Co-organized by the China Daily Asia Leadership Roundtable and the Omni-Channel Retailing Conference, the co-branded session, themed “Defining Next Generation Retail in Asia”, was held today at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. It was the fourth consecutive year China Daily has acted as the only Official Media Partner for this significant industry event. The forum drew more than 150 prominent retail industry players from across Asia.
Defining Asia’s Next Generation Retail Industry: As Asia continues to drive and lead global economic growth, its retail industry is experiencing a phenomenal era of opportunities and challenges.
Across Asia, online players are making waves on a huge scale, impacting the market at different levels. On the other hand, brick-and-mortar establishments are revising value propositions to stay competitive. Store design, merchandising, technology, logistics, exchanges, points of sale, and customer service offer up a cocktail that will see retailers taste success or failure in keeping with their mixing skills.
Most importantly, retail consumers are changing not only in their demographics but also their behavior.
Mr. ZHOU Li, Editorial Board Member of China Daily Group and Publisher & Editor-in-Chief of China Daily Asia Pacific, welcomed the distinguished session panelists from across Asia — Ms. Gunyarak PIYAKHUN, First Executive Vice-President, Department of Marketing Strategy & Business Intelligence, Siam Piwat Company Limited, Thailand; Mr. Carlson LI, General Manager, UnionPay International Hong Kong Branch; Mr. LI Wenyao, Deputy General Manager, Joy City Property Limited; and Ms. LI Hong, Head of Investor Relations, GOME Electrical Appliances Holding Limited.
Ms. Gunyarak PIYAKHUN said the most important strategy for future retailers is to engage customers by providing customer experience, and using Omni-channel retailing as a tool to help retailers understand customers in a better way.
Mr. LI Wenyao noted that as the Chinese mainland’s economy gains momentum, the country’s retail sector will continue to see a bright future. What matters is confidence.
Ms. LI Hong believes that online shopping does not compete with offline shopping, rather, they complement each other.
Mr. Carlson LI shared his insights from the online payment perspective. He said UnionPay, apart from offering a payment method to retailers, acts as a marketing platform providing retailers big data analysis to help them lower their marketing and promotion costs.
This year’s “China Daily Asia Pacific Retail Leadership Awards” were presented at the “Hong Kong Retail Industry Trade Awards Presentation Ceremony” on June 14 in recognition of regional retailers with outstanding achievements which exceeded customers’ expectations through their strategic initiatives in creativity, technology, talent building and customer services.
The winners of the China Daily Asia Pacific Retail Leadership Awards were:
| GOME Electrical Appliances Holding Limited |
| Joy City Property Limited |
| Siam Piwat Company Limited, Thailand |
| UnionPay International Hong Kong Branch |