Retailers bank on souped-up GoSpree app as GSS booster

The new-look GoSpree app was launched together with the Great Singapore Sale yesterday.
The new-look GoSpree app was launched together with the Great Singapore Sale yesterday. ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN

The Great Singapore Sale (GSS) returned yesterday, with organisers banking on the GoSpree mobile app to boost sales, as it did last year.

The executive director of Singapore Retailers Association (SRA), Ms Rose Tong, said the app has been enhanced further "to make it convenient and useful for consumers".

Launched yesterday, the new-look app provides data analytics that allow the SRA to push recommendations and personalised eCoupons to users during the GSS, which ends on Aug 12.

These eCoupons, which were popular last year, can be downloaded directly from a shopper's smartphone for redemption at designated stores.

This year, Geofencing is added, in which eCoupons offered by nearby participating merchants would appear when shoppers search for offers by location.

The app can be downloaded free from Apple's App Store and Google Play.

Official figures show retail sales, excluding motor vehicles, rose between 2 and 4 per cent in the June-August period last year compared with the same months in 2016.

SRA president R. Dhinakaran attributed the increase partly to GoSpree, which was downloaded more than 34,000 times after its launch last year.

The launch of the updated app took place at Robinsons The Heeren, where a carnival will be held today and tomorrow with $100,000 worth of prizes to be won.

Promotions will continue throughout the GSS period, with $82,000 worth of prizes available in the GSS GoSpree UnionPay Silver Jubilee Daily Draw.

A further $750,000 worth of eCoupons and prizes will be offered on the GoSpree app.

Shoppers will also have the goods and services tax for their purchases absorbed on July 7 and Aug 8.

Hairstylist Viva Chong, 53, said: "Every year, when GSS comes, I look forward to all the promotions and discounts. This app makes shopping a lot more fun."

Ms Joanne Lee, 25, an accounts assistant, added: "Besides the promotions, I'm looking forward to the two days when GST is absorbed ."

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on June 09, 2018, with the headline Retailers bank on souped-up GoSpree app as GSS booster. Subscribe