L3. Hema in China Is Alibaba Ahead of Amazon in Retailing
L3. Hema in China Is Alibaba Ahead of Amazon in Retailing
L3. Hema in China Is Alibaba Ahead of Amazon in Retailing
20.01.2020
HEMA IN CHINA:
IS ALIBABA AHEAD OF AMAZON IN RETAILING?
The era of pure e-commerce will soon come to an end. In the next ten
or twenty years, there will be no e-commerce, only the New Retail,
which means that online, offline and logistics must be combined to
create a real New Retail – offline companies must go online, online
companies must go offline, and when combined with modern logistics,
this can really create a New Retail.2
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New Retail
Alibaba, the Chinese digital giant sometimes called the “Amazon of China” (refer to
Exhibit 1 for a comparison), develops algorithms to analyze customer data and behaviors,
such as brand membership information, purchasing history and store visit times, to better
understand shopper preferences and predict changes in consumption habits. The New Retail
– a consumer-centric, data-driven retail approach – combines offline and online best
practices to enhance client experiences and optimize profits. Different from any previous
retail revolution, the New Retail combines the deep integration of data and business logic to
truly realize the transformation of consumption; it is data analytics to transform today’s
shopping experience (refer to Exhibit 2 for the development of data analytics).
In 2015, Alibaba co-founded its first New Retail initiative – Hema Xiansheng (Hema), an
internet and technology-powered cashless supermarket aimed at providing a blended online
and offline consumer experience to make grocery shopping much more entertaining.
Considering the stagnation of the online grocery market 3 (expected to be only 7% of overall
grocery sales in China by 2020), the Hema initiative was the ultimate weapon to convert
traditional offline shoppers into online shoppers.
As of November 2018, Hema had 77 stores 4 serving more than 10 million consumers
throughout 14 mainland China’s Tier 1 and 2 cities (e.g. Shanghai, Beijing, Xian, Ningbo,
etc.). An important KPI (key performance indicator) is “conversion rate,” which stands for
the percentage of former offline shoppers who move to the online channel. Hema reached
an online conversion rate of more than 60% (vs. 5% in traditional grocery stores). An
established Hema store managed to drive five times more sales per square meter than
traditional brick-and-mortar stores, with average daily sales of more than CNY 800,000
(US$115,000),5 driven by the fact that Hema shoppers spent more than traditional
shoppers.6
Hema was not just about opening online stores; instead, it hoped to use the Hema platform
to tap consumption data in order to develop innovative forms of cooperation with offline
businesses in the retail industry, e.g. Yintai, Bailian and Sanjiang. Hema was initially tested
with eight stores in Shanghai, with subsequent plans to open an additional 2,000 stores
within a few years. One shop was expected to cover no more than a three-kilometer radius
to allow for timely delivery by an army of scooter drivers. The test run was carried out in
the most densely populated areas of Shanghai. Subsequent rollouts in Tier 3 and 4 cities,
with their high internet penetration and lower store-rental costs, were planned for later. The
target market – technologically savvy Chinese consumers – provided ample opportunity to
develop a sizeable business for Alibaba. Chinese consumers would arguably represent the
biggest market share regardless of where Hema’s future lay. However, international
expansion would uncover different obstacles and consumer preferences for the up-and-
coming grocery giant. In contrast to the approach of its Chinese competitors (Tencent and
JD.com), which were involved in partnering and mergers and acquisitions (M&As) with
traditional retailers such as Carrefour and Walmart, Hema’s growth model was organic.
Like Amazon in the US, Alibaba was exposed to potential retaliation measures from
traditional industry players that were not ready to lower their margins even further.
Meaning “packaged freshness and liveliness” and is also a pun in Chinese for Mr. Hippo, which
explains the mascot.
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Once the Hema model was running, the data and technical capabilities would be extended
into other segments of the retail industry. It would help companies optimize asset
allocation, incubate New Retail species, reshape the value chain, create efficient enterprises,
lead consumption upgrades, foster new service providers and form a New Retail ecosystem.
