Suning's smart retail format enters Country Garden Community

China Securities Network News (Reporter Li Wei) On April 12, Zhang Jindong, chairman of Suning Holdings Group, reached an agreement with Yang Guoqiang, chairman of the board of directors of Country Garden Group, in Guangdong to carry out commercial real estate cooperation nationwide. Smart retail format stores such as Suning stores and Suning direct-operated stores have settled in Country Garden Property, and investment, finance, e-commerce procurement, etc. are also advancing in an all-round way. This is an important cooperation project for the implementation of Suning’s smart retail development strategy this year.

In December last year, Zhang Jindong convened half of the real estate industry to gather at Suning and launch Suning's smart retail development strategy. Suning's offline expansion has been rapid, and it invested 9.5 billion in Wanda and 20 billion in Evergrande. Suning's various wisdom Retail formats have settled in Wanda Plaza and Evergrande Community, and Suning stores have opened everywhere. So far, Suning has opened nearly 600 new stores this year. Among them, the fastest-growing are Suning stores, which mainly serve the community, and Suning.com selected stores located in third- and fourth-tier markets, with nearly 400 stores open. Just a few days ago, Suning also fully acquired Dia Tiantian Supermarket, which has a deep presence in Shanghai, to speed up the development of Suning stores.

This cooperation with Country Garden is a further expansion of the large-scale development strategy. Country Garden's large number of residential properties can provide Suning with community scenarios where smart retail formats such as small stores and directly-operated stores can enter. For Country Garden, it can also take advantage of Suning's nationwide Internet retail business operation advantages to improve community layout and improve community quality. Zhang Jindong said that the two companies have many similarities in their development process. "I think the speed of cooperation must be further accelerated. Market opportunities are fleeting. This is an era where the fast fish eats the slow fish. Who will be the first to seize it?" Whoever gets the opportunity can seize the market opportunity."

According to reports, the cooperation between Suning and Country Garden has been brewing since October last year. Country Garden Group executives parachuted into Suning's headquarters to discuss the cooperation framework. In March 2018, Suning executives visited Country Garden headquarters again to revise the strategic framework agreement. Country Garden currently has a large stock of residential communities, and it is still growing rapidly every year. This is very consistent with the development needs of Suning's small stores and directly-operated stores, which Suning is vigorously expanding, and has become the basis for promoting this cooperation between the two parties.

On the one hand, there is the comprehensive implementation of smart retail, and on the other hand, there is the comprehensive transformation and upgrading of the real estate industry. Zhang Jindong said that the development of Suning smart retail and the implementation of the large-scale development strategic plan have provided a very large space for cooperation for both parties. “We will bring Suning smart retail to Our technical solutions are built into an open source system that is fully open and shared with the real estate industry, thereby building every smart store we cooperate with into a 'quality life experience base' and a new scene consumption landmark. It can be said that this positioning is in line with Country Garden's development positioning of focusing on fine decoration and quality coincides with it."

Since last year, Suning has rapidly expanded and acquired commercial properties that meet its business needs through a combination of leasing, construction, purchasing, mergers and alliances. In Zhang Jindong's smart retail strategy centered on the Internet of Scenarios, working with real estate developers to expand offline scenarios is one of the core measures. However, Zhang Jindong’s cooperation models with various real estate developers have different focuses. Suning's investment in Wanda will rely on Wanda Commercial's complete commercial plaza property resources and rich brand merchant resources to tap the value of offline entrances and meet its needs for opening multi-level physical stores. By cooperating with Evergrande, Suning is expanding its community layout, and more importantly, is committed to providing goods and Internet-based local life services to the people through smart business formats. In communities and neighborhoods, Suning stores are an upgrade and coverage of traditional convenience stores, providing closer logistics after-sales services, more convenient fresh product services, financial services and other life services and other value-added services, becoming Suning's answer to consumers. The platform where the operator serves the last 100 meters. It is expected that Suning’s cooperation with real estate developers will take on more forms in the future.