In the context of the new retail era, the Internet has promoted the transformation of traditional commerce into networking, digitization, and electronic transactions have appeared in all aspects of our lives. Daily life, production, operation, service work, etc. are inseparable from e-commerce, but both the new retail industry and physical retail are facing the risk of stagnation. This article will take the new retail era as the background, in-depth analysis of the development status of today’s retail industry, discuss the technological innovation of the new retail industry and the future development path of physical retail, and put forward feasible suggestions.
Here are the articles to answer, the doubts about A brief discussion on new retail technology and the innovation path of the retail industry.
Since entering the new retail era, consumers have occupied a major part of the market. New retail is a way to break the traditional retail model, transform the production and processing of offline products into online services, and use Internet technology, big data technology, artificial intelligence, and other technologies to bring consumers the most convenient and direct experience. The popularity of the Internet will inevitably affect the physical retail industry, and the sense of experience brought by the new retail model to customers has also been tested under the increasing improvement of the Internet. Therefore, the digital transformation and format innovation of the retail industry is both inevitable and the only way to stabilize economic development.
The development status of the retail industry in the context of new retail
At present, our country’s economic development is in a critical period of transformation, transformation, and upgrading of old and new kinetic energy. The consumption-driven economic development model is becoming more and more significant. How to quickly improve our country’s consumption capacity has become the key to driving our country’s economic growth. However, in recent years, affected by the changes in economic normality and the sudden new crown pneumonia epidemic, our country’s traditional retail has faced unprecedented difficulties.
The “2020-2021 Department Store Retail Industry Development Report” released by the Department Store Business Association shows that about 150 department stores will close in 2020, and the total retail sales of consumer goods will be 39.2 trillion yuan, down 3.9% year-on-year, of which commodity retail sales will be 35.2 trillion yuan, down 2.3% year-on-year. At the same time, the retail growth of online platforms is slowing, competition from major e-commerce platforms is intensifying, and the low-cost customer acquisition advantage of e-commerce is difficult to maintain.
Relying on Internet traffic alone to obtain rapid development has become a thing of the past, so the traditional retail industry can no longer be transformed according to the pure e-commerce model, and the new retail industry can get new opportunities. The online and offline integration of the new retail industry has accelerated, and new types of marketing have emerged in an endless stream, showing the characteristics of omnichannel, digitization, and socialization as a whole.
The new retail ecosystem composed of data, supply chain, logistics, payment, and finance has been continuously improved, which has promoted the rapid development of a variety of new retail formats for population segments, categories, and markets, and a group of new retail benchmark companies with more potential for development has emerged.
(1) The development status of online shopping
The Internet era has broadened consumer purchase channels. For consumers, the convenience brought by the online shopping model is immeasurable. Both in terms of geographical scope and product experience, it has brought many choices to consumers. In addition, consumer behavior can also be digitized and visualized through the Internet and information technology to help companies better analyze and meet consumer needs. For enterprises, online shopping can better control the transaction process, collect, and analyze consumer information, and bring consumers a better sense of experience, to achieve the purpose of a comprehensive analysis of goods.
(2) The development status of the physical retail industry
In the new retail era, the development of the physical retail industry is not impressive. With the rapid development of the Internet, major e-commerce platforms have risen rapidly, gradually creating a fashionable and fast online shopping circle. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the national online retail sales in 2020 were 11,760.1 billion yuan, an increase of 10.9% over 2019. Among them, the online retail sales of physical goods were 9,759 billion yuan, an increase of 14.8%, accounting for 24.9% of the total retail sales of consumer goods, an increase of 4.2 percentage points over 2019.
Moreover, since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic in 2020, in response to the government’s call to reduce outings and gatherings, loyal consumers of many brands have also chosen online shopping, resulting in a serious impact on offline retail, passenger traffic has plummeted, and many stores have more staff than consumers. The traditional retail business concept is still stuck in the concept of increasing production, improving product quality, reducing costs, and expanding sales to make a profit.
The lack of personalized business models such as big data and artificial intelligence has caused the phenomenon of “thousands of stores on one side” and “thousands of stores with the same product”, which is less attractive to new consumer groups. In addition, offline store operations need to bear store rent, labor costs, storage costs, and sales management fees. This requires a certain proportion of costs to be added to the general pricing model to set prices, resulting in offline retail commodity prices being much higher than online retail, resulting in the loss of a group of price-sensitive consumers.
