The Spring Festival is always the festival for family reunion in China. The family gathering means parties, happiness, talks, foods, wines and last but not the least, gifts.
According to Alibaba’s statistics, Guangdong outdid other provinces again with the largest order quantities in Taobao’s “New Year's shopping festival” after the “11.11 shopping festival” in 2016.
A screenshot of the Alibaba’s “New Year’s shopping festival”[Photo/Taobao]
The strong purchasing power in Guangdong was shown on various platforms, both online and offline. Business enterprises’ total sales revenue in Guangzhou alone reached 2.7 billion yuan during Spring Festival, according to the Guangzhou Municipal Commission of Commerce.
The total sales income of seven traditional shopping malls in Guangzhou, including Grandbuy and Teemall, reached 440 million yuan and increased 8% year on year while sales income of online retailers as Moonbasa jumped about 20% year on year.
“New retail model” ties traditional enterprises with online retailers
Tables are always fully booked several weeks before Spring Festival. To attract more consumers, restaurants in Guangdong recently adopted a new business model:
Guangzhou Restaurant selling frozen festival dishes on Taobao[Photo/Taobao]
Consumers now can order these professional festival cuisines online if failing to book a table in local restaurants.
In turn, this new business model brings new economic growth to the local restaurants. Statistics from Guangzhou Municipal Commission of Commerce shows the turnover of 10 key restaurants in Guangzhou, including Guangzhou Restaurant, Panxi Restaurant and Lin Heung Tea House, was about 73 million yuan during the Spring Festival and increased 8% year on year.
A screenshot of Guangdong Avon on JD’s mobile app to sell festival gifts online during Spring Festival. [Photo/JD]
Apart from restaurants, supermarkets such as Avon, Walmart and Sam’s Club also teamed up with online retailers to sell festival goods and offer 24h delivery during the Spring Festival.
This new business model is called the “new retail model”. Originally termed by Jack Ma, CEO of Alibaba, it unites logistics, traditional enterprises and online retailers to upgrade the O2O cooperation. “The era of pure e-commerce will end soon and the ‘new retail model’ will dominate in the coming ten to twenty years,” said Ma.
“Traditional enterprises are struggled when considering to put their business online” said Guo Fanli, researcher of the National Development and Reform Commission, “most of them only use the platforms for advertisement. They lack the technology and management skills to attract and maintain online consumers.”
“It a smart move for traditional enterprises to team up with online retailers,” said Hu Chuncai, general manager of UI sharing consulting firm, “the model helps expend their business through making use of the strength of the online retailors, and might eventually cover their weakness.”
(by Jasmine)
