The 1 Central Limited, the loyalty platform under Central Group of Companies, is spending about 1 billion baht during 2019-20 to upgrade its loyalty platform and expand a strategic partnerships both domestically and internationally.
Rawee Puaphornphong, head of The 1 Business of The 1 Central Limited, said the company will gradually allocate this investment budget starting from this year to upgrade all The 1 platforms, including marketing technology, to build up and make the service more user-friendly.
The 1 is a loyalty programme with members collecting points from purchases at every Central business unit.
Members can redeem points for cash coupons or discounts when making payments at Central Department Store, Central Embassy, ZEN, Robinson Department Store, Supersports, B2S, HomeWorks, Thai Watsadu, Baan & Beyond, Central Online, Power Buy, OfficeMate, Central Marketing Group, FamilyMart, Central Food Hall, Tops Market, Tops Superstore, Tops Superkoom, and Tops Daily.
The programme does not yet include Central Restaurants Group, the operator of food brands like Ootoya, Mister Donut and KFC.
The 1 members are eligible to receive special privileges from 40 The 1 business partners ranging from petrol stations to entertainment and banks. Home, hospital and property will be added in the second half of this year.
There are also 500 local partners in dining, shopping and recreation joining The 1 platform, with the number expected to double to 1,000 companies this year.
The company plans to relaunch The 1 mobile application in the fourth quarter this year in response to a larger customer base both at home and abroad.
Some 800,000 members signed up online.
The 1 has about 15 million members across the country and expects to reach 20 million in five years.
The 1 Central Limited teamed up with strategic partners in Japan including Felice hotel chain, Marui department store chain and Japan Airlines.
It is in talks with luxury outlets in Japan.
The latest development is a partnership with Beautrium, the operator of Beautrium multi-brand beauty stores, to exchange customer bases.
"Competition among beauty multi-brand stores is fierce. We are joining The 1 to improve our customer's shopping experience and increase our opportunity to access The 1 members, about 70% of whom are women with high spending power," said Jirawut Rojratanawalee, chief executive of Beautrium.
Mr Jirawut said Thai consumer spending power slowed in the first quarter this year, causing the company to cut its sales growth projection for this year to 10% from 500 million baht last year.
Earlier, the company set a target to double sales to 1 billion baht this year.
Beautrium plans to open three new stores this year with investment of 150 million baht, bringing the total to 11 branches. The first store recently opened on Siam Square Soi 3 and the remaining two stores will open at Central Pinklao and Central Westgate branches in the second half of this year.
