If eCommerce Is The New Gold, What's The New Oil?

Of late, eCommerce has been seen to overshadow traditional retail as we know it. The notion is that current consumers prefer the most convenient & hassle-free method of shopping: online. This has long been accrued as the future of retail. There is a theory that in the very near future, consumers will only visit selected shopping malls to physically try or experience a product, just to go home & purchase from the seller offering the best deal.

Having said that, this does not necessarily apply to all verticals. For instance, consumers are still reluctant to purchase perishable items online. This might be caused by the notion that fresh or raw food items have a limited shelf life. This only cements the idea that eCommerce by itself is not holistic enough to fulfil all aspects of retail going forward.

eCommerce as a standalone would not cut it. Consumers today have diversified needs and requirements for their purchases. The catalyst here is to provide just that-a multi-faceted O2O commerce.

Enter Omnichannel Commerce: The New Retail

As Jack Ma terms it: "The New Retail"-an integration of online with the offline stratosphere driven by data. The best of both worlds. The "price tag" is poised to be at a whopping USD$105 billion by 2019. That pretty much validates the ethos that online and offline commerce must converge in order to fulfil consumer needs.

The China Factor: Catalyst of The New Retail

China is undeniably the leader of the "gold and oil" commodities of today-eCommerce & Omnichannel Commerce respectively. This is evident with Alibaba arguably leading the way through a shopping spree of its own:

• November 2017: Alibaba splurged HK$22.4 billion (USD$2.87 billion) to acquire a 36.16% stake in Sunart Retail Group, China's top hypermart operator
• February 2018: Announced plans to spend USD$486 million for a 38% stake in Shiji Retail (specializing in big data for retail and hotels)
• Investment of USD$867mn in Beijing's Easyhome Furnishing for a 15% stake
• 2.6 billion dollars to acquire Intime Retail Group-accessing 29 Megastores and 17 malls

As Jack Ma stated:

"In the coming years, we anticipate the birth of a re-imagined retail industry driven by the integration of online, offline, logistics and data across a single value chain. With e-commerce itself rapidly becoming a 'traditional business,' pure e-commerce players will soon face tremendous challenges."

Tencent and JD.com Join the Fray

Tencent's Investments:

• RMB 4.2 billion (USD$636 million) for a 5% stake in Yonghui Superstores
• Plans to take a stake in China's Carrefour unit
• RMB 34 billion ($5.4 billion) on a 14% stake in Wanda Commercial

JD.com's Ambitions:

• Plans for unmanned convenience stores across China
• Target: 1 million stores by 2021
• JD New Dada O2O app for grocery orders
• Partnership with Walmart, introducing JD kiosks in US supermarket's China stores

The Untapped Opportunities

The retail and wholesale sales for 2017 (Jan to Nov) stood at a whopping RM97.7 billion with a year-on-year growth of more than 7%. This only goes to show that consumer spending is at an all-time high. Having said that, out of more than 900,000 SMEs, only slightly over 20% have adopted multi-channel or omnichannel commerce for their business.

This is largely due to:

• High costs
• Complex technologies
• Lack of time

What SMEs need is an omnichannel commerce platform that could fully automate & manage their digital business & beyond.

The Total Ecosystem Support Strategy (TESS)

The solution incorporates:

• Strategic Capital Investment for growth
• Silicon Valley Growth Acceleration Academy for targeted guidance & mentorship
• Automated eCommerce platform & managed services with access to multiple marketplaces
• Automated dropshipping platform with 100,000+ SKUs
• Integrated Shipping, Delivery & Warehousing platforms

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The future of retail is not online OR offline-it's the seamless integration of both, powered by data and designed around the customer.