An app that blends the convenience of shopping by phone with in-store experience has been launched in Hong Kong.
KaiKai has teamed with retailers to offer discounts on popular products of up to 50 per cent, including Apple AirPods Pro, Dyson Supersonic hairdryers, and the Nintendo Switch gaming system. It bridges the online and offline worlds by allowing users to reserve the products within the app then pay for and collect them in-store, boosting footfalls for participating retailers.
A KaiKai spokesperson says the app plans to add offers on services such as spas and beauty, dining and staycations, as well as luxury fashion retail in the near future. It has signed up popular influencers Sabrina Ng from Pomato YouTube Channel, Ah Gi from Arm Channel TV, and Hailey Chan from ViuTV to promote the app’s Hong Kong expansion.
Within a week of being added to app stores in Hong Kong this month, KaiKai was ranked number one in the shopping category and third overall for downloads.
The app works on the basis of an annual membership fee for users of HKD450 (US$58) which is being waived for the first year for the first 100,000 consumers who sign up. New deals are dropped at 12 noon and 8pm daily with users having 100 seconds to decide if they want to buy what they see before it becomes unavailable to them.
A spokesman for the developer aid the app provides “a unique gamified shopping experience like no other”.
“The thrill of managing to score something in the app continues in-store. KaiKai users enjoy the unique online-to-offline shopping experience: Reserve online, collect in-store later. After reserving the product with the KaiKai app, users have to redeem and pay in-store within seven days,” the spokesperson said.
The app was developed by the Singapore affiliate of mainland Chinese tech company Cosmose AI, known for tracking shopper locations for online advertising. But the company told the South China Morning Post that KaiKai does not share user location data with Cosmose. It has already launched the app successfully in Singapore.
