The age of ‘New Retail’

[rooster59]

The age of ‘New Retail’

By Nophakhun Limsamarnphun 
The Nation weekend 
Hangzhou

 

Photo courtesy of Alibaba Group

 

Alibaba’s new model melds online and offline business

 

Alibaba Group has launched what it calls the age of “New Retail”, which the online giant says will replace today’s “e-commerce”. 

 

New Retail will see the distinction between online and offline retail businesses soon disappear, the Chinese conglomerate said. The company is testing the new model at Hema, one of its New Retail brands, in Hangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing and other large Chinese cities.

 

 

At Hema, a premium-quality supermarket front with a wide range of home delivery services, consumers living within a 3-kilometre radius can get home delivery of fresh food items, fruit (including Thai durians), vegetables and other daily necessities within 30 minutes of placing an order.

 

The service is part of a so-called 3-in-1 retail experience that covers tech-driven online delivery, in-store purchases and in-store consumption.

 

Big data and cloud computing are among the key infrastructures supporting the use of artificial intelligence where both online and offline platforms converge through mobile and enterprise technology.

 

For example, consumers can visit the Hema intelligent supermarket when they wish, or may prefer to stay home on a rainy day and order anything, including fresh seafood like king crabs imported from Alaska, have them cooked in a preferred style and home-delivered.

 

The price of imported seafood in this instance is competitive largely because of Alibaba’s global reach for imported products, which are bought directly from suppliers without layers of middlemen.

 

At present, more than 50 Hema branches are operational in China where mobile payment is a key driver of the Chinese digital economy that has been expanding rapidly into foreign markets, such as Thailand.

 

Alipay, part of Alibaba Group’s Ant Financial, is helping to turn China into a cashless society as mobile phones and apps become the predominant payment platform.

 

In Thailand, Alipay’s merchant network now covers hundreds of thousands of locations across the country, especially in tourist areas, as a huge number of the nearly 10 million Chinese visitors to Thailand each year use such a payment platform.

 

In addition, Ant Financial and Thailand’s CP Group have jointly launched the TrueMoney Wallet to provide payment and other financial services using technology to promote a cashless society here.

 

For e-commerce customers, Lazada, also majority-owned by Alibaba Group, is currently the front-runner in the Thai market.

 

 

On a global scale, Alibaba is the world’s largest e-commerce retailer in terms of gross merchandise value with 552 million active consumers, as of March this year, mainly on its giant Taobao and Tmall platforms for Chinese consumers.

 

The group’s vision is to build an infrastructure where customers can meet, work and live, and where commercial and social interactions can take place.

 

The group’s eco-system encompasses retail commerce, consumer service, wholesale commerce, digital media and entertainment as well as new innovative initiatives supported by logistic, payment, financial and cloud computing services.

 

James Xu, deputy chief representative of Alibaba Group’s Thailand market, said the group had already signed four MoUs with the Thai government to implement a wide range of collaborative programmes.

 

The group’s eco-system will be used to help leverage the Thailand 4.0 initiative with a focus on the Eastern Economic Corridor.

 

In addition, Alibaba will help develop Thai small and medium enterprises (SMEs), farmers and financial services.

 

In the tourism sector, Fliggy, Alibaba’s online travel service platform, is working with Alipay and Thai tourism authorities to attract a new generation of Chinese tourists to Thailand and offer them a cashless travel experience.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/business/30351923

 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-08-11

[George Bowman]

5 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

Alibaba Group has launched what it calls the age of “New Retail”..

The other day, I was on a rare visit to Bangkok and decided to use the BTS to explore the various stops up and down the line and take a few photographs. It was a hot afternoon and I soon needed a cold ice tea which I would buy at the next stop.

 

I had money in my pocket, a credit card and a smartphone all at my disposal when I saw a vending machine that served cold drinks. BluePay is what it was called.

 

Standing in front of the blue machine, it hit me. I am officially old. The new age has passed me by and did not even said hello. The truth is that I did not know how to get that bottle of ice tea out of the vending machine. Nor did I want to take the time and learn how to accomplish this feat.

 

Instead, I headed down the stairs and spent B20 for an iced tea from a street vendor. Much like I did years ago, before the Skytrain was even open. Yes, I am now officially old..