Deep Dive: Intime Retail- The Roadmap to New Retail with Alibaba

Executive Summary

• We attended Intime Retail Group’s analyst briefing where the Chairman (who is also Alibaba’s CEO), CEO and CFO all spoke about the implementation of the New Retail, which refers to the integration of online and offline retail, and logistics across a single value chain. They all held the view that both online and physical retailers will need to change their operating models, as the mobile internet has drastically changed the way consumers shop.
• Alibaba’s CEO, David Zhang, stated that Alibaba’s privatization of Intime will give it more room to redefine a new operating model for the New Retail. He expects holistic changes to the company’s retail model as Alibaba seeks to integrate online and offline, and redefine the relationship between consumers, merchandise and stores.
• Intime seeks to enhance consumers’ experience through “digitalization, omnichannelization, platformization and entertainmentization,” while operating under the key tenets of “customer orientation, staff wellbeing, innovation and reform.”