The development path of the physical retail industry in the context of new retail
(1) Strengthen physical retail management
In the new retail era, strengthening physical retail management requires the introduction of big data and cloud computing-related technologies. Although the internal structure of physical retail is single, it is very complex to calculate according to traditional methods. The use of Internet technology can form an efficient management model and build an information management system.
Understand the operation and sales status of physical retail stores through the information management system, and transition from the original electronic information to the enterprise data stream, so that the actual procurement, sales, storage, and other processes can achieve the goal of management informatization, which is conducive to improving operational efficiency, increasing store density, and achieving chain effects. During the digital transformation of physical retail, sales and sales profits will further increase, but in essence, technological innovation and technology application is the most critical.
It is the top priority to use technology to fundamentally promote the transformation of stores and thus drive the long-term development of the physical retail industry. Residents’ consumption methods have adapted to online life. The Internet era has brought convenience in terms of time, environment, logistics, etc. Physical stores are gradually replaced by online exchanges in this environment. From the consumer level, online transactions cover offline transactions. From the value point of view, online shopping and physical retail coexist. Online shopping requires a real sense of experience in physical retail.
The new retail technology has achieved the accuracy and timeliness of the transaction process in terms of price and logistics. Physical retail is committed to user experience. For example, the clothing industry tends to be networked, and supermarket stores tend to be physical. The physical retail industry needs a network to broaden customer channels and find customer consumption trends. And introduce this consumption habit into product purchase, and factory merchants then integrate it into product production. It can be seen that new retail requires innovative technologies, and physical retail requires innovative operating models and store density.
(2) Broaden physical retail channels
The development of e-commerce in our country has gradually entered a critical period. Driven by Internet technology, the competition faced by new business formats is also becoming more and more fierce, and physical retail operations have been greatly impacted. In terms of digital transformation, physical retail has gradually become an online digital channel, such as PC-side websites. Some companies have launched online and offline simultaneous sales channels for the convenience of consumers.
However, in practice, online and offline are separated from each other, and many management functions such as commodities, business, and personnel are not completely unified. The digital transformation channels of physical marketing in our country have gradually transitioned from the original PC e-commerce to mobile e-commerce and social e-commerce, and in the process of development, the combination of online and offline has been realized to create an online and offline ecosystem to achieve the effect of sharing.
In addition, a large number of physical sales companies have established cooperative relations with Internet companies and e-commerce platforms, using data collection and processing technologies to share online and offline traffic, provide consumers and customers with a better experience and effectively improve the efficiency of operations and supply chains. With the continuous integration of online and offline, the e-commerce department has assumed more and more extensive functions, from the initial e-commerce practice to digital operations and digital retail expansion.
(3) Build a new retail omnichannel industrial platform production chain
The two-line integration of online and offline combines production, sales, and transportation to form an industrial structure under the new retail model. The popularization of digital technology in the field of physical retail has enabled the realization of commonality between online and offline channels and has improved the maturity of industrial Internet conditions, which can directly face consumers and innovate operating modes.
In the context of digital transformation, physical retail has begun to become a smart application, from focusing more on channels to consumer-centered transformation, and playing a consumer demand-oriented role, so that all physical sales of products, consumer behavior, and users can meet the digital requirements, and apply digital technology to expand the coverage of the entire industrial chain.
Suggestions for format innovation in the retail industry in the context of new retail
(1) In-depth mining and analysis of customer data
In the context of the new retail, offline, online, platforms, and social media are deeply integrated. Consumer buying behavior and consumption habits have become an important pillar of enterprise development. In-depth analysis of customers is particularly critical. In-depth mining of customer data can effectively help enterprises carry out precision marketing.
The content of customer data and information, not only includes the analysis of market prospects and laws but also includes the maintenance needs of existing customers. Through in-depth analysis, enterprises need to mine and find existing and potential consumer groups and establish an all-round, multi-dimensional personalized user management model to achieve an effective expansion of the scope of precision marketing and promote the upgrading of enterprises in the context of new retail. Transformation.
(2) Develop new retail technologies
To meet the diversified needs of consumers for a sense of experience, VR technology is used to realize online virtual experience shopping, offline experience payment, and build a virtual model platform.
The construction of the virtual model platform builds a virtual image based on virtual VR technology and 3D stereo models. When selecting goods, there is an immersive experience, which transfers consumers’ offline purchases to online through the Internet, bringing convenience. In the initial stage, a shopping platform is set up and the user experience satisfaction and software downloads are observed through big data monitoring. Consumers purchase goods through the online experience. Offline stores are mainly responsible for in-store pick-up and after-sales service.
