Social media

How Chinese Retailers Are Reinventing the Customer Journey

Five lessons for Western companies

by

and

George S. Yip

by

and

George S. Yip

From the Magazine (September–October 2021) · Long read

Huang Qingjun

Summary.

The Economist opened 2021 with a cover story headlined “Why Retailers Everywhere Should Look to China.” It’s not hard to see why. China is both a large and a fast-growing retail market—worth about $5 trillion in 2020—and highly digitized. And the pandemic has made digital every retailer’s strategic priority. The authors draw from their research on Chinese retailers to explain five lessons that Western companies can learn from China as they develop their own digital market offerings:

Create single entry points where customers can access all their potential purchases.
Embed digital evaluation in the customer journey.
Don’t think of sales as isolated events.
Rethink the logistical fundamentals.
Always stay close to the customer.

Idea in Brief

The Challenge

Retailers in Europe and the United States are far behind China in digital retail.

Why It Exists

China’s large and fast-growing market not only is highly digitized but also takes advantage of the massive ecosystems of Alibaba, Tencent, and others.

The Solution

To catch up, Western retailers can take five lessons from the Chinese experience: Create single entry points, embed digital evaluation in the customer journey, don’t think of sales as isolated events, rethink the logistical fundamentals, and always stay close to the customer.

China is both a large and a fast-growing retail market—worth about $5 trillion in 2020—and highly digitized. Given that the pandemic has made digital every retailer’s strategic priority, it’s not hard to see why the Economist opened 2021 with a cover story headlined “Why Retailers Everywhere Should Look to China.”

A version of this article appeared in the September–October 2021 issue of Harvard Business Review.

MG

Mark J. Greeven is a Chinese-speaking Dutch professor of innovation and strategy at IMD Business School and a coauthor of Pioneers, Hidden Champions, Changemakers, and Underdogs (MIT Press, 2019).
KX

Katherine Xin is the Bayer Chair in Leadership at the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), in Shanghai.
GY

George S. Yip is an emeritus professor of marketing and strategy at Imperial College London and a distinguished visiting professor at Northeastern University, in Boston.

How Chinese Retailers Are Reinventing the Customer Journey

Idea in Brief

The Challenge

Why It Exists

The Solution

Partner Center

Explore HBR

HBR Store

About HBR

Manage My Account

Follow HBR