The New Retail Revolution- From Robot restaurants to Automobile Vending Machines

 

Hi, I’m Priyanka Sunil- A final year MBA student from Amrita School Of Business majoring in Operations and Marketing. Welcome to my progressive learning space for Logistics and Supply Chain Management. Today's gyaan is all about New Retail. 

Transforming the Traditional Retail

Shopping usually involves one of two options, to go to the store or buying it online. But when online stores cants deliver, you have to go to the store. This can be a little frustrating at times.

So what can be done???

Well, Alibaba the company that is best known for its online marketplace is leading the way for China to give a seamless experience to customers by integrating both online and offline retail.

“New retail, “Smart retail” call it any fancy name you want- is dubbed as the future of retail. Let’s dwell deep and see what this is all about.

pic:cbsnews

What is New Retail??

The term “New Retail” was coined by Jack Ma in the year 2016 to describe the blending of online and offline commerce through the digitization of the entire retail value chain. It uses technology to combine the best of the online and the offline world and allows the customers a hassle-free shopping experience. This vision outlines omnichannel experiential retail as the future of the retail industry. It's the complete digitization of all commerce that could be the key to saving traditional retail. It's already helping even the most traditional retail models adapt to a new digital world in unexpectedly creative ways.

1.     Supermarkets- Freshhippo(Hema Stores)

Let's face it. No one really enjoys the process of grocery shopping. But ordering online isn't perfect either as some things you want to pick yourself. Hema stores are Alibaba's grocery store for modern times. A fresh store has a 'three-in-one' purpose – it's a supermarket, a fulfillment center, and a restaurant. The shopping experience is powered by a mobile phone. You can scan and find out what you're buying, where they are sourced from, buy groceries or eat in with the freshest seafood that's instantly prepared for you. And when the food is ready, you won't see any waitstaff; instead, dishes are delivered by robot pods on a high-tech track that quickly guides them to their destination. Best of all you can have your groceries and cooked seafood all delivered to you and as quickly as 30 minutes if you're lucky enough to live within a three-kilometer radius of Hema. The model is so popular in China that people are actually moving to live near Hema locations

pic:cbsnews

2.     Car Showrooms

This is another traditional sales model that's getting an Alibaba new retail upgrade. Going from one dealer to another cost a lot of time and effort.  Alibaba is working to redesign the experience bringing many brands of cars to the consumers to try without the sales pressure. Introducing the Auto vending machine –this model allows consumers to browse models on their smartphones and select the ones they want to test-drive, experience the car first then talk to the salesperson

3.     Local mom-and-pop convenience stores

These stores which are the lifeblood of many communities probably haven't changed much since the mid-80s and aren't as convenient as they need to be for today's shoppers. Alibaba is helping such stores go digital by creating and providing a special mobile app that provides the shop owners, consumer analytics of their store. They can then use the app to order the items most likely to sell directly from one source and avoid having to deal with multiple distributors This means your neighborhood store is more likely to stock what you are looking for.

4.     Fashion

Tried a t-shirt but it's not the right fit and your size isn't in stock? No problem..!!

The new retail store will have a virtual shelf just select the one you want to scan with your team OLAP and have it delivered to your home. No need to stand in line at the checkout

even if it's waiting at the lady's room. Check yourself out in the magic mirror and experiment with new makeup colors virtually like what you see buy it from vending machines and freshen up your look from ladies' room to make up lounge.

 

The digitization has created new dynamics between consumers, producers, wholesalers, and retailers in the physical commerce space across various dimensions like

·       Supply chain and distribution logistics

• Integrating and analyzing the data from the retailers and consumers has the immediate benefit of optimized logistics
• New retailers can draw on vast pools of data in sales and digital media helps forecast demand accurately. This prediction can be based on reviews, views, ratings, likes of certain products.
• Availability of right products at the right place at right time can be ensured by enhancing the distribution as the real-time inventory information is obtained for individual retail locations.
• Just-in-time logistics can cut the ordering, holding, and warehousing costs when retailers want to restock
• The real-time inventory information enables producers to change their production quantity depending on the sales data and forecasted demand
• By deploying AI models that identify and predict  pattern to continually improve upon, the supply chain is hugely benefitted

Value-added services to producers and retailers

• New Retail unlocks tools and insights that help them cut costs and drive sales by effectively using the analytics on the data obtained through them
• New Retail players can help merchants design and evaluate promotions. They can compare the sales before, during, and after the promotion period from across their online and offline outlets. The insights drawn for this can be act as advice to merchants
• Seamless restocking process can be ensured by matching remaining inventory with predicted sales from retailer’s own sales history and also on sales in other stores and online outlets, historical patterns, current momentum on social media, etc.

Integrated shopping experiences for consumers

• New Retail gives more importance to customer engagement and in-store experiences. They treat customers as co-creators and look to build and maintain long term relations with them.
• The main aim is to understand customers more by using the data. This helps to develop new and relevant products and even involve customers in the product design.

New retail offers companies a holistic solution that encompasses sales, logistics, supply chain optimization, payments, marketing, and a wide range of supporting services powered by cloud-based technologies. These provide brands with the technological infrastructure needed for them to better understand their customers and match them with their business priorities.

 

References

https://www.bain.com/insights/embracing-chinas-new-retail/

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/three-lessons-learn-from-alibabas-hema-%E7%9B%92%E9%A9%AC%E9%B2%9C%E7%94%9F-store-review-lung/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonbird1/2018/11/18/alibabas-new-retail-revolution-what-is-it-and-is-it-genuinely-new/#73869f766ad1

https://www.cgap.org/research/publication/new-retail-revolution

https://retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/e-commerce/e-tailing/alibabas-new-retail-concept-is-the-need-of-the-hour-for-every-market-jet-jing-president-tmall/68094769#:~:text=New%20Retail%20is%20creating%20a,catering%20to%20their%20individual%20needs.