ASUS Singapore today announces the launch of the newly revamped ASUS Store where consumers can purchase the latest PCs online from ASUS and collect their devices at their favourite retailers. This launch also brings forth a new business model where its authorised resellers will together reap the growth of its digital business.
The omnichannel shoppers
ASUS is dedicated in bringing the best shopping experience to its consumers and in this day and age where shoppers no longer shop from a single channel, ASUS recognises this change of shopping behaviour by introducing an omnichannel shopping experience within its online store. With this implementation, consumers can purchase the latest PCs such as the ASUS Zenbook and Vivobook and collect it from their favourite retailer near them the same day they made the order. If consumers have yet made up their mind on the device, they can also check the stock status on the website before making their way down to the store to touch and feel the it.
Marrying digital business with brick-and-mortar
While many brands in this space are working to cut out the ‘middlemen’ and compete with their resellers through a Direct-to-Consumers approach, ASUS took on a complementary application by marrying its digital business together with their retail channels, allowing for a synergy across its business units with minimal channel conflicts. With this, ASUS has provided additional value proposition to its authorised resellers, by leveraging its strong retail presence through its authorised resellers and integrating it with its own digital channel. This new business model will enable ASUS authorised resellers to grow their businesses further in this omnichannel shopping era.
“Ever since the pandemic started, we have seen an accelerated shift in the e-commerce space along with consumers’ shopping behaviour. That is when we recognise the need to revamp not just our online store, but our business model as well, to cater to these changes. At ASUS, we value our strong relationship with our retail partners and their support to us, and we always believe in proving more values to our partners. That led us to rethink our approach with our digital business and have it to complement and drive incremental on our partners businesses.” said Megan Wang, Business Development Manager at ASUS Singapore.
Designing the next omnichannel system
To be able to support the new business model, a simple and yet complex system infrastructure is needed. Hence ASUS, together with SmartOSC leveraged the help of Adobe Commerce to design a marketplace framework on the backend to achieve this. The approach is to first form its integration to the ERP system of ASUS authorised resellers, that allows inventories and orders to be sync across the ASUS online store in real time. With such approach, it has streamlined the technical process from order placement to fulfilment, by sending across the order to the respective authorised resellers directly, enabling a fast turnaround for same day collection. The challenge next is to have the payment routed directly from the shopper to ASUS authorised reseller, which is made possible with an innovative solution in its ordering logic that helps bring down transactional cost through a direct approach.
“The ASUS Store may look like a regular online store on the frontend but behind, it is supported by an innovative and yet complex system solution designed from the ground up. When we were designing it, we wanted to ensure little to no interruption to our retail partners’ process flow and with the ability to scale up and down depending on the season and load. To achieve this, our online store is connected to many microservices and external system which talks to one another other in real time, enabling many automations of workflows. As a result, ASUS has created our own marketplace infrastructure where we are able to have our retail partners to come onboard through the integration with them.” said Eddie Teng, Head of Marketing and Digital Business Manager at ASUS Singapore.
“ASUS Singapore’s ambition is more than just revamping their online store, which made it an exciting challenge for us to take on. We’re thrilled to play a part in executing ASUS’s bold vision to create an integrated and cohesive customer experience and truly disrupt the market with the new B2B2C model,” said SmartOSC Founder and CEO Thai Son Nguyen
Why shop at ASUS Store?
Besides the option for consumers to collect their order at their favourite retailer nearby them, there are many other reasons for consumers to shop at ASUS Store. First, consumers can shop the entire range of ASUS and ROG laptops, desktops and mobile phones extending from the ASUS Zenbook to ASUS Vivobook, ROG Zephyrus to ROG Strix and ASUS ExpertBook to ASUS Chromebook. Second, consumers can choose from the many modern payment methods such as digital wallets, P2P transfer, instalment and Buy-Now-Pay-Later when paying for their devices. Lastly, different consumers can also enjoy different savings with ASUS Education Pricing and Employee Purchase Programme when they shop at the ASUS Store.