Watsons Malaysia
Watsons Malaysia
Transforming the No. 1 Health & Beauty Retailer in Asia's core operations with an integrated digital ecosystem.
Overview
Watsons Malaysia came to us and needed a unified digital ecosystem to connect all 5,000+ operational touchpoints to their main website. This would power their O+O strategy and modernize customer experience, loyalty, inventory, and store operations.
Watsons is a trusted name in health and beauty retail across Malaysia with millions of loyal customers and a the jingle we all know.. ~Watsons Kaw Kaw Deals~ . The goal for the entire project is to power every “kaw kaw deal” with seamless operations and intelligent customer journeys.
//This project is a team effort with developers especially on the technical side of things.
Overview
Watsons Malaysia came to us and needed a unified digital ecosystem to connect all 5,000+ operational touchpoints to their main website. This would power their O+O strategy and modernize customer experience, loyalty, inventory, and store operations.
Watsons is a trusted name in health and beauty retail across Malaysia with millions of loyal customers and a the jingle we all know.. ~Watsons Kaw Kaw Deals~ . The goal for the entire project is to power every “kaw kaw deal” with seamless operations and intelligent customer journeys.
//This project is a team effort with developers especially on the technical side of things.
Overview
Watsons Malaysia came to us and needed a unified digital ecosystem to connect all 5,000+ operational touchpoints to their main website. This would power their O+O strategy and modernize customer experience, loyalty, inventory, and store operations.
Watsons is a trusted name in health and beauty retail across Malaysia with millions of loyal customers and a the jingle we all know.. ~Watsons Kaw Kaw Deals~ . The goal for the entire project is to power every “kaw kaw deal” with seamless operations and intelligent customer journeys.
//This project is a team effort with developers especially on the technical side of things.
Role
As Product Owner, I led requirements gathering, stakeholder alignment to propose a scalable solution blueprint. I was also the main liaison for translating needs into a 2 year roadmap.
Role
As Product Owner, I led requirements gathering, stakeholder alignment to propose a scalable solution blueprint. I was also the main liaison for translating needs into a 2 year roadmap.
Desired Business Impact
Increase Loyalty Program Retention
Improve trust and usability of the W Rewards program by ensuring consistent points tracking and faster redemption across all touchpoints.
Optimize Supply Chain Visibility
Provide end-to-end inventory tracking and forecasting across warehouses and stores to reduce stockouts and overstocking.
Reduce Time-to-Market for Digital Features
Create a modular integration layer to accelerate deployment of new retail tech like facial recognition, smart shelves, and unmanned stores.
Eliminate Data Silos
Enable real-time data sharing between POS, CRM, ecommerce, and inventory systems to reduce manual errors and duplicate records.
Increase Loyalty Program Retention
Improve trust and usability of the W Rewards program by ensuring consistent points tracking and faster redemption across all touchpoints.
Optimize Supply Chain Visibility
Provide end-to-end inventory tracking and forecasting across warehouses and stores to reduce stockouts and overstocking.
Reduce Time-to-Market for Digital Features
Create a modular integration layer to accelerate deployment of new retail tech like facial recognition, smart shelves, and unmanned stores.
Eliminate Data Silos
Enable real-time data sharing between POS, CRM, ecommerce, and inventory systems to reduce manual errors and duplicate records.
Client Brief
While I remembered the client brief was +50 slides long and the discovery meeting was more than 3 hours, here's the gist of what they were trying to achieve is they require a centralized integration platform to connect their POS, loyalty systems, ecommerce, supply chain, CRM, and financial systems while also supporting future-facing tech (can't disclose this part).
While I remembered the client brief was +50 slides long and the discovery meeting was more than 3 hours, here's the gist of what they were trying to achieve is they require a centralized integration platform to connect their POS, loyalty systems, ecommerce, supply chain, CRM, and financial systems while also supporting future-facing tech (can't disclose this part).
Initial Assumption
Before diving into stakeholder interviews, I set up 1:1 sessions with our senior developers to map out early assumptions around system compatibility, security implications, and integration patterns (especially for POS and loyalty services).
Before diving into stakeholder interviews, I set up 1:1 sessions with our senior developers to map out early assumptions around system compatibility, security implications, and integration patterns (especially for POS and loyalty services).
Stakeholder Validation
Though our main contact was the Watsons corporate team, I initiated outreach to ground-level ops, digital commerce, loyalty, and IT security heads. Their input revealed important considerations that weren’t in the original brief. Key insights includes:
Though our main contact was the Watsons corporate team, I initiated outreach to ground-level ops, digital commerce, loyalty, and IT security heads. Their input revealed important considerations that weren’t in the original brief. Key insights includes:
Their main pain point was the lack of real-time inventory accuracy across retail and online channels. This led to frequent overselling and poor customer experience during high-traffic campaigns.
