Innovative growth engine

As part of its quest to set itself apart, Jiangsu has also sought to improve China’s booming e-commerce sector, driven by rapid logistics development and online shopping frenzy underpinned by mobile Internet technologies.

Launched in 1990, Suning is one of the largest home appliances and consumer-electronics retailers in China, with more than 1,700 chain stores across the country. But with the constant rise of online shopping, traditional retailing is facing a crisis. Suning was one of the first traditional retailers in China to embrace change.

In 2009, the company established a storage, transport and distribution network across China, so that when an order is processed, the product can be automatically collected by a robot from the storage shelf, put onto a conveyor belt and readied for shipping to customers.

As Charles and his fellow MBA students saw in the Suning headquarters, a large screen on the wall shows the company’s real-time online sales and consumer data.

“It is an innovation for retail industry to combine offline with online platform, which could better satisfy consumers’ shopping demands,” said Jin Ming, President of Suning.

The use of big data to integrate offline stores, merchandizing, logistics and payment tools is a breakthrough that African and other developing countries can replicate, according to Charles. “E-commerce makes people’s lives so much more convenient. This is a golden time to develop online businesses for global emerging markets,” he said.

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