EuroCIS Interview | Renée Zhao, Head of Marcom Consumer Division, Messe Duesseldorf (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.

Interview with Renée Zhao, Head of Marcom Consumer Division, Messe Duesseldorf (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.

Renee ,welcome to EuroCIS. How do you see the development for the C-star?
As the official satellite event of EuroShop, C-star - Shanghai's International Trade Fair for Solutions and Trends all about Retail will have its fifth edition since its debut in 2015. Recently the retail industry in China is developing very fast, especially in the innovation perspective. So, given this market trend, I have noticed that there are more and more retail technology solution providers join C-star. Before that, at this show you will see fascinating store design, but now you will see more and more innovations on the technology.

And what are the highlights at C-star?
This year we have a lot of onsite supporting programs which is really like the knowledge platform for this show. So, this year you will see a lot of events, for example, we will have Retail Forum which we will invite a lot of retailers and the experts from the retail industry and the commercial property experts as well as a lot of solution providers to gather together and to share their insights about retail.

And another highlight is that it is the first time we will integrate a new concept of THE GRID. THE GRID actually is a platform where we connect the digital platform sphere with physical platform sphere. So, this time we work with THE GRID and we will invite a lot of smart retail startups to C-star to participate in selection. The winner would receive the fabulous rewards containing the visitor ticket and speaking opportunity at EuroShop. Also we will give more supporting and training and help them to grow and go to market.

That sounds great. What are the most important topics for the retail market in China for the next year's？
You will see that there are more and more unmanned stores which take place in Shanghai. So that means you don't need to bring cash, you just use your phone and then you can just go into the store and grab the things you have and check out by Alipay or Wechat pay. That's really fascinating, very helpful and convenient for the customer actually, and also I see that we have a lot of innovation stores now, for example, Nike and Adidas will have their flagship stores in Shanghai where you can experience a lot of new and cutting-edge technologies like screens and data measurement technology there. I see that the technology will be the key for the retail trend in China.
 
 
You're sitting on a plane right now. Where are you going?
Yeah, I am on the plane, and in April and I will go to C-star and so welcome all of you to C-star show at the end of April.