Despite the success of borderless and O2O (online to offline) e-Commerce businesses, particularly after the Covid-19 attack, we can’t deny that the largest part of commerce activities is still from the nearby offline commerce where we buy stuff near where we stay, and where we work. The nearby offline commerce remains the most natural way to spend our money for our daily sustenance.
“Is there a necessity to extend the nearby commerce that serves the community from offline to online if they meant to serve the communities nearby? What benefits does it bring to the communities nearby? What is the better term to best describe nearby online commerce? And I use Near Field Commerce, the term I coined, adopting the well-known acronym, NFC, Near Field Communication protocol that takes effects within 4cm for two electronic devices.” Teh Hon Seng, CEO of TimeTec Group discussed the coming trend of community commerce.
 |
| Teh Hon Seng, CEO of TimeTec Group |
He commented, “One of the problems of the existing e-Commerce is, when you purchase multiple items from one eCommerce platform, it might get split into multiple deliveries, that exaggerate carbon emission and packaging wastage problems. But none of these problems exists for the nearby commerce. Even for a group-buy platform like Groupon, it groups all the purchases from individuals to enjoy volume purchase discounts for tangible products. But, when it comes to delivery, it is still done in multiple. In most of the e-Commerce platforms, customers are always treated as separate individuals; while in Near Field Commerce, it targets individuals in the community rather than sporadic individuals from everywhere.”
“When a commerce platform targets a community, it can achieve ‘Multiple Purchases, One Delivery’, be it to a workplace or to a residential community.” Teh continued, “ TimeTec has Tenant App for business towers, and i-Neighbour App for a residential community built-in with commerce platform that consists of three components namely i-Merchants for merchant listing, TimeTec Mart for online purchase including community group buy feature, and i-Ad for merchants to advertise and boost their sales.”
“Imagine if there is a township project built with mixed shop lots, shopping mall, residential and office towers, Near Field Commerce can better connect merchants with the nearby working people and residential communities. And with the participation of merchants, township developer can monetize while sustaining its white-labelled App for commercial and residential buildings to be used by its tenants and residents for free.”
Teh also highlighted, “Near Field Commerce is a new concept, but it shouldn’t be built separately. Instead, it should stay as part of the digital building ecosystem for commercial or residential buildings.”
When combined with the community App, it enables the community group to buy for the volume-purchase discount, saving a vast logistics cost by just one delivery for multiple items to multiple units and individuals. Since Near Field Commerce platform is a part of the community ecosystem, it should also integrate with the visitor management system to facilitate the purchase delivery for better security. TimeTec Group has filed four patents for Near Field Commerce.
Click here for more information, there is an article written by Teh Hon Seng on Near Field Commerce.
This article has also been published in Chapter 19 in the book “Smart Residential Communities: Principles, Practices & Practical Guidebook”.
Stay tuned with TimeTec for the next digital building ecosystem announcement every Wednesday! Click here for Series 5 of 13:
Malay version: https://www.malaysiakini.com/announcement/573421
Chinese version: https://www.malaysiakini.com/bulletin/573422
TimeTec Group was established in 2000. Over 20 years, the Group had developed three homegrown globally recognized IT brands, FingerTec, TimeTec and i-Neighbour, for workforce management, security, smart office, smart residential and smart township solutions by unleashing the power of biometrics, cloud & edge computing, IoT and AI technologies. All these solutions connect and change the landscape of work life and home life in a larger ecosystem. Through a vast network, TimeTec Group distributes its biometric hardware products and 16 cloud applications, including IoT devices, to more than 150 countries worldwide. Visit our company websites at www.timeteccloud.com, www.fingertec.com, www.ineighbour.com, www.timetecbuilding.com.
Various renowned clients have subscribed to TimeTec various solutions including QSR Brands, Central Sugars Refinery CSR, Sunway Constructions, Mamee, Yakult, Nano Malaysia Berhad, and many more. The versatility and feasibility of TimeTec products also attract various international customers from all over the world, including Hong Kong, Dubai, Australia, Qatar, South Africa etc. that are using TimeTec as their smart digitalization tool.