With 7.5 million people in a 426 square mile area of which just seven percent is zoned for housing, Hong Kong residents are used to living in tight conditions. Most people live in flats and need to maximize every inch of space. This means they have to put a lot of thought into every aspect of furnishing, stocking, and decorating their homes.

Pricerite has been Hong Kongers’ first choice for furniture and homeware for nearly 40 years. In addition to supplying sofas, beds, lighting, electrical goods, and other household necessities, Pricerite offerings are tailor-made for Hong Kong life. The retailer’s understanding of what people need has made it the region’s largest home furnishing company, with a comprehensive offline store network stretching from the New Territories to Causeway Bay.

Uniting online and offline sales

Traditionally, most Pricerite sales were made in store, but its customers increasingly use its website to research potential purchases. Once they decide what they want, some opt to buy online while others prefer going into a nearby store.

To create more consistent, seamless experiences between its online and offline channels, Pricerite sought upgraded ecommerce capabilities and an implementation partner that could tie everything together. At the same time, Pricerite wanted to update its web presence, redesign its mobile app, launch an omnichannel customer loyalty program, and integrate back-office functions such as CRM, order management, inventory, and fulfillment.

“We wanted to provide a more modern, interactive, and efficient shopping experience to our customers by bringing together our online and offline worlds,” explains Boris Tam, Pricerite’s General Manager of iRetail. “We’d built a loyal following through the years but knew that we’d have to keep innovating to retain customers and continue to grow online and offline sales.”

As a first step, Pricerite researched potential ecommerce partners and chose BCNetcom, a Hong Kong-based consultant and Adobe Commerce partner. BCNetcom had the technical know-how Pricerite needed and crucially, could advise on the best path forward.

“BCNetcom advised us that the best way to achieve our ecommerce goals was to upgrade our Adobe Commerce instance,” says Tam. “That would give us the scalability, functionality, and cost-efficiency we required.”

Another advantage of upgrading was that BCNetcom could leverage tools and solutions from its partner ecosystem to reduce implementation time and effort.

Following discussions with BCNetcom, Pricerite also decided to migrate its ecommerce assets from its legacy hosting provider to Commerce on cloud, hosted on AWS. Tam explains: “No one knows Adobe Commerce better than Adobe. Moving to Adobe Commerce on cloud delivers improved performance, availability, security, and compliance while reducing operating costs — all vital for meeting our growth targets.”

With these decisions made, BCNetcom got to work migrating and upgrading the ecommerce site. This involved integrating with Pricerite’s SugarCRM, order management, inventory, and shipping systems to fulfill customer orders faster and drive back-office efficiencies.

Another workstream focused on adding 3D models of Pricerite’s furniture catalog to the website, eliminating the painstaking and costly process of photographing every item. With this new capability, customers can view products from every angle, and compare and contrast sizes, colors, and fabrics. Using virtual reality, they can even visualize offerings such as a sofa or dining room set within their home to ensure a perfect fit.

Making it easier for customers to buy

BCNetcom was also involved in the revamp of Pricerite’s mobile app to better meet the needs of Hong Kongers on the go. The app mirrors the functionality of the website and harmonizes with Pricerite’s offline operations for the first time.

BCNetcom engineered and shared an API with third-party developers and then harnessed GraphQL for rapid front-end development and system integration. The team’s quest for performance paid off, with the app enabling catalog pages to be loaded in two seconds and product pages to be loaded in just one.

Leveraging integration between the CRM and ecommerce site, Pricerite rolled out a new omnichannel loyalty program that enables customers to accrue electronic stamps based on spend and redeem them online or in stores. Points earning rules set up in Commerce allow customers, for example, to earn triple points if they purchase $100 worth of household items. The synergies between the solutions also enabled the introduction of a digital wallet containing coupons that customers can apply at checkout.

“Adobe Commerce provides a rich, flexible foundation for us to realize our most creative ideas, setting us up for even more success in the future,” says Tam.

Impact across the business

Pricerite’s leadership team is delighted with customer response to the website and app, and their integration with the brick-and-mortar operations. Since the implementation, Pricerite’s conversion rate has doubled. Of the retailer’s online sales, a large proportion of transactions are now conducted through the app, reflecting the growing preference of customers for mobile shopping.

Tam is also pleased with his decision to take advantage of the platform-as-a-service offering. “Adobe sends us proactive alerts that enable us to take steps to maximize efficiency and avoid downtime. As a result, our operating costs have significantly decreased compared to before, resulting in substantial savings.”

Looking ahead, Tam plans to enhance the app with location-based services that will conveniently direct customers to the nearest store. He is also considering in-store kiosks that will provide customers with information ranging from product specifications to pricing and stock availability at the touch of a button — a useful resource for space-limited stores. Also on the drawing board is a unified engine for company-wide promotions and marketing campaigns.

“By adopting Adobe Commerce on cloud and working with BCNetcom, our customer relationships are stronger than ever,” says Tam. “Between our stores, website, and app, we can fulfill the furniture and homeware needs of all Hong Kongers.”

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