[February 19, 2017] |
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Alibaba, Bailian Group Announce New Retail Strategic Partnership
Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA) and China's leading retailer
Bailian Group announced today the formation of a strategic partnership
to explore new forms of retail opportunities across each other's
ecosystem. The companies will leverage the power of big data to achieve
integration between offline stores, merchandise, logistics and payment
tools with the ultimate aim of elevating efficiency and overall consumer
experience.
The signing of the strategic cooperation agreement between Alibaba Group
CEO Daniel Zhang and Bailian Chairman & President Ye Yongming took place
in Shanghai. Zhou Bo, Executive Vice Mayor of Shanghai Municipal
Government and Alibaba Executive Chairman Jack Ma witnessed the signing.
Headquartered in Shanghai, Bailian is one of China's largest and most
established retail conglomerates with more than 4,700 outlets across 25
provinces, 200 cities and autonomous regions in China.
Daniel Zhang, CEO of Alibaba Group said, "New retail reimagines the
relationship between consumers, merchandise and retail space by
leveraging mobile Internet and big data. It will upend the traditional
manufacturing and supply chain, the connection between merchant and
consumer, as well as the overall consumer experience. Businesses will
increasingly embrace big data and new innovations to better identify,
reach, analyze and serve their customers, and their digital
transformation will be empowered by Alibaba's ecosystem. 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."
Ye Yongming, Chairman of Bailian Group said, "A new consumer era calls
for a new retail approach. Traditional commerce needs to embrace
innovation and change to thrive if they are to ride atop this new
consumption trend. New retail is not just the convergence of onine and
offline worlds. It also means we need to be able to leverage
technologies such as the Internet of Things, AI and big data to provide
consumers with new and immersive shopping experiences across channels
and product categories anytime and anywhere. It is with this shared
vision that our companies have joined forces in this strategic
partnership to redefine commerce and reshape the retail industry."
Under the agreement, the cooperation will include:
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New retail outlet design: jointly design cross channel store operation
and ordering systems to enable real time service solutions for
customers at physical stores;
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New retail technology R&D: joint R&D in new retail technology in areas
such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and big data;
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Customer Relationship Management: integrate both company's membership
base to enhance customer service capability through technologies such
as geolocation, facial recognition and big-data driven sales and
customer management systems;
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Supply chain management: the companies will combine resources in
customer insight and supplier channels to help improve merchandise
selection and reduce cost;
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Payment: Alipay will be made available at all Bailian stores, while
Bailian's payment tools Safepass and Bailian OK Card will be
integrated with Alipay to provide a unified third-party payment
solution for consumers;
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Logistics: Bailian Logistics to work with Alibaba on Cainiao's
logistics platform and co-develop logistics rules to enhance services
for both consumers and merchants
The partnership with Bailian is the latest milestone in the development
of new retail. Alibaba has coined the term "New Retail" to describe a
world where the distinction between online and offline commerce becomes
obsolete, as Internet users continue to migrate to mobile devices from
desktop computers. Under the new retail model, traditional brick and
mortar retailers will be offered the tools to transform their way of
connecting with consumers, and improve efficiencies in their inventory
and distribution network, as well as payment and logistics systems to
provide seamless consumer experience both online and offline consumers.
Consumers in China engage in commerce activities from anywhere at any
time with the help of mobile phones. With its big data capability and a
mobile monthly active user base of close to 500 million, Alibaba is well
placed to enable traditional retailers to upgrade to the new retail
model.
About Alibaba Group
Alibaba Group's mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere. The
company aims to build the future infrastructure of commerce. It
envisions that its customers will meet, work and live at Alibaba, and
that it will be a company that lasts at least 102 years.
About Bailian Group
Bailian Group is a leading state-owned enterprise in Shanghai, and one
of China's largest retail conglomerates. It has operations in more than
200 Chinese cities with 4,700 outlets and 68,000 employees. Launched in
2016, Bailian's Omni-Channel Platform "bl.com" & "iBailian
App" has grown quickly leveraging Bailian's membership base of 21
million to provide seamless and round-the-clock service to consumers
online and offline.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170219005061/en/
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