One of the earliest adopters and most successful integrators of digital retail solutions is Wumart Group. Wumart operates one of China’s largest supermarket chains and other retail stores, with annual sales of RMB 110 billion. Being technology-driven, the group has developed location-based ecommerce in Beijing, Hangzhou, Yinchuan, Wuhan, and other major cities, with more than 2,000 stores now part of the group. Its business covers supermarkets, department stores, and home improvement stores. 

Over the past several years, like many retailers around the world, Wumart has invested a great deal to advance its digital retail capacity. The state of the market in the post-pandemic retail environment has proven Wumart was correct to invest big and to invest early. Wumart today has an end-to-end omnichannel process across dimensions. It has also integrated channels for ecommerce, marketing, fulfillment, and store operations, which are the main challenges retailers face, guaranteeing a strong return on investment in digital retail investment.

 

wumart store shelf using hanshow esl-2.jpg

 

This kind of successful digital transformation is key to any retailer’s long-term viability, and the orchestration and sequences of various tools requires robust and scalable data and technology infrastructure integrated into both online and offline shopping experiences. Surveys have shown more than half of all retailers believe their current technology platforms don’t support business needs over the next year and that investment in digital retail solutions often takes too long to provide enough return on investment.

Dmall Laid the Foundation for Wumart’s Early Omnichannel Integration

To address these challenges, Wumart Group became an early backer of Dmall App to support increased online and online to offline transactions. Dmall has helped Wumart’s traditional supermarket stores integrate online and offline sales by offering solutions such as instant delivery services and membership marketing for customers within three kilometers of a specific store. Dmall works with more than 120 supermarket chains covering 15,000 stores and has attracted more than 180 million registered users.

 

wumart using Hanshow's digital retail solution and ESL products in the fresh product section in store

 

Wumart’s own digital retail systems that include Dmall now cover its entire business chain and provide customers with personalized services at the front end, while streamlining business operations on the back end. Wumart has expanded the omnichannel sales platform to seamlessly integrate with offline shopping experiences, at once consolidating its vast store network and its investment acquisition gains through digital retail.

Smart shopping carts bring the omnichannel experience to every offline customer. As customers enter the store, they are guided to multiple rows of neatly arranged shopping carts interconnected by a smart lock. With the smart shopping carts, customers can scan each item in real-time with the cart’s built-in scanner. After the scan is completed, the product is placed in the shopping cart and the gravity sensor confirms whether the product is successfully deposited. Lastly, smart shopping carts allow customers to directly make a payment without the need for a cashier or waiting in queues. The payment can be made through WeChat Pay or the Dmall App.

Full ESL Coverage to Integrate Data and Improve Management Is Becoming the Industry Standard

A trip to any one of Wumart’s stores allows local customers to experience the cutting-edge application of Hanshow’s Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL) solutions. Wumart was one of the earliest adopters of Hanshow’s comprehensive ESL solutions, and one of the first steps the company made toward digitalization. Many Chinese retailers choose to implement ESL solutions only partially, for example limiting use to just fresh food areas or only in a few store locations. Wumart made the decision to go all-in with ESL.

Wumart’s network uses almost 5 million Hanshow ESLs in more than 400 stores across China, often combining ESLs with other smart device application, making it the leader of the digital transformation for offline stores in the supermarket industry. Hanshow’s ESL solutions in Wumart stores enable real-time price management and provide functional optimization promotions, display management, and inventory management, to ensure that Wumart can more effectively launch promotional activities, improve the working efficiency of employees, and reduce operating costs. Through the Dmall App and integration with offline digital retail technology, Hanshow allows Wumart to continuously interact with customers throughout their omnichannel digital retail experience.

Wumart’s smart application of Hanshow ESL solutions allows for price changes to be made simultaneously throughout the unified system from Wumart headquarters. Once prices are changed in the system, the update will be pushed to corresponding product labels in all stores. Store management personnel can directly scan ESL for inventory checks and layout checks, improving operation efficiency. Wumart also uses Hanshow’s Lumina Series displays to carry out promotional activities, timely releasing product promotion information to both inform and attract consumers to items in the store.

Hanshow is proud to be a crucial partner and fellow innovator with Wumart to continue leading the digital transformation of retail both in China and around the world. In Wumart stores, online and offline experiences are combined to ensure time and efficiency for users to find and purchase products, and Hanshow’s management tools collect big data such as users' consumption habits to open channels for precision marketing offline.