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SSI set to launch premium e-commerce site: What to expect

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ABS-CBN News

MANILA -- SSI Group, the country&#x27;s specialty retailer of international brands such as Lacoste and West Elm, is set to launch its premium e-commerce site this week. Trunc.ph will go live on Friday, November 6. SSI president Anton Huang said the website will carry more than 100 of their fashion, home, beauty, and personal care brands in casual, fast fashion, and luxury categories. He hopes that Trunc.ph will boost sales as their brick and mortar stores continue to be affected by the pandemic.&quot;The way we see retail in the future is that e-commerce and physical retail are one and the same... We&#x27;re giving our consumers options in terms of the way they want to shop our stores,&quot; Huang said during a virtual media briefing.&quot;I think there&#x27;s no hiding the fact that the e-commerce industry as a whole has seen an exponential growth in sales ever since lockdown,&quot; he added.SSI&#x27;s digital retail consultant, Natasha Zurnamer, said Trunc.ph will have over 7,500 products at launch, with more items to be added every week. The website is divided into four sections that house commodity lifestyle brands (main Trunc page), luxury goods (Trunc Show), beauty products (Powder Room by Trunc), and home items (Trunc at Home).Some of the featured brands on the site include Gap, Lacoste, Banana Republic, Pottery Barn, Muji, West Elm, Beauty Bar, and Lush, among others. According to Zurnamer, customers who browse the online catalogs have the option of finishing their purchase at their preferred physical store, or do their transaction at the Trunc.ph website. She added that shipping is between three and 15 days, which is &quot;a much faster turnaround than if they were to buy the products in an overseas market and personally import it.&quot; &quot;This is a single checkout so our customers will be able to browse and shop across these different sections and check out in one single transaction at the end,&quot; she said. Zurnamer said their biggest challenge was to put up a digital concept &quot;that can be as beautiful as the stores themselves,&quot; noting that SSI has been known for offering &quot;certain levels of sophistication&quot; to customers.&quot;Our distribution network for our Trunc and for what you are about to see is not only coming from a sophisticated e-commerce website but also from our stores. So we are utilizing the stock across the entire group to bring this retail experience into our consumers&#x27; homes,&quot; she said.As for price points, Zurnamer said the cost of items at Trunc.ph is aligned with that of the physical stores. &quot;This is a proposition that does not distinguish between physical and digital. This is very much around convenience and offering our consumers the ability to shop with us within area that they feel comfortable, be it digital or physical,&quot; she explained.&quot;So this is not a value proposition around price, this is a value proposition around convenience,&quot; she added.

SSI Group, the country's specialty retailer of international brands such as Lacoste and West Elm, is set to launch its premium e-commerce site this week.

SSI Group, the country's specialty retailer of international brands such as Lacoste and West Elm, is set to launch its premium e-commerce site this week.