Can offline consumers also enjoy the Double 11 shopping frenzy? Yes! Starting from November 1, you may feel the charm of Tmall Double 11 Global Carnival at the retail store downstairs, with internet-famous products and 250 million red packets, making the joy brought by new retail easily accessible. Alibaba's Retail Link business unit, participating in Tmall Double 11 for the first time, has launched the "Tmall Double 11 Store Carnival" plan, which will join hands with 600,000 retail stores, 50,000 gold stores, and 4,000 Tmall stores to reach 100 million consumers, providing them with the best shopping experience and jointly embracing new retail. On the first anniversary of Alibaba's practice of "new retail," Tmall Double 11 has become a "new retail grand parade," with the reviewers being hundreds of millions of online and offline consumers worldwide. Lin Xiaohai, Vice President of Alibaba Group and General Manager of the Retail Link Business Unit, said in an interview that allowing consumers to feel the joy of Tmall Double 11 at their doorstep means that Alibaba's new retail strategy is being fully implemented. "Online Taobao app, offline stores, this is the typical scenario of new retail. Retail Link, participating in Tmall Double 11 for the first time, will organically integrate online and offline traffic, break down the communication barriers between the two, and achieve the upgrade of consumer consumption by changing the traditional supply form, truly realizing the unity of online and offline." Through Tmall Double 11, let more stores embrace the DT era In the past two years, the retail industry has entered the second half, with online and offline entering a stage of deep integration. Online commercial giants represented by Alibaba have begun to lay out offline, and Retail Link has shown strong business reconstruction capabilities in this process. Retail Link is an internet service platform that provides ordering, logistics, marketing, and value-added services for urban community retail stores. Tmall stores define themselves as "smart community centers." This is also another new retail business species under Alibaba, following Hema Fresh. "Retail Link will build a smart channel through digital technology and internet platforms, allowing goods from brand owners and distributors to circulate more efficiently, and giving millions of retail store owners in China a transparent channel to obtain the same rights and opportunities as large merchants and large retailers," Lin Xiaohai said. "If there is any business that is hardest to do, it is the small store. Retail Link can make them richer, smarter, more professional, and warmer," Lin Xiaohai admitted that he particularly hopes that through this Tmall Double 11, more consumers and stores will understand Retail Link and Tmall stores. Let many stores that were impacted by the internet and did not board the internet train see the opportunity to re-board the high-speed commercial train. Lin Xiaohai introduced that the mission of Retail Link is to let millions of stores embrace the DT era. Under the new retail trend, retail stores will be the new super traffic entrance in the future. "If a small store has 1,000 customers a month, the monthly customers of 6 million stores are equivalent to 6 billion people. And this 6 billion traffic is mainly the elderly and children, those who have not been fully reached by the internet and e-commerce." At present, Alibaba has many layouts in new retail, such as Hema Fresh, but these layouts are mainly point-based, while Retail Link plays a "surface" role. That is to say, Retail Link is creating another super traffic entrance by empowering community stores. And this entrance is directly moved to the consumer's doorstep. This allows Alibaba's ecosystem and business to reach consumers more and faster, allowing more people to enjoy the internet dividend. The influx of these incremental internet users will greatly promote the development of Alibaba's existing business. The future consumption scenario is likely to be like this: when you enter a Tmall store at your doorstep, the boss has already prepared the cigarette you want to buy. Because the backend data of Retail Link tells the boss that when you enter the store at this time, you must be coming to buy cigarettes. The boss may also suggest you buy a bottle of soy sauce, because based on your consumption data, the boss can know that your soy sauce at home is almost used up. Zeng Ming, Dean of Alibaba Business School, said at the Yunqi Conference that smart business will be a brand new way of survival for enterprises in the future. Network collaboration and data intelligence are the double helix of the DNA of the new business civilization and the core of new retail. From this point of view, Retail Link and Tmall stores not only promote the revolution of consumption scenarios but also hit the bull's eye of new retail. Big data drives retail channels to be more efficient and smoother For Alibaba, the core of new retail is undoubtedly Tmall. In practicing new retail, Tmall's main approach is offline layout, also called "Tmall descending to the mortal world" by the media, and Retail Link can just help Tmall better "descend." Take the Taobao brands on Tmall as an example. They want to go from online to offline. Solving the offline supply chain system by themselves is too costly and the cycle is too slow. Retail Link provides a package of supply chain solutions that can help these brands sink to hundreds of thousands of stores within a week. "The tree-like channels established in the industrial economy era have brought new possibilities for change due to the arrival of the internet and the widespread application of digital technology," Lin Xiaohai admitted. In his view, the most important point of new retail is to use big data to help retail channels become better, more efficient, or smoother. For brand owners, with the help of Retail Link, the entire business chain can be digitized, changing the past state of "blind selling." On the one hand, the channel is sunk to the 3-6 tier markets that were previously difficult to cover; on the other hand, through the Retail Link system, they can see their product sell-through data, knowing exactly how much goods each store in each region has stocked, and which products sell well and which do not. Therefore, during "Tmall Double 11," many brands such as Mondelez, Lay's, Ferrero, P&G, Hengan, Unicharm, Mengniu, Master Kong, Arawana, Unilever, SC Johnson, Blue Moon, Be & Cheery, and Oishi will participate in the "Store Carnival" activity, with products covering 90% of the hard goods that stores will stock. At the same time, these big brands will also reach terminal stores directly through brand station self-marketing positions, providing store owners with various super-value coupons. Lin Xiaohai introduced that the active participation of brands is because when reconstructing people, goods, and scenes, Retail Link does not replace or impact any role in the industrial chain, but respects the existing industrial chain, helps each role in the industrial chain complete self-reconstruction to adapt to changes in the business environment, and leads everyone to embrace the internet and new retail. "Compared with the self-operated model, the platform model of Retail Link has the characteristics of compatibility, openness, co-construction, and sharing, allowing all parties in the industrial chain to be empowered and benefit. Therefore, the resistance to industrial reconstruction is smaller and the sustainability is stronger." From this point of view, the future imagination space of Retail Link is not only the largest FMCG B2B platform in China, nor just an important starting point for Alibaba's new retail and a new super traffic entrance, but also an incubator for the new retail format. Lin Xiaohai said that the millions of stores empowered by Retail Link will become the ant soldiers and sparks of new retail, allowing the entire Chinese business and economy to fully embrace and integrate into the internet, becoming digital and intelligent. "Don't underestimate these small stores; they are the real mainstream of Chinese business. You know, to this day, half of the sales in the offline retail industry come from these millions of small stores. If Retail Link can revitalize the entire offline retail industry through millions of small stores, it is equivalent to activating China's domestic demand market and revitalizing the offline real economy." -END-