Singapore's first intelligent innovative shopping carts -MediaCarts- to make its debut at a new Cold Storage supermarket outlet

27 Feb 2008

Supported by SPRING Singapore and A*STAR, Media Cart Asia will pilot flagship deployment in Asia at Cold Storage's new store at Fusionopolis

Media Cart Asia and Cold Storage have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) today to deploy innovative shopping carts, MediaCarts at a new supermarket retail outlet in Singapore. The new store will open at One-North, Fusionopolis in 3rd quarter of 2008. Located in the hub of R&D and innovation, the deployment offers consumers a concept that focuses on a comprehensive supermarket offer in the marketplace atmosphere. This will be combined with a creative and trendy shopping ambience and incorporation of information technology systems to enhance the entire shopping experience.
Media Cart Asia will be piloting their flagship product, MediaCartTM System at this new store. MediaCartTM is a technology-enabled shopping cart that brings about point-of-sales product promotions at the retail shop floor. It incorporates RFID technologies, amongst others, to identify shopper's location and profile, and delivers targeted advertisement and promotional messages to shoppers via a LCD screen mounted at the front of the cart. In addition, MediaCartTM is also an efficient shopping tool as shoppers can use the cart to find items or view their shopping list. The technology was first piloted in ShopRite stores in the US, by Media Cart Holdings, Inc. Media Cart Asia has licensed the technology from Media Cart Holdings and has exclusive rights for the Asian market. (Refer to Appendix 1 ? description of MediaCart System)
Commenting on this latest collaboration between Media Cart Asia and Cold Storage, Mr S Iswaran, the Minister of State for Trade and Industry said, "Over the past few years, Singapore has continued to witness healthy growth in RFID adoption by various industries, including innovative applications in the tourism, healthcare, manufacturing and retail sectors. I am happy to see that the MediaCart project supported by SPRING Singapore and A*STAR Exploit Technologies is bearing fruit. The current deployment of RFID technologies in MediaCarts to boost the retail industry is yet another milestone development to spur greater industry interest and adoption in Singapore."
For the pilot deployment at the Cold Storage store, Media Cart Asia will be testing features including Point-of-Sales product promotions and 'Product Locator'. The 'Product Locator' feature enables shoppers to find items they wish to purchase by showing a map of the store on the screen and the location of the product. The supermarket also has the option to integrate the cart with their loyalty card system, thus allowing shoppers to generate shopping lists through the retailer web-portal and subsequently, view the lists on the carts while shopping. According to Mr Choo Peng Chee, CEO Supermarket, Cold Storage "This will certainly be an exciting customer initiative that we are proud to bring to our customers. Being innovative is an integral part of good customer service."
According to Media Cart Asia founder, Dr Jannie Tay, 'we are very happy to work with Cold Storage on this project ? this marks a significant milestone for Media Cart Asia, being the first deployment in Asia. We are certain that MediaCart will bring significant values and benefits to retailers, marketers and shoppers, and we are glad to be able to bring this value to Singapore retail industry. Essentially, MediaCart is both an effective advertising medium and a powerful data analytics tool, and at the same time, it enhances shopper's experience with potential to increase the shopper's basket size and increase consumer loyalty.'
Media Cart Asia has been working closely with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), SPRING Singapore and the National RFID Centre to develop the next generation of shopping carts since September last year. (Refer Appendix 2.)
The aim is to leverage on significant R&D expertise within A*STAR to design a new generation of MediaCart that is lower in cost, has better usability and is easy to manufacture and deploy at the retail stores. Along with the funding support from SPRING under the Technology Innovation Programme or TIP, Media Cart Asia was able to synergise the development efforts and is now well on track to deliver the new generation of shopping carts for deployment in Asia, with Singapore being the first country to pilot the system.
Dr Jannie Tay added, "Media Cart Asia plays a vital role in transferring the knowledge and technology from our US partner, and then sharing and working with strategic partners in Singapore to jointly develop a highly competitive product. Working with SPRING, A*STAR and National RFID Centre has provided a strong catalyst for us to leapfrog in our technology and market development. Both the technical and financial supports provided by the Singapore government are vital especially for start-up companies like us to succeed."
As the local enterprise development agency, SPRING Singapore has been playing a vital role in helping companies develop and upgrade their technology capabilities through the Technology Innovation Programme (TIP). "We are excited to see the partnership between Media Cart Asia and Cold Storage to deploy the innovative MediaCarts at Cold Storage's new store of the future at Fusionopolis. It is a good example of how our retail industry can innovate and leverage on new technologies to better understand shoppers' behaviour and provide better a shopping experience to them."
For the Cold Storage deployment, the MediaCart will also incorporate the new Reader IC chip developed by A*STAR Institute of Microelectronics (IME) in its cart. The A*STAR IME Reader IC chip helps drive down the cost of cart significantly. This is the latest application of the chip that Exploit Technologies, the commercialisation arm of A*STAR, has successfully incorporated into an innovative product.
Mr Boon Swan Foo, Executive Chairman of Exploit Technologies, and Chairman of National RFID Centre Steering Committee said, "We are excited that Exploit Technologies has successfully commercialised A*STAR RFID technology to bolster the market potential of a local firm like Media Cart Asia. This collaboration certainly marks a strong market entry of A*STAR's new Reader IC chip. The Reader IC chip's practical application will strengthen Singapore retail industry, and give it a competitive edge in the fast changing retail landscape. The National RFID Centre will continue to ignite applications and support local companies in promoting RFID adoption."
The MOU was signed at Singapore Marriott Hotel on 27 February 2008 by Dr Jannie Tay, Founder of Media Cart Asia and Mr Choo Peng Chee, CEO Supermarket of Cold Storage. The ceremony was witnessed by Mr S Iswaran, Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Mr Boon Swan Foo, Executive Chairman of Exploit Technologies Pte Ltd, and Mr Png Cheong Boon, Deputy Chief Executive of SPRING Singapore.

