Electronics and furniture retailer Courts was acquired by Japanese consumer electronics giant Nojima Corporation last year.
And now, Courts Singapore is retraining its staff in a bid to build long-term relationships with shoppers rather than focus purely on ringing up the tills.
To do this, it is embracing what its chief executive Matthew Hoang describes as Nojima's "time-honoured Japanese principles".
Mr Hoang believes in equipping sales staff with more soft skills.
"Making a sale is not the most important thing in a consumer electronics store," says the 36-year-old, who was appointed group chief operating officer of Courts Asia and country chief executive of Courts Singapore in August last year.
"Using time-honoured Japanese principles, staff build trust with shoppers through casual chatting and advising on the best solutions based on excellent product knowledge.
"This encourages shoppers to come back because they feel comfortable at our stores, whether they decide to make a purchase or not."
He notes that Nojima's Japanese management style encompasses respect for all employees and support for those who embrace challenges regardless of difficulties.
Courts Asia, which has its roots as a British furniture retailer, opened in Singapore in 1974.
It opened a store in Malaysia in 1987 and entered the Indonesian market in 2014.
Today, it has 70 stores across the three South-east Asian markets, spanning over 1.1 million sq ft of retail space. It adopts omnichannel retailing, offering electrical and IT products as well as furniture and home decor accessories.
Mr Hoang, who is Vietnamese and is also fluent in Japanese, started in the retail industry as a sales assistant for Nojima in Japan. He rose up the ranks and was tasked to set up Nojima's operations in Vietnam and Cambodia before helming Courts Singapore.
He says: "Nojima and Courts provide an environment that gives our staff the chance to take ownership of their careers. Openness, fairness, creativity and innovation are some of the qualities we nurture in our employees at Courts."
One of the new programmes initiated at Courts is the graduate associate training programme, which helps new hires transition from being fresh out of school to entering a professional retail environment.
It involves close interactions with management mentors that identify staff's interests and strengths, which allow them to later assume roles based on their assets.
One employee who benefited from the programme, Mr Luong Huu Loc, 23, says he was given the opportunity to experience the consulting sales technique - developed by Nojima to guide customers through their purchase journey by asking consultative questions and gaining a better understanding of their lifestyle and needs.
"The crucial part of the programme is being exposed to the retail front lines," says Mr Luong, who joined Courts on Oct 1 last year as a graduate associate with Courts Megastore in Tampines and is today an IT department manager at Courts Serangoon Nex Store.
He adds: "Communicating with customers is an art which requires strong product knowledge, an understanding of customer needs and demographics."
Another graduate associate, Mr Chew Jing Soon, 25, says the consulting sales technique has sharpened his selling and customer service skills.
"The training helped me gain confidence to build and share my product knowledge with customers," he says. "There was strong support and coaching from managers and trainers as well.
"Graduate associates have the opportunity to rotate among different departments and be exposed to different types of skills and specialised know-how."
