Home products 'retailer of the future'

Woragan Xuto, the company's "chief experience maximiser", said the idea sprang from the Siam Cement Group's desire to showcase its growing range of home products, ranging from construction raw materials to decorative items. But there was also a desire to make it something different, something that did not concentrate solely on selling products.

"My idea was when people wanted to build a home, they needed to take ideas from their imagination and put them onto a drawing board. So SCG Experience sets out to convert our customers' imagination into reality by offering additional services and technology," he said.

The result is the 6,200-square-metre SCG Experience, which cost Bt400 million.

If you want to meet an architect who will help by drawing your residence, you must make an appointment. But SCG Experience's architect will take your instructions and draw your dream home. Moreover, the architect will help you to select construction raw materials by visualising rooms in three-dimensions. Then, would-be home-owners will know what they want when they get down to the nitty-gritty with their own architect, Woragan said.

To serve different demands and create a depth of experience for both ordinary customers and experts, including architects and interior designers, SCG Experience also has two libraries - one of them for ordinary customers and the other for experts who want to update with the latest designs and trends.

Another concept leading to the creation of SCG Experience was treatment of the centre as a prototype retailer of the future. Central to this concept is the idea of helping manufacturers and distributors to reduce their inventory and showroom space. Home-owners will be helped by visual displays to choose the raw materials they want, then they will place orders with distributors and fix a date for future delivery.

The company expects to take nearly three years to set up the "system of the future" by involving its distributors around the country, Woragan said.

"We believe within five years, this system will display the goods of most of our distribution outlets and help them to cut their inventory costs and display space for showing new products," he said.