Hong Kong-based cosmetics & personal care chain SaSa has set up personal online stores for its beauty consultants to provide a new sales channel for the brand’s customer-facing staff in partnership with e-commerce platform Boutir.

The solution uses the Boutir mobile app to allow customers to make purchases on the consultants’ personal storefronts, providing additional commissions for staff as well as a more flexible experience for consumers. The move is an opportunity for the brand to combine its strengths in in-person shopping with digital retail, helping SaSa expand its omnichannel sales approach.

“SaSa is committed to social commerce and is constantly developing new online sales channels,” said SaSa chairman and CEO Dr Simon Kwok. “The partnership with Boutir allows SaSa to transcend the spatial-temporal boundaries, use social media to engage and sell more with customers in Hong Kong SAR and leverage potential synergies between its online presence with the existing brick-and-mortar stores to provide a seamless online-to-offline shopping experience that is more flexible, accessible and intimate.”

SaSa has been building its digital strategies swiftly following the advent of the coronavirus pandemic, including the development of a WeChat mini programme to target customers from the mainland who had previously visited physical outlets in Hong Kong or Macau. The personal service component made possible via the Boutir platform is expected to potentially outperform the brand’s traditional online sales in terms of house brand mix, gross margin and basket size.

Boutir founder Eric Ng said the partnership with SaSa would use the expertise of the chain’s professional beauty consultants to extend their customer service in brick-and-mortar stores onto the online platform. “It will also improve customer loyalty, broaden the customer base and increase the sales-conversion rate.”