Alibaba, Bailian Group Announce New Retail Strategic Partnership
February 19 2017 - 10:36PM
Business Wire
Jointly explore development opportunities
across each other’s ecosystem
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 online 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:
- New retail outlet design: jointly
design cross channel store operation and ordering systems to enable
real time service solutions for customers at physical stores;
- New retail technology R&D: joint
R&D in new retail technology in areas such as artificial
intelligence, Internet of Things, and big data;
- 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;
- Supply chain management: the companies
will combine resources in customer insight and supplier channels to
help improve merchandise selection and reduce cost;
- 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;
- 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.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170219005061/en/
Bailian GroupEric Zhao, +86-21-63321200Board
SecretaryEric.zhao@bl.comorAlibaba GroupCecilia Kwok, +852 9132
7709ceciliakwok@alibaba-inc.com
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