What's up with Alibaba's ‘new retail' plans?

“New retail” is the new argot for Alibaba Group Holdings. The firm’s idea of amalgamating physical and online retail into a seamless, data-driven consumer experience is gripping. This innovation is leading to many transformations from supermarkets and cashier less convenience stores to automated package pickup centers and perhaps even delivery by drone.

That is not all; Alibaba made a new initiative which is called “uni-marketing.” This was launched in the mid of 2017 which gathers all Alibaba consumer data from platforms like social media, e-commerce, entertainment etcetera.

Alibaba’s move toward physical retail is always compared with Amazon.com’s procurement of Whole Foods, a grocery chain. Alibaba is managing its own Hema supermarkets where you can get fresh lobsters when you order which will be delivered in 30 minutes.

New retail is all about data and consumers than supermarkets. Alibaba is one such platform which uses data and myriad digital tools to connect merchants and brands with consumers.

Alibaba is attracting an innumerable number of users on its platform by collecting detailed data of their offline purchases. They will start making transactions with Alibaba’s 450 million customers using Alipay for payments and then connecting with affiliated advertising agencies, buying cloud storage etcetera.