Retail

There will be more retail change in the next 10 years than in the past 50. David shares some of the issues so you are on the right side of the curve.

WORLDPRIDE came to New York City

1 July 2019

June 2019 WORLDPRIDE came to New York City to mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising.

The first Pride parade, called the “Pride March,” was held on the one year anniversary of the Stonewall uprising (June 28, 1970) and has since become an annual civil rights demonstration. The march was led by Craig Rodwell, the owner of the old Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop and drew thousands of participants. Grand Marshals have included former NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Dustin Lance Black, Cyndi Lauper, Edie Windsor, Jonathan Groff, Laverne Cox and Ian McKellen.

The 2019 NYC Pride March, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, was on Sunday, June 30. The route started on 26th Street & 5th Avenue, ran  South to 8th Street, continue West along 8th Street, turning left on Christopher Street, passing Stonewall, and running back uptown along 7th Avenue, ending on 23rd Street

The 2019 March will the biggest joined by over 600 unique marching parts , representing non-profits, community organizations, corporate sponsors, small businesses, political candidates, activists and more.

See how various retailers are actively participating both in store and with unique products in this PDF.

China’s Suning Buys Carrefour China

23 June 2019

Today China’s Suning.com has announced that it will buy 80% of Carrefour China.

The deal is structured in a way that The Carrefour Group will sell 80% of its equity interest in Carrefour China to Suning.com. This is a cash transaction valuing Carrefour China at an enterprise value of €1.4 billion. The Carrefour Group will retain a 20% stake in the business and two seats out of seven on Carrefour China’s Supervisory Board. Suning has the right to buy the remaining 20% after a period.

Carrefour was a pioneer in China bring the hypermarket format to an excited Chinese Consumer in 1995.

I remember being at their first store opening and looking at the expressions of delight and amazement on the faces of Chinese consumers as they had not seen anything like this type of format or vast ranges and choice before.

Carrefour were the first western grocery and hypermarket retailer in China to realise the critical importance of trying to re-create the buzz, excitement and feeling of freshness of the Chinese wet market inside the hypermarket.

Today Carrefour has 210 hypermarkets and 24 convenience stores in China. This has generated in 2018 net sales of €3.6 billion (RMB 28.5 billion) and EBITDA of €66 million (RMB 516 million). It has had negative like for like sales – -5.9% in 2018 following -5.5 in 2017.

Other than generating needed cash for Carrefour and a China exit they were looking for, what does this transaction tell us about retail in China and globally?

Well much…

Suning.com is one of China’s leading physical and ecommerce retailers.

It has a network of over 8,881 physical stores in more than 700 cities across China from tier one’s to tier 4 and 5’s and runs the country’s 3rd largest B2C e-commerce platform.

One of the shareholder’s of Suning.com is Alibaba and this where it potentially gets really interesting…

Alibaba Group will soon have (when this deal closes after going through regulatory approval by Chinese the competition authorities (expected by December 2019) holdings in Auchan, RT-Mart and Carrefour in China as well as Suning. Alibaba invested some $4.6 Billion US Dollars for a 19.9% stake in Suning in August 2015. When Suning also agreed to invest 14 billion yuan to acquire 1.1 percent of Alibaba.

This gives Alibaba with its own growing network of physical stores called Hema / Hippo Fresh advantageous access to more physical space in China.

The first Hema store opened its physical doors in January 2016 and now has some 100+ stores across China. Consumers can buy their groceries and fresh products especially sea food both online and offline. Hema’s increasingly middle-class Chinese consumers are ordering their food for the evening on their commute home via their smart phones. Delivery is guaranteed for 30 minutes after an order has been placed if the customer lives within a 3km radius of a Hema store.

This proposition is one of the elements that Jack Mar  refers to as “New Retail”.

 

The combination of physical and virtual retailing is the key to “New Retail’s” success. Alibaba now has even move physical coverage available to rapidly accelerate its “New Retail” concepts and thinking. But whilst having physical and virtual stores is key , it’s useless unless you can digitise the entire supply chain, from growers, manufactures and every single element along the way , including the store…And that is where Alibaba “New Retail” really excels. It has a commanding lead in, thinking, technology and capability in digitising the entire supply chain and linking this to the consumer. The world outside of China should take note and learn. Whoever said physical retail is dead…

In Conversation with Garrison Macri

11 April 2019

At STREAM Commerce in Miami I interviewed a number of the key speakers and participants as part of my “In Conversation with…” series. I am very grateful to everyone who graciously participated in the recordings and were so generous in sharing their insights. Over the next few days I will publish here the individual interviews as well as the consolidated live broadcast that we took pace each day.

Todays “In conversation… is with Garrison Macri, Global Business Development, Superup

 

In Conversation With Brian Shuster

9 April 2019

At STREAM Commerce in Miami I interviewed a number of the key speakers and participants as part of my “In Conversation with…” series. I am very grateful to everyone who graciously participated in the recordings and were were so generous in sharing their insights.

Todays “In conversation… is with Brian Shuster Founder & Chief Innovation Officer actv8me.

 

Showfields

5 March 2019

THE MOST INTERESTING STORE IN THE WORLD… At least that’s what Showfields founder and CEO Tal Nathanel is confident he is creating. 

In a world where many retailers are closing physical space, this plucky entrepreneur has gutted an iconic building in New York’s trendy NoHo area and is creating a new four story brick-and-mortar retail concept intended to bringing digitally native and direct to consumer brands to a physical life. Its proposition for brands centres on configuring their space online via a six-step process, which will then be fitted out and staffed by Showfields. It costs a flat fee per month (no turnover related element to it.). All the tech comes as standard – including mobile POS, data sensors and visitor analytics.

