| |September 20199· Mobile money payment: The use of mobile money has increased exponentially, and stores encourage and facilitate its use with several apps and e-wallets.· Stores as fulfillment centers: This model allows customers to either pick-up the products in-store or have them delivered home from the store or local warehouse. Smart Retail in ChinaAlibaba, China's largest on-line retailer controlling 80 percent of the Chinese market, has focused on eliminating the boundary between online and offline shopping with the Smart Retail model called `New Retail'. New Retail has often been referred as `the future of retail' in China, with grocery stores, supermar-kets and malls all upgrading to digi-tal for welcoming the next generation shopping experience.New Retail pertains to the inte-gration of online, offline, logistics and data across a single value chain. Retail-ers can achieve higher efficiency across their entire product development, op-erations, marketing and supply chain lifecycle by leveraging New Retail.Winning with Smart RetailSome of the Smart Retail solutions that are becoming increasingly popu-lar include smart mirrors, car vending machines, checkout-free stores, store-within-a-store, try before you buy, augmented reality and gaming, etc.To fully capitalize and make the most of Smart Retail, brands need to take up a systematic approach by in-corporating the four steps below. This will enable them to achieve a strong competitive advantage.1. Identifying new governance principles Winning brands take into ac-count the end-to-end customer ex-perience by putting customers at the center of their operations. Addition-ally, they are committed to embed-ding data and smart technology into their operations.2. Developing supply chain flexibility and efficiencyLeading brands utilize their comprehensive understanding of consumers to optimize their sup-ply chains. They also make the supply chains flexible enough to adjust to the real-time sales and es-timates enabled by AI and other emerging technologies.3. Personalized marketing and consumer managementThe digital ecosystem provides an opportunity to reach and interact with consumers whenever they are online. In addition, collecting data and gaining insights help brands to develop and deliver personalized mar-keting messages at the appropriate customer touchpoints.4. Investing in new technology developmentNew technologies provide the op-portunity for brands to boost their operational efficiency and deliver a better customer experience. Brands should assess their digitalization sta-tus, set clear digital transformation goals, and work out a clear roadmap and implementation plan.Not an Overnight Process Smart Retail is reviving the stagnating offline retail across the world. There are several players who are experimenting with retail transformation initiatives. Smart Retail requires brands to con-stantly refine and reinvent themselves for new ideas that will define retailing. It is an ongoing transformation jour-ney and does not happen overnight. Winning brands should collaborate with technology partners in creating a seamless customer engagement along with a deliver anywhere, anytime fulfillment for consumers. New Retail pertains to the integration of online, offline, logistics and data across a single value chain
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