Taiwan-based hypermarket chain RT-Mart has completed a digital transformation of up to 100 stores, which are now using New Retail technology developed by Alibaba Group, according to Alibaba's news hub, Alizila.
The hypermarket chain is using Alibaba’s Hema supermarket as its model, and it has rolled out a series of features aimed at improving the shopping experience for its customers.
The stores now include in-store fulfilment of online orders and interactive kiosks, as well as a selection of popular products from Tmall.
RT-Mart will also introduce a one-hour arrival for orders within a three-kilometre radius. Customers will be able to order products online or through the RT-Mart’s mobile app.
A New Way Of Thinking
RT-Mart noted that it wants to ‘deliver the best of online and offline commerce in a country where the line between the two has been increasingly blurred’.
“New Retail has introduced a new way of thinking. By digitising the store’s operation, the online and offline business merge into one. This will boost retailers' online transaction volume,” said RT-Mart CEO Peter Huang.
The upgraded hypermarket chain will also see the addition of the Smart Mommy-and-Me corner, an area stocked with domestic and imported products for infants and new mothers.
It will also mirror Hema’s focus on fresh. Customers can purchase products from Hema’s Daily Fresh programme, with meat, vegetable and dairy products restocked each day, to ensure that only the freshest items are available for sale.
Alibaba said that the revamp is part of its efforts to modernise and bring so-called 'old' retail into the twenty-first century. RT-Mart is now the first grocery partner to leverage Hema’s business model innovations for its own New Retail transformation.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Aidan O'Sullivan. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