- End of Media Release -

About Media Cart Asia

Media Cart Asia is a retail marketing media company. The company's flagship offering, the MediaCart system is an effective campaign management platform, which includes a front-end Point-of-sales advertising system, a technology enabled shopping cart, and a back-end data analytics system. The MediaCart system utilizes state-of-the-art technology to provide a powerful and effective advertising medium for marketers to deliver targeted and location-based messages to shoppers. The system will also shorten time to create and implement marketing campaigns at the retail stores, allow shoppers to interact with the advertisements, and hence effectively measures the success of the campaign.

The MediaCart concept has been first piloted in ShopRite stores in US by Media Cart Holdings, Inc. Media Cart Asia has exclusive rights to market MediaCartTM in Asia. The core business of Media Cart Asia, besides customizing the solution for Asia market, is to provide R&D expertise and leverage on the low cost of manufacturing in this region, to support the volume production of carts for the worldwide market.

About Cold Storage

Established in 1903, Cold Storage Supermarket celebrated 104 years in Singapore in 2007. Over the years, it has established itself as a popular household name trusted by consumers in Singapore.

Cold Storage Supermarket is amongst the largest supermarket chain in Singapore with 87 stores islandwide. To date, the group operates 32 Cold Storage supermarkets, 50 value stores under the Shop N Save brand and 5 specialty supermarkets namely Jasons ? The Gourmet Grocer, Tanglin Market Place, Paragon Market Place, Jasons Market Place and naturally marketplace by cold storage.

Billed as "The Fresh Food People" Cold Storage Supermarket is committed to delivering value and variety based on ethnic mix, freshness, innovative food ideas, superior customer service and a pleasant shopping environment that enhance consumers' lifestyles.

Cold Storage Supermarket is part of public-listed Dairy Farm Group, a leading pan-Asian retailer. In Singapore, Dairy Farm operates some 560 stores and owns local retail banners Cold Storage and Market Place supermarkets, Shop N Save supermarket, Guardian Health & Beauty, 7-Eleven and Giant.

About SPRING Singapore

As the agency for enterprise development, SPRING Singapore aims to enhance the competitiveness of enterprises. We help to nurture a pro-business environment, facilitate the growth of industries and enhance innovation and enterprise capabilities of small and medium enterprises for better access to markets and business opportunities.

SPRING Singapore is also the national standards and conformance body. We help to lower technical barriers to trade, provide quality assurance for products and services and promote industry use of Singapore and international standards.

Please visit www.spring.gov.sg for more information and news about SPRING Singapore.

About A*STAR and Exploit Technologies

The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) is Singapore's national agency for science and technology, supporting the development of industry clusters. Its mission is to foster world-class scientific research and talent for a vibrant knowledge-based Singapore. The Agency comprises the Biomedical Research Council, the Science and Engineering Research Council, A*STAR Graduate Academy, Policy and Personnel, and Corporate Planning and Administration Divisions, and a commercialization arm, Exploit Technologies Pte Ltd. The two research councils fund and oversee 12 public research institutes engaged in cutting edge research in the physical sciences, engineering and biomedical sciences. Our institutes build up intellectual capital and trains research talent to deepen Singapore's scientific capabilities.
(website: www.a-star.edu.sg)

Exploit Technologies is the marketing and commercialisation arm of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). Its charter is to identify, protect and exploit promising intellectual property (IP) created by A*STAR's research institutes. This includes facilitating the IP management process (ie the protection of inventions through patents and copyrights, etc), analysing the strength of our IP and the market that they could serve, and working with companies to commercialise the technologies.

For more information, please visit www.exploit-tech.com.

About National RFID Centre

The National RFID Centre is a multi-government agency effort by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), the Economic Development Board, Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) and SPRING Singapore. Endorsed by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the National RFID Centre serves as the focal point for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in Singapore.

The primary objective of the Centre is to drive the development and adoption of RFID technology to help Singapore industries achieve economic benefits and growth. The Centre focuses on key industry verticals strategic to Singapore industry including Manufacturing, Logistics, Biomedical, Retail and Hospitality industry and link up the RFID Community including product vendors, technology providers, research and academic organisations, Government Ministries and potential end-users to exploit the full potential of RFID technology (website: www.exploit-rfid.com).

For media enquiries, please contact:

Ms Angela Chee
General Manager
Media Cart Asia Pte Ltd
DID: +65 67360388
Mobile: +65 91815282
Email: angela.chee@mediacartasia.com

Ms Hannah Hong
Marketing Communications Manager
Cold Storage
DID : 6891-8138
Email : hhong@coldstorage.com.sg

Ms Lee Shou Yin
Manager, Corporate Communications
SPRING SINGAPORE
DID: 6279 3332
Mobile: 9645 7837
E-mail: lee_shou_yin@spring.gov.sg

Ms Seeto Wei Peng
Manager, Corporate Communications
Exploit Technologies Pte Ltd (A member of A*STAR)
DID: +65 6478 8443
Mobile: +65 8187 3194
Email: weipeng@exploit-tech.com