Retail Asia Expo 2016

Rachel Tseng
Jun 22, 2016
3 min read

"Where retailers come to shop" was the slogan of this year's Retail Asia Expo (RAE), hosted at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre last week from June 14 to 16, 2016. Hundreds of retailers switched roles and became shoppers for three whole days, desperately searching for their own type of best-fit items. In its eighth year, Diversified has organized yet another incredible exposition showcasing some of today's newest innovative retail technology, retail design and internet retailing. According to its website, over 170 local and international businesses presented their retail solutions to a vast and diverse group of visitors, including our company, Qualicom Innovations.

We did a demo of Retailarc, our POS solutions featuring our wholesale system, O2O solution, staff tablets, POS-CCTV, and our two basic POS systems used for Restaurants and Fashion retail stores. It was a lot of fun to be amidst a crowd of enthusiastic retailers but it was also exhausting. Standing for 5 hours is never ideal, especially when you're in sandals; and don't forget about lunch breaks, which ends up being 30 minutes long, sitting on a block of forgotten wood on the floor behind the expo and directly next to the washroom entrance, holding a styrofoam box of Chinese takeout food, all while you're wearing a skirt. Not the best situation to be in. But besides this fact, it was such an experience to meet dedicated professionals and actually have a business conversation with them. Just always remember to hydrate (if you had came to our booth, you'd have known we were handing out free water)!

There were also other sensational booths with unforgettable products, specifically intel's "Magic Mirror" by mirum, a fitting room mirror that enhances customer experience and allows you to virtually see what jewelry might look like on you or what that tshirt you grabbed looks like on a person. There was also a number of VR tech being exhibited and I personally had a lot of fun checking those out. It was a lot more real than I thought it would be, and there was definitely a slight moment where I thought I was actually trapped with a dinosaur with no where to run - childish, I know. I also came across a brand (that I have unfortunately forgotten the name of) who had an interactive screen that took a photo of my silhouette and then printed it out on black sticker paper. It now lies underneath my computer as a sort of personal label that screams - THIS IS MY COMPUTER! I love free demos and souvenirs from these types of booths, and they're usually the ones that lure in a big crowd. But when you really think about it, there's also that hovering thought that although their product is "super cool!" and "fun to touch!" it doesn't necessarily mean customers actually need it; and when customers don't need something, they're not going to buy it. So at what point does the whole interactive-ness get too much and too costly? It's definitely the right direction towards future tech and innovation, but will the world quickly follow behind? Now that's something to think about for the next expo you attend or participate in.

The Expo also hosted a number of seminars, retail awards, and cocktail receptions, in hopes of adding some more entertainment besides the cool visual reality tech. Visitors from over 60 countries were recorded to have attended the event, representing over 3,300 companies and organizations. But a part of me felt that there weren't that many visitors...maybe they just didn't walk by our booth? Who knows. Maybe retail in Hong Kong is at its all time low and there's no need for businesses to have extra costs, or maybe our product was not what they were looking for. Either way, this year's Retail Asia Expo was engaging, allowing me to peek around some of today's best retail tech and ideas. It might be your type of scene or it might not but check it out yourself in 2017!