Accordingly, after the successful development of Alibaba’s New Retail concept for grocery,
it went on to enter new businesses with strategic investments in department stores (Intime)
and electronics (Suning) in 2016, and alliances in 2018 with a variety of leading industry
retailers such as Starbucks, Zara, Marriott 7 and the Alibaba car vending machine (Tmall) in
association with Ford.8
However, in the last 18 months, the Alibaba and Amazon battle had entered a new field
with strategic partnerships and acquisitions made by both giants in traditional retail
businesses. In his last letter to shareholders, in October 2018, Alibaba CEO, Daniel Zhang,
confirmed that the New Retail strategy objective was to lead the integration of online and
offline retail through digitizing store-based operations. This strategy supported Alibaba’s
ecosystem expansion through investments in 2018 in Sun Art Retail (a Chinese
hypermarket leader with 445 stores) for US$2.87 billion,13 EasyHome (furniture malls) for
US$865 million 14 and in the acquisition of the 57% outstanding shares in Ele.me, which
valued the Chinese food delivery company at US$9.5 billion. 15 In 2017, Alibaba had
increased its stakes in Suning – a leading Chinese electronics retailer – (to 20%) and
acquired 35% of the Intime department stores.16 Given what Hema had managed to do in
China, Amazon’s US$13.7 billion acquisition of the organic supermarket Whole Foods 17
and heavy investments in offline grocery retail suggested that the competition entered a
new phase.
While grocery remains an important entry point, Alibaba’s strategic partnerships with
Starbucks and Zara are clear examples of the New Retail’s strategy to bring technology to
traditional retail stores to enhance both the customer experience and revenues.
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Despite the e-commerce and online offerings developed by traditional grocery players (such
as Walmart, Costco and Tesco), the online grocery market share was expected to reach only
10% in the US18 and 7% in China19 by 2020, leaving the majority of forecasted sales to the
offline channel. This pushed the digital giants to enter this traditionally low-margin retail
business. The average net profit for brick-and-mortar supermarkets ranged from 2% to 9%
depending on offerings, location, rent, commodity price fluctuations and competition.
The main contributor to Alibaba’s growth was Taobao.com, an online retail platform that
connected sellers directly to consumers. However, due to customer concerns about food
quality and safety, Alibaba had difficulty selling perishable food on Taobao.com.
Decentralized quality control and logistics were just impossible between thousands of food
suppliers and millions of customers.20 In 2015, to address these concerns, Alibaba
established Hema Supermarket, an innovative retail grocery store concept that relied mainly
on consumer data to improve both offline sales and online consumer conversions. Hema’s
objective was to reinvent the overall food shopping experience by improving every single
point of customer contact, hence the term New Retail
Hema gained popularity in China for its mobile-first approach to shopping. Hema shoppers
use their mobile apps to scan items while shopping. One of the anchors, and a strong
attraction for customers, is Hema’s fresh seafood aquariums where customers can handpick
their seafood. They can choose to have their selections prepared in-store at food-court-like
stations where they can also eat. Consumers can also choose to leave with their groceries or
ask for home delivery. Each store also serves as a warehouse and fulfilment center, which
allows Hema to deliver groceries on demand 24 hours a day within a three-kilometer radius
in under 30 minutes.21 22 This avoids the necessity of investing in cold chain delivery.
Source: Najberg, Adam. “Freshippo Supermarket Offers Shoppers a ‘New Retail’ Experience.”
Alizila: News from Alibaba Group, July 17, 2017. <https://www.alizila.com/hema-supermarket-
offers- shoppers-new-retail-experience/> (accessed August 26, 2019).
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The stores are set up as showrooms with a limited number of products (500), but clients can
order up to 3,000 additional items through the app. Alibaba is seeking to convert recurring
offline shoppers into regular online consumers.
Alibaba’s mobile payment system – Alipay – provides additional market growth because
consumers at Hema have to use it to check out; there is no cash or card payment option.
Information about previous purchases helps generate highly personalized recommendations
that enhance the shopping experience for the next visit or use of the app. The customer
conversion rate is higher with up to 70% of consumers in mature supermarkets ordering
online and asking for home delivery. Hema’s objective is to reach 90%, while regular
grocery stores like Walmart have an online rate of less than 5% on average.
Customer database insights enable Hema to market its products better. While Tencent
(WeChat’s owner) made the choice to collaborate with existing players such as Carrefour,
Walmart and JD.com’s offline supermarket – 7Fresh – to develop its New Retail initiatives,
Alibaba is taking more capital risk with Hema.
Source: Tibken, Shara. “Busy Lunchtime.” CNET, January 21, 2018. <https://www.cnet.com/pictures/
photos-inside-amazon-go-store-no-cashiers-seattle/7/> (accessed August 26, 2019).
