Alibaba is updating its superstore banner with ‘new retail’ tech
China’s online giant Alibaba is giving its brick-and-mortar super-store banner, RT-Mart, a digital makeover.
The 400-store chain is starting to roll out a series of features aimed at improving its shopping experience, including one-hour arrival for online orders within a three-kilometer radius. The updates is part of Alibaba’s “New Retail” strategy, an initiative that uses web-based technology across its retail brands to deliver a seamless online and of-fline experience to China’s 1.3 billion consumers.
So far, the update has been rolled out to 100 RT-Mart stores. The new features allow the stores to support mobile ordering and payments and fulfill mobile orders in-store for one-hour delivery for customers living within a three-kilometer radius. They also have in-store kiosks that allow customers to browse and shop on Alibaba’s online marketplace Tmall, according to the e-retailer’s blog, Alizila.
Since making the upgrades, RT-Mart’s volume of online orders across revamped stores has increased. At one Shanghai location, online orders climbed to 5,000 a day at their peak compared to nearly zero prior to the collaboration with Alibaba, the company reported.
RT-Mart’s digital upgrade coincides with Alibaba’s $2.88 billion acquisition of a 36% stake in Sun Art Retail Group last fall. The company operates nearly 400 hypermarkets under the Auchan and RT-Mart banners.
Under the acquisition, Alibaba is applying the new technologies and web-based approach across RT Mart as a means “to expedite its digitization, sync its online and offline operations, improve its in-store layout and increase efficiencies in the grocer’s inventory management,” according to Alibaba.
The Chinese e-retailer plans to complete the digital transformation across the rest of RT-Mart’s Chinese stores by the end of this year, according to the company.
The 400-store chain is starting to roll out a series of features aimed at improving its shopping experience, including one-hour arrival for online orders within a three-kilometer radius. The updates is part of Alibaba’s “New Retail” strategy, an initiative that uses web-based technology across its retail brands to deliver a seamless online and of-fline experience to China’s 1.3 billion consumers.
So far, the update has been rolled out to 100 RT-Mart stores. The new features allow the stores to support mobile ordering and payments and fulfill mobile orders in-store for one-hour delivery for customers living within a three-kilometer radius. They also have in-store kiosks that allow customers to browse and shop on Alibaba’s online marketplace Tmall, according to the e-retailer’s blog, Alizila.
Since making the upgrades, RT-Mart’s volume of online orders across revamped stores has increased. At one Shanghai location, online orders climbed to 5,000 a day at their peak compared to nearly zero prior to the collaboration with Alibaba, the company reported.
RT-Mart’s digital upgrade coincides with Alibaba’s $2.88 billion acquisition of a 36% stake in Sun Art Retail Group last fall. The company operates nearly 400 hypermarkets under the Auchan and RT-Mart banners.
Under the acquisition, Alibaba is applying the new technologies and web-based approach across RT Mart as a means “to expedite its digitization, sync its online and offline operations, improve its in-store layout and increase efficiencies in the grocer’s inventory management,” according to Alibaba.
The Chinese e-retailer plans to complete the digital transformation across the rest of RT-Mart’s Chinese stores by the end of this year, according to the company.