As “new retail” changes from jargon to oft-used phrase, Tencent has thrown their hat into the ring. However, they don’t plan on opening their own stores (the WeChat pop-up seems to have been exactly that). Rather they want to be the foundation to help the retail industry achieve two goals: the digital upgrade of stores and […]
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Why JD is tripping up in new retail race
Distractions and a bad bet against omnichannel supermarkets hamstrung the retail giant as Ali wins with Hema.
China’s answer to Amazon Go aims to conquer the unmanned frontier with facial recognition
Long-waited Amazon Go opened its door to the public in Seattle last week and there has been overall positive feedback. However, unmanned stores are definitely not a new concept for China’s tech-savvy consumers. Since May 2017, when Alibaba launched its first unmanned store with the focus word “new retail”, a flurry of Chinese tech companies has […]
Alibaba experiments with behavior modification
Alibaba is gamifying social values with virtual pets and charity donations.
INSIGHTS | Luckin—out of luck
The Olympics may have been delayed, but we saw a gold medal dive from Luckin Coffee’s shares. Its fraud is a cautionary tale—but about what?
Video: We tested one of China’s unmanned stores and this is what we found
BingoBox is becoming one of the more vivid examples of how fast innovation is moving in China’s retail industry along with Alibaba’s initiative in unmanned stores powered by their face recognition technology. However, the concept isn’t without its own teething problems. A BingoBox in Shanghai was closed for being too hot and when we tried one ourselves, we […]
This Is What China’s First Operational Drone Deliveries Look Like
Chinese e-commerce company JD.com has revealed the country’s first operational pilot program for drone deliveries, as tech firms compete to reach the country’s untapped rural consumers. A JD spokesperson confirmed with Technode that the company is using at least two types of UAVs to deliver packages between designated distribution centers in rural areas outside of Suqian in northeast China. The […]