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Amazon had also developed other food retail initiatives such as Amazon Fresh – a same-
day fresh grocery home delivery system – and invested directly in the market through
acquisitions in the US (Whole Foods) and India (MORE supermarkets). In addition,
Amazon entered into major strategic partnerships to improve its online business sales.
Leclerc, Casino Groupe in France24 and Morrisons in the UK25 were additional examples of
fostering Amazon’s learning curve in combining its offline and online sales channels.
Both concepts – Hema and Amazon Go – are generally welcomed by consumers. The
following joke went viral on WeChat (the biggest social media platform in China):
People used to say that they like to choose their apartments close to good public schools but
now they prefer to live where the Hemas are because then they can have everything delivered
to their doorstep really easily.
On a weekend visit to one Hema store in Shanghai, a loyal Hema customer said:
I come here to shop every week, and I sometimes also shop online two to three times a week.
The quality is very good. Food quality is an issue in China currently, but you can see all the
tracking codes of every fresh food at Hema; it makes me feel safe, even though I never really
check where the food comes from. But I am sure with their strict control and Alibaba’s
branding, the quality is guaranteed.
I can buy live seafood and just let them cook it here. Then I don’t need to cook at home. It’s
very convenient and delicious. I also feel Hema’s home delivery service is better; they are very
kind, and most important, it is fast and free of charge.
Another client explained how Hema dealt with his complaint about an online order:
I had a bad experience with online shopping from Hema. I ordered fresh fruit two weeks ago,
but the food that was delivered was not good. I called Hema. They recorded my complaint and
returned my money to my account within 24 hours without asking for too many details. They
also didn’t ask me to return the food. It was like my shopping experience in the US, my
complaints can be trusted; I don’t need to provide more evidence. It’s not like other online
shops, where I am asked a lot of questions to verify the truth of my complaint, or they ask me
to return the bad food. So, although it was a bad delivery experience, I still trust Hema and will
continue to shop online.
At Amazon Go, the walk-out experience is core. Tim Zuckert, vice president of enterprise
sales at Yext (a New-York-based technology company operating in the area of online brand
management) explored Amazon Go for the first time during a trip to Seattle in April 2018
and reported the following:
From a shopping standpoint, it almost reminded me of a modern-day Automat [...], they have a
very limited selection of a lot of different things. It seemed to me that there was a mix of
people in there shopping for their lunch, as well as tourists or people who were curious – or
people like me who wanted to go in and see what it was like. [...] Everything that I saw had a
specific SKU and price associated with it. So, you’re taking an item down and putting it in
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your bag. The square panels in the ceiling are monitoring or scanning products as they’re
coming off of the shelves. It was pretty quick, because I had a meeting that I was going to, so I
picked up some items, I put them in the bag and then I just walked back up to the same spot
where I had entered, and just walked out. […] Then, several minutes later, I got a notification
that I had been charged. I got an email with the items. It gave me an opportunity to ask for a
refund on any item. I guess, just in case you were overcharged for something, you would have
the opportunity to ask them for a refund. I’m not sure how they would validate how you had
actually left with the item or not.26
Based on the initial feedback, Americans are responding well to Amazon GO. Most
customers know what it is like to shop on a busy Saturday, queuing on a sunny weekend.
While US shoppers indicate that they would at least try Amazon Go, a study showed that
they are not willing to pay a price premium (refer to Exhibit 3). Hema is not much
interested in charging a price premium; what really matters in China’s grocery markets is
consumer data!
As shown by Alibaba and Amazon, brick-and-mortar retailers are advancing their ability to
respond to customer needs through prescriptive analytics. Traditional offline retail makes
decisions based on descriptive analytics and aggregated predictive analytics (refer to
Exhibit 2). Predictive and prescriptive analysis means that New Retailers track everything
their customers do and combine it with their online data repositories to create personalized
shopping experiences. New Retail data gathering is indifferent to which method consumers
chose to shop or make returns – offline or online – from the moment they enter their
ecosystems.
In real time, Hema’s internal management system, for example, is able to identify and
resolve in-store issues that might prevent a sale or reduce productivity, such as the need for
SKU replenishments or changes based on things like external weather or consumer
preferences. These automated machine-learning algorithms were first developed and tested
in e-commerce where consumers are tracked on internet web pages and cell phones (Alipay
account) to identify consistent online and offline shopping preferences and habits.
