Habitat by Honestbee: Creating buzz on new retail
by Adwright, 16 November 18
“Habitat by honestbee is a beautiful, physical extension of the honestbee brand we all love. With its launch, we now provide tech-enabled convenience, value and quality through food, online and offline. It is a unique combination of a full supermarket, speciality grocer, dining and interactive lifestyle destination. In this thoughtful space, one can expect a multi-sensorial food experience that nourishes, educates and inspires. We designed it so that customers can get their groceries and meals efficiently but also linger and enjoy the experience. “
Pauline Png, VP & Managing Director, Habitat by Honestbee.
New Lifestyle, New Retail, not long ago we wrote about the importance of integrating platforms, not discounting the importance and uniqueness that physical stores can bring despite the rise of online stores and the newly launched Habitat by Honestbee perfectly encompasses these ideas.
“New Gen Retail” First In Singapore
Habitat by Honestbee, Singapore’s first and a world of firsts. The first tech-integrated multi- sensory grocery and dining destination of its kind. It is the epitome of new retail, or rather ‘NewGen Retail’, as CEO Joel Sng describes the place. A fully integrated online and offline experience, Honestbee is at the forefront of innovation in online and offline retail. They have invested on technological know-how to drive convenience, personalization and multi-sensory experience by launching this new physical space, habitat.
Habitat is the embodiment of an integration of online and offline platforms with its previously exclusively online operation opening a beautiful 60,000 square feet brick-and-mortar.
Habitat is also the perfect example of how retail shops have now become a destination that encompasses an array of experiences; beyond mere transactions, its value now lies in providing quality of service and experiences, with real and tangible human connection even within an entirely tech-enabled space. Which is precisely why it is difficult to describe what Habitat is. What is Habitat? A supermarket? But it is so much more than that – it is a place for dining in or takeaways, it is a place to kick back and relax with a café, bubble tea and even some oysters or cocktails. It even has a little reading corner! Habitat is not competing with supermarkets like Fairprice or Giant, that would be an unfair comparison. People don’t drop by Habitat to grab some groceries, people go there for the experienceof it – the feeling that the blond wood, open space and artfully arranged baskets and plants give you, the tech-integrated shopping experience of overhead conveyor belts with “flying” grocery bags, the cashless and immediate transactions, the robots that bring groceries to you – that’s what people visit Habitat for.
The Human Touch Within A Tech Environment
The thing that Habitat aces, is maintaining the human touch behind all the high-end technology of the place. No more waiting in line with hungry and irate people, awkward smiles at the cashier while you fumble with getting that cash out of your wallet, or the subtle pressure you feel as you struggle to choose what to eat as a line forms behind you, none of that and yet, the smiles exchanged as you walk up to collect your food, the conversations struck up with the “bees” offering to clear the tables – these are the simple but integral moments that keep you from feeling like the world is being taken over by technology and humans are all turning into anti-socials permanently glued to their phones.
Busy “Bees”
Furthermore, the “bees” at the habitat are much more than stewards clearing tables. They are the people behind the counters. They are young. They are candid. They are proud. Habitat has them on rotating duties and this prevents jaded attitudes and mechanical actions that removes the “humanness” of their work at the end of the day. The result of this is that the “bees” become the embodiment of an energy, an enthusiasm that is hard to find these days. They are what Habitat, what Honestbee is about.
Setting Habitat Apart
What sets Habitat apart, what keeps them one step ahead of everyone else is not their technology alone but their fulfillment of what is basic. User interfaces that are easy to navigate, the realization that not only online shops can complement brick-and-mortar stores but it works the other way too, physical stores can complement online stores, the satisfyingly joyous calm that the ambience gives and beyond that, quality service online and offline. Habitat goes beyond B2B AND B2C, it does O2O – online to offline and perhaps this is a peek into the future, with technology becoming increasingly integrated into our daily lives.
In summary, the Habitat has been successful in
- Extending Honestbee’s Brand Story
Honestbee has shown its capability to go beyond just an online retail store that it started with to create a brick and mortar place with an in-store experience that embodies their values of creativity that is immersive and meaningful.
- More than just a store
It is a grocery store, it is a café, it is a library… Not only is Habitat already an amalgamation of so many experiences, it also periodically brings in various features such as free flow arcade games that promote customers interactions with the store.
- Targeting emotions, driving expenditure
With all these fun activities at the atrium area, it boosts more expenditure as customers tend to stay longer, enjoy their time more and are more willing to spend.
- Differentiated
These are all examples of being differentiated and exactly how Adwright helps brands to stay true to their story of their brand while expanding and moving forward with the times.
Adwright continually innovates ways to meet the expectations of clients while staying relevant in the industry. Adwright can help brands keep up with the rapidly changing environment, continually engaging in the new retail process whilst remembering their core values and building on it, enhancing it with the technologies and new innovations that come our way.
If you would like to find out more on the services that Adwright provides, call us today on +65 6227 7227 or email enquiry@adwright.com