Their main pain point was the lack of real-time inventory accuracy across retail and online channels. This led to frequent overselling and poor customer experience during high-traffic campaigns.
The loyalty team needed faster access to unified customer profiles for campaign personalization. Currently, data was fragmented across web, app, and in-store touchpoints, causing delays in campaign execution and misaligned rewards tracking.
The loyalty team needed faster access to unified customer profiles for campaign personalization. Currently, data was fragmented across web, app, and in-store touchpoints, causing delays in campaign execution and misaligned rewards tracking.
The CX team flagged that store-level promotions often conflicted with online pricing, frustrating customers and overloading customer service. They lacked a centralized rule engine to coordinate pricing logic across channels.
The CX team flagged that store-level promotions often conflicted with online pricing, frustrating customers and overloading customer service. They lacked a centralized rule engine to coordinate pricing logic across channels.
Their concern centered on integration risk and system maintainability, especially with third-party dependencies. They emphasized the need for future-proof APIs and detailed audit trails to align with compliance policies.
Their concern centered on integration risk and system maintainability, especially with third-party dependencies. They emphasized the need for future-proof APIs and detailed audit trails to align with compliance policies.
Proposed Solution
We proposed a flexible integration backbone that could evolve with the business, not just plug the gaps. Instead of stitching together the systems, we designed a centralized platform where customer data, inventory status, and loyalty activity could finally talk to each other in real time.
The solution focused on three key modules
→ a live inventory sync that lets customers see what’s available both in-store or online.
→ a loyalty engine connector that keeps rewards, points, and redemptions consistent across all 5,000+ merchant touchpoints.
→ a Customer 360 layer, enabling personalized journeys by merging profiles across app, web, and in-store visits.
Behind the scenes, everything was built to scale. But for the Watsons, what mattered most was a digital foundation that could support innovation that doesn't slow them down.
Besides the technical solutions, other execution considerations outlined were:
We proposed a flexible integration backbone that could evolve with the business, not just plug the gaps. Instead of stitching together the systems, we designed a centralized platform where customer data, inventory status, and loyalty activity could finally talk to each other in real time.
The solution focused on three key modules
→ a live inventory sync that lets customers see what’s available both in-store or online.
→ a loyalty engine connector that keeps rewards, points, and redemptions consistent across all 5,000+ merchant touchpoints.
→ a Customer 360 layer, enabling personalized journeys by merging profiles across app, web, and in-store visits.
Behind the scenes, everything was built to scale. But for the Watsons, what mattered most was a digital foundation that could support innovation that doesn't slow them down.
Besides the technical solutions, other execution considerations outlined were:
Sequencing for Stakeholder Confidence
We prioritized integrating high-visibility touchpoints first such as real-time loyalty sync and store inventory availability to demonstrate early wins to internal stakeholders.
This helped build momentum, secure continued buy-in from senior leadership, and gave our rollout measurable proof points from the start.
Sequencing for Stakeholder Confidence
We prioritized integrating high-visibility touchpoints first such as real-time loyalty sync and store inventory availability to demonstrate early wins to internal stakeholders.
This helped build momentum, secure continued buy-in from senior leadership, and gave our rollout measurable proof points from the start.
Balancing Innovation with Operational Readiness
While there was appetite for ambitious features like facial recognition and AI led personalization, we made a conscious decision to focus on foundational reliability first.
Our phased roadmap ensured the organization could absorb change without overwhelming retail teams or jeopardizing day-to-day operations.
Balancing Innovation with Operational Readiness
While there was appetite for ambitious features like facial recognition and AI led personalization, we made a conscious decision to focus on foundational reliability first.
Our phased roadmap ensured the organization could absorb change without overwhelming retail teams or jeopardizing day-to-day operations.
Conclusion
This project taught me that managing complexity at scale is all about sequencing the right bets at the right time. Stakeholder trust was earned by proving we could ship. Prioritizing loyalty sync and real-time inventory gave us fast proof points. That momentum bought us space to push bigger ideas like unified pricing logic and Customer 360.
The real unlock came from asking one more “why” when everyone else was ready to move on. You'll obviously be that annoying person with asking too many questions but in hindsight, that's in my opinion how we surfaced pain points that weren’t in the brief but made all the difference.
This project taught me that managing complexity at scale is all about sequencing the right bets at the right time. Stakeholder trust was earned by proving we could ship. Prioritizing loyalty sync and real-time inventory gave us fast proof points. That momentum bought us space to push bigger ideas like unified pricing logic and Customer 360.
The real unlock came from asking one more “why” when everyone else was ready to move on. You'll obviously be that annoying person with asking too many questions but in hindsight, that's in my opinion how we surfaced pain points that weren’t in the brief but made all the difference.
wafiuddin.fy@gmail.com
wafiuddin.fy@gmail.com