Hema is also at the forefront of applying face recognition for the check-out process, which
takes less than 10 seconds.27 The potential of using face and body movement recognition to
gather shopping behavior data is enormous.
Hema always focuses on the needs of its consumers more than the price of its products. It
tries to provide an individualized experience that combines customer relationship
techniques and mass personalization mainly thanks to consumer data obtained from the
Hema app. When clients open the Hema app, they receive personalized offers on the goods
that they buy regularly or that are complementary. The algorithm allows discount
promotions to be adapted to client preferences and stock on hand.
Hema and Amazon Go might look different than Alibaba’s and Amazon’s core businesses,
but they are built on many of the core strengths of their parent companies. Being
established in more than 10 countries, including such tech hubs as Shenzhen and Silicon
Valley, provides ample talent and technological know-how. Neither company is new to the
lightning-fast deliveries, as they own hundreds of distribution centers around the world.
However, what really matters is the ability to collect, store, make sense of and act upon the
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terabytes of information they gather every day. Facial recognition technologies and
consumer behaviors, including those that are used extensively in Amazon Go stores, are
considered breakthrough innovations. Hema, however, is already offering facial recognition
payments and utilizing its app to track consumer preferences, delivery addresses and other
information. Whoever is first to integrate this data profitably into its ecosystem will have a
clear competitive advantage.
Amazon and Alibaba are arguably “ecosystems” that empower different stakeholders to
participate in and use their infrastructures; the valuations and margins of their core
businesses seem to be out of the reach of traditional business models.
It is apparent that Hema and Amazon Go are looking to reshape retail in a big way, even
though their value propositions and road-to-market strategies are very different. Amazon
Go is offering a different shopping experience in terms of cashierless stores and
maximizing the effectiveness of its merchandising through thorough consumer behavior
analytics, while Hema is converting traditional buyers into online shoppers, while
commanding the biggest e- commerce market share. Both are using sophisticated tools for
tracking and analyzing the customer experience in the store or removing the cashiers’
desks. Though traditional players have cashierless stores, self-service check-out desks,
customer flow and merchandising analytics, the sheer scale and technological advancement
of Amazon seems to give this a completely different outlook. Mastering existing retail
trends and offering a discount for Amazon Prime members could unlock tremendous value.
Jay Lee, the global sourcing manager of Hema stresses the importance of “conversion rate”
as a KPI:
Our objective is to have 90% of our sales come from online shoppers within two years after
opening our new shop and our physical space is likely to provide five times the turnover from
the same commercial venue compared with the other traditional grocers.
With data security and privacy being less of an issue for Chinese shoppers in mainland
China, Hema is able to collect exhaustive information through its payment system – Alipay
– which provides endless ways for personalizing offers and foreseeing demand.
Personalization aside, shopping through the application, which promises 30-minute delivery
times and guaranteed freshness, makes physical grocery shopping look like too much of a
hassle.
The consumer experience is not the only aspect; the New Retail initiative will likely
reshape the traditional retail grocery value chain. All the data available has empowered
producers to plan production and, compared to the producer–wholesaler–distributor model
in retail, just- in-time deliveries are becoming the new industry norm. This has the potential
to provide end-to-end integration of the whole value chain, increase margins for both sides
and eliminate intermediaries. It could also allow for a more diversified product offering
(thus extended choice for the consumer) as access to shelves would be eased, even for
smaller producers and, therefore, generate a tremendous networking effect without
compromising the operational efficiency.
With the scale of information coming from the two giants and their competitors in grocery
retail, it is hard to tell where the New Retail game is headed. Some argue that the heavy
investments in delivery services and infrastructure implies there might be a different twist
to the competitiveness of “ecosystems” and general competition in the years to come.
Creating
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and controlling the last mile with thousands of scooter drivers (drones and pilotless vehicles
in the future) could be the key differentiator for companies trying to bring e-commerce and
traditional retail together. This last mile, generally being a loss-making venture, could
provide a great networking effect for the companies interested in marketing and delivering
their products to the doors of their customers. If this is the case, the way we look at the
market and the underlying forces will be completely different.
The arrival of the Hema and Amazon Go concepts is changing the way grocery shoppers
behave; the cashless experience, fast replenishment and delivery and tracking information is
becoming the new norm. Indeed, these concepts will certainly push all the competitors to
invest significantly in technology best practices in the offline world, usually by partnering
with existing digital/tech players, such as Alibaba competitors Google, JD.com and
Tencent. As for platform developments, Hema is generating new ideas to drive sales and
profitability from consumer experiences and feedback.
