Mark J. Greeven

Katherine Xin

George S. Yip

<article-ideainbrief class="article-ideainbrief">
 <h4 class="ideainbrief-title">Idea in Brief</h4>
 <div class="ideainbrief-contents">
  <h5>The Challenge</h5>
  <p>Retailers in Europe and the United States are far behind China in digital retail.</p>
  <h5>Why It Exists</h5>
  <p>China’s large and fast-growing market not only is highly digitized but also takes advantage of the massive ecosystems of Alibaba, Tencent, and others.</p>
  <h5>The Solution</h5>
  <p>To catch up, Western retailers can take five lessons from the Chinese experience: Create single entry points, embed digital evaluation in the customer journey, don’t think of sales as isolated events, rethink the logistical fundamentals, and always stay close to the customer.</p>
 </div>
</article-ideainbrief><p>China is both a large and a fast-growing retail market—worth about $5 trillion in 2020—and highly digitized. Given that the pandemic has made digital every retailer’s strategic priority, it’s not hard to see why the <span class="mediatitle"><em>Economist</em></span> opened 2021 with a cover story headlined “Why Retailers Everywhere Should Look to China.”</p>

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<p>The <em><span class="mediatitle">Economist</span></em> opened 2021 with a cover story headlined &#8220;Why Retailers Everywhere Should Look to China.&#8221; It&#8217;s not hard to see why. China is both a large and a fast-growing retail market&#8212;worth about $5 trillion in 2020&#8212;and highly digitized. And the pandemic has made digital every retailer&#8217;s strategic priority. The authors draw from their research on Chinese retailers to explain five lessons that Western companies can learn from China as they develop their own digital market offerings:</p>
<ol>
<li>Create single entry points where customers can access all their potential purchases.</li>
<li>Embed digital evaluation in the customer journey.</li>
<li>Don&#8217;t think of sales as isolated events.</li>
<li>Rethink the logistical fundamentals.</li>
<li>Always stay close to the customer.</li>
</ol>

How Chinese Retailers Are Reinventing the Customer Journey

The Economist opened 2021 with a cover story headlined “Why Retailers Everywhere Should Look to China.” It’s not hard to see why. China is both a large and a fast-growing retail market—worth about $5 trillion in 2020—and highly digitized. And the pandemic has made digital every retailer’s strategic priority. The authors draw from their research on Chinese retailers to explain five lessons that Western companies can learn from China as they develop their own digital market offerings: Create single entry points where customers can access all their potential purchases. Embed digital evaluation in the customer journey. Don’t think of sales as isolated events. Rethink the logistical fundamentals. Always stay close to the customer.

How Chinese Retailers Are Reinventing the Customer Journey

Summary.

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