Faced with intensifying competition, multi-platform retailer Momo.com Inc (富邦媒體) plans to introduce chatbots, upgrade the search engine for its Web site and launch a new logistics center in the first half of next year to improve user experience, a company executive said on Thursday.
“Continued price-cutting competition with peers would hurt Momo’s operations in the long term. We need to put more effort into offering better services to attract consumers and maintain our profitability,” company president Lin Chi-feng (林啟峰) told a media gathering in Taipei.
Momo.com, a subsidiary of the nation’s second-largest telecom operator, Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大), is a television, online and catalogue shopping retailer.
Its competitors in Taiwan include PChome Online Inc (網路家庭), Eastern Home Shopping & Leisure Co Ltd (東森購物) and the fast-growing Shopee Taiwan Co Ltd (樂購蝦皮) from Singapore.
Taiwan’s retail market is valued at about NT$1 trillion (US$31.4 billion) per year, Ministry of Economic Affairs data showed.
In a bid to differentiate itself from its peers, Momo.com has collaborated with a Chinese software firm to develop chatbot solutions that can answer customers’ question instantly on its Web site, Lin said.
Momo.com is poised to become the first retailer in the nation to offer a 24-hour interactive service to consumers, and these solutions should help the company reduce labor costs for customer service, he said.
The company is also working with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (工研院) to upgrade its search engine, to offer users more accurate search results and product information, he added.
Momo.com’s NT$4 billion automated logistics center for northern Taiwan in Taoyuan should receive its license next quarter, Lin said.
The center is expected to become operational in the second quarter of next year, which would help expand the firm’s storage capacity and boost its logistics efficiency, he added.
Lin said Momo.com remains upbeat about the growth potential of its online shopping business next year, which accounted for more than 70 percent of its sales of NT$6.76 billion last quarter.
However, global uncertainties, including the US economy under a new president, political changes in Europe and foreign currency fluctuations, could have an impact on Taiwan’s economy, Lin said.
Moreover, a gloomy local stock market could be a drag on the firm’s sales performance, as many retail investors are loyal patrons of Momo.com, he said.
The company reported net income of NT$892.98 million, or NT$6.38 per share, in the first three quarters of this year, climbing 11.29 percent from NT$802.37 million, or NT$5.65 per share, over the same period last year, according to the company’s filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
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