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.
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
RSS