The top retail trends in China

Reinventing bricks-and-mortar stores and engaging in enterprise-wide digital transformation are vital in 2019, a study by Fung Business Intelligence reveals.
Fung Group’s “Ten Highlights of China’s Commercial Sector 2019″, which provides overseas enterprises and investors with insights into latest commercial trends and issues in China’s fast-changing domestic economy, revealed that creative retail formats will gain more clout this year.
“Experience matters most,” the study shows.
Additional tips for foreign investors include deploying mobile-powered and social media-centric online-to-offline (O2O) strategies, building a truly digitized and responsive supply chain and keeping abreast of the regulatory changes.
“This is forecast to be a year both of intense challenges and abundant opportunities for commercial enterprises in China,” Fung Group said.
The company added that mounting global economic uncertainties driven in part by the ongoing China-US trade tension, along with downward pressure on China’s domestic economy, have made the overall business environment for 2019 hard to predict.
“The Ten Highlights series, which comprehensively tracks how China’s commercial sector is evolving year by year, provides overseas enterprises and investors with insights into latest commercial trends and issues in China’s fast-changing domestic economy.”
Fung Group’s tips to foreign investors were aligned with the evolution of China’s commercial sector which reveals that digital transformation of retail will accelerate this year and supply chain digitalisation will help drive economic growth; department stores, hypermarkets and supermarkets will continue to reinvent and innovate with capital investment in the convenience store sector going to be a double-edged sword.
Rural e-commerce will see rapid growth, playing a key role in poverty relief and rural revitalisation.
With China adopting an e-commerce law to improve market regulation, the 16th edition of the company’s Ten Highlights will point the way for key development trends in China’s commercial sector over the coming year.

This story first appeared on our sister site Inside Retail Australia.

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