, he said.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, 60% of customers at Siam Discovery were foreign tourists and the remaining 40% were local customers.
After the Covid-19 outbreak, the company has to adjust its merchandise to cater more to local shoppers and has geared towards the online channel to capture customers in upcountry areas to help boost sales.
Currently, the online business generates 20% of the overall sales of Siam Piwat. The company will keep on expanding its online business to reinforce its offline business.
Mr Chairoj said that apart from merchandise mix, staff reskilling and communication plans, the company also plans to continuously renovate Siam Discovery in the remaining four months of the year and aims to complete the renovation by the middle of next year.
"With experience with Covid-19 for almost two years, we have learned many lessons, especially for our mindset in doing business. You have to do what you earlier thought you could not," said Mr Chairoj.
According to Mr Chairoj, during the Covid-19 situation, the company has also taken an opportunity to have a minor revamp for its Siam Discovery since August last year such as the Digital Lab, a trendy lifestyle technology, IT and gadget zone, which is in the top five best-selling categories at Siam Discovery.
In a related development, the company on Tuesday officially launched "CEE.Store" -- a new lifestyle IT and gadget store for gadget lovers, at the 1,000-square-metre Digital Lab, on the second floor of Siam Discovery.
The store is a co-creation between Siam Discovery and Thailand's top leader in IT and gadget business KOAN Co, which runs the wholesale and retail sales of gadgets and a subsidiary of digital product distributor Copperwired Plc. This store will create a community for IT and gadget lovers.