With the gradual recovery of the domestic economic situation, Alibaba's new retail brand: Hema is also making frequent moves. On June 30, Hema opened 12 stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Xi'an, Hefei, and Zhengzhou at the same time. This vigorous expansion plan once again demonstrates Hema’s confidence in the Chinese market. After this store expansion, consumers will also have the opportunity to experience the brand new and upgraded Hema Xiansheng stores and the best digital store shopping experience. .
In fact, since the concept of "new retail" was born in 2016, Hema has been the "first sample" of Ali's development of "new retail", galloping at the forefront of the retail industry. After 8 years, today's Hema has already surpassed The category of retail enterprises gradually shows the temperament of technology enterprises. According to public data, Hema currently has 150 patents under review, including the "Vegetable Face Recognition" technology that can accurately identify 1,000 kinds of fruits and vegetables, and the suspension chain system that can increase the work efficiency of store waiters by three times. Technology patents in many aspects such as logistics and transportation, cashier payment, etc. are too numerous to mention. It can be said that Hema's new retail transformation cannot be separated from its "hard core" technological strength.
do the hard but right thing
Looking back at the past of Hema, it is not difficult to find that the process of Hema's exploration of "new retail" is not easy, but it has never wavered in its adherence to the direction of "new retail". On the "road", it has left its own footprints and has become a benchmark representative of China's retail technology companies. So, why is Hema able to navigate the thorny road of new retail?
On the one hand, Hema was born out of Alibaba. Backed by Ali Hema, it has accumulated many other retail companies, with unrivaled online and offline resources and technical resources, which makes it capable of doing things that break the traditional retail rules.
As a new retailer born out of Ali, Hema’s first-mover advantage lies in the soft and hard power that Ali has accumulated in the e-commerce field. The ability to operate a large number of users and mature online marketing methods allow Hema to own other traditional retail companies and win at the starting line. After the "desperate run" from 2016 to 2018, Hema completed the unified digital transformation of new retail online and offline in three years, built a self-operated distribution service system and a national supply chain and logistics layout, and it took three years Time has gone by and the "digitalization" construction that traditional retail needs to work on for 20 years has established the basic framework for the development of new retail.
On the other hand, Hema has always adhered to innovation-driven, guided by the latest technology and retail experience, and constantly explored the connotation and extension of retail, enriching its retail forms, constantly breaking traditional boundaries, and opening up a new retail paradigm.
While building a new retail framework, Hema has always focused on the latest technology and retail direction, and constantly tried various possibilities and boundaries of the retail industry. From Hema's intelligent integrated meal delivery mode of "online ordering from cabinets", to Hema Xiansheng, which integrates fresh food and catering, to the Hema Neighborhood, which advocates sinking... Although Hema's retail formats emerge in endlessly, they run through The constant innovation support is: the distributed architecture of the Internet, cloud technology, IOT, big data and algorithms and other core technologies.
It is not difficult to find that the choices Hema has made along the way are not simple. Perhaps it is precisely because it has been doing "difficult and correct things" that it has been able to get to where it is today.
Technology is the wings, retail is the soul
As an enterprise with its own Internet genes and a deep understanding of cutting-edge science and technology such as big data and blockchain, Hema has always been committed to promoting the integration of technology and the physical retail industry, thereby forming a technology-driven new retail format.
First, Hema has formed its own user operation system based on its mature online and offline digital operation experience, enabling it to be one step faster in understanding user needs. Relying on digital operation capabilities, Hema will connect online and offline, so that no matter whether users consume offline or online, they can quickly leave valuable data feedback within the Hema operation system, which enables Hema to change rapidly. In the retail market, it always maintains the ability to quickly respond to user needs, which is why the Hema platform can continue to emerge online celebrity stores and online celebrity brands.
Secondly, relying on the platform's big data feedback, Hema reverse-customizes products based on the needs of "people", so that it has built a super product power with strong differentiation and high cost performance. With the continuous enrichment of commodity categories, the competitiveness of retail platforms increasingly depends on the platform's operational strength and differentiated product capabilities. With the support of its nationally unified fresh food supply chain system, logistics supply chain system, and powerful cloud computing, big data and AIOT equipment network technology system, Hema has built a new retail system that is highly agile to the front end. With the help of it, Hema can "reverse customize" products based on user preferences, and quickly launch new products in 30-45 days, so as to seize the trend and lead the trend.
