Alibaba urges brands to ‘digitise’ their entire business as part of new retail push

Alibaba Group, the world’s largest e-commerce platform operator, is persuading brand operators to work cooperatively by creating a fully digitised omni-channel model to drive the retail business to the next phase.

The so-called “New Retail” concept, first proposed by Alibaba last year, will adopt advanced cloud computing technologies including big data and artificial intelligence (AI) to study the data generated from various aspects of the brands, which will greatly improve the online and offline buying experience for consumers, Daniel Zhang Yong, Alibaba’s chief executive officer said during a closed-door meeting with representatives of 54 global brands in Hangzhou on Tuesday.

Despite e-commerce transactions accounting for about 15 per cent of the retail sector, brand operators should consider digitalising their entire business instead of just how to increase the e-transaction proportion, Zhang told representatives from brands, including LVMH, Samsung and P&G.

Under Alibaba’s vision the retail business of the future will rest on the digitalised synergy between consumers, brands and both online and offline platforms. The company is also aiming to leverage its immense quantity of consumer data to integrate brick-and-mortar stores, logistics, and payment tools to deliver a better shopping experience for consumers.

When consumers visit an offline retail shop in the future, their behaviour – whether they purchase a product or not, or look at certain products without purchasing them – will be recorded and analysed as a reference for future sales opportunities, according to Zhang.