Consumers can choose the pick-up method according to their own needs. It can be delivery or self-pickup. Consumers who pick up at the store will be provided with coupons. Coupons will have QR codes. Scan the QR codes to enjoy discounts online. In the physical store section, brand advertisements and brand promotional products will be placed to attract customers to the physical store through coupons, thereby increasing the sales of brand products.
The value of the virtual model platform is the first, new fields, new models, and new thinking. The virtual new retail model uses new thinking and new models to create an unprecedented virtual model that allows customers to have an immersive experience. It solves the pain points of many people in society who are difficult to dress, choose clothes, and logistics, and initially realize the fast pace of fast life and the new experience of slow life.
Second, maximize niche brands. Consumers want to buy good-quality goods at the lowest price. Many niche brands are offline stores, live streaming, and Taobao stores, but the discovery rate of consumers is not high, the natural income is not high, and the economic benefits are declining. They have settled in the new retail platform. Quality monitoring is carried out by specialized personnel. Successfully registered brands have both credibility and the most intuitive experience in front of consumers. This has not only driven the development of small businesses but also responded to the call to help more unemployed people get employment and get rid of poverty.
The first challenge facing virtual new retail is the difficulty of model docking. No matter which industry accelerating the development of the digital economy, the digital age has brought us a lot of conveniences. Big data, mobile Internet, smart logistics, etc. are widespread in our lives. Team literacy, technological innovation, and thinking development often limit the further development of the digital economy. Traditional business models still have a mindset. Many companies cannot change their traditional business models. Adapting to modern consumers to run businesses, how to make traditional business models more fully integrated with digital business models is a challenge facing the current market.
Second, the pattern tends to be consistent. With the popularity of mobile phone payment, the application functions of many mobile phone software are much the same. What has changed is the interface design, the publicity intensity, the business model, and the payment process. Like shopping software, the core lies in many styles, equal prices, and rich promotional activities. Consumers are tightly grasped through price and convenience. Like live streaming, the core lies in spike prices. Traditional product introductions deeply touch consumers, create a buying atmosphere, ensure logistics, etc., and are rapidly hot under the development of the Internet in recent years.
The significance of new retail innovation is the first, the technological innovation model. For example, unmanned supermarkets, unmanned shelves, vending machines, etc., This unmanned model has developed by leaps and bounds since 2017. Now the popularity of the industry is declining, but the value of this industry still exists. For now, vending machines still have a large market, and with the development of technology, vending machines can now cover almost all industries.
- Second, is the integration of online and offline. For example, Box Horse, Suning, O2O, and other models are mainly promoted by giants such as Alibaba and Jingdong in this regard. The current integration and innovation will be the direction of future changes in the retail industry.
- Third, social retail is based on social platforms. The representatives of this model are Pintuan, Pinduoduo, micro-commerce, etc. In a mobile environment, the use of mobile Internet platforms to promote the development of retail will have good results, and more room for innovation can be obtained.
- Fourth, is the innovation model of the format. At present, there are representative community stores, fresh food stores, coffee shops, etc. From the perspective of the future, such stores will be more flexible and closer to consumers, so they can develop more quickly.
(3) The integration of online and offline precision logistics models
Improve the customer big data system and deeply explore customer purchasing behavior and consumption habits. In the context of new retail, with the development of science and technology, consumers have more and more needs, such as logistics, commodity value, merchant credibility, commodity cost performance, promotional activities, etc., In terms of new retail technology innovation, the management of logistics should not be underestimated.
Traditional retail can only be consumed in-store, buy as you go, and get as you go. In the new retail era, customers can buy goods around the clock, omnichannel, and full-time, and can get goods through in-store pick-up, delivery in the same city, express delivery, etc. This requires merchants to connect with third-party intelligent distribution and logistics systems to shorten the delivery cycle.
Conclusion
In summary, the new retail era puts forward new requirements for the development methods and methods of the retail industry. It is necessary to introduce big data technology, artificial intelligence, VR technology, etc., innovate new retail technologies, and innovate physical retail models. It is more about the integration of elements, diversification of models, and market personalization, to better meet consumer needs, serve consumers, increase the share of physical retail, and promote the continuous development of the retail industry in the new retail era.
The new retail model is becoming the next development trend. Companies need to be prepared in terms of ideas, understanding, technology, resources, etc. to meet the important changes that will occur in the commercial retail field. The emergence of a new retail model has combined the previously conflicting online and offline sales models, forming a new situation of mutual promotion and complementarity, and opening up a new chapter in the retail model.
Keywords: Internet; New retail; physical retail; digital transformation; virtual experience
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