Bangkok, July 3, 2023 - Central Retail reaffirms its position as the leader of smart retail by introducing a new innovation, the first in the world - CRC Immersive Retail Platform. Using cutting-edge technology, enhanced by Generative AI, the Immersive Retail Platform is created to integrate offline, online, social media, live streaming, and virtual world seamlessly. Customers can enjoy an unrivaled experience wherever they are in the world. At the same time, business partners can benefit from its limitless channels to offer products and services. This highlights Central Retail’s commitment to grow the entire ecosystem, with an aim to be the #1 Next-Gen Omni Retailer in Asia, under its CRC Retailligence strategy.

Natira Boonsri Chief Commercial Officer of Central Retail Corporation Public Company Limited, said, “Central Retail as pioneers in the industry, we continuously strive to enhance our business and modernize our services, providing our customers with the best experiences. Recognizing the evolving consumer needs and trends, we have meticulously planned, researched, and invented the world’s first immersive platform - CRC Immersive Retail Platform, with C-Verse as the starting project. The platform elevates the shopping experience to unprecedented heights, transcending beyond the concept of omnichannel. Customers can immerse themselves in a virtual store, pick products from 3D shelves, and explore them in 360 degrees, all at their fingertips. Customers can also enjoy ordering products through Personal Shopper and enjoy exciting features based on Generative AI technology. For instance, they can interact with AI Avatar for real-time advice. To make shopping even more fun, they can use AR Mode to connect the experience between online and offline, offering customers the opportunity to shop, take photos, and play games.”

Online and offline customers shop together via AR mode

The C-Verse application introduces a complete virtual retail store experience never before seen in Thailand. C-Verse marks a significant milestone for Central Retail, starting with Tops CLUB and the company plans to extend the platform to other businesses under its portfolio, such as beauty products, home products, and department stores in Europe such as La Rinascente in Italy, connecting people around the world to enjoy an unrivaled shopping experience from anywhere in the world. This will also make Central Retail the ultimate lifestyle destination, whether offline, online, on social media, live streaming, or virtual store, becoming the best Next-Gen Omnichannel.

When using C-Verse, customers can shop in the virtual world through customizable avatars, selecting products, adding them to their carts, making secure payments, and receiving products at their homes within 1-2 days. There are four key features, which are:

• Product Highlight icon showcases highlight products. For example, the camping zone features more than 20 items, illustrated by ‘Paproud’, a virtual influencer, who will share details about the products in practical settings.
• AI Chatbot ‘Annie’, a ChatGPT-driven companion to engage with C-Verse users. Annie will answer all the questions and will appear when the Annie icon is clicked. The answers are given in real time, and users can enjoy an exciting and fun shopping experience like never before.
• Mini Game offers more fun with the concept of a treasure hunt. Players must find and collect all six NFT and redeem special prizes. Players must look for NFT which will randomly appear in two forms: in a virtual mode which can be accessed anywhere, and AR mode which can be accessed at Tops CLUB Rama II.
• Photobooth, a perennial favorite among users. Users can take photos with friends, family, or Paproud to keep or post on social media with iconic places and poses for their avatars to follow, immortalizing their avatar’s adventures. In the store, users can also capture memorable snapshots of themselves alongside their friends’ avatars.

Central Retail also partners with Huawei Cloud, who supports Cloud infrastructure for C-Verse app, making the connection between the platform’s real world and virtual world smooth and seamless, while also making the system and application easy to use so that it can lead to endless innovations in the future.

Dr. Chawapol Jariyawiroj, President of Huawei Technologies (Thailand) Company Limited, talked about the partnership with Central Retail, “Huawei, as a global leader of ICT infrastructure and cloud solutions, is ready in terms of strategies, research and development, and customer and partner support, to make modern innovation accessible and offer seamless connectivity. Huawei is delighted to utilize our technology expertise and world-class experience to support Central Retail, Asia’s top retailer, by implementing our state-of-the-art Cloud technology to transform the retail industry. We also support the business sector to make use of such technology to improve their effectiveness and introduce new experiences to their customers.”

“CRC Immersive Retail Platform is a project under our CRC Retailligence strategy, bringing our strategy to life. We are committed to elevate the experience and offer the best, using digital solutions and futuristic technology to meet the needs of our customers. We are confident that the C-Verse project, one of CRC Immersive Retail Platforms, will be well-received by consumers and the app will have more than 30,000 downloads by the end of the year,” said Natira.

Experience and enjoy a virtual shopping experience for the first time in the world with the CRC Immersive Retail Platform C-Verse from July 3, 2023. For more details, visit c-verse.io, download the application on App Store or Google Play, or scan the QR code below.