Luxury lifestyle retailer The Lane Crawford Joyce Group has launched the third round of its three-month retail technology ignition program with two start-ups, ChatQuery and Olasso.
Known as The Cage, the ignition program calls for early-stage startups working on technology that can innovate the retail customer experience.
With the group’s five companies involved – Lane Crawford, fashion boutique Joyce, designer shoes and accessories specialist Pedder Group, retail brand management and distribution company ImagineX and full-service retail platform Walton Brown – start-ups can develop and trial their product to a significant customer base in Greater China, while learning from executive teams and more than 100 retail specialists.
Through the group’s ecosystem, the start-ups will also have access to more than 80 entrepreneurs and advisers from accelerators, venture capitalists, corporates, strategic consultancies and educational institutions including CEIBS, Google, Harvard, KPMG, MIT, Sequoia and Stanford.
“The Cage is our opportunity to co-create new ways of approaching our business,” says The Lane Crawford Joyce Group chairman/CEO Jennifer Woo. “It’s where the old world and new world meet in a mixing bowl of experience, ambition, collaboration, wisdom, learning and opportunity to create positive change together.”
Screening process
This year’s start-ups were chosen by the group’s five judges and an internal audience at a pitch day at which six finalists went through a screening process.
ChatQuery, an on-demand chatbot that answers questions on business data, was founded by two Australians who met at Princeton: Alex Man, a former data analyst at Groupon, and former Google software engineer David Yang. Now based in Hong Kong’s tech hub Cyberport, they launched in last year and are in beta with a client base of large-scale retailers and small e-commerce players. They are looking to identify a pilot within the group to showcase the future of data analytics and determine whether developing the Cantonese market makes sense.
“Our passion is to make data accessible to everyone, so we replaced Excel with an on-demand chatbot,” says Man. “Our chatbot handles about 90 per cent of questions asked, leaving the last 10 per cent of tricky questions to real people. It’s like having a giant team of data scientists for everyone in your business to help them make better decisions.”
Olasso is a software-as-a-service return management platform aiming to deliver a premium post-purchase experience for customers and using AI to reduce the operational, financial and environmental impact of returns for online retailers. The three co-founders previously worked at Hong Kong-based omni-channel fashion brand Grana: Pieter Paul Wittgen, co-founder and former COO; Jim Cornford, former head of fulfillment; and Seb Poole, former head of IT. They have a prototype they hope to further pilot in The Cage.
“Returns are still a major pain point holding back the growth of e-commerce, with customers often experiencing a painful returns journey that dilutes brand trust and loyalty.”
The two start-ups will take up residency in The Cage, at the group’s Hong Kong headquarters, for partnering with retail and technology mentors.
While on site, both teams will benefit from the amenities and services provided by the group for its staff, including a bespoke wellness program delivered by a team of in-house trainers and yoga teachers, and external practitioners providing meditation, kinesiology and nutrition advice.
