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Check Out Taobao's First Physical Store & 9 Other Cool Things At NomadX
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Check Out Taobao's First Physical Store & 9 Other Cool Things At NomadX

NomadX is a phygital playground. What's phygital?

Check Out Taobao's First Physical Store & 9 Other Cool Things At NomadX
Check Out Taobao's First Physical Store & 9 Other Cool Things At NomadX
Don't get overly excited, folks. Taobao's ginormous catalog will fill probably thousands of warehouses, so don't expect to be able to touch and feel that exact same $10 handbag or those $5 slippers you've been eyeing on the website. Instead, there's a selection of mostly homeware and furniture items, carefully curated into an aesthetically-pleasing set-up by Qanvast, a home interior and renovation website. Like a chair or that carpet? Scan the QR code attached to the product and you'll be directed to that item's page on the Taobao website, where you can buy it and wait patiently for it to be shipped to you. Nope, you can't bring home any of the items immediately, but at least you'll know what you just paid for, no surprises.
Check Out Taobao's First Physical Store & 9 Other Cool Things At NomadX
What's a new-concept shopping experience without, um, a new concept? At the NomadX check-in stations located at L3 of the newer wing of Plaza Singapura (opposite Arteastiq), you have to scan your face, answer a few questions on a screen, and be assigned a tribe. They call it an onboarding gamification process using facial recognition technology. Cheem. Based on your preferences, you'll be assigned to one of four tribes — Sea, Mountain, Forest and Wind — which corresponds to The Enigmatic Shopper, The Conquer-It-All Shopper, the Love the Earth Shopper and the Live-It-Up Shopper profiles respectively. Each shopper profile is tied to a proposed shopping route, as well as product and deal recommendations. Fancy or what?
Check Out Taobao's First Physical Store & 9 Other Cool Things At NomadX
Be assigned your tribe and follow the shopping route deemed most suitable for you. Or you can just do whatever you want and shop the traditional way. But don't be a party pooper. Play the game. After all, they went to all this effort to give you a cool and fun digitalised experience, okay?
Check Out Taobao's First Physical Store & 9 Other Cool Things At NomadX
The 11,000 sq ft NomadX is divided into two floors. L3 holds several fashion, beauty, tech and F&B retailers, which each occupy their own mini storefronts within the space, demarcated by modular panels. These are short-term “plug & play” units where tenants set up temporary homes like nomads, which are integrated with interactive technologies to encourage product discovery and play. We're guessing the retailers will change over time as well.
Check Out Taobao's First Physical Store & 9 Other Cool Things At NomadX
Where does one shop start and the next begin? That's part of the fun.
Check Out Taobao's First Physical Store & 9 Other Cool Things At NomadX
There are plenty of touchscreens in the space. “Techtile” product visual merchandising showcases display products and info, and have QR codes to scan to help you with your shopping decisions. Also cool: A cashless payment system. Yeah, they're serious about taking that online experience and making it real offline.
Check Out Taobao's First Physical Store & 9 Other Cool Things At NomadX
Instagram fashion girls would be familiar with Style Theory, the fashion subscription rental company which lets you rent unlimited designer togs for $129 a month. While functioning online has worked pretty well for them, they seem to be taking a leaf out of Love, Bonito's book and taking things offline with Style Theory Capsule, their bricks and mortar space at NomadX. Here, you can get measured and try on the clothes, though you still have to make your selections online, and wait for them to be delivered to you. Don't miss the mirrors enhanced with RFID technology, where you can get product and sizing info and recommendations by showing the mirror a piece of clothing (mirror, mirror, on the wall, should I rent this mermaid gown?). Cool. They're offering subsriptions for $99 at NomadX instead of the usual $129. Double cool.
Check Out Taobao's First Physical Store & 9 Other Cool Things At NomadX
Teapasar, the local multi-brand tea marketplace which uses technology to determine your tea profile and provide you with tea you'll love gets physical with its first brick-and-mortar store here. So, coffee, tea or technology?
Check Out Taobao's First Physical Store & 9 Other Cool Things At NomadX
Local craft fragrance player Oo La Lab has been making sweet-smelling waves in the fragrance scene and they've wafted into their first physical store at NomadX. Choose from already popular formulas, or work with a mixologist to design your own unique scent. A fun experience which ensures you won't smell like the cubicle rat next door or your MRT next-seat neighbour.
Check Out Taobao's First Physical Store & 9 Other Cool Things At NomadX
Karl Lagerfeld holds court at the smaller first floor area of NomadX (along with Oo La Lab and Waa Cow!, which serves up awesome and affordable Wagyu Sukiyaki bowls). Get bags and accessories from the Kaiser's Pins collection, exclusive to NomadX.
Check Out Taobao's First Physical Store & 9 Other Cool Things At NomadX
Although JBL is a familiar brand, this is actually their first-ever store in Singapore. Expect the full range of JBL products with Google Assistant built-in. Get product info and intros via the screens in the store. No need for a real assistant, maybe?
Check Out Taobao's First Physical Store & 9 Other Cool Things At NomadX
Whether you embrace this phygital store's tech gimmicks (Tribes! First offline presences of online stores! Touchscreens!) or whether you just take it all as the usual shopping experience, albeit with a unique twist, NomadX wants to shake things up. And when you get tired of all this high-tech shopping, refuel at Bizen Okayama Wagyu Steakhouse by Aston Soon or Waa Cow!, run by Constance Lau's brother. Is NomadX the future of retail? We don't know, but it's definitely worth checking out. NomadX is at #01-67 and #03-65, Plaza Singapura, 68 Orchard Road.
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By Celine Tan
Published November 13, 2018
Updated September 30, 2019
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First off, it's nothing to do with fidget spinners. A phygital store combines elements of physical and digital retail, and is what forward-looking folks at CapitaLand think Singapore needs — a multi-label concept store that melds high-tech experiences with traditional bricks and mortar shopping. This means that at NomadX (pronounced nomads ), which is 11,000 square feet spread across two floors in Plaza Singapura (at the space formerly occupied by toy shop Hamleys), you can expect lots of touch screens, a futuristic atmosphere and things like cashless payment, yet shop the old-fashioned way, by touching and trying stuff.

Perhaps most exciting is the offline presence of Taobao, that endlessly fascinating yet frustrating Chinese online retail wonderland. Also cool are the first physical outposts of popular online concepts like fashion subscription rental company Style Theory and high-tech tea profiling service and retailer teapasar. The multi-label retail destination launched last week with 18 tenants. Here are some things to look out for.

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