Audio House downsized to only one store in Singapore and it is completely cashless

Audio House recently launched Singapore’s first-ever fully cashless electronics showroom at their Bendemeer Road store and they have a slew of discounts and offers for shoppers.

With everyone jumping on the cashless wave and the Singapore government’s Smart Nation push, Audio House, usually seen as a traditional, discount-driven physical retailer, is innovating ahead of competitors with this surprise initiative.

Audio House promises to offer electronics up to 20% lower than competitors, seeking to pass on the savings from going cashless to the consumers. They are promising a price match with an competitor’s price, and top of that offer, an extra S$20 cashback with every S$100 spent store-wide.

Back in 2004, Audio House was the first to offer a “7-day money-back guarantee” with no questions asked in the electronics industry. Today, they are the first electronics store to go completely cashless, revamping their entire showroom and payment system.

In August 2016, Audio House downsized to just one outlet at Bendemeer, closing down their 50,000 square feet store at Liang Court. Many thought it is shrinking its business with this move. However, the company is actually planning to pass these cost savings to its customers and revamp its business model.

How is their revamped and juiced up flagship store like now?

We went to take a look and here is a photo tour:

There are still service staff around to address your product queries and perform checkout for orders, but there is no cashier. Once you identify a product which you are interested in, simply scan the QR code on the product tag which will redirect you to the product page on the Audio House online store to make your purchase. Arrangements for delivery and payments are done completely online.

The shopping experience is much like online shopping, except that you get to touch and try out the product in person. Many people are actually doing that now when buying electronics – they will go to physical retail stores to try out various products and then buy their chosen product online because of the lower price offered by online stores. With their cashless store powered by QR code and their online site, Audio House is closing this gap of the customer journey. Now, you get to both try out the products in real-life and also get the lowest price guarantee.

“It is very difficult to challenge the market with the lowest price and offer an additional up to 20$ rebate to all customers. With the cost savings from this campaign, we are able to pass these savings directly to our customers,” shares Alvin Lee, Audio House’s Managing Director.

To launch this new concept, Audio House invested around S$500,000 over three years to create a whole new e-commerce platform that provides information on sales, stock availability, delivery options and other features. With customers now able to browse and purchase lowest-priced electronics on their e-commerce site at any time of the day, the operation hours for the physical store has been shortened to 12.30pm to 9pm.

If you are interested to visit the newly revamped Audio House cashless store, here’s the address:

Audio House @ Bendemeer Road
72 Bendemeer Road, Luzerne Building, #01-20/21/22, Singapore 339941
Operation Hours: 12.30pm to 9pm