Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) is teaming up with Shanghai Bailian Group Co (百聯集團), one of China’s largest supermarket and department store chains, as chairman Jack Ma (馬雲) accelerates an effort to employ technology to shake up old-fashioned retail.
Alibaba is planning to help upgrade some of Bailian’s 4,700 stores across the nation, integrating everything from customer relations to payment and logistics in a manner similar to its tie-ups with other players, such as electronics chain Suning Commerce Group Co (蘇寧電商集團).
DEPARTMENT STORE
Photo: Reuters
The online juggernaut that vanquished eBay and Amazon in China has set its sights on using its data and technology to transform the US$4 trillion world of domestic brick-and-mortar retail.
In its biggest old-economy deal, Alibaba is leading a bid to buy department store chain Intime Retail Group Co (銀泰商業) for as much as US$2.6 billion.
Its billionaire cofounder wants to build a network that will allow stores and brands to monitor transactions as they happen, ridding layers of distributors so that retail outlets can place orders online in real time.
Bailian’s shares yesterday surged by their daily 10 percent limit in Shanghai after the China Securities Journal reported on the partnership, citing unidentified sources.
“Our partnership with Bailian is an important milestone in the evolution of Chinese retail, where the distinction between physical and virtual commerce is becoming obsolete,” Alibaba chief executive officer Daniel Zhang (張勇) said in an e-mailed statement.
Amazon.com Inc. is also keen to demonstrate how technology can transform the age-old shopping experience. It unveiled Amazon Go in December, allowing Seattle shoppers to grab groceries without waiting in checkout lines as their account is automatically charged when they exit.
Like Alibaba, the US e-commerce titan has extensive experience working with reams of valuable customer and supply chain data and shopping patterns.
With Bailian, Alibaba will be tapping a network of 4,700 stores across 25 Chinese provinces. Apart from Intime, the Hangzhou, China-based company has already invested in retail operators, including Suning and Sanjiang Shopping Club Co (三江購物俱樂部), to further its so-called new retail experiment.
NO SHAREHOLDING
Alibaba will not be taking a stake in Bailian, but the pair will integrate their membership databases and use facial recognition technology to improve shoppers’ experiences, the company said in an e-mail.
Alibaba’s online payments system, Alipay, will be available at all Bailian stores.
The e-commerce giant’s delivery affiliate — Cainiao Smart Logistics Network Ltd (菜鳥網路) — will work with Bailian to flesh out protocols that make the system more efficient.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last