Quantum Interactive: Maximizing the In-Store Retail Experience

Nicole Nilar Aye, Director, Strategy and Business

One of the most pressing questions in the retail sector today is: Will automation and digital disruption push brick-and-mortar retailers out of the picture? “While there are many advocates for either side of the debate, here at Quantum Interactive, we believe that the in-store experience is just as relevant today as it was decades ago, prior to the digital age,” says Nicole Nilar Aye, Quantum’s director of strategy and business. A major proponent of this viewpoint, Singapore-based Quantum is on a mission to deliver leading-edge customer experience management (CEM) solutions for retail stores, shopping malls, and small-medium businesses.

In an era of fraying brand loyalty and tightening competition, offline retailers need a well-defined CEM strategy to enhance customer satisfaction and engagement. This is where Quantum’s forte lies. Quantum’s team of specialists—having extensive experience in retail marketing, technology, content, and data analysis—blends their creativity with logic to connect brands to consumers. Quantum combines data-driven insights with retail strategy to create a seamless end-to-end user journey through online and offline communication channels.

Quantum achieves this through their CEM platform, CONNECTOR. The uniqueness of the platform lies in its ability to provide a seamless user experience for both end customers as well as back-end users from various functions such as marketing, finance, and customer service. “A big part of our business model also comprises a strong partnership network and strategy where CONNECTOR helps in connecting both internal partners (from retail industries) and external (partners from other industries such as banking, hospitalities, and other services),” says Nicole. The CONNECTOR platform consists of numerous integrated modules— like loyalty program, m-commerce, gift cards, instant rebates, and event reservation—which facilitate a retail business to manage all the processes catering to customer experience from a single window, making the solution truly comprehensive.

We employ a ‘start small, scale fast’ approach to help retail businesses accelerate performance based on the best practices put in place during the initial setup

When it comes to delivering the solution, Quantum takes a mobile-first approach. “Today’s consumers are doing everything through their mobile: finding product information, scheduling events, deciding where to eat, making a transaction, and more,” says Nicole. Catering to the needs of the modern society, Quantum lays a strong emphasis on mobile engagement. While Quantum’s CEM platform allows back-end users to design the CEM journeys, their mobile solution allows end-consumers enjoy the benefit of those features— be it information, instant rewards, event scheduling, or purchases—at their fingertips.

Elucidating on the implementation process, Nicole notes, “We employ a ‘start small, scale fast’ approach to help retail businesses accelerate performance based on the best practices put in place during the initial setup.” As the needs change depending on the phase of a retailer’s digital transformation journey, Quantum provides the right solution based on the business objectives to yield higher ROI. The process usually begins by setting the right business direction. Following this, Quantum’s team of experts creates the USP and engagement playbook, which includes best practices, engagement guidelines, and scorecards for the retailers and business owners to plan the CEM strategy. Once the plan has been laid out, Quantum proceeds with the execution and measurement of the project. “Our efforts do not stop there,” says Nicole. “We continue having a long-term partnership with our clients, helping them through their campaign designs, partnership programs, event marketing, member acquisition, and community building exercises.”

Nicole further elaborates that in today’s digital age, where e-commerce and AI technologies are disrupting the shopping experience, the most taxing task for most shopping malls and retailers is to bring shoppers back to the mall. Suntec City, one of the largest shopping malls in Singapore, constantly strives to uplift their in-store experience to remain competitive in the retail landscape. Quantum has been their valuable partner in this pursuit. Quantum has introduced numerous mobile-based engagement strategies like transaction system, event reservation, cardless loyalty program, and instant rewards to provide a holistic online to offline shopping experience.

Established in 2015, Quantum has been able to achieve great peaks of success in a short span of time. “Since our inception, our unique CEM services have brought us numerous accolades and awards,” says Nicole. Continuing with this growth trajectory, Quantum intends to explore partnership opportunities with co-working spaces, startups, and medical industries and offer non-retail products, such as legal services, to their retail consumer base. With several promising CEM strategies underway, Quantum is poised to bring forth a new horizon for CEM across ASEAN countries in the coming years.