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HKUST MBA |
ALUMNI NEWS
The Age of Technology and Big Data in E-commence– Alice Wong (MBA 2007)
The Age of Technology and Big Data in E-commence– Alice Wong (MBA 2007)
Hong Kong has fallen behind the world’s trend in digitalization, as only a small percentage of its retail business comes from eCommerce. Ms Alice Wong, CFO of Hong Kong Television Network Limited (HKTV), shared her 4 years of experience in the most challenging moment of HKTV: the conversion from telecom to e-Commerce industry and the use of technology to make HKTV a full-fledged leader in the online shopping platform in Hong Kong in recent years.
Alice believes that staying focused, witnessing, staying committed, and building infrastructure are the four integral strategies that brought the HKTV mall to the level of sustaining 300,000 browses daily. “Staying focused means to pull the resources once you set a target; in the past 4 years, it has meant building traffic, product variety and infrastructure. Witnessing is about education; our 50+ physical O2O shops boost our brand reputation, and stationed shop assistants teach customers to download and to use our app, which progressively takes them from offline to online. Delivery is the core of our online shopping business; we are committed to improve the quality of service and maintain flexibility by building our own delivery team, particularly for residential areas, which forms one of the key entry barriers. One example of infrastructure is that our trucks are specially designed: two thirds of their storage area is at room temperature for normal goods, and one third is cold, for chilled and frozen goods”, she explained.
Alice believes that staying focused, witnessing, staying committed, and building infrastructure are the four integral strategies that brought the HKTV mall to the level of sustaining 300,000 browses daily. “Staying focused means to pull the resources once you set a target; in the past 4 years, it has meant building traffic, product variety and infrastructure. Witnessing is about education; our 50+ physical O2O shops boost our brand reputation, and stationed shop assistants teach customers to download and to use our app, which progressively takes them from offline to online. Delivery is the core of our online shopping business; we are committed to improve the quality of service and maintain flexibility by building our own delivery team, particularly for residential areas, which forms one of the key entry barriers. One example of infrastructure is that our trucks are specially designed: two thirds of their storage area is at room temperature for normal goods, and one third is cold, for chilled and frozen goods”, she explained.
Alice found the MBA curriculum practical and in accordance with the market global trends, especially the technology-related course.
The business life cycle has been shortened with new emerging technologies. To cope with the furious business expansion, HKTV has introduced an automated warehousing system from Germany; the first and second phases were launched in March 2018 and March 2019, respectively. The new system increased the daily order handling capacity from a few thousand to 20,000 and reduced time, cost and manual errors.
Alice raised an interesting question: “What is the product that people search for most frequently after buying diapers?” Surprisingly, the answer is beer. The HKTV mall uses data-driven marketing to replace the ordinary behaviour-driven practice to enhance the precision with which consumer needs are predicted so as to build loyalty and create demand.
Alice expressed her appreciation for the recent alumni audit course, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain and Their Business Applications. “We emphasize cross-sector learning, and this course has widened my perspective and replenished my tech-related knowledge, which is practical for my work, especially as I develop my career in a dynamic, technology-driven eCommerce business with exposure to various areas, including digital wallet, e-fulfilment, big data, and machine learning.”
As a senior executive, Alice considers the curriculum as the best market fit with various tech-related courses. She recommends her colleagues to our program, which is also supported by sponsorship from HKTV. She also advises all current students to equip themselves with tech-related knowledge to advance along their career ladder, such as AI, Fintech and Big Data.
By Emily Ma, Academic Team
Alice raised an interesting question: “What is the product that people search for most frequently after buying diapers?” Surprisingly, the answer is beer. The HKTV mall uses data-driven marketing to replace the ordinary behaviour-driven practice to enhance the precision with which consumer needs are predicted so as to build loyalty and create demand.
Alice expressed her appreciation for the recent alumni audit course, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain and Their Business Applications. “We emphasize cross-sector learning, and this course has widened my perspective and replenished my tech-related knowledge, which is practical for my work, especially as I develop my career in a dynamic, technology-driven eCommerce business with exposure to various areas, including digital wallet, e-fulfilment, big data, and machine learning.”
As a senior executive, Alice considers the curriculum as the best market fit with various tech-related courses. She recommends her colleagues to our program, which is also supported by sponsorship from HKTV. She also advises all current students to equip themselves with tech-related knowledge to advance along their career ladder, such as AI, Fintech and Big Data.
By Emily Ma, Academic Team