At Hema, prescriptive analytics are used to plan the future and to act quickly and
appropriately in the most automated way. Similar to what Netflix does for movies and
Spotify for music, the objective is to “infer” consumers to buy groceries they do not even
know they want.
Amazon Go will also leverage the proposed prescriptive actions within its shops taking into
consideration the big data protection law enforcement issues that are stricter in the US than
China. These are the key challenges that both giants (and probably all traditional players)
are facing.
Most of the major high-caliber international retailers are not willing to be left behind. Zara,
Starbucks, Marriott, Ford, luxury brands and shopping malls, among others are all adopting
the New Retail in an effort to stay relevant. The multibillion-dollar investments in
infrastructure, and, even the deviation from the core competencies, all signal that the New
Retail is a high priority for the world’s business powerhouses. It even seems like the
statements by Ma at the 2017 Davos economic forum will not stand the test of time when it
comes to the lucrative opportunity:
The difference between Amazon and us, is Amazon is more like an empire – everything they
control themselves, buy and sell […].28 Our philosophy is that we want to be an ecosystem.
Our philosophy is to empower others to sell, empower others to service, making sure the other
people are more powerful than us. With our technology, our innovation, our partners – 10
million small business sellers – they can compete with Microsoft and IBM. Our philosophy is,
using internet technology we can make every company become Amazon. To hire people to
deliver for us, we need 5 million people, to deliver the things we sold. How can we hire 5
million people? The only way we can do it is to empower the service companies, the logistics
companies. Make sure they are efficient. Making sure that they make the money. Making sure
they can hire more people.
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They’re getting into a territory that’s not their core strength ... for example securing a property,
the license to sell certain products, paying tax, more labor and so on …. On one hand they
really need to do it, but on the other hand they are facing a lot of challenges that they have
never experienced before.29
While both Alibaba and Amazon are still considered to be more e-commerce and tech
companies, they are claiming New Retail is the future of shopping. It could be argued that
these two giants are still lacking the experience and knowledge of traditional players like
Walmart, Auchan or Carrefour. However, tech giants are not trying to manage the property
in traditional ways; rather, they are re-engineering the whole customer experience and
increasing efficiency by increasing sales and reducing or sharing the costs of the store and
warehousing facilities. The same story goes for holding and managing their inventory. The
learning curve looks steep for the potential industry disruptors, but the New Retail’s
different concepts for providing customer experiences are likely here to stay.
Some concerns about the feasibility of developing the Hema or Amazon Go businesses
further have been raised due to the difficulty of finding affordable prime locations in urban
centers or spreading the logistic costs on a large scale (e.g. Hema stores, which are also
warehouses and delivery centers for clients within a three-kilometer radius of the stores).
The rapid expansion also creates tensions in staffing, as the closing of one store due to staff
shortage indicates.30
With its growing investments in new businesses, Alibaba reported a margin decline for the
first half of 2019. It also trailed the S&P index by 13% over the previous 12 months. Yet,
most experts are not worried and stress the profit potential of Hema and other initiatives 31
and highlight revenue growth of 134% to 16.7 billion RMB for Alibaba’s direct sales
business (including Tmall Supermarket and Hema) thanks to both opening new stores and
increased same-store sales growth.
Nevertheless, retail is a low margin business where even giants like Walmart generate less
than a 2% profit margin.32 Is New Retail able to multiply those margins to justify the
required investments?
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Exhibit 1
Amazon vs. Alibaba E-commerce Shares
Source: “Amazon vs. Alibaba Here’s What You Should Know (Infographic).” Fanatics Media.
<http://fanaticsmedia.com/amazon-vs-alibaba-heres-know-infographic/> (accessed August 26, 2019).
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Exhibit 2:
Evolution of Data
Analytics
Source: Gartner Data & Analytics Summit Presentation, The Foundation of Data Science and Machine
Learning: Achieving Advanced Insights and AI for Analytics, Peter Krensky, 29-30 May 2019
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Exhibit 3
Customer Research on Amazon Go
Source: Statista
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21
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This document is authorized for use only in OTOYA RUIZ, DANITZA's Retail and Category Management 2022 at Universidad de Lima from Jul 2022 to Jan 2023.