Hotel & Shop Plus

Every shopping mall is a business ecosystem reflecting a lifestyle. The development of shopping malls slowed down in 2020 due to the pandemic. It has seen a sharp decrease in the number of new openings, while retail sales also declined compared to last year. Many shops’ key indicators were undesirable, such as opening rate, rental rate, and renewal rate. Under this circumstance, investors, retailers, and consumers all hope that shopping malls will carry out delicacy operations to achieve win-win cooperation.

The outlet industry is an emerging and one of the most energetic business formats in China’s retail sector. Retail outlets have seen exponential growth as consumers increasingly pay attention to value. The forum focused on topics about how to combine operations of retail formats, how to secure the supply chain, and how to show value to consumers. Additionally, a white paper on China’s outlet industry was issued during the forum.

As omni-channel operations and digital transformation is leading the way that physical retail develops, discussions on retail digital transformation have transferred from “to do or not to do” to “how to do”, from “tactics” to “strategies”. The result is inevitable since physical (or offline) retail has been developing for years, while the COVID-19 pandemic also acts as a driving force. The forum focuses on digital transformation issues as they are considered the key to operations management in most retail companies.