Central Marketing Group (CMG), a subsidiary of Central Retail, a leading brand retailer and distributor of over 30 renowned international fashion, beauty, and technology brands in Thailand, plans to invest over 7 Billion Baht in 2024, to boost sales growth by more than 20% vs. 2023. This continues upon its strong momentum in 2023, where CMG’s topline grew by a robust +28% vs. 2022. CMG’s success in 2023 was driven by continued leadership strength of its key brands, data-driven customer marketing, store operational excellence, and omnichannel focus.
Edwin Yap Hawson, President of Central Marketing Group (CMG), stated, “our vision is to be the leading omnichannel brand retailer and employer of choice. We aim to bring the world’s best brands and retail experiences to the people of Thailand. At the heart of what we do is our commitment to our customers, our brands, and our team. 2023 was an exceptional year for us. We improved our performance in numerous areas, as follows –
- Store Operational Excellence – In 2023, CMG opened over 180 new points of sale, bringing its total store number in shopping malls and department stores in Thailand to over 2,200. We pioneered the implementation of our store A.I. analytics in our top doors, to monitor our store operations and drive improvements in customer service. This in turn resulted in increased conversion rates and customer satisfaction. CMG plans to roll out this A.I.-driven system to more stores in 2024.
- 360 Degree Omnichannel – CMG launched two new e-commerce websites for Casio and MLB last year and expanded our brand shops on Central Online and other platforms such as Lazada, Shopee and Tiktok. We continued to maximize our expertise in omnichannel and digital marketing, which resulted in record sales during all Double-Digit online campaigns in 2023.
- New User Recruitment – CMG utilized data-driven CRM marketing aimed at recruiting new consumers for our brands via all consumer touchpoints. We conducted over 1,200 marketing campaigns last year, which resulted in over 1,000,000 new customers shopping at our stores and over 7.7 million followers on our social media channels.
- New Brands – CMG is always on the lookout for new world-leading brands, while strengthening our partnerships with existing brands. Last year, we added top brands such as CROCS and FILA into our brand portfolio. We became the retail partner for SKECHERS across all Central Pattana and Central Department Store Group locations. In addition, CMG also launched L: A Bruket, a Swedish organic beauty brand, to address increasingly discerning skin care and well-being needs in Thailand.
- Future Ready Organization – At the heart of CMG’s success are its people. We have focused on developing talent in our organization, from store training and personalized coaching to boosting career programs. CMG’s efforts were recognized by Kincentric Thailand, which presented the company with the Best Employer Award for the fifth consecutive year in 2023.
“This year, we will continue to leap ahead of our competition by utilizing A.I. analytics, new technology and automation to help our team in improving our operational processes, customer service at-store, omnichannel, and CRM expertise. We will accelerate our innovations across all our brands, while addressing the increasingly sophisticated needs of customers in fashion and beauty. We will be expanding and upgrading over 180 points of sale in Thailand. We will continually work to solidify further our status as the leading retail brand management company and employer of choice in Thailand. We shall also begin expanding overseas, starting with Vietnam, where Central Retail Corporation already has a strong presence,” Edwin concluded.
