How China Is Revolutionising
The concept of ‘Smart Retailing’
By Anastasia Chapman

Those days are long gone when Chinese consumers were viewed as purpose-driven and target-oriented groups by brick-and-mortar businesses. Now, people are no longer considered only as consumers. This mind set is introduced by a bunch of new-age smart retailers that count consumers the same as co-producers. Consumers are now seen as entities that help in gaining real-time insights and feedback, all of which is important for a brand to identify target consumers and determine their needs.
 

This concept came into the limelight in 2016 when Alibaba founder, Jack Ma, spoke about the integration of online, offline, logistics and data across a single value chain to form a seamless shopping experience. He envisioned a new era of retail across China that in ways will promise big gains for consumer products companies. Well, the concept has proven to be a revolutionary one and is successfully transforming China's retail ecosystem. From grocery stores, shopping malls, supermarkets, hypermarkets and convenience stores, consumers are getting a digital upgrade designed to usher in the next generation of shopping experience.
 

And with innovations like digital payments, facial recognition, rapid-fire delivery, and customised shopping facilities, the New Retail experience is no longer defined as either online or offline, but simultaneously both. The experience is designed to be fast, convenient, seamless and most importantly, personalised. It combines the accountability and physicality of offline shopping, but also includes the speed and ease of online shopping.
 

Simply put, smart retailing has breathed a new lease of life into the bricks-and-mortar business. Let’s take a look at a few instances that demonstrate how shopping in China is more technologically advanced than in the West, and what are its formulas that help in creating such an innovative and high-powered consumer ecosystem?
 

中国的零售业正在发生革命性的变。随着数字支付、面部识别、定制购物等创新出现，消费者正在进行数字升级。智能零售正在为实体业务注入新的活力。阿里巴巴家居商店推出中国首台非接触式“魔术支付”机器，京东允许消费者通过不同渠道选择购买的“无限零售”概念，家乐福与腾讯合作的“扫描走人”结算系统… 互联网巨头使用创新技术为中国全新的零售业奠定了基础。
 

Example 1

Last year, Alibaba rolled out China's first contactless 'magic payment' machine to homeware store Home Times as part of founder Jack Ma's vision for 'New Retail'. The payment machine with built-in sensors detects items in a shoppers' basket, instantly providing a checkout total, signalling to make the payment through Alibaba's digital payment method Alipay. This prompt process takes seconds, after which the doors to the airport-esque machine open for the shopper to leave the store.
 

“新零售”是2016年10月马云在阿里云栖大会上第一次提出来的。9月22日，阿里推出了一家位于杭州的体验店—“Home Times家时代”。
 

顾客可以从天猫一二级类目中先选取top商家，再根据店铺所在地人群画像定向邀约，每一款产品背后都有大数据撑腰。同时通过自带的二维码，每一款产品都实现了线上与线下价格同步。扫描产品的二维码，就能进入线上查看商品详情及其他消费者评价，店内购买也能享受线上活动的优惠价格。
 

Example 2

JD.com and 7Fresh following Hema’s (Alibaba’s smart retail store) footsteps have come up with the concept of ‘Unbounded Retail’ that allows consumers to access a plethora of purchasing options through different channels. To implement this retail strategy and to compete with Hema supermarkets, JD.com has opened stores in Beijing and Tianjin, called 7 Fresh, that sell food items, 75% of which are fresh. They offer a fast delivery service (in 30 minutes within a five-kilometre radius compared to 3 km for its rival Hema) and a cafeteria serving freshly cooked meals. The greatest innovation is their smart carts that guide customers through the aisles and can even follow them. Customers no longer need to push their trolleys and can walk around hands-free.
 

