Pomelo takes on Indonesia and Malaysia markets in bid to conquer SEA

Omnichannel fashion platform Pomelo is expanding into Indonesia and Malaysia in November this year and the first quarter of 2021 respectively. In addition to growing its presence, Pomelo is also expanding its existing offline presence in Thailand and Singapore.

Including its two most recent stores in The Mall Ngamwongwan and Terminal 21 in Bangkok, Pomelo plans to open three more stores in Fashion Island, Mega Bangna and Siam Centre. Meanwhile in Singapore, it will also unveil a new store at NEX in November to increase the number of physical touchpoints to enhance the customer journey for its users. This will be Pomelo's second store in Singapore, having previously opened a flagship store at 313@Somerset in 2019. According to the company, its growing offline footprint is set to reach 20 stores by the end of this year. Marketing has reached out to Pomelo for additional information on the new stores and its marketing strategy.

Meanwhile, Pomelo also rebranded its Pomelo Pick Up service to Tap Try Buy to reflect its objective of increasing online to offline adoption, as well as reflect growing consumer demand for the feature. The revamped Tap Try Buy branding is featured in its two most recent stores, The Mall Ngamwongwan and Terminal 21, and will be rolled out across new Pomelo stores going forward. The feature lets customers order items online through the Pomelo app or website, select a Pomelo store or Pomelo Partner location to try on their selected items, and only pay for the ones they want to keep. The company said that Tap Try Buy orders make up almost half of its online orders, with the percentage continuing to increase during COVID-19.

Anders Heikenfeldt, Pomelo's chief retail officer, said creating a seamless omnichannel experience has always been at the core of what we do at Pomelo, and it’s what allows us to continue expanding our retail presence at a time when other brands may be doing the opposite.

“With Tap Try Buy, we have been seeing a huge increase in user adoption, especially as Thailand started to ease lockdown restrictions. For us as a brand, this emphasised the importance of opening more physical touchpoints to both engage with our existing customers as well as enable new shoppers across the region to experience our unique omnichannel approach.”

Separately, Pomelo launched its first TikTok challenge on 20 July featuring Thai actress and model Davika Hoorne, which garnered over 150 million views within the week of its launch. It also grew its TikTok follower count by 43,000. The challenge was launched as part of Pomelo’s EmpowHer Mega Sale on 30 July, in the company's shift towards user generated content and social media driven campaigns to engage customers.

To promote the campaign, Pomelo’s marketing team featured frequent #WalkWithPomelo content on its livestream platform and social media channels, highlighting other #WalkWithPomelo videos from the Pomelo community as well as instructional videos showing fans how to recreate the challenge. The entire campaign was conceptualised and marketed in-house, and is the first time the brand has launched a large scale campaign on TikTok’s platform.

Join us on a three-week journey at Digital Marketing Asia 2020 as we delve into the realm of digital transformation, data and analytics, and mobile and eCommerce from 10 to 26 November. Sign up here!

Related articles:
Pomelo CMO: Beyond convenience, shoppers want novelty
Pomelo debuts in-app live streaming for Spring Summer line
Pomelo raises US$52m for omnichannel expansion across Asia
Former Lazada SG CMO Jean Thomas resurfaces at Pomelo