It’s currently in its “soft launch” stage. Just one of its four floors are open but that has not stopped a number of digital brands opening their space already including “Quip” electronic toothbrushes which started life as a Kickstarter project. Their space at Showfields actively encourages you to try out the brushes for yourself. Difficult to do that on a web site.

Or “Gravity Blanket” the weighted blanket for sleep, stress and anxiety. Which I have to say I had heard a lot about but never really understood or seen the value in until Tal persuaded me to try it out for myself at Showfields. It really was good and worth the premium!

Quod Erat Demonstrandum (QED).

Sometimes you really do need that physical experience…And that is what Tal is banking on.

As he took me on a behind the scenes tour of the yet to be opened floors Showfields strengths become more apparent. Its official opening will serendipitously be on the same day that Gordon Selfridge opened his Iconic Selfridges department store in London’s Oxford Street, back in 1909. That redefined retailing in Europe. And Tal’s betting on doing the same around the globe.And serendipity is what underpins the customer promise. He discusses this with me and other topics in this video interview you can see here. http://bit.ly/2TbglGx 

Go see Showfields for yourself. It’s on corner of Bond and Lafayette Streets in NoHo, New York.

The world’s most interesting store…It could well be…It deserves to be successful.

Download this to take a look inside Showfields

In Conversation with Brian Moroz

4 March 2019

At STREAM Commerce in Miami I interviewed a number of the key speakers and participants as part of my “In Conversation with…” series. I am very grateful to everyone who graciously participated in the recordings and were were so generous in sharing their insights. Over the next few days I will publish here the individual interviews as well as the consolidate live broadcast that we took pace each day.

Todays “In conversation… is with Brian Moroz, Creative Strategist, Google

7Fresh Beijing. JD.COM New Offline concept

20 February 2018

January 2018 JD.com, China’s second largest e-commerce company, launched its first offline fresh-food supermarket, called 7Fresh. I went to take a detailed look…  

Located in Beijing near JD headquarters in Yizhuang district this is their response to China’s booming market for online fresh food shopping and this growing segment of the domestic retail market.

4,000-square metres of floor space.  It’s a true manifestation of the merging of online and offline. It’s equipped with “smarts” and serves as both a physical store for consumers and fulfilment for on-line orders.

The retail component of the store itself is a mix between Wholefoods, Eataly and a traditional supermarket, it combines cooked and fresh-food offerings. In an eclectic selection of products, it includes fruits from New Zealand and beef from Australia, a live wet fish market and cooked-food stalls where you can pick up and either eat there or take away from traditional Chinese food, salads to Pizza.

Its “smart” components include carts which can help guide shoppers to the right aisles. The entire store is based on JD’s smart logistics system. It’s so smart that 7Fresh will know what you want better that you will. Getting smarter about you the more frequently you visit. The system also powers a delivery services so on line shoppers can get their groceries in about 30 minutes in a defined area around the store.

This store is impressive and a testament to how advanced China is in retailing today and especially the world lead it now has in the convergence of online and offline retailing. 7Fresh is a physical manifestation of seamless integration of online and offline shopping systems that will be the model for the future of retail globally.

The retail world should sit up and take note.

For key insights on JD.COM and the implications of 7Fresh to you as well as understanding JD.COM please get in contact with me.  To learn more about JD.COM please watch my documentary film “Hidden Dragon. The Rise of an E-commerce Giant”

See inside the store click on the image below.

The History Of Chinese New Year

4 May 2017

History of the Chinese New Year the Chinese New Year, known in China as spring festival, is the country’s most important holiday. The Chinese New Year is based on a calendar established about 4,700 years ago. Various legends explain the origin of the Chinese New Year. One describes how people dreaded the New Year because a fearsome beast named Nian annually terrorised the population and devoured children. Then one year a child appeared dressed in red. The beast, frightened by the colour, fled and never returned. That’s why the Chinese New Year traditionally features red lanterns and noisy firecrackers to ward off evil spirits. The Chinese New Year is based on a calendar that calculates time using both lunar and solar events. Time passes in 12-year cycles, with each year represented by an animal of the Chinese zodiac. Traditionally, people prepare special foods and hope for a future of good luck. They attend many family dinners, starting with a New Year’s Eve feast. Travel home for the family reunion produces a mass migration. The New Year period culminates in the lantern festival, a joyful celebration around the first new moon in the lunar New Year. To learn more about the Chinese New Year and how the holiday unlocks year-round brand and retailer opportunities, download this informative and visual BrandZ™ study.

The Year of The Rooster

3 May 2017

Chinese Astrology Believers in Chinese astrology attribute a person’s personality characteristics to the profile of their birth year animal. It’s not that simple of course. According to the Chinese view of the world as being composed of opposites, the animals of the zodiac are divided equally: yin animals and yang. They are also linked with similar animals into categories called trines. In addition, each animal is connected to one of five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal and water. The possible combination of animals and elements produces a 60-year cycle and a complicated system of astrology. People who are born in the Year of the Rooster are believed to have the following characteristics: They tend to be neat, meticulous, organized, self-assured, decisive, conservative, critical, perfectionists, alert and practical. They can also be critical, puritanical, egotistical, abrasive, proud and opinionated. ROOSTER YIN, (FIRE)