“无界零售”是京东集团董事局主席兼首席执行官刘强东在2017年提出的概念。京东在北京和天津开设了7 Fresh，商品构成中生鲜产品占比约为75%。配送由7 Fresh和京东到家负责，5公里半径可以保证最快半小时内送达消费者。而其竞争对手盒马鲜生则为门店附近3公里范围内，30分钟送货上门。7FRESH还应用了很多“黑科技”来提升用户体验。比如智能购物车，只要你带上手环，它就将自动陪伴在你左右，不用推、不怕重、你去哪儿它就去哪儿、遇见行人和货架还会避让。结束购物，智能购物车甚至可以自动前往收银区替你排队。
 

Example 3

In association with the giant corporate Tencent, supermarket Carrefour Le Marché, in particular, to obtain WeChat Pay authorizations has a Scan & Go system to pay without going through the checkouts.

The success of innovative technology used by the Chinese internet giants have laid the foundation of today's revolutionary new retail in China, and these case studies are proof of its evolution. Here are the biggest takeaways that improve business efficiency in China's new retail industry, while ensuring a holistic shopping experience for customers.

腾讯和永辉对家乐福进行潜在投资后，5月20日，腾讯与家乐福合作的全球第一家智慧生活门店Le Marche在上海开业，这也是最新落地的一家微信支付智慧零售旗舰店。据家乐福中国团队介绍，与以往家乐福门店不同，Le Marche主打“餐饮+零售”模式，2.5万个商品种类中，食品类占比超过80%，而当中进口商品约20%。Le Marche门店利用腾讯优图AI工具，消费者可以“刷脸”完成会员注册与绑定、“刷脸”支付。

Acquiring Customer Loyalty
提高客户忠诚度

In the Chinese retail space, memberships are essential, unlike in the west where an online membership is just another way to persuade consumers to make a future purchase. This act of considering customers as members even before making any purchases is the biggest win of the Chinese new retailers. Sometimes, membership is the only way to even make a purchase. New-age retailers have made signing up irresistible to customers by offering attractive rewards and incentives.

Hema, Alibaba’s futuristic supermarket, offers discounts and self-checkout services for customers who become members. They are required to download the app, use Alipay as the default payment gateway, and scan barcodes whenever needed to enjoy instant rewards. Similarly, when customers use WeChat pay inside a store, they are automatically subscribed to the brand’s WeChat account, where merchants actively send out membership reward programs to encourage future purchases.

中国零售领域采用会员制，新时代的零售商使用各种极具吸引力的奖励和激励手段，以鼓励顾客购买。以盒马鲜生为例，当线下体验成功后，获得了用户信任感，盒马鲜生线下支付形式仅限线上APP，顾客下载后在线上APP完成支付，一旦支付后，可获赠很多电子优惠券。这样一来，盒马将线下客流量转化到线上，形成了完成的引流闭环体验。

Personalisation is Key
个性化是关键

In the new retail space, online retailing is more than just an extension of offline stores. When customers shop online in China, a large bulk of data is volunteered by consumers unlike in the West, where data sharing is considered illegal. In China, internet companies gather user data to better understand customers on a personal level. This helps tech giants to offer personalised services for consumers — something that a single brand can’t do on its own. For instance, by evaluating consumer purchase behaviour, Chinese tech platform NetEase created independent clothing lines from scratch, which were ardently welcomed by budget shoppers.

在新的零售空间中，大量数据由消费者在线购物而产生。互联网公司收集用户数据，从而为消费者提供个性化的服务。

Growing Dependence on Tech Companies

依靠科技公司

With the growth of the new retail ecosystem in China, the Chinese tech companies are increasingly becoming more powerful with massive repositories of data on Chinese consumers. Many brands take the assistance of these Chinese tech biggies in entering the China market, whether it’s by using the latest AI technology, building an inventory platform, or a delivery infrastructure.
 

A recent instance shows the Beijing-based high end mall, Joy City, collaborating with Alibaba to build themselves a membership system in the form of a powerful new retail tool that allows the mall to track offline behaviour as a means of targeting buyers online. A case study on this came out showing the system helped to promote bespoke products to over three hundred thousand customers with an amazing 80% success rate.

许多品牌得到中国科技巨头的帮助，无论是人工智能技术还是交付基础设施，从而进入中国市场。