At the same time, Hema also uses its own technology to empower upstream suppliers to reshape the "retail supply" relationship. In order to promote the development of distinctive brands, Hema has also established the Hema X Accelerator, which integrates brand building, marketing promotion, financing support, and product research and development. These have laid a good foundation for the concentrated emergence of popular products on the platform. According to the data, there are currently more than 1,200 Hema self-owned brand SKUs, and there are more than ten "Hema brands" with a sales volume of over 100 million. The proportion of self-owned brands has reached 35%, and the proportion is still increasing at present, and it is expected to exceed 50% in the future.
Thirdly, Hema has established a back-end supply system centered on the digital supply chain, which enables it to realize ultra-short chain sales and minimize circulation costs, thereby paving the way for a perfect shopping experience with online and offline integrated supply the way.
Compared with the traditional fresh food supply chain system, Hema has adopted methods such as direct procurement from the origin and integration of warehouses and stores to reduce links, reduce circulation costs and effectively improve operational efficiency. From the Hema Village where the source of production is directly sourced, to the production warehouse and sales warehouse in the middle circulation link, to the digital store, the fully digital "production, sales and supply" integration established by Hema effectively guarantees that users can buy high-quality, fresh, The source of good goods with high cost performance maximizes the user's shopping experience.
Empowering technology to build a new industrial infrastructure
With the maturity of Hema's new retail model, its influence in the industry and industry is also growing, and its scope of capabilities has already surpassed the scope of pure channels, and has increasingly become a "new infrastructure" that affects industries and industries.
First, by exporting its own digital retail solutions, it empowers other retail companies in the entire retail industry, promotes cost reduction and efficiency enhancement of the entire industry, and accelerates the progress of transformation and upgrading.
With the successful implementation of Freshippo's retail technology solutions, its self-developed world's first retail technology Retech solution is being rapidly promoted in the retail industry. At present, dozens of industry partners, including RT-Mart and Intime, have begun to adopt this system , Through the empowerment of this technical solution, the retail efficiency of more and more industry partners has been improved. The "Hema Model" and "Hema Solution" are being established in industry standards and new industry infrastructure.
The second is that it has launched a comprehensive layout in key industries such as agriculture and fresh retail, empowering the industry with its entire digital capabilities from production to sales, creating a modern supply chain system covering the entire industry, and making itself a An important part of the upgrading of modern agricultural industry.
In recent years, Hema has continued to extend to the upstream of the industry around fresh retail, and has gradually begun to have a profound impact on agriculture from production to sales.
Take the "Phalaenopsis Village" in the Kubuqi Desert as an example. After connecting to the Hema platform, it first uses the smart greenhouse designed by Hema, relying on modern agricultural technologies such as big data, AiOT equipment, and bio-environmental protection facilities. Realize the intelligentization of planting and production, and solve the local problems of "reuse of industrial waste heat" and "scientific flower planting"; secondly, in the circulation link, the whole supply chain mode of "direct delivery from the warehouse of origin + main line cold chain delivery + terminal delivery" is adopted in the circulation link , greatly shorten the length of the supply chain, speed up the circulation of flowers, reduce unnecessary waste and high costs; finally, in the sales process, rely on the strong data attributes of the Hema platform to predict market demand, so as to achieve "sales Farmers arrange production and operation activities according to the market's different preferences for Phalaenopsis colors, categories and specifications, so as to achieve the hot sales situation of "the off-season is not weak, and the peak season is more prosperous".
