Retail Opportunity! | The State Moving to Promote the Innovation and Transformation of Entity Retail

On Nov. 11, the Opinions on Promoting the Innovation and Transformation of Entity Retail (hereinafter referred as the “Opinions”), issued by the General Office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, began to flood social media circles of all industry insiders; a hot topic throughout the industry.

In the Opinions, overall arrangements have been made regarding ways that entity retail enterprises can further accelerate their structural adjustment, innovate their development patterns, realize cross-industry integration and continuously improve their capabilities and efficiency in supplying products and services, as clear signals were also raised in many fields. With regard to the prominent problems faced by current entity retail, such as extensive mode of development, inadequate effective supply and low operational efficiency, the Opinion suggests that institutional mechanism reform should be introduced to create a new development environment, that IT applications should be fully utilized to stimulate new transformation energy and realize the three transitions of entity retail (i.e., the transition from the sales of commodities to the leading of production and innovative lifestyles, the transition from extensive development to focus on quality benefits, and the transition from separated and decentralized competitive subjects to an integrated and synergetic new ecological paradigm.

Nine primary tasks of the innovation and transformation have also been clarified in the Opinions from the following three aspects：adjustment of commercial structure, innovation of development mode, and promotion of cross-industry integration.

(I) Adjustment of commercial structure
Efforts should be made to adjust the regional, business type,and commodity structures, to meet the resident demand of consumption structure upgrading.

(II) Innovation of development mode
Efforts should also be made to promote online/offline integration, multi-field collaboration and integration of domestic and foreign trade, in order to create a new retail pattern through such collaboration and integration.

(III) Promotion of cross-industry integration
Efforts should also be made to promote online/offline integration, multi-field collaboration and integration of domestic and foreign trade, in order to create a new retail pattern through such collaboration and integration.

In addition, focusing on ways to optimize the development environment and strengthen policy support, seven policy measures have been put forward in the Opinions: reinforcing network planning, promoting streamlining of administration & delegating of power to the lower levels, promoting fair competition, improving public services, alleviating enterprises’ tax and fee burden, strengthening fiscal and financial support, and conducting pilot demonstration and drive.

Releasing this document at the key moment of “11.11” functions demonstrates the fully support from the government in entity retail. Entity retail is an important basis of commodity circulation, an vital carrier for production direction and consumption expansion, and a chief channel of prospering the market and guaranteeing employment. The release of this favorable policy is no doubt a much-needed boost for entity retail in its “cold winter”.