Of course, the significance of Hema's construction of order farming is far from limited to this. It is also conducive to the establishment of a new retail-supply relationship and sharing risks through cooperation between retail and production. For example, relying on the platform's redevelopment of packaging, the "frozen agricultural products" (such as "hail frozen peaches") originally caused by bad weather have also opened up sales, avoiding the fate of being "discarded" and minimizing farmers' losses; In addition, with the help of Hema's whole-industry-chain supply method, Hema quickly helped organic farms connect retail and supply ends, and promoted the supply end to improve production quality, reduce losses, and expand scale. At the same time, it established a solid brand power at the retail end, effectively Promoted organic farming to the masses. Coincidentally, the "Adoption Agriculture" model promoted by He Mali has also opened up a new agricultural paradigm while sharing the risks of agricultural operations. All of these reflect the role and influence of Hema in the modern agricultural industry.
The third is to use the "three horizontal and three vertical" framework to allow it to accelerate its march into the industrial Internet while stabilizing and expanding the influence of the consumer Internet, and build a structured, digital, and AI-based system based on the three major middle-end systems Ability to support the operation and development of different formats with "hard core" technology.
In September last year, Hema announced the launch of the "three horizontal and three vertical" structure centered on the three major business divisions and the three major middle-end platforms. Under this framework, the Hema Fresh Business Division and the Hema MAX Division mainly serve first- and second-tier cities For consumers, the Hema NB business unit mainly serves the sinking market. The former is guided by quality, while the latter is oriented by high cost performance, taking into account the needs of different groups of people in different formats. In the future, Hema will further realize the digitalization of retail operation management and supply chain, improve the national county-level retail network system and supply chain logistics system, and further penetrate the fresh food retail industry.
The imagination of tech long-termists
After years of development, today's Hema has gradually changed from an explorer in the new retail industry to a leader. With the blessing of new technologies, it is opening up a new room for growth. Statistics show that in 2022, Hema Fresh’s sales will increase by more than 25% year-on-year; Hema X member stores will grow by more than 247%… far higher than the industry’s growth rate, allowing Hema to set a goal of “serving 1 billion users in 10 years” new ambitious goals. From the perspective of growth, Hema still has the confidence to achieve such a goal.
First of all, the demand of the retail industry is inseparable from the two keywords of "low price" and "high quality". However, in today's fragmented channel situation, without a platform with omni-channel, full-scenario, and full-category digital capabilities, it will be difficult to achieve in the future The real "low price" and "high quality" are precisely the strengths of Hema's capabilities accumulated over the years, which means that there is a huge alternative space brought by consumer choices.
In the era of New Retail 1.0, Hema has completed a unified online and offline membership system, price system, payment system, sales and inventory system, reflecting the full-link digital operation. New retail 2.0 solves the goal that users can not only reach, but also reach at anytime and anywhere, and obtain the best user experience anytime and anywhere, which is obviously closer to the consumption habits and needs of current users. To meet this point, without efficient and flexible supply chain services, it is difficult to achieve a traceable closed-loop digital link, which happens to be Hema's strength.
Secondly, the emerging growth opportunities brought about by the technology-driven industry will create a new incremental market, which will also bring huge industrial opportunities to Hema. Under the basic national conditions of the small-scale peasant economy, my country's agriculture has been constrained by many factors, and it is difficult to fully enjoy the dividends of social and economic development. Today, the new retail technology companies represented by Hema, through opening up the whole chain of "supply, production and sales", allow modern smart agricultural technology to act on the fragmented small-scale peasant economy, making a "qualitative" leap in both efficiency and output value. This opens up entirely new incremental opportunities. As a pioneer in this field, Hema will fully enjoy the huge dividends and opportunities brought about by the upgrading of the agricultural industry.
Finally, from global procurement to "global customization" contains huge "export" opportunities. Hema has taken the lead in this regard. With the help of overseas warehouses and other transnational digital infrastructure systems, it is expected to play a greater role in "global customization" in the future. great effect.
Based on the experience of "reverse customization" accumulated in China, Hema is bringing "good products from overseas sources" into the Chinese market. Bring new "customization opportunities" and new possibilities to Hema.
Today's Hema seems to have grown into a high-tech company based on the retail industry. As Hema continues to strengthen the penetration of technology into the industry, Hema is expected to exert its strength in a wider field in the future, further opening up the imagination space, and continuously increasing its long-term value.